Purity of Intention
I am taking this wonderful course at university entitled "Sex, God and Rock 'n' Roll" where fifteen of us basically just sit around and discuss the various interactions between notions of divinity and popular culture. It's really quite awesome and very stimulating.
One idea that came up during a discussion sort of struck me, and that is the idea of purity of intention. For example, roughly a decade or so ago, Sprite launched a unique (at the time) sort of marketing campaign: An anti-marketing marketing campaign. I must admit, it was clever of them because they enjoyed a ton of success from it. By poking fun at traditional marketing strategies they made viewers feel (even if just on a subconscious level) that Sprite understood them better than most, and that they weren't simply after their money.
Only, of course, that's really the only thing they wanted.
Now we're slowly getting wise to advertising again and corporations are constantly trying to stay one step ahead. But this is a never ending cycle. Why? Because anyone who will ever be trying to sell me something I may or may not need on television, radio, billboards or other similar media, by inherent circumstance, lack a purity of intention. They don't know who I am (really) and thusly, cannot really care about me and my needs. It's not because they're evil, it's just that the process is too large to connect with all your customers. If you're in a position where you can connect with most of your customers, you're probably running a small town corner store - not a multi-billion dollar venture that needs to turn millions in profit constantly just to stay competitive.
So, no matter how you spin it, I know you don't give a shit. Every individual at Sprite (or Coke, Pepsi, Disney, Ford, Chevrolet, Nabisco, Pepperidge Farms, etc, etc, the list goes on forever) is working for their own quality of life. They're not doing a good job because their millions of customers deserve quality life experiences from their products, they're doing a good job so that they can exist comfortably in this world we all live in. I can't really blame them, and I don't, but that is not the sort of intention I can get on board with.
People who work within things such as indie rock bands, or independent publishers (who are often very accessible) are not only in the business to pay the bills (there are a lot of easier ways to make a go of it) but also because they believe that the "product" they are putting out has a positive effect on the world. I get torn regarding big name music groups on this point sometimes. It's possible that they started out believing their music was the point of it all, and even post-becoming famous still believe it, but I never know how much of their craft is being sacrificed in the name of numbers and deadlines that production companies throw in front of them. Production companies should put more stock into the fact that we not only buy things because we like the product, but because we identify with the producers as being "like us"; a caring individual with the world's best interests at heart (ideally). You may be manufacturing life saving medicines, but if you're using the profits only to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, your "good" service lacks a purity of intention and you have shown that your benevolence is not sincere. This is tantamount to being lied to by some sociopath in our midst. Only, with large companies, we rarely see it that way and so our power to support or not support a particular component within the socio-economic structure which affects us is taken away. Through ignorance and misdirection we end up supporting the very things that are dividing our cultures, and tearing us down.
One idea that came up during a discussion sort of struck me, and that is the idea of purity of intention. For example, roughly a decade or so ago, Sprite launched a unique (at the time) sort of marketing campaign: An anti-marketing marketing campaign. I must admit, it was clever of them because they enjoyed a ton of success from it. By poking fun at traditional marketing strategies they made viewers feel (even if just on a subconscious level) that Sprite understood them better than most, and that they weren't simply after their money.
Only, of course, that's really the only thing they wanted.
Now we're slowly getting wise to advertising again and corporations are constantly trying to stay one step ahead. But this is a never ending cycle. Why? Because anyone who will ever be trying to sell me something I may or may not need on television, radio, billboards or other similar media, by inherent circumstance, lack a purity of intention. They don't know who I am (really) and thusly, cannot really care about me and my needs. It's not because they're evil, it's just that the process is too large to connect with all your customers. If you're in a position where you can connect with most of your customers, you're probably running a small town corner store - not a multi-billion dollar venture that needs to turn millions in profit constantly just to stay competitive.
So, no matter how you spin it, I know you don't give a shit. Every individual at Sprite (or Coke, Pepsi, Disney, Ford, Chevrolet, Nabisco, Pepperidge Farms, etc, etc, the list goes on forever) is working for their own quality of life. They're not doing a good job because their millions of customers deserve quality life experiences from their products, they're doing a good job so that they can exist comfortably in this world we all live in. I can't really blame them, and I don't, but that is not the sort of intention I can get on board with.
People who work within things such as indie rock bands, or independent publishers (who are often very accessible) are not only in the business to pay the bills (there are a lot of easier ways to make a go of it) but also because they believe that the "product" they are putting out has a positive effect on the world. I get torn regarding big name music groups on this point sometimes. It's possible that they started out believing their music was the point of it all, and even post-becoming famous still believe it, but I never know how much of their craft is being sacrificed in the name of numbers and deadlines that production companies throw in front of them. Production companies should put more stock into the fact that we not only buy things because we like the product, but because we identify with the producers as being "like us"; a caring individual with the world's best interests at heart (ideally). You may be manufacturing life saving medicines, but if you're using the profits only to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, your "good" service lacks a purity of intention and you have shown that your benevolence is not sincere. This is tantamount to being lied to by some sociopath in our midst. Only, with large companies, we rarely see it that way and so our power to support or not support a particular component within the socio-economic structure which affects us is taken away. Through ignorance and misdirection we end up supporting the very things that are dividing our cultures, and tearing us down.
posted by Jasper C. Coligny at 2:17 PM
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