Saturday, March 6, 2004

Marketing

The beauty of the world is unfolding quickly... soon the dog wood behind my house will be bright pink and all the plants that I have yet to put in my garden will be sprouting with possibility of summer and the bounty we will have. I love this time of year...

A little ditty about marketing I have been noticing how easily we are drug into the emotional world of marketing. Yes I said emotional. Have you ever noticed that the way marketing companies get your vote/money/whatever is by inflicting unneeded emotion? Take the hand soap I have.... Now I do Yoga... nothing special there. But the beauty of the culture from which Yoga emerged and was developed is exploited at all times with in the "American Yoga Market". We are consistantly driven by the emotional force of our desire to be more at peace with outselves and our world, so we reach toward what others have done... because of course what we are doing (as a culture at large) does not work. BUT, as Americans, we could not just use the same simple things they use, we have to have "blocks", and "wedges" (which of course are BRIGHT colors), and we have to have a bag for our blocks, mats, wedges, and of course "Yoga magazine" with Kanji on it.

I love kanji. I think it is, by far and away, the most beautiful writing on the planet, the beauty of it actually brings upon an emotional responce in me. It makes English (especially in my handwriting) look like second grade chicken scratch. BUT why would they sell a HAND SOAP with kanji on it... (see I told you this was about my hand soap) Does it say soap? NO... it says Trader Joes, in as closely as they could get with in Kanji characters. And the worse offence is the name of the line of soaps that my hand soap belongs to... E-Zen-cials... WTF? The other name on the line is "Trader Zen". Now, I really enjoy shopping at Trader Joes... I go about 45 miles one way to shop there because of their selection of non-toxic food treats and their organic meat for decent prices... but this shit is starting to drive me nuts. Does it make me refrain from buying it? No, of course not... because I would rather support a store that is exploiting characters and culture than support a store that exploits people. It is the lesser of two evils. "Trader Guittos" bothers me too... why is it we feel the need to make fun of culture to pacify the masses?
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