Now it happened: the March “brand eins” edition is sitting in my letter box. And I never had time to take a closer look at the February edition before now. Regardless of the fact that I carried it with me during several business trips – and also regardless of the title being so wonderfully provocative:
Buy, You Moron!
It is about the “art of seduction” – but it means a different seduction from the one you might first have in mind; because the focal point is “advertising”. And on reading this, I immediately think of Michel Serres and his book “Erfindet Euch neu! (Define Yourself Anew). – It is a declaration of love to the network generation. I already wrote about it. In the book, Monsieur Serres talks about “a society formatted by marketing” – where the formatting process does not stop before it comes to humans.
I admit that I never found something as “offensive” as “Buy, You Moron” on the title page of “brand eins”. But I certainly do not mind. After all, I myself, too, like to be provocative.
And Frau Fischer herself writes that “the title was internally extremely controversial”. However, she also says: “the deeper we dug into the topic, the more appropriate the title seemed”. She writes about marketing as a “system which gives them (those who participate in the marketing game, like product manager, creative agency or media planner) more and more pause”. And also a system where tricks, fraud and the ever more perfidious data hunt have long since become accepted as actions of self-defence.”
As I browse through the February edition, however, I agree with the great philosopher Michel Serres and conclude: I will not let myself and my life be formatted by the marketing system!
But then, the new “brand eins” edition is already waiting for me, regardless of the fact that I have not even yet really read the last one…
And as I read:
I Want To Know All About You.
As well as
Why?
(I believe) I already know what this is all going to be about.
However, on continuing to read, I see underneath that the focal point is observation. And observation is something active (I observe), as well as something passive (I am being observed), isn’t it? And as we all know, I am always in favour of being active. …
As I browse through the magazine, my first impression confirms the feeling that things happen which really are not commonplace. Everything moves, we are in the middle of the turn of an era. It is similar to when the “industrial revolution” happened about 250 years ago.
Now all I need is – time to read the February and March editions before the April edition is delivered. Except it seems that somehow time is exactly the one commodity that I no longer have at my disposal. Maybe that is because I have to observe so much that I do not understand?
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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