'Selling people mostly useless stuff they don't need'
Don't most people? Do you have a problem with sales-assistants in shops? What about professional artists - surely they make their whole career out of 'selling people mostly useless stuff they don't need'?

People make shit, then they sell shit, and they get money for it. Frankly, I think doing the selling bit in a magazine or a TV adbreak where you KNOW you're being sold to, is pretty acceptable. There's certainly far more dubious professions out there.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 11:00, 1 reply)

What's the word I'm looking for....oh yeah....it's...
BOLLOCKS!

No, most people don't. Sale assistants tend to just take my money when I've chosen what I want. Artists in general make stuff because they enjoy it, and of course they hope people will buy it, but that isn't the sole motivation for making it.

However Ad "people", are renowned the world over for (historical examples) trying to sell us cigarettes as health products or an aid to slimming, beer as really good for you, etc., etc.....

If you're gonna work in an industry that survives in a moral vacuum, at least have the balls to admit it.
( repooc, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 12:22, closed)

I'm all for regulation.
I'm all for limits on who can be advertised to and what can be advertised. It just annoys me that people have a go at advertising for being a 'moral vacuum'when it's an inevitable part of capitalism. Plus the fact the stuff you're using as examples is from 50 fucking years ago.

What do you do for a living that makes you such a saint, anyhow?
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:01, closed)

Me?.....I don't work in advertising or marketing....
That's all the moral high ground I need :-P

It's not an inevitable part of capitalism....imagine if you tried to sell things based on their merits and what they can actually do.....just call me a radical.

Yes I know they were old examples, but it just means you need to think a bit harder to find some flimsy barely legal hook to peddle snake oil these days...the principal is the same.
( repooc, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:12, closed)

And how
would you like to tell people about their merits and what they do? Or are people supposed to guess?

And having a quick look at your previous QOTW answers, it sounds like you're some sort of IT techie. What sort of companies? Do you vet them to make sure they don't do social harm before you work for them? Do you refuse work if it's a business you disagree with? Do you push back on them if you think they're pursuing an unethical course of action? For the record, I've done all of the above.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:20, closed)

You've done all of the above?....
You can't really work in advertising then....

I pick and choose my contracts by the way, and there are some companies I've refused to work for....one of them was an ad agency :-)
( repooc, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:32, closed)

Ha! Fair enough
Gotta go now, anyway, but we're not that bad. Honest.

Now where did I leave my pitchfork....
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:48, closed)

Blimey my post sparked a debate :-)

In fairness though, my awful experience was more to do with lack of respect than working in a moral vacuum.

I think people who are presented to every day should stop an think about how difficult a thing it is to actually do. The ad execs I've pitched to over the years have all treated sales reps with disdain and I've never really understood why when we're all sales people at the end of the day.

Maybe it's because the rep earns more money? Just sayin'.
(BinDipper, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:21, closed)

I know
some people are arseholes, especially to reps because they know they can get away with it. And yeah, I've absolutely no doubt many of you earn significantly more money than most of us. Suppose that's come compensation!
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Tue 23 Aug 2011, 13:50, closed)