The Upside of Marketing

The Upside of Marketing

No shortage of
temptations.

Marketing and advertising is a multi-ga-zillion-dollar proposition aimed at shaping our values, beliefs, and most importantly, our spending habits.  We are constantly bombarded with advertising in our daily lives.  Whether on the big screen, small screen, computer screen, phone screen, or the more traditional billboards, radio ads, etc., we're surrounded by advertising every day and everywhere.  Various studies put the number of ads that we see daily between 5,000 and 10,000...read that again...a day.  We hardly stand a chance, particularly with the increasingly targeted ads that tell or show us what we already want to hear.  

Bombardment 
is real.

Our Raising Adventure community is not spared from this assault as you can buy any matter (and price) of the newest fads or toys with the latest features to adventure.  Marketing will tell you that you can (and should) be driving the shiniest monster truck while wearing the most sci-fi new clothes, and carrying the ultralight equipment with space-age materials tucked into it.  This continual push to "more and better" is a dangerous, slippery slope that is often a bottomless pit that can consume our time, attention, and resources leaving us full of clutter.  

It's often not about
the fish...

I've always maintained that most fishing lures are made to catch fishermen as opposed to fish.  I'm not sure that every tackle store in America really needs 117 varieties and colors of plastic to outsmart a fish.  I'm also pretty sure that most "fishermen" spend more time in fishing stores on an annual basis than actually fishing.  Think back to yesteryear when your advertisements came perhaps annually in the Sears Roebuck catalog.  Now think beyond the constant bombardment of intentional advertising...how much do your "friends" market to you on social media?  How many times did you "just have to have" that new thing your social media audience shared?  How many times did you spend unintended money on the shiny new thing that you weren't expecting?  

Food's better
outdoors.

Over the past few years, as we've become increasingly screen-addicted, it comes at the cost of not getting outdoors.  Inherently, we're left wanting for an ingrained need or want to get outdoors.  To that end, we're seeing a huge pitch of nature as an advertising and marketing prop.  Think about the last round of commercials you saw - how many jeeps did you see climbing up a mountain or someone from the city wearing the newest fancy outdoor clothing.  Companies know that the outdoors sells. You should probably just experience the outdoors firsthand rather than vicariously through purchases.  

It doesn't take 
much to be a blast.

That same marketing funnels the masses away from some of our most beautiful places and creates solitude just off the beaten path.  So many people are pushed into a few sites, often within our state and national park systems.  Don't get me wrong, those places are incredible destinations, especially the National Parks (and we've been to almost all of them), they're just often, in a word, full. Similarly, on a good weather summer day, you can find a veritable conga line heading up the "name brand" 14er in the Colorado mountains.  On the flip side, you can likely have about any "12er" or "13er" without the name recognition quite literally to yourself.  

The same type of advertising and marketing that sells you "stuff," sells you ideas as well.  Do we lean into the marketing hype of the new rapper or the new pastor?  When was the last time you listened to K-Love on the radio vs the hip hop station...or the audiobook?  Have you tuned into Focus on the Family to be "advertised" to about being a follower of Christ and a better parent/spouse?  This isn't a holier than thou call to action, it's a call to introspection and to unpack the subtleties of what firehose you have pouring into your ears, eyes, and ultimately heart...and those of your spouse and children.  Turn on the TV for a round of ads...sex sells, booze sells, rest/laziness/comfort sells...are those the things in your heart of hearts you want more of...or are those the things that pull us into temptation.  

How can you 
say "no" to 
fireworks?

We can also be advertisers for our own ideas.  When was the last time you talked about how you raise your family, the positive parts, the sacrifices, the screen-free parts, and so forth?  When was the last time you told someone about your faith?  Your church?  Invited someone to a new sermon series?  We can advertise and market the ideals that we complain about our disappearing from our communities and homes.  We can lean into others who are a season behind us to help them get to where we are by selling the upside of why, what, and how we did what we did.  Similarly, we can seek out those in the season ahead of us to fill our minds with the "good stuff" of marketing...not the worldly trends on social media.  

The best things
are often free.

All of that to say, we have to have good "muscles" to push back on the onslaught of advertisements.  Consider taking a route to work with fewer billboards.  Consider switching to a radio station or podcast with fewer sales pitches.  Consider pushing mute and doing 20 push-ups when the ads come on the TV.  Consider asking out loud to your family "What are they trying to sell" when an ad comes on and talk about if you need/want that more than other items you could spend the same money on.  If we don't practice for ourselves and our future generations, particularly in the face of targeted ads on personal screens, we're pretty sunk on actually being able to live an intentional life.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out three actions you're going to implement this week to push back on advertising (social media fast, new route, talking about it, etc)
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) with advertising (listing any "want" for a week before buying, etc). 

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- How many advertisements do we see