Is marketing ruining the world?

[shant93]

I'm not trying to be an activist here, it's just that we keep hearing these stories where, because a slightly toxic element cost 3cents less, they used it instead of the standard ingredient, etc. (This is off the top of my head, I am not thinking of anything), or that some companies are doing everything they can to get around laws, finding loopholes, etc. For example, there are even some companies who are required by law to be cruel because you must follow your, well I forget what it's called, but the list of things a company promises to do, and on this list they put "We will put the profit of our shareholders before anything." Thus, they are required by law to follow that statement. Some statistics show that after recent technological advances, one in two people have cancer at some point during their lives! Or a more believable point: when did intentionally building products to fail the day after the warranty expires, become the next logical step? Where has the integrity gone?

I have but one question: do you agree with the following statement?

I have a sinking suspicion that, ever since the industrial development after World-War II, the world's state has been plummeting towards a materialistic "doom" where everybody is the media's sheeple and they take whatever cr*p is shovelled onto them?

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Just so that you know what position I am coming from, I support capitalism entirely, just not extreme, not-government-regulated capitalism where the companies are free to do what pleases them, even if what they do gives everybody cancer...

[cybrax]

I take it you purchased a copy of Windows 7 then?

[lithaerien]

Well, warranty is just that, a guarantee that everything will work for the the time of warranty. After warranty expires it generally says that the company who sold it believes the product is too old and will start to fail regardless. If anything fails before the warranty expires it's called a factory fault or defect, which by all rights shouldn't happen during initial warranty.

[wongers]

tbh im struggling to understand what this discussion is all about, are you just annoyed that something you bought broke the day after the warranty expired?

are you trying to raise a discussion about corportate immoralities?

or discussing how our nations fabric is deteriorating since WW-II?

[shant93]

I'm trying to raise a discussion about the last two, corporate immoralities and the deterioration of our nation's integrity.

What I mean by the warranty example is that companies, instead of making a good product that last tens of years and selling it more expensive, the opt for the cheap thing that will benefit them over time, but will fill landfills, or in case of computers, Google's server room, and all it is doing is increasing the disparity among the rich and the poor by increasing the average cost of a good (inflation included).

I also mean phenomena like the media, whose mission is to provide society with information, whereas instead they are controlling it, or at least the highest bidder.

This is a normal thing, but what actually infuriates me is that many people have revealed this, have exposed the "dark secrets", but nobody cares enough to do anything.

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On a side note (please do not continue this), I am more pissed about my HP laptop than the Win7 it is running. I have 50GB reserved of non-allocated space for Linux in the future.

[wongers]

why on earth would a company build a product that lasts 10 years when they can build one for 3 years and then you have to purchase a new one every 3 years?

or is that the point your trying to make .. .. .. actually, i think it is lol. you are right though, the integrety of all things corporate is rapidly failing.

but then again, what is there to be done about it?

[shant93]

Well, it's the only system that works, so I guess we just have to suck it up and "take it like men". But it's depressing, and even sometimes pretty scary, to think how far these guys will go jsut to make an extra buck, or two, or billion.

[xav0989]

I think (shant, you'll recognize this :P) that the problem occurred when we gave the right to companies and corporations to be "moral persons". Meaning that they should be treated similar to a human regarding law. But corporations and companies are not moral, they are simply a mass of people, shareholders, employees, etc. that thrive for financial success. They do not take moral decisions, they take financial decision. For one, who can explain what is moral in the companies' decision to de-localize labour work to other countries such as China and India (no offence).

[galaxyAbstractor]

I just saw a documentary about how Swedens social life was pretty much changed to the worse because of the "functionalism", when everything without any function was destroyed. Small houses was demolished to make large houses with identical flats. The relation to your neighbors was almost zero. They were there, they had a life of their own, not your business they thought.

In the old times you only had to decorate/furnish your home once. Now when many houses was built and the functionalism grew, people liked to start to change things around every couple of dreams. This was one of the things that led to IKEA being made, to sell cheap furniture you could buy when you got tired of your old one.

People were buying new furniture every 3 - 4 years. Sweden was once almost in the top of the world of making quality products, but when people started to throw stuff out every 3 - 4 years, companies decided, including IKEA, to turn down a bit on the quality to save/earn some more money, because it would be thrown out a couple of years later anyway, right? Why make a product hold for 100 years when it's only used for 3 - 4 years.

[Brosert]

Perhaps it's a direct result of Capitalism: We live in a disposable world. Things aren't made the way they used to be, which allows more people to have work - because people need to replace their dud possessions more often. Because of the increase in people providing these services, marketing is required to help me make more than you. I don't think marketing is ruining the world, necessarily, but it is certainly taking it over (interestingly, most people in the know think a lot of this is due to consumers getting smarter - personally I think it's just that consumers are getting more options). I wouldn't be at all surprised if people start selling advertising space on their cars, clothing and even on their body (actually I have some recollection of seeing a news article about just that).

Isn't it odd that we often pay to advertise? People by sports clothing plastered with marketing (and pay a premium for it, too).

One of the best marketing stories I've heard (which may or may not be true), was a shampoo company some decades ago that invested $50K to a consultant for a marketing plan. He sent back one word - 'Repeat'. Whether it was his intention or not, the company interpreted this as adding the word 'Repeat' to their instructions. So shampoo bottles now have 'Wet, Lather, Rinse, Repeat' on the back. If the story is true, there must be some rather daft people in the world - apparently this word tripled their sales!!