This is perhaps not the best forum for this rant, but as I have reformed and no longer post on http://arizonarants.blogspot.com/ (though, I just checked it out and it's a pretty fun read), this is the place for it. To keep with the context, I spiritualized it, though, in reality, there should be no separation in our lives. As spiritual people, everything is spiritual or has a spiritual component.
So the rant. I'm coming to the conclusion that I hate marketing. Strong words from someone whose job title includes the words marketing and brand. I suppose what I hate is what we have done with marketing. In most cases, marketing has become, and feel free to quote this:
mar·ket·ing [mahr-ki-ting] -noun
1. Convincing people that they cannot live without something they do not need.
Now, yes there is good marketing. I market a product that benefits people and is something some people quite literally can't live without. But notice these signs and labels I have seen recently:
I'm standing in front of the Lufthansa Senator Lounge, their version of a First Class Lounge, in Dusseldorf Germany.
I'm waiting.
It's 5:21am and the lounge opens at 5:30am.
Waiting.
What do I do with 9 minutes? Should I get out a book? A Laptop maybe? Check my iPhone? Check my Blackberry? Pull out my Archos media player? My nook?
As I go through a mental list of possible distractions, evaluating their potential to maximize this 9 minutes by location in my carry-on and boot up time, I am asked a question from beyond -- or given a statement that is as loaded as a question rather.
Why not just wait.
"I AM waiting," I respond to the cosmos, "I am looking for something to do WHILST waiting!"
Why not just wait.
And it strikes me like a bolt of lightning that something is terribly wrong with the soul of a man who cannot just "wait" for 9 minutes.
