Advertising - fuck, yeah!

I watched the Fair Go ad awards last night. Verdict: less cringe-worthy than usual. The Primary school competition entries were better than the Secondary schools'. Had to put up with the usual gushing over how creative this parasitic industry is. Particularly from some Colmar Brunton advertising honcho dribbling on how about ads represent our country, and another triple-chinned going on how advertising was good because it helped competition. It helped people make choices.

Uh-huh. Really.

I think the competition remark was aimed at the NZ telecoms industry in particular, and as far as duopoly-busting goes, a few weeks of pitch-perfect advertising with Rhys Darby has had an immediate impact. At least in raising 2 Degrees profile. But that is because the demand was already there as the gouging Vodafone and Telecom turned us into a country of texters. We'll see if 2 Degrees lasts the distance against the heavy-weight money. We saw what happened with Kiwi Air etc, in that other big monopolistic industry.

Ultimately, advertising is only as good as your pockets are deep, because the established players don't just run a "launch campaign". They are there, everywhere, everyday, insinuating into the lives and identities of their target market from age 0.

Advertising is at best neutral in terms of its contribution to competition (putting it mildly) because it benefits the status quo of these corporate market leaders. Also, it forces the newcomers to a market to leverage themselves into the same world of grotesque mummery, possibly compromise values of independence, integrity and honesty doing deals just to raise the funds, much less participate in the "image" war with their competitors.

Furthermore, it corrupts at least one of Adam Smith's three key principles to an effective capitalist free market: there must be true and information in the marketplace for the individual to make a decision on their enlightened self-interest.

Remember Ribena, anyone, and their vitamin C content? Found out by... no, not government agencies, or watchdogs - school children. The penalty for one of the world largest food groups, the largest economic entities in the world? Oh yeah - 200 grand. And an apology. And a slap on the wrist.

Oh, a few bad apples, I hear you say. Well, we don't know. Because there is no one checking the information they put in the marketplace. Not the state. Not the UN. Not the media. Ever notice how few reports there are about companies and corporations on the news? Not a conspiracy, mind -the risk of getting sued just isn't worth any investigation. Not when there're so many press-releases filling their inboxes every day. Much easier to just package them. Call them "news".

Moreover, there is scarcely a penalty when a corporation is caught, and certainly no actual living person held responsible. That's the cool thing about being a corporation. You are taxed at less than the top tax rate; you have the same rights under law as any living breathing person, and you live forever. Accumulating money - power - over all that time, paying for advertising, lawyers, lobbyists... Heck, who needs a vote?

Rhys Darby's role in the 2 Degrees ad campaign was perfectly targeted. It even had the competition scared. A group of wealthy notaries - shareholders of Vodafone and Telecom, no doubt - scrambled to muster a "Drop the Rate, Mate," campaign, ostensibly to influence a drop in the dupolists' calling charges. It hasn't really been heard of since. No surprise, cos it was just PR dressing for a few phone calls and board meetings their real "mates" will have, colluding to combat 2 Degrees. (Shouldn't they just stick to farming, or banking, or whatever?)
Another day in the office.

Look at 2 Degrees though. Rhys Darby, beloved comedian, received money in compensation for promoting something he neither knows nor cares about. 2 Degrees hadn't even launched yet. The teleco bosses got his number off someone who knew his mother. The ad was a hit. Acceptable. No acrimony.

Roll back a month or so, and we have Keisha Castle-Hughes, beloved actress, promoting environmental awareness - something she does know about, and does care about - for no money. Displaying an astounding lack of self-awareness, she was told to "stick to acting" by our Prime Minister, former merchant banker John Key. Cue the laugh-track from the money-huggers, the power-groupies and the elite. Although the PM eventually saw reason and apologised for his gaffe.... why was Keisha such a threat?

So, there's the state of our civilisation. That's the legacy of "advertising" in a nutshell. If a celebrity sells themselves to read some funny ad-man lines - that's acceptable. If they're not paid, they're not selling anything - they're deemed untrustworthy, they've stepped out of line.
Of course to be sure of this thesis, we'd have to get Rhys and Keisha to switch places. What if he had advocated signing on to the 40% reduction in carbo emissions? Would John Key have come down so hard on him? Would Keisha have been "selling out" if she did a Whale Rider for 2 Degrees?

Either way you look at it, there is something very disturbing about what behaviour, what messages we will accept from who in our media-manufactured world. Advertising, marketing and public relations are principally to blame. What they do is corrupt one of the essential pillars of our market society: information.
Not only that, but we are conditioned to accepting certain modes of transmission of information as feeling more acceptable, more true, more trustworthy than others - even though if you step back and look at the facts you can see which story has more weight.

But how often do we - step back, I mean? How far do we have to step back to see the walls that are built because we believe in them?

This is the society our media and advertising standards are making. This is the society we have.