Sunday, March 20, 2022

day no. 15,854: marinated in marketing

"If we replaced every expression of the marketplace with a sign of the Church or State, people would scream tyranny." -- Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

Imagine if every commercial, every logo, every ad, every billboard, every word from our sponsor was a crucifix or homily. Or imagine they were all donkeys or elephants, but all were political. You would feel like you were being bombarded by propaganda. You would feel oppressed by the insistent hammering of the same message. Yet, this is the world of advertising and marketing. We are surrounded by t-shirts advertising colleges, companies, bands, local eateries, etc... We are constantly hearing pleas from people to buy their products or sign up for their seminars. But because they are not from one single source, but from all the competitors in the market, we don't categorize them for what they are. My point here is not that people should not be able to produce and market their wares or services, but rather that we're so used to it, that we take for granted how saturated we are in it. We live in marketing like a fish lives in water. He doesn't know he's wet anymore than we know we're being asked to buy something. But we would notice if we were being asked to consider something else: a political agenda or a Christian testimony. Rest assured, we'd notice that, like a fish being placed in kerosene. The wetness would no longer be the issue, but the thing making you wet would become obvious. 

The medieval world was bathed in Christianity the way the modern world is marinated in marketing. 

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