For his next trick, Ritson opens with a joke. “How many marketers does it take to change a light bulb?” he asks.
“Millennials,” is the punchline. “Because the answer to every fucking question in marketing is,” he laments poking holes in stereotypes around different generations and the way they use technology.
He also lays into the tax debate, and companies that don’t pay the proper amount of tax and yet claim to be socially responsible.
That leads him to brand purpose – something he believes the industry is guilty of overstating.
“With brand purpose we reach very lofty places like ‘Starbucks will inspire the human spirit and save the world’. This is the problem with brand purpose. It’s the ultimate apogee of bullshit among marketers who believe their brand is very important. We’ve overstated the role that brands play in people’s lives,” he says.
Watch the hour-long presentation from the AANA Marketing Deconstructed series in full below. Do you agree with Ritson? Tell us – we’d love to find someone to disagree with him.
If you haven't already, go back and watch Ritson's first AANA session here: Mark Ritson slays digital as a tsunami of horsesh*t
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