mwotw

Ever since Jimmy Cagney brought the mobster anti-hero to the silver screen in 1931’s Public Enemy, organized crime lore has held a place in consumer culture. The high-profile arrests and trials, the unequivocal cold-bloodedness of the "hits", the personalities of the mobsters themselves, from Capone to Gotti, all contribute to the pervasiveness of organized crime references in the culture and in marketing. The staggering success, both commercial and critical, of Francis Coppola’s Godfather films in the 70’s, earned la cosa nostra the permanent attention of Madison Avenue marketers eager to turn the public’s fascination with gangsters into sales.

Shotgun Lesson in Marketing: How do you Sell something that doesn’t need to be Sold?

This question relates to a lot that is going on right now — so it is a timely answer to seek. The nearly-imponderable question phrased above suggests the following subsidiary questions, which may prove more approachable:

a — What is our role as Marketers of a product the demand for which awakens in every human being — like clockwork — in early life, and persists till death thereafter — ?

b — Is there a model somewhere for the optimal co-integration and balance of the Sex we have with other People and the Sexual Gratification we enjoy by ourselves, within the Sexuality of an Individual — ? — if so, what is it — ?

c — At a point in the life of every adolescent, his or her psychological orientation breaks away from the Parent Objects — descends into a Tunnel of Private Passage for several years — and emerges out the other side, determinedly fixed on lovers and spouses. The role of parents in shaping the Sexual Individuality of their children is undisputed, and it is an accepted truth in virtually all cultures of the world that the damage done to a child by a sexually transgressive parent is profound, irreparable, and disabling. Yet, why is there so little scrutiny and understanding (by the average parent) of the actual mechanics via which parents create their children sexually — ? — why is there so little effort given to, so little ability for, so much paralysis in the face of so important and vulnerable a phase in the development of a young human being — ? A failure of parenting at this time could completely nullify the parenting investment made in the child to that point. Arguably, EVERYTHING for the child is in jeopardy — but why do our parents always avert their eyes when we begin to sexualize? Why does this occur at the very same moment we first seek a deeper, more alone place in ourselves (a place never before discovered or visited)? Is this as it should be — ? — is this in our nature as Humans — ? Or, is it something we have learned in culture — ?
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We’re all holed-up in here, instead of out with the rest of the kids in the school yard, because sex is bad, right?

We (our species) made this bed, and we’re lying in it. Done.

Because sex can lead to pregnancy, and because (uncalculated) pregnancy can throw a monkey wrench into asset transfer, folks
had to come up with a way to keep sex in check. Enter, Shame. Done.

But, shame by itself couldn’t do the trick, especially once we got savvy enough to come up with contraceptive methods…