Wherein the trade journal Marketing Science brings us further proof of the Pop Cult.
H/t @Swordo9 on Tiwtter:
The marketers who’ve pushed the concept of brand evangelism weren’t just using a figure of speech. Man’s innate religious impulse isn’t being snuffed out. It’s being captured and perverted by international corporations.
Fitzsimons, who used to be a practicing Irish Catholic, notes that a major aspect of religion is the feeling of community and being able to communicate to the world that you belong to a certain group of people and value a certain set of beliefs, often by attending religious services.
Now, instead of religious worship, many consumers buy Apple (Stock Quote: AAPL) products.
Forget the danger of monopoly power. The real reason why unrestrained capitalism is just as evil as socialism is that the former ends up producing golden calves that are worshiped by consoomers instead of products that are valued for their utility.
When atheists abandon faith in God, they don’t believe in nothing. Increasingly, they invest their faith in manmade institutions.
It’s more vital than ever not to give money to people who hate you. Learn how here.
And so it ever was …
" “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
If we place "No one can serve two masters" side by side with verses like "Choose this day whom you will serve," (Joshua 24:15), we see that no one can serve zero masters either. Those who say, with Israel, "I will not serve!", as the following verses point out, play the whore "on every high hill and under every spreading tree." (Jeremiah 2:20).
I've seen devotion to various genre properties among my irreligious coworkers and acquaintances, but I would not have expected folks to identify strongly with things as trivial as branded medicines.
If we are a “nation of ideas” then why do so many care about identity?
It’s more than man’s religious impulse being perverted, it’s man’s tribal impulse too. If there is money to be made in perverting these drives, you better believe most companies – unrestrained and uncontained from the Faith – will happily support the demoralizing of your children.
I once went into an Apple store about 15 years ago to fix my one and only iPod. First, they wouldn't replace the battery because it was too old (it was like 4 years old) and wanted me to buy a new one despite all my data getting wiped off of it. Second, the place was eerily cult-like with weird "appointments" and odd terminology that felt like they were operating in a whole other world.
I wasn't even religious, but I did know that I never wanted anything to do with them ever again. Still haven't to this day.
Sort of related: Remember when Boomers came up with the term "snowflake" for Millennials? Well,that might have been a bit of projection.
A Boomer could have an IQ of 100-115 and still be let into the top 1% of earners.
As Steve Franssen has pointed out, for Millennials the minimum entry requirement is 130.
Their logo isn't a bitten apple for nothing. They want to entice you away from God.
That is a keen observation I can't believe i missed!
Nick
Certainly explain why I've never been impressed with their overly priced products and repulsive fanboy culture
xavier