Marketing is a dirty word to most of us, isn’t it?

Because half the time it is.

Pushy ads, fake reviews, influencers saying they just “love this product.”

It stopped being about telling the truth and turned into seeing what we’ll fall for.

So, let’s pretend, you wake up tomorrow and every single ad, sponsored post, bought review, every influencer… Gone.

No more 5-second YouTube pre-rolls. No more “reviews”, no more sponsored content.

What would that world look like?

1. No more “influencers”

If we vaporized marketing overnight, especially shady tactics like fake user-generated content, bought reviews, and one-sided sponsorships, the whole influencer system would implode, wouldn’t it?

No more videos of someone pretending to “discover” a protein powder he’s been paid $10K to mention. And that’s not even the good money.

No more people telling you this supplement changed their life. And health. And body… and sex drive, or whatever.

What would “influencer” talk about? What would Instagram look like?

I don’t know, but ideally, it’d feel more honest, messier, smaller. And we’d probably spend less time doom-scrolling.

2. Word-of-mouth

Without ads, paid reviews, or Instagram posts, actual word-of-mouth would be back as the dominant “marketing” tactic, I think.

People would lean more heavily on friends, family, and trusted community for recommendations.

If your cousin says that pizza place is good, you trust her because Domino’s can’t slip her a coupon code.

We’d end up with some bad recommendations, but we can blame our friends for them, at least.

3. Brands would have to actually… be good

Imagine that.

The only way to “market” would be to make something so good people want to talk about it… without getting paid.