Running with the Devil

If you're a frequent reader of this blog (both of you), you might have noticed a small but annoying change to the format.  I added advertisements.

No, I don't honestly think it'll make any money, but I've got to try.  After searching for a while for decent freelancing gigs to make some extra money, I have given up.  They pay a ridiculously low amount of money for a ridiculously high amount of work, and even though I'm a fast writer, there's no way I can write well with the amount of research I would need to collect and the amount of time it'd take to put together thoughts about that research, etc., on topic that I just don't care that much about for that little money.  There are gigs that seriously expect to pay half a cent per word for that kind of effort. 

Sadly, they're able to pay that much because there are people willing to earn that little.  I can't imagine quality is the name of the game for such sites, but there's something to be said for producing a mountain of garbage, apparently.  Monkeys and typewriters, and all that.

It certainly works for Cracked.

(I tease because I love.  Or something like that.)

Anyway, the result is that I've made a bit of a deal with the Devil.  I hate advertising.  Oh, in theory it is good, and it's that hope that hides at the edges of my reason and gives me cause to justify including it in my blog. 

So, let me present the corresponding arguments that are going on in my head...

Companies aren't evil per se.  Michael Porter, in his TED talk, gives a good bit of argument in favor of companies, and makes some salient points.  One of them is basically this: almost everything produced in our world is produced by companies - the coffee I'm drinking, the table I'm sitting at, the computer I'm typing on, etc.  We all get paid by companies, and we all pay into companies.

Without companies, we wouldn't be able to organize production.  Oh sure, the government is responsible for some of our GDP, but it's a tiny fraction compared to that of companies.  We also wouldn't be able to innovate - companies move large funds of money, and are able to do extremely-costly things to drive innovation as a result.

Advertising is, at its essence, a chance to get a message out to an audience that might not otherwise have the opportunity to hear it.  It doesn't matter how amazing my blog is, for instance, if none of you will share it on your pages.  (hint, hint.)  It doesn't matter how amazing the new iPhone is if Apple doesn't tell anyone they've released it.

Unfortunately, there are relatively few channels to the consumer.  Television is still the big dog, and the commercials on it are the most expensive, unless you're happy with late-night TV when all of the commercials are targeting lonely people with 900 number scams and the next shamwow-hopeful.  Facebook gives a somewhat-free path to reaching customers, but it requires active participation from existing fans of the product or service to share the message. 

This, I think, changes how advertising functions.  It ceases to be a tool for every potential company, a pathway to having a voice in the chaos of existing advertising voices.  The costs of effective advertising mean that only very large or very-well-invested companies can afford a speaking place in the collective consciousness. 

That is, only the big companies have a voice.

This is true of our politicians, too, of course.  MSNBC posted the cost of winning seats in Congress and the Senate for 2012, and the numbers are staggering - $1.6 million for a House seat, over $10 million for a Senate seat.  That exponential inflation continues to the White House, where winning will cost over $1 billion.

Is it any wonder, in light of those kinds of numbers, that even staunch critics of big money in campaigns like Elizabeth Warren put together massive campaign coffers from big donors? 

Advertising is big money... really big money, now that Citizens United lets people give unbounded mountains of cash to PACs, and the media companies are cashing in.  Just the cost of Super Bowl spots alone rose 27% between 2008 and 2012, and its estimated to have grown another 30% between 2012 and 2015. 

(Compare that to inflation, which runs somewhere between 3 and 4% per year.)

Now, all of this is fine if the messages are good and the products supported are good.  That is, if companies were spending billions pushing the benefits of whole grains, water, and vegetables instead of processed flour and sugar, we'd be fine. Even if the biggest companies in the world were growing ever more massive, if they were paying decent, livable wages and promoting sustainability in our environment, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if they drowned out the voices of smaller companies.  There's a certain part of us that wants to see the little local businesses succeed, but that success is unnecessary if the big companies are being good to us, reinvesting in their local communities and helping people climb out of poverty.

Of course, that's not what happens.  Instead, as a business gets bigger and bigger, it gets more outside investment, and that outside investment demands stronger profit margins, which drives lower wages and limited investment in the local area.  This is where, I think, Porter's argument breaks down - he argues that companies can be the innovators in social engineering, can help us have better society... but they can and will only do so if it's going to increase the bottom line, and that's very rare.

The problem is that companies profit from doing things in the cheapest way possible, and leaving government to clean up the mess.

So, where does that leave us?  My hope is that this blog will have advertisements for good products things - maybe if I use buzzwords like sustainability, green energy, ethically-sourced goods, and so on, you'll get better products offered to you.  I hope in all of your engagement with advertising, you'll ask "what kind of impact is this company having on the world," and you'll learn to think of advertisements for junk food as junk instead of food, for instance. 

And I hope you'll click the links and share this blog... because I need money, and so do you.  Liking and sharing good products and services is our one way of fighting back against the money thrown around by massive corporate interests.