Sunday Reflection: Marketing, Lies and Propaganda

There are topics about which I just don't know where to start...

I have spent much of my life in selling-related fields. I was both a really good seller, as well as a really bad one.

I was good because I believed in matching up people with what they actually wanted, and I was honest about not selling someone something they actually had no/little use for.

I hate it when others waste my time and money... and so why would I want to waste someone else's time and money?

"Be the change," and all that rot.

But that very characteristic also make me a lousy sales person because I wasn't willing to "do the song and dance routine" to foist off something sketchy and overpriced on people who could either not afford it, or who didn't need it."

"You're never going to GET AHEAD with an approach like that!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not so naive as not to recognize that 99.9% of marketing and sales is a game of deception — to some extent.

At the same time, I also guess part of my reticence comes from the fact that I am a lousy consumer, because I virtually never "impulse buy" anything, and because I don't seem to possess the "OMG, I gotta HAVE that in my life NOW!" gene that launches so many into immediate action, when ads scroll by on their browser, or in magazines, or flyers, or at trade shows, or whatever.

As someone who has done a lot of selling, I also know that marketers — particularly of somewhat dubious and sketchy (and largely ego-based) products and services — posess a deep and abiding loathing for people who always give everything a "measured response."

Measured Response?

For example, it was a good two years and plenty of experience and several rounds of cashing out because I actually recommended Hive — well, the legacy chain — to any of my blogging and writing colleagues.

I wasn't about to put my name on anything I hadn't already thoroughly road tested.

And then it was with a long list of caveats based in the reality of experience, rather than with an exuberant "This is AMAZING! You're going to get RICH in crypto!" attitude.

So that's where I stand, on most things.

Most marketing outright pisses me off because I look at it, and all I see is a bunch of lies and exaggerations.

And those lies are so often rooted in the fact that what is being pitched to me is (typically) not just a copy of the original idea/item, but quite often a copy of the copy.

In other words, you're pitching me an inferior piece of junk with more fervor and enthusiasm and promises than the original version (which might actually have been worthwhile!) when it first came out.

Maybe the reason you're talking so much and so fast is that you are actually selling air; a house of cards?

So this post is actually a momentary diversion in doing a lot of sorting through old stuff that needs "going through" because Mrs. Denmarkguy and I will be selling and leaving our large place for a much smaller house within the next 12-18 months.

One of the boxes (likely destined for a nearby charity second-hand shop) that's filling up alarmingly quickly contains nothing but "cheap crap I was gifted that I have no use for, and NEVER had any use for."

The kind of stuff our world is filled with, that people — perhaps well-meaning — give as "gag gifts" and small rewards and prizes... that ultimately serve little purpose beside inspiring about 60 seconds of amusement/laughter before ending up in a closet, awaiting their inevitable journey to a landfill near you.

"Coming soon to a landfill near you: It slices, it dices, it's made of plastic and it breaks almost immediately!"

I often get the argument that "most people can't AFFORD to buy high quality things," and whereas that is entirely true, my question goes to whether you actually need to create such a huge pile of junk, if affordability is such an important part of your paradigm....?

Why not... just not spend the money in the first place?

Sadly, we seem to have gotten to a point in this consumer society of ours where "shopping" gives people a steady stream of dopamine hits, much the same way "likes" on Facebook and X/twitter do.

It's constant and instant gratification.

In retrospect, I find myself actually being very grateful to my parents for quite strictly instilling a sense of delayed gratification in me, when I was a kid. When you encounter something and think "I gotta have that!" you WAIT day and then consider whether you actually gotta have it.

Because sometimes you actually DO, but much of the time you DON'T.

As I said, marketers hate me.

One of the things I do 'for a living" is sell old postage stamps, letters and such to collectors around the world. I'm not super successful at it, by any means, but in the course of 27 years, I have built modest but extremely loyal following... because they know they are going to get exactly what I said they were going to get, every time.

It's selfish, in a way.

I'm merely providing what I wish I would find, when I am looking for something. I'm also selling in a way that means I have maybe had a dozen returns for a refund in tens of thousands of transactions.

And I will keep approaching things, in that same way... even if it means the finances aren't really there...

Because that box of useless trinkets I am going to end up either junking or taking to the charity shop is making me feel very sad.

We can surely do better... can't we?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2025.03.30 21:05 PDT
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