Perhaps one of the more insipid (or genius) techniques a marketer unencumbered by ethics can employ is to sell resistance.

In one of my favorite bits of comedy, Bill Hicks tells everyone who works in marketing to kill themselves, and insists that its not a joke:

I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, “Oh, you know what Bill’s doing, he’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market, he’s very smart.”

In an overly comercialized world, the only things people believe authentic are those things with no monetary motive (obvious or hidden). Anything corporate or profit-driven is assumed to be just more marketing crap. And most of it is.

What could be less-corporate than rebellion? The act of rejecting society’s norms (which were established by “the man”, god, government, and corporations) is precisely the modern definition of authenticity in media. So it would make sense that the darker shade of marketer would seek to harness resistance to move units.

Rebellion is young and sexy. It creates an us vs them dichotomy, that not only gives us comrades to fight with, but a common enemy to unite us. It fulfills holes in self-identities while making us aspire to be bigger than we are.

Apple is probably the best, most recent corporate example of this strategy. While its obvious they are a financially-motivated company, their fervent devotion to thee anti-microsoft cause on seemingly moral groups transcends profit in the eyes of their fans. There are legions of Mac enthusiasts united against a vast drone army of corporate Microsoft ants.

The model is perhaps most obvious in the music business though, from the Sex Pistols to Rage Against the Machine; “The Man” will sell us anything that we’ll buy.

The fact that disruption plays such a huge role in the modern marketer’s lexicon means that the environment is positioned such that even the faintest whiff of resistance in online marketing sells itself. By utilizing social technology various websites claim to upset the established order and lay waste to vast swaths of corporate cube farm.