Do I deliver what they pay me for?

I was supposed to go to a movie with Paul tonight, but then I got a call saying I was accepted to participate in a focus group I had applied for last week. The pay was $55 for an hour of participation - not too shabby, especially when you toss in the 2 sodas, granola bar, and M&Ms I scarfed down while I was there.

The focus group was on various ads being considered for a foreign language CD-ROM called RosettaStone.

It was actually a lot of fun, although I'm not sure my feedback is the kind they're looking for. They want to know our feelings and impressions of these various ads. But I take it a step further, treating it like a mind-game, trying to ferret out what feelings and messages I think they're trying to convey based on their selection of type-face, imagery, sense of scale, etc. So I'm probably just telling them what they want to hear, which probably doesn't help them hone their marketing.

But you know what - I'm totally fine with this, because I have a special little disdainful place in my heart for marketing. To me, marketing is just so much energy being spent trying to create a need for a product, when in fact people just don't need most of the crap being produced today. I'm treading dangerously close to launching into a rant here about how people confuse needs with wants nowadays, but I'll save that for another day.