The Dark Marketing Arts

Every few months or years I come to the brilliant conclusion that writing is about the enjoyment of writing, not the finding of agents or selling of books or making of money or adoration of fans.

And since that's the case, there's nothing to stop anyone from enjoying the process of writing. The problem comes when you want and expect other things to happen with your writing, like having other people read it, and hopefully enjoy it.

The web has made it possible for anybody to put their writing on the web. It doesn't mean that anyone else will read it, but it's there, it's available, and in some cases that's enough.

But... (and this is a big but)

Literature, art, philosophy, even science are now wrapped so tightly inside of marketing, that sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. Marketing is the great art of our times, and it's just as mysterious as writing, art, philosophy, and even science because it's essentially all three. It has the same goals--to make people feel (and possibly even think). But, being an applied art, the end goal isn't to feel or think about the world or the human condition, but to want, fear, worry, feel and generally feel inadequate.

That's the sad part--it's the perversion of all these arts. I'm not saying there aren't pure arts anymore, there are, but few people care about them (though few people ever really did--or could afford to). But except for the Dark Ages, when the church used these same arts to control the masses, it hasn't been done as well, thoroughly, and blindingly.

I honestly believe we've entered the corporate dark ages. The Church was the all-knowing IBM of its time. Now even IBM is small potatoes compared to the multi-national (as the church was) corporations that are paying brilliant people to churn out brilliant art with the one goal of selling. Of course, that was the Church's goal, too, selling their fear-based beliefs--do what we tell you or go to hell you sinner. That's a pretty convincing tagline.

That doesn't mean marketing can't be beautiful. Target's ads are true video art. People enjoyed the Super bowl ads more than the game itself.

It also doesn't mean true art is dead--there are some movies and music and books with a positive or thought-provoking messages.

But even those--even the best of the true art, must be sold, and to do so, it has to be wrapping, and sometimes obscured by the dark marketing arts.