Selling Products via Stigma

Chip Heath and Dan Heath of Fast Company Magazine wrote an interesting piece offering great social commentary the way ad agencies implement and sell their propaganda in this consumer world. I had always contemplated the ethics of the manner that ad agencies pushed a clients agenda for the all mighty dollar. Pharmaceutical adverts come to mind as attractive people share their experiences of a medical condition and how that given medication has improved their life.

Heath approach this article by explaining how adverts create social stigmas that otherwise did not exist before that given ad. There is the infamous VISA ad that portrays individuals that pay with cash not as hip as those that slide their card during point of sale transactions. The subtle commentary that they are trying to indoctrinate in the masses is that cash is a hassle and paying with a card is not. The sheeple seem to buy it as revenues have climbed for VISA.

Then there is the way that they sold the Chinese people on the stigma of dandruff. Procter & Gamble scored when they were able to market Head & Shoulders in a non-existent market. Before this propaganda, Chinese culture did not associate any negativity to individuals with dandruff.

From tanning, to straight white teeth, the media has been successful in pushing certain messages of how individuals of that society should be or behave. The impact on society may not seem detrimental on the surface but one may experience backlash when they accidentally violate a societal norm that they otherwise did not know existed. I recommend checking out the article “Dirty Marketing Campaigns” for some insightful observations.