Being Reasonable has an interview with author Douglas Rushkoff that is well worth reading. Rushkoff talks about today’s media environment and invasive marketing:
“Companies are no longer treating their consumers as anything other than consumers. When buyers and sellers were living in the same community, they were dependent on each other in a way they aren’t anymore. One of my students was just pointing this out in class: If I am your deli man and you are my pharmacist, I have an incentive make you a great sandwich – not just because I want your business again, but because I need you healthy so that you fill my prescription properly! Companies today see their consumers as consumers only. As targets to be manipulated; wallets to be emptied. And people pick up on that, eventually.”