Existentialism and consumerism

How an ad on the tube sparked a moment of reckoning

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

I’m feeling particularly existential today.

I was on the tube heading to Old Street for lunch with a friend and former colleague, and an advertisement caught my eye. Does anyone else love to analyse and critique different ads, channeling their inner Don(na) Draper? I’ve often thought about making this a thing, sharing it on LinkedIn, starting some conversations, and breaking down this world of advertising we’re completely immersed in.

Anyway, I saw this ad for a flavoured non-alcoholic drink. The main part was this short paragraph about how the drink tasted like a passion fruit getting a tattoo in a raccoon barbershop. In tiny font on the bottom left, you were told the drink had 0% sugar, 100% water, and 25+ flavours. There was a line about how this would only make sense when you tried it, and a picture with the bottle and where to find it. Classic FOMO tactic. To be honest, as someone who is health conscious and doesn’t drink alcohol, I’m the prime audience and I was intrigued.

That being said, the text itself, which took up most of the ad, felt like a marketing team (or person) had a brainstorming session, threw in a few fun and random words (including at least one that related back to an actual flavour), asked ChatGPT for a few options that were sufficiently intriguing and amusing, and slapped the winner on a poster.

I was left staring at it, wondering what our world was coming to when people are starting businesses to create flavoured water, employing people to advertise it, asking consumers to purchase it, and the whole corporate shebang. If I were marketing this, where would I find my purpose? Aren’t there better ways for us to be using our time? Earning a living? Asking others to spend their hard-earned money, especially in challenging economic times?

Bear in mind this comes on the heels of my being bombarded by ads on Instagram where the algorithm clearly thinks I should be investing in collagen supplements. I must have gotten targeted by every collagen brand out there within the span of 15 minutes and all it achieved was to kill my doom-scrolling vibe (a plus!), and mentally thank my mother’s genes and my sense of self for not descending into a spiral of self-consciousness (I guess also a plus!). It also deeply disturbed me when I thought of how easily these ads can influence a person’s self-esteem just because a brand is trying to make money.

Going back to this flavoured water ad and my existential crisis, I asked myself: why is this company worth my/the founders’/the employees’/the consumer’s time? What is their mission? Without going to their website, I could assume they want to create a healthy, tasty drink alternative to water and alcohol, especially in a world where people are drinking less and care more than ever about their health and wellbeing — all good things.

I can get on board with that.

But then don’t sell me on some tattoo-giving raccoon barbershop nonsense. Tell me why your drink matters. If I look at my purchasing habits right now, I’m actually spending more on independent, mission-driven businesses than cheaper, bulk-provided brands because it makes me feel like I’m making a difference, supporting important causes led by founders who see me, the individual, as part of their community and who demonstrate that they care about the world around them. I’m talking about Wild’s refillable body care, Mindful Chef’s locally-sourced and minimal-waste recipe boxes, Form Nutrition’s plant-based proteins that give back to a hospital in Gambia, and Lululemon or LNDR’s high-quality performance wear that reduce waste and prioritise social impact.

I get it. We live in a consumerist society where we’re constantly being pushed to produce more, make more money, and run faster and faster on the hamster wheel of productivity. And as I currently search for new projects to sink my teeth into — trying to balance the ones that will provide my bread and butter with those that will fill my soul with purpose — I can’t help but feel a deep sense of existential reckoning at where we stand as a society.

Does anyone else feel this way? How do you balance working to live and living to work? Have you ever worked for a company whose mission you categorically didn’t believe in, and if so, how did you manage?

And finally… Does anyone want to see me break down and philosophise about more ads “in the wild”? 😄