Will I follow you into the dark?

Over dinner, it’s typical of me to display a tiny amount of superiority through the form of being highly opinionated about any topic I have the slightest idea about. Well before you judge me, I’m pretty sure you’re equally guilty of that too. Or lapping up all of the laksa gravy. That’s equally sinful. 

In one of those recent moments with A over what I would like to think of as a heated intellectual debate (although it was just me being caught up in the moment and yapping away), I’ve returned to questioning myself about being another pawn in the media industry, escalating consumers’ desires for material goods. While certain huge corporations have been slammed for their profit maximization approaches, others have indeed improved the lives of their consumers with their products and services. Advertising not only drives competition and hence fuel the constant need for corporation to improve/keep up with the times, good campaigns provokes and engages people into seeing things from a different perspective than what is deemed as the norm. 

So, how far is too far? Is repositioning your brand or product in the hopes of changing the way people think about something a form of capitalistic propaganda? Is framing/omission of specific details from product descriptions a form of deception? Is a brand promise equivalent to a false projection of temporary contentment?

Having said all that, my guess to the sole cause of corporations leaping to the dark side is their decision to revolutionize the consumers’ WANT for their product to a NEED. The manipulation of that frivolous NEED for validation which stems from self-actualisation, corporations gain control over what sets people thinking, the pre-thoughts from their subconsciousness before the actual controlled thinking process. That’s pretty messed up.

Which brings me to my next point - neuromarketing. That is basically the cousin of subliminal messages and a stone throw away from mind control. I don’t hope to be scrutinized by marketers when placing an order at McDonald’s, much less have them understand me in ways I can’t possibly discover with my conscious being. There’s just so much wrong from where this is headed towards but I am currently lacking in the mental capacity to keep up with these stirred up emotions. My brain is on it’s way to scrambling itself if I don’t start sleeping proper hours. And I just got myself started thinking about eggs. Green Eggs and Ham.