Here’s one of the best parodies of the warped, warped world of marketing and ad people… A tongue-in-cheek video honouring the ‘genius’ of marketing professionals and the mind-boggling concepts they come up with has surfaced on YouTube recently, courtesy Toronto-based creative shop Open who made it for Strategy Magazine’s ‘Marketer Of The Year’ issue.
As disturbingly accurate as the video is, more importantly, it’s hilarious and cringe-worthy as it takes us through the twisted ideas which these “consumer-whisperers, mother-targeters and brand guardians” sell us on a daily basis.
“You’ve got life by the pie-charts,” the narrator states as images of suited-up businessmen, pet food products and dudes checking their watches slide by. “You speak for the ones who can’t. You optimise your time by saying ‘ROI’ instead of Return Of Investment, and ‘KPI’ instead of what ‘KPI’ stands for… You moved us to vote, follow, share, pin, tweet, re-tweet, like and ask the rhetorical question – ‘can I double-like this?’ You proved that ‘vertising’ can go on the end of anything.”
Impressively produced and resembling something of a call to action, the video highlights and sarcastically celebrates the self-congratulatory world of marketers, giving them an extra pat-on-the-back for being so gosh-darn necessary in our lives, because, you see, they “knew what we wanted in a shampoo before we knew it ourselves.”
‘Marketers Anthem’ is well worth a click if not for a chuckle then at least for one more reminder of the absurd nature of the industry which “invented a cookie that we could be friends with… That we’re actually friends with. Oh god, we’re friends with a cookie.”
So go ahead, ‘double-like it’ – you know you want to.