Comments on: On Buying What You Want

By: Are Marketers Evil People? - Pop Occulture

Are Marketers Evil People? - Pop Occulture — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 04:49:35 +0000

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This is a great comment from a reader named “Ant” in a previous post. It’s a viewpoint that I think i woefully [...]

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 04:43:57 +0000

Ant, great comment! I’m promoting it to a post of it’s own.

By: pete

pete — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 03:31:35 +0000

Can you ever really win? What does it look like if you just walk away from the game altogether?

I think it looks a lot like freedom. Living outside of the system, playing by your own rules, not being a part of this collective consciousness and it’s incessant need for more stuff, more money, more power, etc. Living life on your terms, away from the things of man.

And God help me if it doesn’t sound completely and utterly boring.

By: Ant

Ant — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:44:21 +0000

I find it entirely fascinating and confusing when an issue is brought up from multiple conflicting perspectives. For example, from a marketer’s perspective, all of this makes sense. `Go to school, learn how a business works best, learn when to cut prices and allow for inflation, etc… Marketers aren’t evil people, they’re just doing their job the way that it works the best.

Sometimes even I forget that the people running corporations are indeed real people with a lot of the same motivations as consumers. Hmm. I dunno, that’s where I get stuck. Where does the line between “real people running a business” and “creepy evil overlord corporation” get drawn? Why do we separate ourselves so much from the corporations we complain about? If we “play the game” and get to know the people involved in the corporation, would we still think it’s a dangerous individuality-killer?