You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Abraham Lincoln
It is this quote on which American
Marketing has focused its approach since marketing was being
conducted to sell or promote a good or service.
How many times have
you purchased something only to find out it was a bad purchase and
you would never do that again?
Yes, you and thousands of others did
the same and that is all it took for these guys and gals to generate
enough money for them to replicate this concept over and over and
over again.
It is the DREAM
on which American lives are predicated upon, like:
- being a wealthy actor
- being a wealthy singer
- being a wealthy athlete
- being a wealthy painter
- being a wealthy writer
- being a lottery winner
And, you will notice that in my analogy the term WEALTH
is always used because our dreams never take us into poverty but into
fame and riches.
It is not just wealth about which we are obsessed but:
- clothes for success
- remaining young and pretty
- avoiding wrinkles
- dying gray hair
- wearing contacts instead of glasses
- driving only this car
- living only in this suburb
Everybody wants to get on top of something so that they
can look down on the rest of the people who are not where they are in
the hopes that they will become envious although none will ever admit
that creating envy was their goal... yet, it is what they bask in
like turtles on a rock in a stream in the direct sunlight of the day.
According to good ole Merriam-Webster, gullible means:
- easily fooled
- easily cheated
- easily duped
- quick to believe something that is not true
Examples of GULLIBLE
- I'm not gullible enough to believe something that outrageous.
- They sell overpriced souvenirs to gullible tourists.
I wonder if either Merriam or Webster
actually knew how prevalent the word would become to American
marketers or to the American buyers? Obviously, that is a rhetorical
question.
We grow up thinking that we can become
anything that we want because this is America and we are
Americans and that is our American Dream
and it is real and tangible and actually happens
but only to actually a very small percentage of the population...
...and, it is this truth that is left
out of the discussion... and, the ultimate dream... that it only
happens to a few... and, only a few...
I remember quite vividly the
discussions I had with football players at Carson-Newman University
who were in my business management classes and the strong beliefs
that they had regarding graduation and playing professional football.
Division I (D-I) is the
highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-I
schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with larger
budgets, more elaborate facilities, and more athletic scholarships
than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed
to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.
I personally did not care if
Carson-Newman University was D-II or D-III because I knew they were
not D-I and were therefore highly unlikely to ever be recruited to
play professional football.
Football Recruiting by the Numbers:
- Over 1,000,000 high school students play football
- Only 70,000 play NCAA football in college
- Only 6,500 are looked at by NFL recruiters
- Only 250+ are drafted by NFL
- Only 1.6% of NCAA players go to NFL
- Only 150 of those drafted stay for 4 years
- 2014 average salary after taxes was $252,000
- Over 80% of NFL players file bankruptcy 4 years after retiring
Source:
Recruit757.com
But, did the football coaches at
Carson-Newman University ever share these statistics with their
players?
Hell no!
Why?
Because, they would not win games if
they did and not winning games would put them out of a job so they
took advantage of the naïve gullibility of these young athletes and
exploited their dreams. And, while this may be a Christian
University, it is no different than anywhere else in America's world
of business.
So, who is to blame here?
Who do we point the finger at and
say... “this be your fault!”
Several months ago, Putin told the rest
of the World that America was trying to stop Russia from its
sovereign right to acquire territory. At first, I thought
that statement was ludicrous but the more I thought about it the more
I realized that every country has that fundamental right. Native
Americans had that fundamental right until “we”
arrived and took their right away... making it OUR right.
So, I would suspect that we have a
fundamental right too (that is American Businesses) to take advantage
of Gullible Americans as often as we can or need to in order to
further our American Dreams.
Perhaps my idea is further underscored
by this account...
They’re friendly, chatty and always ready with a quick quote or bold statistic.
They’re also bald-faced manipulators, willing to bend or break the truth to advance an agenda, usually one funded by a major corporation.
They’re the stars — and villains — and Merchants of Doubt, a documentary exposé by Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) that shows how you need only sow uncertainty about an idea to a gullible populace to keep real social change from happening.
Kenner unmasks the corporate mouthpieces: cheque-cashing scientists and bogus experts who advance the causes of everything from Big Tobacco to alcohol and firearms peddlers to global warming deniers. All with the intent of confusing lawmakers and forestalling legislation that would make the planet better while costing dirty firms billions in profits.
Meet guys like Peter Sparber, who infiltrated a fire marshals’ association to push Big Tobacco’s covert quest for laws requiring flame-retardant furniture. The reason? Tobacco firms didn’t want to have to make a self-extinguishing cigarette to prevent the fires caused by dropped ciggies. Yet studies show flame-retardant chemicals not only don’t work, they can also cause cancer and other diseases.
Source:
TheStar.com/movies, March 18, 2015
I think the H&R Block commercial
says it best:
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
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