Post photo: woman with hair dyed red | Pixabay
Even if the term barker had more or less negative connotations from the beginning, barkers — at least the louder and more amusing ones — are still the attraction of a good market today. From my youth, I particularly remember those who always added something to every fish or banana and never splurged.
In the beginning, around the Middle Ages, the first barkers still worked with buffoons in the midst of their audience in order to achieve the best possible sales success. I am convinced that even today the more successful barkers still work as a team; and this especially in the form of the TV salesman, who has meanwhile also gone out of fashion, who can still keep entire advertising channels going around the clock and at the same time make the telephone lines glow.
The latest form of the barker is now called the "influencer" and can be found on all available Internet channels, whereby these, mostly found in one's own living room, bedroom or bathroom, have logically taken over the function of the buffoon; Influencers are rarely found in duos or even teams.
The really interesting thing is that there is probably no longer a product or service that is not being promoted by influencers. And since the influencers hardly romp about in the markets, but come to every household around the clock via the Internet, they are a ubiquitous form of advertising today; but this will also "steal" their customers in the long term, because nobody can look forward to it in advance because of their constant omnipresence, as they can today to the "Bananen-Bernd", the "Blumen-Beate" or the "Fisch-Frieda". “, which can be heard and experienced every year at markets or trade fairs.
And just as the shopping channels on television became a substitute for people with insomnia, the influencers will soon mutate into boring advertising artefacts that hardly anyone will notice - that was certainly the end of the so-called "multiplier image" of these modern market barkers .
"We've been given the ability to choose our thoughts, and it's tremendous."
Xenia Overdose, influencer (July 11, 2018)
