MARKETERS REACH EXCEEDING SCIENCE FICTION
As I was reading the April issue of WIRED I was reminded again that marketers reach is exceeding science fiction and that marketing ethics will become even more important in the future. In the Steven Speilberg sci-fi film Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, criminals in 2054 are caught before the crimes they commit courtesy of some future viewing technology. The question the film asks is : can someone be arrested for a crime they have not yet committed? In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four the threat in the future is that you are being watched and listened to at all times thus controlling your thoughts and actions through fear.
In sci-fi the escape from marketing and the government is impossible as video cameras, brain scans and eye-scanning technology allow an individual's every move to be tracked.
Clive Thompson's article in Wired titled "It's All in Your Head - Why the next civil rights battle will be over the mind" discusses a new advertising medium called hypersonic sound. This technology allows a focused beam of audio sound to be projected so that only a person standing directly in it's path hears the message, giving the effect of a speaker coming from inside your head. A&E has a creepy billboard for their new show "Paranormal State" that uses this "audio spotlight" technology to get inside the heads of people that pass by the ad with a message promoting the show. What other ways are marketers getting inside our heads?
Researchers are using fMRI brain scan technology to conduct brain scans to detect specific mental acts creating a "No Lie MRI" that can be used for "truth verification." Marketers can use this technology to create messages that are proven to trigger specific responses. Face Scan technology has been used in airports and other public spaces to detect individuals since September 11. Video Surveillance has become even more pervasive in buildings and in cities around the world.
Mobile Marketers are using the GPS from our cellphones and infrared technology to
track our every move and pinpoint our locations and speak to us
directly. This technology allows marketers to know when you pass by a
store and send you a specific message or location based mobile coupons to entice you into the store or restaurant to buy. What else?
Branded entertainment and product placement have brands incorporated into our news, entertainment, video games, music, and "reality" television making it difficult to recognize when we are being marketed to. Social networking sites and internet usage are regularly tracked and used to by marketers to better target consumers. 360 Degree Brand Marketing requires that consumers be at the center of integrated marketing communications to surround the consumer with advertising whenever and wherever they may be.
Marketing ethics will only become more important as marketers exceed science fiction and extend their reach inside the human mind. What marketing ethical conflict do you see as being the most important in the future?
I look 4WARD to your feedback.
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