"all bloggers are narcissistic"

Earlier this week, when discussing how we could influence bloggers to promote our products, I heard that quote. In context, the person's point was that all bloggers care about is increasing the amount of traffic to their blog. So if we give them something, like a contest, that will bring visitors, they will say nice things about our products.

I was probably the only blogger in the room that heard that quote. And while I am narcissistic about some things, I don't give a shit about my traffic levels. I don't think I've even checked them in the last couple years. So her universal generalization was proven false based on a sample size of one.

Those generalizations may be what I dislike the most about the advertising business. We have all this words to describe who we want to buy our products: shoppers, consumers, Moms. And all the time people say things like "Moms care about the brand names of cleaning products" or "shoppers don't like to read things in the aisle." We justify it as research and insights, and that it allows us to make good advertisements.

I hate it. I hate that we act like everyone is the same. I hate that we act like we are so much better than them because we make ads to manipulate their emotions, to go from a current mindset to a desired mindset.

I hate being boxed in. Some day I may publish a book. And I may try to publish a second one. And it might have difficulty getting published or it might not resonate with fans of my first book because it might be too different. I want to write funny books and serious books and books that make you think and books that make you happy. But it seems that people want to box you in to a genre and keep you there. (See all the Panic! at the Disco fans who balked at Pretty. Odd.)

Very few people will read an ad and have the same reaction, unless it is indifference.

- - -

I suppose it would be simpler just to say that I dislike the notion of advertising. Perhaps my favorite Onion article of all time is Pepsi To Cease Advertising. It is printed and hanging on my office door.

This quote in particular always gets me because it is so true, and at the same time so removed from modern reality. "Frankly, it just feels sort of weird and desperate to put all this energy into telling people what to drink. If they don't like it, then they don't like it."