What A Terrible Time To Market
Let’s take a moment to go through this week’s (6/30/25-7/7/25) headlines, shall we?
The death toll of the flash flooding in Texas continues to rise and (at time of writing) is over 80.
Trump signed a budget bill that is estimated to disqualify 11.8 million Americans from subsidized health insurance and an additional 3 million from receiving food stamps.
Literal trash is piling up in Philadelphia as the DC 33 union continues to strike and request a 5% increase in pay while the Mayor argues that "2.7% is a generous offer." For reference, the inflation rate in Philly this year was 2.9% and the mayor handed herself a 3.1% raise this year.
And, despite all that, I'm asking people to buy my stuff? It's a fucking terrible time to market literally anything that isn't Kevorkian in nature, but we're all doing it anyway.
We All Cling to Normalcy
I spend A LOT of time considering the ethics of my existence, it's just how I'm hardwired. I spend even more time attempting to ensure that I feel both good and proud of everything I do with this business. So, when the world is underwater and Pennsylvanians on my Facebook are realizing that "MA" and "Medicaid" are the same thing, I have a really hard time doing goofy shit on TikTok.
But I do it anyway.
I do it anyway because, despite what social media tells folks, the human brain can't handle a constant onslaught of painful information. It's why movies and radio shows were so popular during WWII and why we all watched Tiger King in 2020. There is something about normalcy that helps us cope with the world around us. I'm not saving the world with my TikToks, but I'm breaking up the doom scroll, and that matters to me.
Look for the Helpers
"Breaking up the doom scroll" does not equate to "Callously posting ads with no awareness of the surrounding climate." There is a balance to achieve between marketing that is agnostic to current events without being ignorant to them. People like to overthink this balance while trying to determine what's right or wrong, but it shouldn't be complicated.
Here's my litmus test: is your [post, ad, content, blog, video, etc.] helping anyone?
I was lucky enough to grow up on Mr. Rodgers. (I was also unlucky enough to see a kid get his head stuck in the queue line of the Mr. Rogers ride at Idlewild, but that's a story for a different day.) Anyway, the Mr. Rogers quote that's always stuck with me is this: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'” In the year 2025, people are seeing a lot of scary things in the news, how can you be their helper?
Empathy Breeds Loyalty
It's a rather soulless way to look at it, but it's true. It's why parasocial relationships affect people so deeply. People want to return what is given to them, and, for most businesses, this manifests as brand loyalty. The balance I mentioned earlier, let empathy guide your scales. When you can imbue your marketing with empathy, you will create more than fans.
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