It may have started as a marketing “puffery,” as Seth Godin called it in a blog post. But we’ve already normalized the practice of exaggerating the possible benefits of a product or service in advertising. We’ve normalized allowing our attention to be disrupted without consequences for the intruder. We accept it as normal. A stranger with rudimentary communication tactics puts himself in a position of authority. He convinces us that we have a problem. And then, of course, offers us his “solution.”

Because “normal” from a psychological perspective is the behavior that most people demonstrate towards something. It’s not “the truth” or “the right behavior.” It’s just what most people usually do.

The real problem with marketing isn’t that it uses the same tools as psychotherapy. It uses them with a different intent. Using empathy to understand someone’s pain is a good place to start. Yet, using pain as a vulnerability and giving it a “medicine” that temporarily relieves it creates a dependency on you. This is the key difference between the intention of marketing and the intention of a good therapist. The latter helps you heal your own wound so you no longer need medication.

What if instead of exploiting people’s needs, marketing changed its focus? What if it started using all its power to empower people to be themselves?

Can you imagine how the world would change in just a few years?