This is a random post from my archives. Written in 2016 but still relevant today. Scarily relevant actually. With some updated tweaks of course.
November 2023
In the midst of the decorating, cooking, cleaning and prepping for the holidays, in true marketing fashion, it’s also the time to figure out…
“What amazing things (Lose weight! Get organized! Get your finances in order! Pay off debt!) What are YOU going to do in the new year?!”
OR
“Who do you want to BE this year?”
(That wonderful “don’t think you have to DO anything” just decide to work on yourself and be someone other than who you really are. You know? Because that’s different.)
Because while you are cooking that eighteen course feast (the one that has left your kitchen in shambles and your credit card maxed out) for your fifty closest friends and relatives (because this is the first year you’ve seen them in 5 years though you aren’t even sure you want to see Aunt Gertrude again but)…
You definitely should be considering how you are going to “lose all that stress and holiday pie weight you gained during the most wonderful time of the year.”
(Note from the future: This is still the same in 2023 as it was in 2016. My gosh.)
Ugh.
In a brief Wikipedia look up, marketing is about communicating the value of a product, service or brand to customers for the purpose of promotion or selling….
Okay, promotion and selling are not necessarily bad. I need food. I need someone to sell me food. I pay them for the food and for the fact that they are giving me the food. I want them to make money and keep selling me food. This all checks out.
And for promotion – I’m all about communicating value. I’m all about showing and using your talents and gifts. I’m all about getting them in front of the right audience and using the right tools to do so.
But so quickly it can turn into manipulation and deceit. Especially in the consumer frenzy of the holidays. I think we got to see this so clearly in 2020 when it wasn’t an option and now to be seeing it again as if nothing happened…it’s like the frog in the pot of water that is slowly boiling.
It’s all crazy making lies that we’ve bought into because it’s been around for so long and because “that’s just how things are.”
If someone pulls out that phrase, I shut down completely, stop the conversation and walk away. That phrase is never used in a good way. It’s used for justifying lies to get money, power and/or control over/from people. Who are people – not objects. I’m feeling gross and slimy just writing about this.
There are many who hear the word “marketing” and groan. Why would we dislike it? Marketing has become synonymous with lies and broken promises. Really marketing has come to be “finding ways to make people believe they need to buy/acquire these things/products/services – the sooner the better.” Ugh.
Luckily (as in every movement that gets so distorted and out of hand) there were and are always people, who just have a product and/or service they know will help others AND just want to get it out there so people have the opportunity to buy it if they want it. They market too – but in a healthy, respectful and empowering way to both themselves and their potential customers.
However, I’ve gone off track a bit here…sort of…this was about the holiday marketing that makes you want to spit shine your house until it sparkles and use the twinkle lights to rip of the head of that animatronic singing Snowman at the store who goes “it’s the most wonderful time of the year”. All while you are fighting the crowd for the last of “insert toy craze of the year here” so your child isn’t upset and makes your whole family crazy for the next 15 hours of cozy wonderful family togetherness bliss.
Right, that’s where I was.
I have spent most of my adult life being “inspired” by all the “greatest” self-help/inspirational/get your life in order/go conquer the world books. You name it and I’ve read it and worked the program.
Until I stopped working the program.
Because there is always something that these programs are all missing.
And even if they haven’t been missing this one item, we obviously (as a society) aren’t catching on – or there wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands of these books/blogs/articles/audio/video programs for the super low price of $Stupid Amount.
“Are you sure you want to leave this page?! This offer is only good for this visit only and will never come around again! Only 9 easy payments of $236.89! This program will never be offered again, buy now!”
RIGHT. We all know this one.
I love setting goals and trying new things and pushing myself. A lazy, self-absorbed person – that’s not me.
I’ve done it all – go for the material, the spiritual, the emotional, the feelings…it’s never worked. Why? Because that stuff isn’t actually REAL.
All of these things change – the material, spiritual, emotional, feelings – we all know it changes. We want to pretend it won’t but we know it will. That’s what freaks us out. So we rush to the next thing that we can control…
Because to be Debbie Downer, these are all possibilities below:
We can rush and organize our closets and kitchen…but then our house will burn down in a freak fire accident. (So guess what? Nothing to organize.)
We can get health(ier) than a horse with the great numbers and six pack abs to prove it…but then we will be hit by a car. (So no need to worry about food intake or how much you are exercising each day while the tube is feeding you.)
I exaggerate for effect – I’m sure there are better, more gentle and caring metaphors but my brain goes to the extreme.
We are all smart so we know all this.
I also know that we are desperate, me, myself and I and as a society, for something to cling to. In our worldly weariness we get worn down and all of those things continue to be the new shiny thing that we are attracted to and “try again.” I do it all the time myself. Who can blame us, this world is fucking exhausting at times.
All of those things – the cooking, the cleaning, the healthying, the organized finances and home, the family togetherness, the planning of a wonderful holiday, etc, etc, they are good – in their place. But we keep putting them above their place and they come crashing down on us each time.
The only thing that matters, that won’t come crashing down on us, that will be there no matter what we do or don’t do…
Dare I say it, is “God.”
And I say “God” because I mean God in an all encompassing definition that includes things I don’t know, understand or could ever comprehend. I know I didn’t get here on this planet with all this stuff going on in the life I am living by my own power or anyone else’s. So there is something else out there. That’s what I mean by God.
But how do you have a to-do list or goal list for “God”? How do you sell “God”? (One could argue the church does but that’s a post for another time and not a model I want to perpetuate.)
There have been great things with our new communication tools to support and spread the message of “God”, of love, of something greater than ourselves that we can cling to.
Here’s the thing though – you cannot market or sell “God”. We do not own “God”, we do not even “know” “God.”
And it’s why all the marketing for everything else in the world will always fall short. It’s not what has lasting value. Trying to model ourselves after or for things of the world, again, will always leave us wanting more.
Real value doesn’t have to market itself to make itself more “appealing.” That’s why there are tons of people and companies that just do what they do, be who they are and still make a profit, employ others and do good in the world.
Real value doesn’t have to cut itself down into bite size pieces and try to entice people to “get it before it is gone.” Because if that’s the only and/or major reason people buy or seek the information out – it’s always going to fail. Not due to the presenter (it’s entirely possible the information and product is great and necessarily and urgently needed) but to the reader/watcher/listener who buys for those reasons. To be fair, if the presenter cheapens the information or product by going for quick and easy sales that doesn’t help either.
So If that’s how you promote it, well, why are you surprised?
That’s not to say that some of the selling thoughts should not be considered and applied appropriately but that’s not what happens this time of year (usually).
You have to be willing to believe the opposite of “that’s just the way things are.”
And act in the opposite of “That’s just the way things are.”
Because if there is a “God” or not, I mean wouldn’t you just want to live a life with people around you being honest and open and being real?
What a holiday gift that would be.