Is Marketing Cynical?

Do you ever feel like marketing is a cynical process? If so, you're not the only one.

Watch this very funny scene from a movie called "The Invention of Lying":

While it's been a number of years since I watched the film, I remember it well enough. The essential premise is that the human condition is so bleak that we are constantly lying to ourselves and each other to ease our collective existential burden and just get through our lives.

Do you ever feel that way? Sometimes I do, which is why I find parts of that movie funny.

And if it's the philosophical frame you take you will be very cynical about marketing, just as this film is. You will feel like your product damages people and that you need to lie to them to sell it.

DON'T BE LIKE THAT! There's a better way ❤️

Here's how I think about it...

✨ The human condition, while full of pain, is on the whole wonderful, and a net positive

✨ Ultimately we show up in the marketplace to make our fellow humans happy by solving their problems or providing pleasure

✨ Commerce is an essential and beneficial expression of the human spirit, and we all must engage with it on some level

✨ There is no perfect product. In the words of a contemporary theologian, all good things have "underbellies", which is to say that there is always a downside, so make peace with that

✨ Marketing is simply the process of discerning your company's vision of improving the human condition and being very clear about how this happens


If you are feeling cynical or fatigued by the process of marketing, you need to spend some time contemplating the above 5 points and getting inspired. When I work with leaders and entrepreneurs, that is primarily what I focus on to create that spark. Then the marketing pretty much creates itself, with the help of a good copywriter and graphic designer perhaps. But once the discernment is done, that's the easy part.

🥤 Is Coca-Cola a morally ambiguous product, as the film excerpt suggests? Yes. Am I glad Coca-Cola is part of the human experience? Also yes. Do I like Coca-Cola? Yes. Do I recognize the need to provide guidance to my children about the dangers of addictive foods? Yes. Can all these be true at the same time? Yes.

Chances are, if you're reading this, you do not run Coca-Cola. You likely run a much smaller and less morally ambiguous company, which fortunately means you have less cognitive dissonance to work through as you discern the beneficial nature of what you provide.

Rise above cynicism and embrace the paradoxes of the human condition. You are a good person and chances are your company is too. Marketing is simply sharing the message that comes from that with the people who need to hear it.

💡 Also, and here's the best part...when I help people start thinking this way, their service improves, their company culture improves, and they improve as leaders. Don't stop looking for the good!