Now, as an adult, I eschew trade shows unless I am in search of a very particular item or service. For example, in early March of 2009, I went to a Home and Garden show specifically looking for urban container gardening tips. I found two vendors with information for me, and while I admired a great deal of other things, I didn't pick up information that I didn't need. Why do so if I was only going to throw it away later?
Last Saturday, I spent a few hours staffing a booth at NYC's GLTB Expo at the Javitt's Center, and while the focus of the event was different from others I've been to (my space was surrounded by companies offering commitment ceremony travel packages, new beverage lines, exotic lingerie, cosmetics and skin care for men, financial planning, and adoption counseling -- none of which I'm in the market for), it was a welcoming, open, friendly space for everyone who walked through the door -- even a mainstream-looking, too-often-pass-for-straight girl like me. I had fantastic conversations with dozens of people about Relay For Life -- so many attendees were thrilled to find a non-profit organization (there were only a handful of us present) offering a way to help their own "without getting all political".
But a few hours was all I could handle; by the time I left the convention center, I was commercial-ed out. "Yes, sweetheart, you're lovely and I'm sure you've got a lot to say, and I'd be better able to pay attention if you were wearing a dress over that mesh bikini -- which I'm not interested in buying, actually, but thank you for the unending sales pitch." There was just so much "buy me!" "try me!" "see me!" "pick me!" advertising of every possible commodity -- by the time I left, I just wanted to go home, whip up a smoothie from home-grown ingredients and not look at external stimuli for awhile.
I think the side effects of my Greening Challenge from a few years back have ruined me as a consumer. I just can't see or hear an advertisement for something without going all analytical and "what does anyone *really* need that for?" about it. Today, I finally cut the cord again on another degree of the commercialism I'm willing to allow into my sacred space (home) -- I canceled my cable plan, and subscriptions for two of the magazines I receive but never read because the ads are just so irritating. (Side Note: this means I will be going out to watch and live-update the Yankee games this summer, since I can't do so from home. Anyone want to come with?) I culled my RSS reader and dropped every feed where ads or attention-whoring calls away from the actual content, no matter how good that actual content is, and every blog that forces an unearned click through to an advertisement-laden "full post." The latter even counts for friends -- sorry, but I'll have to keep up with you offline.
I recognize that this makes me a snob. I'm willing to attend trade shows if I'm in the market for a particular item; I'm willing to work a crowd to share an opportunity I genuinely believe will benefit people, but I won't ever be a hard pitch sales person for something I'm not exceedingly passionate about; I'm only willing to pay attention to something if it's deemed worthy of my limited time and focus; and I'm not necessarily quick but certainly absolute in my ability to wipe out what doesn't work for me.
I can't tell if this is completely out in left field, or becoming more typical of the average person. If Seth Godin is to be believed (and yes, I'm a kool-aid drinking devotee) we're on a pendulum swing toward the point where all attention must be earned, always, but I events like the one this weekend make me wonder how far through the arc we've actually come.
If you're reading this post via Facebook Notes or a Livejournal Mirror or via RSS, please click through to the actual blog if you'd like to leave a comment; it helps me to keep all of the conversation in one place. Thanks!
0 comments:
Post a Comment