There were two letters for me in today’s mail.
The first was a promo from Myer telling me I was going to “be rewarded”. The second, a rejection letter for my application for News Ltd’s traineeship positions.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
Today’s culture teaches us that we have choices. The generations before us have struggled for our rights to freedom. To choose to live, dress and work how we want.
Consumerism feeds off that idealistic vision, and Myer has captured it perfectly in phrases like “invitation”, “you can”, “be rewarded” and of course, capitalising on the “my” in Myer (“my preview” and “my hours”)
Yep. Everything in that promo screams choice.
Then there’s the letter from News Ltd. The letter that doesn’t live in the world of advertising (well, apart from news business models), consumerism and ideals.
That letter seems to dispel any notion I had of having the freedom to ‘be what I want to be’.*
But I guess you can either be disillusioned by the irony, or join the advertisers.
Take Tom Cowie, for instance. His ingenious idea was to build his own brand to use as a resume.Local and international media have flocked to Tom’s blogand twitter feed to check out his idea.
Tomwantsajob has been a hugely successful campaign… in marketing. In fact, Tom was offered a job in the advertising world for his efforts.
So here’s the real question – how does anyone, even a bright young thing like Tom (who has had articles published in esteemed places like The Punch) really get to be what they want to be?
Is choice really an ideal?
*While the post left me downhearted this morning, I’m still wildly passionate and determined to continue hounding newsrooms until I get a job as a journalist. But it makes you think…
