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I spend my working day in marketing, but thankfully, I work in an industry where we actually provide something people need. So you may say, well you have it easy! Really?! Have you ever tried marketing to people who are used to getting things for free?  It’s no easy task I’m telling you. I often think it would be easier to market something people don’t need but we convince them they want.

“Have you ever tried marketing to people who are used to getting things for free?”

I am happy being single, just like I am happy not owning that latest JML gadget that so cleverly makes you think you need a sewing machine you can put into your suitcase when the sad fact is, you haven’t sewed since you sewed your classmates finger to the fabric at the age of 15. Nevertheless, people buy these things and unfortunately, some people believe your life is not complete without a relationship.  Has the media convinced us that we are just sad and lonely if we aren’t in one? Or is it the sad looks that our friends give us when we say we are single. Have any of them stopped to think that maybe this is our choice? That there are too many “products” out there to buy into just one? Nope, they think that is just us convincing ourselves that we are happy and maybe it is.

So why is it, that even as adults we are still looked down upon for not having the “must have” we are supposed to want and have at our age, a relationship. When I was a teenager, you were bullied for not having the latest trainers or the Adidas stripped bottoms, today children are picked on for not having the latest phone or gadget. As an adult, we are judged for our relationship status. We didn’t need the latest trainers of the extra stripe on our jogging bottoms, they didn’t make us run any faster, but these were the cool things to own according to the marketing of the time. As we grew up the items we “must have” changed, just as the marketing aimed at us has.

I log on to Facebook and half the time, the annoying little adverts on the right hand side are flashing “25 and single?!” Yes, what of it? It’s the added “!” in there that changes the whole feeling of the advert, it turns it into “shock horror, your still single at 25?!” Once again, Yes, what of it?! Everywhere I look there seems to be some advertisement selling the idea of a relationship. Spot cream adverts where the guy doesn’t even look at her until her spots have cleared up. The Just for Men advert where until he gets rid of the greys he was just a lonely single dad and don’t even get me started on the Bio Oil advert, nobody loves a person with scars!

In a world where we are not only being sold products but the lifestyle that goes with them, where not only companies are brands but also celebrities and where marketing takes centre stage, I look at my dating habits and see it as a form of window-shopping. I like looking at all the pretty things, I may even try some one on but you know what, I’m not in the mood for buying right now and yes I am happy!