How the fake marketers used virtue signals to establish credibility
Malcolm Auld takes a walk through the murky world of virtue signals, where everything’s an ‘economy’ designed to sell ebooks and trick LinkedIn’s algorithms.
If you work in marketing you know that thanks to the internet and digital technology, the whole world has changed spectacularly. Human DNA has completely morphed. As consumers, we humans have suddenly stopped our centuries-old behaviour and now act entirely differently in every way, particularly when it comes to buying stuff.
Not only that, but everything that ever worked in marketing prior to last week, no longer works today. “Marketing has changed forever” is the gospel according to the fake marketers.
It’s the end of marketing as we know it…
And these fake marketers have successfully used virtue signals to con the marketing industry into believing this gospel. Every week they claim there are new rules for everything marketing. Apparently, these new rules are so “disruptive”, that only those in the secret priesthood of fake marketers, possess the unique knowledge to understand them. Like the weavers of the Emperor’s new clothes, they claim you’re unfit as a marketer if you can’t see what they can.
Old man yells at cloud
Malcolm, while I like your old white male rants as much as the next old white male, you basically shot yourself in the foot here. The basic content of your article is awesome. Bullshit, as far as the eye can see. True.
But ‘virtue signalling’? None of what you talk about is virtue signalling. Mate, you posted the definition in the article! There’s no ‘moral’ element to this at all. Yes, there are ‘signalling’ activities going on but it’s nothing to do with ‘virtue’.
It’s *almost* like you’ve been reading too many Alt-right newsletters in purple comic sans font and just got carried away with, you know, using a BUZZWORD. And a particularly crap one at that, as virtue signalling is an entirely natural part of human social behaviour, not the crime of the century that more fascist-leaning folks want to make it (and ironically they are the biggest proponents of it).
I’m guessing you couldn’t find a snappy term to use so you co-opted that one but it really lets the air out of the tyres and edges you towards the hypocrisy lifeboat by using a pointless term to try and signal superiority.
But as I said, love a good rant, so 7/10 for this one keep it up 😉
And more so. Virtue signalling is an incredibly dangerous term; it’s the new political correctness, designed to make people think it’s once again ok to be racist, sexist, homophobic or any of the other ‘ists’ that so many over privileged idiots seem nostalgic for.
Trying to flog your content blog by equating shit marketing techniques to this term is a pretty low form of self promotion, though I hold Mumbrella more to account for republishing this crap in their eternal chase for another click.
A good point to raise that the term “virtue signalling” has some dangerous connotations and sadly (because it is such a useful term) is being used by a lot of alt-right people.
The sad thing is if the term wasn’t being used in such a way, it would be an awfully useful piece of language to deploy without the associates risks because virtue-signalling is quite conspicuous in the age of social media.