The Disconnect Caused by Absurd Marketing
Emma Smith
A dim party room; everyone dressed in muted blues and argyle prints. Cranberry juice is poured into a solitary punch bowl, the juice swirling around in the clear glass. The guests, apathetic and stone-faced, begin to go around and around like spinning tops. The OceanSpray logo slowly fades onto screen. No rhyme or reason can be found – just cranberry juice and absurd chaos. A feeling of being in a lucid, fever dream washes over the viewer. The line between traditional marketing and the bizarre has further blurred.
Traditional marketing has long aimed to capture the hearts – and wallets – of the consumer, utilizing relatability, emotional music, and inspirational messaging. The contemporary rise of “absurd marketing” that values shock value more than emotional connection is leading our consumer society into a desert of disconnection and detachment.
Marketing is used to build up brand recognition and rapport between those who are the backbones of our capitalistic society: the buyers and the brands. Inspiring commercials featuring aging dogs that pull at our heartstrings or figureheads like athletes telling their success stories are the foundation of effective, emotion-driven marketing. This new “absurd marketing” style has emerged due to current content consumption trends largely influenced by social media. Gimmicks as small as “Skittle-Pox” or bigger, illogical, and attention-grabbing campaigns with no emotional resonance, such as, the Megan Thee Stallion 2024 Olympics campaign showcase this new era of advertising. This style, while effective for a quick-moment, leaves buyers detached from the real product or event being marketed and are left questioning brand authenticity. When the joke loses its memorability, there is no connection for the consumer to latch onto. The emotional gap of capitalism widens and brand loyalty dissipates.
When chaos is no longer accompanied by a message – when marketing no longer sells – what does the American consumer reach for? Emotional connection.
In the ever-evolving, fiscal-driven landscape, marketers and brands' only choice to reach brand sustainability and longevity is falling back on the traditional. This stray away from tried-and-true emotional marketing has led to the prioritization of “media buzz” over brand connection and authentic products. Outlandish characters and scenarios can only hold up memorability for so long in this quick-moving social media era, but authenticity and emotional connection will allow brands to forge that all-important connection between them and the buyers.
If emotionless marketing continues to reign supreme, will traditional American consumerism survive or will brand-culture and brand-to-buyer connection continue its crumble?
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