Who we are is a very interesting question. It is a chain of thought that started off with a discussion in a car after heading out of a coffee joint at Zamzama. My colleague and I were taking the back route out of the coffee shop since the entrance to the lane was blocked by a huge water tanker. The following discussion ensued as we passed a group of very skinny females walked by the car with their tummies showing:

Him: What were you doing? checking them out?
Me: Anorexic
Him: You know they are anorexic by just one look?
Me: Thats what I do, remember? Study things?

Brief silence—–

Him: You realized we made them that way, don’t you?

That was it, Thats where the brain started swirling on the role of marketers on the human society. My colleague and I concluded that of all professions, this was perhaps one of the darkest. Smugglers sell drugs, pimps sell bodies, we sell souls.

Marketing is not about selling something, its about making people buy. Its about giving them the dream, the fulfillment, and the satisfaction that people die for.

We start by telling you what fear is, then we tell you what to be afraid of, then we show you the grizzly picture, then we tell you how to fight the fear, then, we tell you, that you are satisfied. Not for one moment, in this entire chain, do you once doubt us.

It does not have to be fear, it can be any form on insecurity, or emotional instability. In countries like ours, responses are very less measured, but in the west, shrinks make a killing because of the images portrayed on television.

People like Oprah and Dr. Phil pick you up, and then they tell you how bad you should feel, they bring up nuances and instances and interpret them, and then they “rescue” you….you end up worshipping them.

Marketing 101. Thats what we do. Thats what marketers do. What name would you give this profession, now that you know what it does to you?