Planet Starbucks, Microsoft Galaxy - the advertisement revolution

Under all of our noses a revolution has been taking place in which the all-mighty commercial colossuses of the Earth are creeping further into our private space. While the government has been doing this for years on various pretexts, business has been doing it slowly and without causing much alarm, and disguising it under the name "free-to-play." I use the term free to play because the window out of which I happened to catch a glimpse of the sneaky bastards has been the video game business model revolution - from buy then play for free, to buy then pay for subscription, to free then pay for subscription, and finally to free and play for free. The company that I work for uses a similar model, but even we do not know what is really happening.

The next wave in the commercial age will be advertisement driven services - free games with unlimited free play. While the cosmopolitan age has already driven the herd to an insanity of minute-to-minute interest-to-interest short attention span entertainment frenzying, the next stage will make this one seem like tamed gerbals in comparison. Games will be free to download and free to play, movies and music will be the same. What's next? I can't imagine what other industries could latch on to this idea, but I can imagine the impact that it might have on society.

Fight club saw it first (well actually I'm sure fight club got it from somewhere else, but it was a pretty cool scene with the trashcan filmed like outerspace); companies will start to jockey for advertisement space like never before, attempting to claim service regions using giveaways to earn loyal followings of the masses. I won't get into what this might means for the far future, as it could go anyway (company wars or increased government regulation to stemie the increased intensity of competition). Marketing departments will gain power and influence in their respective companies, eventually all but taking complete control, with branding at the helm. As investors are to the new-age world finance systems, consumers will be to new-age competitive advertising - companies will rise and fall at the whim of the herd. An important question then becomes: what percentage of these consumer groups and investor groups will overlap, and how will that dynamic work?

The revolution will be welcomed with arms open and mouths full, but who will fight the underground battle? Advertisements will be in everything and everywhere. As marketing power is based on marketing strategy, and strategy is a formula of knowledge of the market, which in turn is what people like and dislike at any given moment, companies will devise increasingly intrusive methods to learn what you are doing and thinking at every moment in time. They are already doing this while we surf the internet or buy something with a credit card, but the intensity will be multiplied hundreds over as marketing gains influence. Privacy will begin to erode and our every movement will be watched.

If that does not scare you a little, then you will be one of those that accepts what is happening closed mindedly. But hey, at least entertainment will be free.

P.S. I do not mean that we should blindly criticise and resist this movement, but we should be aware of what is happening and the implications if we don't keep an eye on it. I for one support my own company moving in this direction and business should always look for the best way to make money, but society is and always should be a separate entity and should also look out for its own interests. Thus from a member of society I would want to keep this on the table for discussion, but as a businessman I would hope that I can be the revolutionary.