Are You Ready to Surrender Your Soul to Advertising?

Can you feel the glaciers melting and yourself sinking into the water up to your neck? That you have to swim just to walk? That while traveling, eating, watching TV, all this mass of water bothers you? And aren’t you tired of waking up to water splashing your face in the morning, of the bubbles coming out of your mouth when you talk? Are you happy to bring your children into this watery world? Do you accept the fact that they won’t even be able to imagine a world without water?

A lovely Saturday that starts with a great breakfast. First you take a nice stroll around Kadıköy, quickly wander through the market and head toward Moda. Evening comes, you meet up with friends, have a few drinks and head home. When you lay your head on the pillow after a lovely Saturday, you’re unaware of what has been going on. You are slowly dying in water that’s being gradually heated, getting used to it, blowing bubbles out of your mouth, drifting off into dreamland without even noticing the 3,000 ads you were exposed to during the day. Congratulations, today you got even more used to the ever-warming water. You’re doing great!

This situation, which I’ve tried to describe in a dramatized way, is nothing but the full reality of life. We’ve all gotten so used to living in a world dominated by ads that even a photo of Times Square stripped of its ads, which I’ve shared below this paragraph, is enough to make us uncomfortable. Shouldn’t it actually be the other way around? Since when have we been bothered by the absence of ads?

Advertising is undoubtedly marketing’s greatest weapon, its right hand, its indispensable, uncompromising companion on the road. That being the case, it is a perfectly natural thing, rooted in human nature, that marketers use this trump card so recklessly and push the lines, limited only by imagination, one step further every day. Add to that a world order that comes with having to do even more every day, and the result is that marketing can’t settle for concrete concepts, which gives rise to the need to own, to claim, certain emotions that form the foundation of the individual.

To put it in simpler terms, I’m talking about Coca Cola’s happiness, Red Bull’s excitement, Mercedes’ pride, America’s freedom: brands claiming the values and emotions that make us human. And this isn’t as easy and simple as ignoring and accepting the water, the ads, rising up to your neck. After your body, are you ready to surrender your soul too?

Last week I ran a poll on Twitter on this topic and asked which brand owns the concept of happiness the most. You can see the results below. Unsurprisingly, Coca Cola, which has been aiming at the same spot for years, came out of the poll as the number one brand.

The interesting part came when I asked the same question in a way that echoed Eti’s slogan. To the question “Which brand comes to mind when you think of happiness?” 54% of participants answered Eti.

At first glance, there are two conclusions to draw from this. First, brands haven’t yet fully managed to own certain values and concepts, not even Coca Cola! Second, there is still hope for humankind.

As the waters rise, our strokes start to fall short and we begin flailing in the water. What we say starts to lose its meaning, to mean nothing more than a monotone sound; we become ordinary. Children born into water up to their necks, and the generations they make up, live carrying the hope of finding the lands their ancestors promised them, with a map hidden on the back of a lost child.

Don’t lose hope. It’s the only truth you have left!

You can also follow me on Twitter: @Marketingholmes