The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

NEWSFLASH: There Is No News.

OK, after all the stupidity of yesterday [which I take full responsibility for] I thought I’d try and regain some semblance of order and write a post not featuring Andy, children encountering food incidents and/or Wayne Rooney’s other half.  Fingers crossed I can pull it off … and yes, I have finished the preso that I was procrastinating over! [Thanks John!]

Singapore is an amazing place … it is a country that has demonstrated incredible vision to get where it [so far] is and I’d go as far to say that it is one of the best examples of ‘creative thinking’ in the World.

I’ve written previously about some of the things the Government has done to ensure the countries continued prosperity … however recently I spotted something that truly demonstrated how it is a dictatorship operating under the guise of democracy to ensure the continued support of International investment.

Let me introduce you to Singapore’s biggest newspaper, The Straits Times … a paper that has had multiple awards bestowed upon it across all of Asia … awards it proudly presents on it’s front page.

However on closer inspection you soon realise that rather than being praised for its journalistic quality/integrity, their awards are all for design or photography elements.

That’s abit like Ferrari getting acclaim for its indicators or Virgin Atlantic being praised for its plastic glasses.

You see the Straits Times isn’t a newspaper, it’s a Government propaganda machine …

Sure, it’s not as bad as you experience in China … however the stories it produces are either skewed to the Governments particular viewpoint or have no newsworthiness in them at all.

[Past front page stories include classics like ‘FOOD COURT LAKSA WARS’ and ‘PEOPLE WHO DON’T WASH THEIR HANDS AFTER A BATHROOM VISIT’ – I kid you not!]

And this leads to my point … what is news?

No, I’m not talking about the thing you read in papers or watch on the telly/internet – but the sort of thing companies spend millions of dollars telling the World about.

You see there’s still this outdated belief that you can only communicate to the masses if you have something ‘new’ to say and because companies realise developing ‘new things’ is not only very expensive, but not guaranteed to achieve success, they end up spending outrageous amounts of money on minor and/or irrelevant pieces of information/product evolution [ie: their product now comes in pink, has exciting new packaging, celebrates another birthday or won a totally irrelevant award in a totally pointless ceremony] that ultimately has little relevance, benefit or impact on the public but at least didn’t cost them that much to ‘develop’. 

[Some companies can still benefit with ‘minimal news‘ but they have to earn that right – and know they can’t rely on it working over and over again]

What a waste of fucking time and money – best exemplified by the mounds of clutter you get everytime you buy a fucking magazine. Hell, I bought ARENA yesterday and there were more ‘leaflets’ than pages in the bloody thing!

Many consumers believe most companies see them as ‘walking wallets’ … so unless organisations are happy to spend more and more money in a desperate attempt to brainwash consumer action, they my advice to them is to either save their money, develop news that really is of interest to the public or invest in building real consumer desire/loyalty.

I’ve said it before but I still reckon Tesco’s is the best example in the World of a brand that innovates interms of true consumer benefit and if you need a reminder why/how, I suggest going back to my original A[P]SOTW assignment.

PS: For all those of you outside of Singapore who want to experience Dictatorial Democracy, you can check out the Straits Times by going here. [and make sure you check out the ‘SNAP POLE’]

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