I'm in Advertising

When people ask what I do for a living, depending on the questioner's age and general familiarity with technology, I come up with some vague, internetty answer. For example, if said person is over 80, I will answer very basically with something like, "I work for a website." If the person is around 30-40, I'll tell them I work in media, and if they're a media-savvy millennial with an iphone glued to their head, I'll tell them I work for a YouTube channel. 


All of these answers are true, but I could just sum it all up in terms they'd all understand and admit I work in advertising. More specifically, the sales side of advertising... I mean, I do work for a YouTube channel, and YouTube is the fourth largest website in the world, so I'm never technically lying. However, I don't want to tell anyone I work in advertising because that would be sort of like admitting something horrifically embarrassing like I bite my toenails or something. (For the record, I do not bite my toenails, nor have I ever bitten any nails.) 

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I'm reminded of a moment in this season's Mad Men where Don's father-in-law (the liberal father of his Canadian wife), is speaking with Pete about his job in advertising. The leftist intellectual father-in-law is condescendingly asking Pete what he does in that snarky way where he knows what advertising is, but is implying that it is more or less the equivalent of being a hitman. I don't remember the specific dialogue, but Pete basically asks the liberal father-in-law what he does for a living, and then proceeds to ask him why it was important to him. After the father-in-law's gives his explanation, Pete responds humbly, "And my job is to make sure people know that." 


This. This was a curveball I needed to hear. Pete was right, advertising is important in order for people to know about things they wouldn't otherwise have known. If we break it down that small, ok, it is an acceptable field. I just needed to accept my lot in this current state of life and get on with it. 




Here's where I come back into this story: So, I recently became a certified yoga teacher, and in starting out, advertising myself is actually pretty important. Letting people know when my classes are ensures there will be people who show up with a mat. My advertising/YouTube/media/website skills have come in handy in everything from creating a website to establishing my presence (ie, establishing a brand), writing facebook updates to let people know when I'm subbing a last-minute class (social marketing), filming and uploading videos to my own channel (multi platform presence), hell, I've even created Adwords campaigns. I can't deny advertising has its important aspects in teaching me about succeeding and having an influence in this society. 


When used appropriately, advertising and marketing are a mode of communication to share messages about something created and desired to be shared with others. After all, yoga is all about sharing. But lately I've begun to wonder, where is the level when advertising becomes inappropriate? As fellow teachers around me also strive to create their own presence, the constant influx of self-marketing in my feed has start to become a bit excessive. In the industry, this would be considered "user burnout." The user is no longer even seeing the message. 


Anytime I post a picture of myself in a sick headstand or make some update on my weekly schedule, I can't help but wonder, are people even seeing this anymore? Have we taken this to excess? Was I actually right all along and advertising is in fact evil? But then again, I'm the one blogging about it, so what do I know about being excessive. I guess I'm going to go meditate on that.