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

I know this is rather old, but please click on the link below.

CLICK HERE TO SEE SOMETHING MORTIFYINGLY BAD [But in a Good Way]

See it?

Great eh?

I especially love the bit where she goes into her trumpet light-saber act.

Maybe she got her inspiration [well, at least the out-of-tune playing] from the genius that was Les Dawson …

OK, so in Les’ case he meant to play that way [which actually shows how good a pianist he really was] however what I find interesting is that I realise I am far more attracted and protective of those people/brands who demonstrate some sort of vulnerability/flaw than anything that represents clinical perfection.

In the interests of both my personal and professional relationships, I should point I am not including my wife/friends/colleagues/clients in that statement – however I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this way.

Hell, one of the reasons women liked Sex And The City so much was because as much as the characters were all ‘living the dream’ [or at least some women’s version of ‘the dream’] each had their own insecurity which not only helped humanise the character, but allowed the viewer to feel more closely connected to what was going on screen.

OK, so I’m going off on a major tangent given I’ve just shown a video of a woman you sure-as-shit wouldn’t want to openly associate with – however I still believe brands who are true to themselves [not just in what they say, but in what they do and how they act] experience far greater consumer support/loyalty than those who simply communicate an air of soulless perfection. Well, at least in Western markets … in Asia there’s definitely a different set of rules people/brands play by. [Which I’ll write about another day]

Mind you, this could all be a desperate attempt by met to justify showing a couple of daft films. It’s been known to happen before 🙂

Still hurts.

So my cynic boys are doing some pro-bono work for Greenpeace, and they’ve come up with a really great idea to motivate consumer pressure/action – but before I go into that, first some background.

There’s a major problem with charitable organisations – and that is there’s simply too many of them.

Of course this is a byproduct of our Government’s preferring to invest in non-ethical wars rather than the health and prosperity of it’s people and countries – however what this has resulted in is greater demand for each dollar donated, leading to many charities experiencing major shortfalls in their annual income levels. 

To make matters worse – especially for those charities operating in more ‘niche categories’ – there is a ‘trendy cycle’ meaning certain organisations become disproportionately important to society at certain given times.  A few years ago it was Amnesty and now it’s anyone representing the environment – and what this does is skew donations in their favour because whilst the number of charities has exploded, the level of donations hasn’t. [well certainly not at the same levels]

I should point out here that I am not laying blame here – nor am I trying to compare one charitable organisations need over another – I am just attempting to highlight the challenge faced by the boys with Greenpeace .

OK … so back to the task in hand.

The key issue, as the boys saw it, was that whilst many people knew Whales were being fished out of the seas [mainly by the Japanese and often in inhumane ways] it was so out of the masses ‘frame of reference’ that they would give allocate their donations ‘budget’ to issues closer to home.

What the guys have done is turn a couple of issues on their head.

1 They’ve got the organisation to focus on pro-actively stopping Whaling rather than just raising funds.

2 They’ve decided to make people feel guilt and shame rather than pity and sorrow.

What this has resulted in is a campaign that is going to pressure women to pressure cosmetic companies to pressure Japanese companies to stop Whaling.

That sounds complicated but it is actually quite simple.

Women love perfume, we all know that – but what many women don’t know is that a key ingredient in its creation is something called Ambergris.

Ambergris is found in the stomachs of Sperm Whales and is created as a byproduct of their digestive process.

This ‘substance’ is often expelled by the Whales vomiting [it tends to float in chunks on the water] however that doesn’t stop them often being cruelly culled because there can be more of the material still left inside their stomachs – a material which has incredible financial value to the cosmetic industry.

Now whilst certain Governments have banned Ambergris’ use in manufacture – resulting in synthesized versions being developed by scientists – many companies still use it because they feel the alternative doesn’t offer them the same level of subtly and smoothness of aromas that they seek in their perfumes/aftershaves.

OK, so Whales are often culled for more reasons than just to extract Ambergris [even though there is a Worldwide ban] … however the guys felt this information had the power to motivate people to actively support the cause rather than just mutter about it when they saw it on television [especially as it’s use is increasing thanks to the growth of mens fragrance brands like Cool Water, Drakkar Noir and Zino Davidoff] so they’ve created a campaign called “The Ugly Side Of Beauty” which informs people about the real price they’re paying just to ‘smell nice’.

The underlying idea of the campaign is that regardless where you live – if you buy/use perfumes or aftershaves – you have blood on your hands!

[One ad features a child in a liquidizer and asks: Would you still use French perfume if a child had to be murdered to make one bottle? Where does your guilt start and end?] 

I know this all sounds harsh [and opens up a wider debate as regards animal usage/cruelty] but society has an incredible capacity to ignore terrible deeds in the name of fashion/self image.  

However awareness doesn’t necessarily change anything which is why the ultimate focus of the campaign is [or will be once it’s up and running] to drive people to a petition that will declare you won’t buy any offending perfume/aftershave [which will be listed] until the manufacturer of said brands, signs a global agreement to never use Ambergris in their products again.

Will it fundamentally change the Whaling [let alone the cosmetic] industry?

Only time will tell, however having just re-read the brilliant Economic Hitman I know commercial pressure is far more powerful in creating change than all the rattling tins in the World, so lets hope so because it’d be nice to feel proud of my industry again.

Oh and to anyone who says this is ‘commercial blackmail’ – I would happily nod in agreement!

[Hope that makes you proud Dad!] 

 =

… is that occasionally you get requests like this one …

“Can you create a strategic flowchart using pictures instead of words incase countries don’t understand what we’re trying to say?”

Hmmmmn, so I’ve now got to turn a strategy document into a ‘Read It With Mother’ type-of-book! That’s the rest of the day written off then!

To be honest, while this sort of thing is a pain, it’s incredibly important because people tend to get fixated on individual words rather than how they work in the context of the overall idea – so before you know it, you can end up being sucked into huge, debilitating debates rather than getting on with the task in hand.

Saying all that – while this is going to take me bloody hours, I wouldn’t have it any other way because Asia is way more challenging, interesting and rewarding than if I was stuck back in an office in London / NYC or Sydney.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself  🙂