The second reason I started thinking was due to a discussion that came up in a recent class. Stuffed into one of our readings was the point or suggestion that we tend to put more money (whether through public relations, advertising, marketing or some combination of the three) behind higher quality products. The idea is that no amount of money and promotion is going to sell “b.s.” or help a product survive because at some point the product/service will be seen for what it really is. That doesn’t mean that we may not put promotional efforts towards a product or service that fails against our expectations, but to me the intent of the point seemed logical.

Even so, I see the example such as Kevin Federline and I wonder how much of his “success” is based on strategic promotions or maybe on society’s desire to indulge in “b.s.” Maybe it’s a combination of the two? A similar example that comes to mind is William Hung of American Idol fame. As far as I know there was hardly any promotional effort placed behind the release of his original CD — but there was enough that it was still produced, released and then amazingly sold 200,000 copies. Obviously he’s a rare case, but the reason I think of him as an example is because he and Federline are almost building blocks.

As practitioners can we argue that we can see that a product/service can still move off the shelves when there is an obvious lack of quality present? Does that mean that we can (or should) progress to the thought that if something that bad can sell, maybe anything can sell? It may not be worth spending a lot, but maybe it’s worth spending a little… so to me, the question almost becomes how are audiences inadvertently sending messages about what they actually want? While the idea that putting more money behind a quality product seemed logical at one point, I’m almost beginning to feel that we should question/research why we’re moving towards put money/promotions behind fast-moving, flash-in-the-pan trends and if that’s a result of the “new” nature of how audiences are consuming products/services. Instead of long-term quality, in many cases we’re consuming for short-term pleasure… and maybe that’s where the “b.s.” comes from and survives.