--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> I've been staying out of the mock furor over one silly
> planted article in the NYTimes, allowing those who feel
> somehow invested in it one way or another to shoot their
> wads, and allowing at least one TB to make 38 posts in
> two days, either arguing about it or playing other ego
> games to puff up her imaginary self image. :-)
>
> But I will comment on the SADNESS of the TM movement
> these days, in terms of how it feels the need to market
> its products. First, as I commented on earlier, it has
> since Day One based most of its marketing appeal on the
> idiocy of the general public, and their tendency to
> believe that "If someone famous does it/wears it/drives
> it, I should, too." Maharishi, like many Indians, was
> the utter personification of celebrity-worship and using
> these celebrities to make people believe that he had
> similar celebrity. It can be honestly speculated that
> if he hadn't run into the Beatles, no more than a few
> thousand people would *ever* have started TM.
>
> ( As an aside, and to underscore that it's not just TMers
> who are suckers for this blatant use of celebrities to
> sell things, did you know that companies pay celebrities
> *millions* of dollars to shill for them as their "celebrity
> spokespersons?" Kim Kardashian -- that vapid, unattractive,
> talentless bimbo who made herself famous by releasing a
> video of herself fucking and claimed it had been "leaked" --
> now gets $10,000 every time she mentions a product on one
> of her TWEETS? Now *that* is insane. )
>
> But the sad part is that the TMO *still* use this technique,
> because the OLD PEOPLE who run the TM movement 1) are so
> lacking in creativity that they can't think of any way to
> market their products that Maharishi didn't use himself,
> 2) they're OLD PEOPLE, still caught up in celebrity-
> worship themselves, and 3) the primary target of all of
> their marketing efforts are OLD PEOPLE like themselves,
> the hangers-on to the myth of the TM movement, not new
> TMers at all.
>
> The TMO has done such a shitty job with its image over
> the years that it simply *cannot* market TM as a stand-
> alone product competing with better and more reasonably
> priced forms of meditation. So they have to use celebrities
> to sell it, and *primarily to existing meditators*. THAT
> has been their real "marketing strateqy" since the late
> 1970s -- "preaching to the converted," trying to get *them*
> to feel good about practicing TM so that they'll continue
> to flood the movement with donations.
>
> Fascinatingly, that is the approach that Maharishi fell
> back upon and that is still being used today to try to
> market TM to new people. It's still completely based on an
> appeal to OLD PEOPLE, and in particular *wealthy* OLD
> PEOPLE. *No one even tries* to present TM as a standalone
> product and sell it to the end users. Instead they pitch
> it as a panacea for social ills, and as a way to "help"
> the Victim Du Jour -- children, PTSD veterans, etc. The
> *entire appeal* is to rich OLD PEOPLE, to try to get them
> to "contribute," either with their names (if they are
> celebrities) or with money, or both.
>
> One can say that the use of "science" to try to sell TM is
> an extension of the same idea. In our era, "science" itself
> is a bit of a celebrity -- claim that something is "scientific"
> and an astounding number of people will actually believe it.
> So they concocted pseudo-science based on Bad Protocols to
> make it *look* as if TM had some scientific validation, and
> again a large number of people bought into this. In my opinion,
> this all started NOT as an attempt to market TM to new people,
> but as a way to "preach to the converted" and keep existing
> OLD PEOPLE -- the TMO "base" -- on the hook and still contrib-
> uting by sending in donations or paying for courses.
>
> And again, it worked, because people never seem to tire of
> being told, "You're so smart...you made the right decision...
> lookie here...even *science* thinks that TM is worth doing."
> And of course hoardes of OLD PEOPLE, wishing to be told that
> the hours they'd spent sitting on their butts (let alone
> bouncing on them) weren't wasted, lapped it up like dogs,
> and continue to. TMers *still* salivate over every celebrity
> mention, and every crap study presented as if it were real
> research.
>
> But the bottom line is that the TM movement is OLD, and dying.
> And so is its "base."
>
> IT CANNOT COMPETE in the "meditation marketplace" with tech-
> niques that present themselves more honestly, such as mindful-
> ness meditation or other techniques still taught cheaply or
> for free. So it still tries to rely on celebrity and on pseudo-
> science to market itself to the rich people who are anxious to
> work their *own* image by appearing to be benevolent donors
> to "good works."
>
> THERE IS NO OTHER SOURCE OF INCOME. That's ALL that
> the TMO has got.
>
> Pretty sad, for a technique that once had the ability to be
> sold as what it was, a simple, easily learned technique of
> relaxation to be practiced max twice a day for 20 minutes,
> and sold for what it was actually worth -- 35 bucks. That
> actually *succeeded* in the marketplace for a time presenting
> itself that way (with the help of a lot of celebrities, of
> course). Now it's just OLD, and in the way.
>
