Their ad’s message pretty much sums up what critics dislike (said: hate) about marketing (said: advertising). I got into a mini blog comment argument about why too much advertising was not something worth fighting over. I still stand by that opinion, but I can see the other side now.
Since then I have seen The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (watch it if you have any interest at all in marketing), and understand some of the points the anti-advertising people were trying to make: many (not all) ads make you feel incomplete. That’s the basic premise behind the Shaadi.com ad – you are unhappy because you’re not married, come to us and we’ll make you happy! Unfortunately, I’m sure many agree with that statement. That brings us to the two problems I want to discuss: 1. are we looking for happiness in the right place? and 2. are ads & marketing really to blame for this? (I’ll move this discussion to my next post).
A quote from a Chinmaya Mission Swamiji has stuck with me since he first shared it during a visit to U of I a few years ago: “Two unhappy people cannot come together and become one happy couple – they’ll just be twice as unhappy; you have to be happy on your own first, then you will find another happy person and together you can make a very happy couple!” What a brilliant way to put it! We are so caught up with external things that we forget to look within – that’s where happiness has to come from, not from the “stuff” that we’re chasing (including spouses, heh). You don’t have to believe me when I say you’ll probably have more luck when you focus on your own happiness than if you continue looking outward for a smile, check out the Happiness Is Attractive post on Oprah’s blog.
If you understand one simple fact then you’ll save yourself some time: the only thing you have control over is your attitude/outlook towards what happens – you can’t change people (you already know this because like me you have tried and failed multiple times), and you can’t change the [physical] world. Now you’re probably thinking, “that’s a joke right, isn’t this guy trying to brand himself as Mr. Positive Outlook?” Please continue reading…
By eliminating the time wasted on external things and focusing more energy on improving myself and my attitude, I actually can change how people AND the world behaves towards me. Become happy by doing things that make YOU happy, and watch that happiness spread around you. Skip to about 6:28 in this Spirit Science video about thoughts to understand what I’m talking about.
Summary: Stop looking for happiness on Shaadi.com (or anywhere else), just smile and look within! Note: I have nothing against using Shaadi.com to find your mate, I know some people who have found their spouse (that’s the keyword here) by using that site, and I’m sure it can work for you too. Good luck!
Related Post: 6 Ways That Advertising Negatively Affects Us
Comments
4 responses to “Stop Looking For Happiness on Shaadi dot Com”
Interesting post Pathik. I get what you’re saying about happiness–it really does start from within. We’re all accountable for our own happiness, and if we’re not happy, we need to go make it/find it/change until we do get it. Shaadi.com might be using it to their advantage, but aren’t a lot of companies? Marketing is a funny thing like that….
I’m sure thousands of companies are (which I plan to discuss soon), but this was just a blatant example. I actually saw a TV spot that said “Find happiness on Shaadi.com,” but settled for the above version of their print ad to use for this post because it’s basically the same thing.
In the end, marketing is a just another means of communication between people. A CEO, a sales person, and a customer are all individuals with their own thoughts and emotions. Just like with any other form of communication, people’s emotions affect the conversation. Sometimes companies can take advantage of those emotions to win over clients – and some people don’t like that.
Because children are very impressionable, the government has placed restrictions on the types of content (cartoon characters, animals, etc.) tobacco and alcohol companies can use in advertisements in an attempt to reduce the number of children that get affected by those ads. The thing is, adults are susceptible to the same thing – we just don’t think about it.
[…] Post navigation ← Previous […]
[…] touched on how some ads make it seem like we can’t be happy without the products they want us to buy in an earlier post. The flip side is that ads can show us alternatives to items that we would buy […]