Working in advertising I sometimes wonder if what we sell products to people that don’t really need the product. Stupid idea I know, who needs anything really right? Well this movie takes the idea of advertising to the next level: Real Life Social Marketing

The Joneses is just as you’d expect, “Keeping up with the Joneses.” They are a perfect family, living in a perfect (rich) neighborhood, and have all of the latest stuff. The Joneses are different though because they are employees of a large company that pays them to convince all their new acquaintances to purchase all the hot new stuff that they are schlepping. Their performance is rated on how much product sales increase. This performance is rated using the usual metrics of as a team, per individual, and per category. Really impressive job if you think about it, but what happens when you befriend the neighbor who is just struggling to get by, but still wants to keep up with the Joneses?

You aren’t going to learn any life altering lessons in this movie, and the biggest outcome of the main character’s activities isn’t even fully resolved. That very obvious loose end really put me off, but I’d watch it again, and if they made a sequel (which I doubt they’ll do) I’d probably watch it.

End review is this, if you’re looking for some good entertainment with your typical moral dilemmas and life lessons this movie will be good entertainment for 2 hours.