Despite the common opinion that marketing and advertising shape our lives, a number of specialists state the opposite theories regarding this point. Among them is David Sirulnick. David Sirulnick occupies the position of Executive Vice President for News and Production on MTV. In his interview for Barak Goodman’s project, he explains that the opinion of the audience is still the main power that shapes marketing and advertising on their channel, but not vice versa. In the following paper, Sirulnick’s position regarding marketing and advertising technologies will be discussed in detail. Overall, the main idea behind his sayings is the importance of the wide public and its preferences for shaping marketing and advertising strategies.
Nowadays, it is widely accepted that people’s way of thinking, likes and dislikes, preferences, and even people’s lives are shaped by the ideas spread by marketers in their advertisements. Surely, such a position has its point. However, the wide public, with its opinions and perceptions, is still the most important element in the system of values developed by marketers, salespeople, and all the specialists working in the area of advertising, media, etc. In his interview, David Sirulnick supports this position explaining that nothing is more important for the successful work of every piece of information shown in media than the opinion of people. This concept is widely applied on MTV. Every show, TV program, music clip, and even an advertising clip on MTV are there only because people want to see them. David Sirulnick states, ‘the audience controls what we play, all the videos that we play, what they want to hear, what they want to see’ (Goodman par. 1). Thus, it can be said that people shape MTV, but not MTV shapes people and their lives. This important point can be seen as a strong fact to support the position that marketing and advertising do not shape our lives.
The other important point stated by Sirulnick in his interview is the fact that MTV’s audience’s choices are highly diversified. He makes the following comment regarding this:
The choices that they’re making, and have made for the last couple of years are really interesting. It’s a real interesting mix of hip-hop music, pop music, and rock music. If you look at the aggregate of what has been played over the last couple of years, it’s a really interesting blend. It’s not just one type of music. And that’s what the audience is saying they are about (Goodman par. 1).
MTV’s program is a blend of numerous music styles, cultural perceptions, and artistic approaches. Hence, it becomes evident that all MTV viewers are very different people, and their mentality is not shaped in accordance to a single standard and a single system of values. However, if the supposition that marketing and advertising really shapes people’s minds is true, than people will have to develop the only system of values, likes and dislikes, and a standard world vision. In reality, it is not so. Instead, reality shows that people come to have more and more diversified approaches to the world around them.
In conclusion, evaluating David Sirulnick’s sayings in his interview to Barak Goodman, it appears that the idea that marketing and advertizing shapes people’s lives is not true. In his interview, Sirulnick states that people are those who shape the world of media around them including marketers and their advertising approaches, and not vice versa. In addition, the fact that MTV viewers are very different people proves that media is not able to shape people’s way of thinking, and in the end of the day, people will only believe what they want to believe, but not what the others state in advertisements.
Works Cited
Goodman, Barak. An Interview with David Sirulnick 2012. Web.