There are a fairly low number of jobs where I think it is wrong to do them. Being in Marketing is one of them. It gives nothing back to society, you just consume ressources in a ratrace between actors that want to sell stuff. Noone of them can back out, because the one company with an marketing department would win out, and sell significantly more. The companies therefore just dump money into your job and society doesn’t get anything (except a higher cost for products because YOU TAKE UP RESOURCES).
And even worse, sometimes marketing generates useless demand, so we “want” more stuff than we’d want in a world without marketing. So if you’re in marketing you directly, as in pretty much no other job, contribute to many of our current global issues, and you make prices higher.
So in conclusion: If you’re in marketing you’re bad, your job is morally wrong, and you’re contributing to the destruction of society.
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For what it’s worth, that’s what I believed in grade school. Don’t have much of an opinion on it anymore though. I agree with your main point, but I think in some cases it can be helpful.
This is Reddit. This opinion is very popular. Anything to do with capitalism is bad to Reddit.
Hey! I work in marketing!
And your 100% correct. I don’t add any value to society and my job is to figure out ways of squeezing people as much as I can.
But since no one seems to give a flying f*ck abour society anymore, I’ll keep getting the checks
It’s not inherently bad. On it’s face, it’s just making people aware that a product exists, which is necessary if you want to sell anything.
But in it’s current form, where it’s all encompassing, multi-million enterprises that essentially specialize in mass manipulation to willfully mislead and sell things that cause harm. Yeah, that’s bad.
Correct.
this can be applied to dozens and dozen and dozens of professions
Marketing optimizes the process of sales in a company. It exploits market mechanisms just like any other position that has the goal to increase sales.
That being said, I prefer products from smaller companies with less to no marketing budget and use it as an indicator that the product is good.
However, increasing consumption is usually beneficial for society. It increases circulation of capital which leads to more investments and more jobs. So I could see something good in Marketing, especially when you view it equal to all other positions, as a little gear in the system of capitalism.
To be fair marketing is required to sell products that help people or that they really need as well like medical equipment
I think there’s some role for it. Pilchards sold a lot better when they were remarketed as Cornish sardines (which they basically are anyway).
And face it, the Swiss watch industry would be on its last legs without it – we’d all be buying quartz watches instead (or relying totally on our smartphones to tell the time).
I think Bill Hicks covered this well and I’d say his fans found it a popular opinion.
I buy your argument
Depends on the product maybe. Anyways, not everyone can save the world. A lot of people are chasing money and if that’s in marketing most people are gonna do it.
Depends entirely on what you’re marketing as someone who worked in it on the Don Draper level. A good product is doing good to the world and a bad product is doing bad.
That’s my view too.
Almost every move you make online involves marketing. Check out a lawn mower and get peppered with lawn mower ads. You wouldn’t believe how much data is being shared between you and whatever page you visit.
I kinda get it, marketing does feel like tricking people into buying stuff they don’t need half the time. But also not everyone in it is evil, some just need a job, still feels a little shady tho.
What is your job op?
Generally agree, some nuance around the edges.
I agree with everything you said, except that I think you’re underestimating the number of jobs that are morally wrong.
Reddit and social media don’t give back to society but you use at least Reddit. Promotion is not bad. Lying about your product is unethical. You confuse things.
Our marketing department doesn’t really push products on people. Our sales department does that.
Advertising (ours only occurs in trade publications) is done by advertising agencies, not marketers.
Marketing visits our customers and evaluates competitors, all in an effort to define the requirements for our products to make them something that would sell.