The aspirational delusion.

By Gonzalo López Martí    – Creative director, etc.  /  LMMIAMI.COM

• I once asked the marketing manager of a massive global brand whose responsibilities included the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world why their campaigns aimed at said nation always depicted upper class Caucasians when the vast majority of their customers is working class and “ethnic”.
• This individual was, pro’bly still is because he proved to be very good at it, in charge of marketing efforts for the type of edible product you buy with chump change you fish from the bottom of your pocket.
• The type of product available at every convenience store, bodega, changarro or kiosco in the planet.
• A household name if there is one.
• The kind of brand that pays crazy money to sponsor the ultimate sports events in the planet.
• In our conversation I used the word “ethnic” as a sugarcoated euphemism for “criollo” or the more widely used and highly disparaging “cholo”.
• “We tried it once,” was this individual’s response, “we shot a TV spot featuring working class people with ethnic features enjoying our product. It was a cool spot, funny, clever, uplifting. Focus groups hated it. We seem to hate watching our true selves reflected in the media. Or, let’s put it this way, working class & ethnic folks just don’t like to be reminded that they are working class & ethnic. It appears to be a turnoff.”
• Wow.
• The very definition of self-loathing.
• Mind you, I am not criticizing this guy.
• At least he tried to change the formulaic “aspirational” idiocy that permeates advertising messages.
• If it serves as consolation, aspirational delusion is not only an advertising issue.
• For instance, have you seen the movie Trainwreck?
• Amy Schumer dates guys who, in the real world, would be absolutely out of her league.
• Eg; wrestler John Cena (who, by the way, surprisingly and effortlessly steals every scene he appears in).
• In real life, John Cena wouldn’t touch Amy Schumer’s character (or Amy Schumer proper) with a six-foot pole.
• Moreover (spoiler alert), in real life an acclaimed & wealthy surgeon who treats the most famous athletes in the world (played in the movie by SNL alum Bill Hader) would never have a serious relationship with Amy Schumer’s character: a not too attractive bedhopper with a recreational drug problem and a serious risk of being host to numerous sexually-transmitted diseases.
• Don’t shoot me.
• I’m just the messenger.
• Unfair?
• You bet.
• That’s not all.
• The movie is so unreal that Amy, who as I mentioned before plays a nympho with a sweet tooth for legal & illegal intoxicants, never removes her bra during “steamy” sex scenes: a strict no nipple policy*.
• But hey, the movie seems to have been pretty successful.
• Why?
• My guess is that it’s success is based on a totally unreal premise (and promise): you can a be a disaster, literally a trainwreck of a human being, and still catch a sweet, cute, rich successful doctor of a husband.
• Sorry, ladies, please don’t hate me for saying this but the narrative of the movie, aspirational as it is, is nevertheless absolutely false.
• Mind, you, I’m not blaming Mrs. Schumer for this.
• I’d bet money that her original script was different and the Hollywood machinery twisted her arm.
• At least we can give Mrs Schumer some credit for twisting Hollywood’s arm back.
• She’s a brilliant writer, her comedic timing is flawless and, after all, she managed to score a small victory: she successfully reverse engineer an old staple of sexist movie makebelievedom: guys who punch above their weight and get girls who would not give them the time of day outside of a Hollywood soundstage (eg; Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Kevin James et al)
• Key word: aspirational.
• Pardon the cliché.
• I get it.
• Movies are therapy, y’all.
• Movies are escapism.
• Movies are unreal.
• Don’t go to the movies in search of plausibility.
• Everything is fake (“aspirational”) in movies.
• Indeed, everything is fake across all media.
• Movies, the 24 hour news cycle and the media at large are supposed to ease us into a world that fits our wishful thinking, fears, taboos & paranoias.
• Iregardless of the facts, as we say in Miami.
• Thruthiness (as Stephen Colbert used to call it).
• Verisimilitude.
• The uncanny human tendency to fool oneself.
• The reason why the Walt Disney corporation is a global empire.
• When I say Disney I include ABC, ESPN and Pixar, of course.
• The reason why Mattel sells Barbie dolls by the millions.
• The reason why nobody pays a movie ticket to watch a documentary.
• The reason Batman vs Superman is a planetary moneymaker**
• See, a few years back I thought we were done with fantasy.
• During the ascent of the so-called “reality TV” genre.
• Well, I said to myself, after several generations of watching manufactured movies and ads, the public seems to be demanding a reality check, warts and all.
• The public wants the truth and nothing but the truth.
• Unscripted.
• Then came social media to confirm my theory.
• For a moment it even lead me to believe that advertising as we knew it was done with.
• You know what I mean: C-list actors pretending they love some beer or other and getting the girl while they are at it.
• The entire narrative arc conveniently packaged into a 30 second-long micro movie with some logo at the end.
• Well, I was wrong.
• We just don’t like it when we are told it like it is.
• We like aspirational.
• Aspirational as in Latin American ad campaigns with Caucasian models.
• Once again, forgive me for stating the obvious.
• We hate reality.
• We can’t handle the truth.
• We love and need to be lied to.
• Lie.
• Lie shamelessly.
• Lie more.
• Lie again.
• Lie better.

*We all know about the Puritan sick minds of the MPAA, we’ll not delve into it today.
** D’you see Batman vs Superman? It is Brokeback mountain with explosions. On steroids. Literally.