Imagine a World Without Marketing
No ads, no sales pitches, no billboards
Marketing is a dirty word to most of us, isn’t it?
Because half the time it is.
Pushy ads, fake reviews, influencers saying they just “love this product.”
It stopped being about telling the truth and turned into seeing what we’ll fall for.
So, let’s pretend, you wake up tomorrow and every single ad, sponsored post, bought review, every influencer… Gone.
No more 5-second YouTube pre-rolls. No more “reviews”, no more sponsored content.
What would that world look like?
1. No more “influencers”
If we vaporized marketing overnight, especially shady tactics like fake user-generated content, bought reviews, and one-sided sponsorships, the whole influencer system would implode, wouldn’t it?
No more videos of someone pretending to “discover” a protein powder he’s been paid $10K to mention. And that’s not even the good money.
No more people telling you this supplement changed their life. And health. And body… and sex drive, or whatever.
What would “influencer” talk about? What would Instagram look like?
I don’t know, but ideally, it’d feel more honest, messier, smaller. And we'd probably spend less time doom-scrolling.
2. Word-of-mouth
Without ads, paid reviews, or Instagram posts, actual word-of-mouth would be back as the dominant “marketing” tactic, I think.
People would lean more heavily on friends, family, and trusted community for recommendations.
If your cousin says that pizza place is good, you trust her because Domino’s can’t slip her a coupon code.
We’d end up with some bad recommendations, but we can blame our friends for them, at least.
3. Brands would have to actually… be good
Imagine that.
The only way to “market” would be to make something so good people want to talk about it… without getting paid.
That’s tough.
Companies couldn’t just slap a “NEW! IMPROVED!” label on the same old box of sadness and expect sales to spike.
But this would also probably lead to many companies failing, many lost dollars, many fired employees, and a lot of chaos. At least, initially.
Until the trustworthy, quality-oriented companies grow and stay.
4. Prices might drop… or spike
On one hand, eliminating marketing budgets could mean lower prices.
I mean, gazillions of dollars are simply spent on marketing and ads. Not on the products.
That’s a lot of money saved.
But on the other hand, businesses would need to pour more into product quality and support, materials, design, longevity.
And they have to rely on word-of-mouth and community building. That costs money too, because profits will be lower, initially. Sales too.
Maybe it evens out in the end, but your money might feel better spent.
5. Online shopping
Imagine shopping in a world with no ads.
No ads. No reviews, no sponsored rankings, just pages and pages of items.
Discoverability would become a nightmare. Amazon’s fake review farms would be gone, but you’d have to figure out for yourself which $40 air fryer is good.
It’d be like the early web, I imagine. Dusty forums, good ol’ blogging, real humans writing real opinions on social media. Hopefully.
Trust becomes currency.
Perhaps companies would employ “trust managers” instead of “marketing managers”.
Speaking of jobs…
6. Some industries would collapse, others would adapt
Advertising agencies. PR firms. Influencer agencies. Pretty much gone.
And with them dozens of weird job titles like marketing manager, brand manager, marketing analyst, social media manager, product marketing manager, chief marketing officer… yeah, even copywriter.
The economy built on persuading people to want stuff would be gone for good.
But new ecosystems might rise: curated communities, trusted product reviewers, quality certifications, local word-of-mouth collectives.
Sounds pretty cool to me.
7. You’d buy less
Most important thing of all.
Without persuasive FOMO, you’d probably buy fewer things. Less crap. Better ones, instead. Minimalists are already smiling.
The environment would thank us as well.
8. Businesses might do good things on purpose
Without ads, brands would need reputation.
And not the reputation they gained 50 years ago, and throw out the window with ads and shady marketing now.
Newly gained trust and reputation.
By doing good things. Fair wages, sustainable materials, charitable work.
Because one bad move could kill you.
The Bottom Line
Fewer billboards, more dinner-table recommendations.
Fewer fake 5-star reviews, more actual 4-star products.
Fewer “influencers”, more thoughtful leaders.
But you’d also have to do more homework as a buyer. More research on products. You’d talk more with people. Or make peace with owning one excellent pair of jeans for ten years.
Would it be better or worse? A bit of both, I assume.
But definitely more real.
PS: I am writing all these things fully aware of the fact that I do promote a lot of stuff myself. I am part of the problem. On both sides. Marketer and consumer.