Don't Believe the Hype

Dear Bloggers,

If there's one thing that stuck with  me when I worked in publicity, it's that every opportunity is a new one to repackage yourself.  When a new product is released, it's released as a clean slate, and it's up to the publicists and marketing people to create the view of how you see this product.  We create the words that stick with you, the momentum that it travels and the hype to get you excited.  The words that are used in advertising will precede the actual product, so before it even comes out, it could be a hit with audiences and they don't even know why.

That's how people are.  It's very clinical to see yourself as a brand, or a product, but you are.  As with any product, the propaganda that precedes you is what creates your hype.  The difference between you and an inanimate product, like a soda, is that you can speak up for yourself.  However, too many times it seems as though not only do we fall victim to the hype, we believe it and then begin to spread it around as truth.  Now, this could be a good thing if people were spreading the positive, but it seems like a lot of times people like to spread the good news of how they are no-good.

I have to be honest, growing up I would find myself doing the same.  If someone asked me about myself, I would launch into he general list about of what I liked to read, watch, and eat.  But after all that was done I would begin to address how I would be when I was angry.

Doing so became habit, but it took me until I reached college to really sit there and see how dysfunctional of a practice it is.  Why would anyone allow their first interactions with someone be something negative?  The worse thing about it, it wouldn't be true.  But I preached this gospel of foolishness about myself, and then attempted to behave in the same manner for years.

WEB DuBois described this as double consciousness.  Somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy to internalize the viewpoints of others and use it to create how we behave, regardless of whether it's true about us or not.

One day, in mid-sentence, I stopped.  I felt like I sounded so foolish.  These behaviors that I'm saying about myself weren't even me.  Deep down, it wasn't natural for me to behave in the way that I was told that I do.  So why was I acting this way?  To placate the person who first made me the poster child of this behavior?

A lot of times, people are fed things about themselves ("You ain't nothing!  You're never going to be nothing!  You're just like your no good mama/daddy.") and people absorb these poisons and then begin to behave in that manner.

These are times that you have to step outside of that and really try to determine if you're going to continue to spread the propaganda, or let people know who you truly are.  Anyone can create a hype about a product, but in the end, it's the product itself that determines if it's going to be a true success.

It's up to you.

Stay Encouraged!!