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

When Charinee, one of my wonderful colleagues, first showed it to me, I thought it was a spoof and then when I looked up the website, I realised it was probably true.

I openly admit I am not religious – at least when it’s based on how organised religion says I should behave and believe.

Infact, if truth be known, very few things can piss me off as much as listening to a religious zealot act all self-righteous because they’re talking to someone who doesn’t share their views or faith.

The weird thing is, I probably feel more distain towards blind followers of Catholicism and/or Christianity than any of the other religions.

Maybe it’s because as a kid, I was more exposed to those faiths so I’m slightly more aware of some of the 2 faced, double standards that exist within both the religion and some of their followers [as it does in all faiths] – but at the heart of it, I guess I still can’t work out how something that tells you to treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself can end up being the foundation for more troubles and death than all the other possible contributing factors put together.

Yet despite all this, I am a huge believer in the power and value of faith.

I genuinely believe that it can help people improve and better their life … give them support, belief and encouragement at times where they feel isolated, helpless and alone.

And for the record, I’m not saying this because in a twisted kind of way, religion was the earliest form of branding and advertising and I want to feel better about what I do … I mean it, because I’ve seen it and felt it at various times in my life.

It might be a place where there are genius space-saving designs on display, but just how did they manage to convince the World that they offer good value for money when you not only end up paying a fair amount of cash for furniture you have to make yourself, but also have to endure having a full-on row with the household because you’ve lost the last bastard pesky screw that holds everything together?

Mind you it doesn’t really bother me, my wife always puts the stuff together because she rightly knows I have all the practical skills of Elton John … so well done to IKEA, because not only have you found an evil genius way to get rich, but you’ve managed to keep my missus so occupied, I can play Kane & Lynch 2 in peace.

It appears that when things go well, we happily take all credit for success, but when things go wrong, it’s laid firmly at the feet of the client.

The other thing that bothers me is how a lot of the success in effectiveness awards is down to the skill/writing of the submission rather than the actual results. I’m not saying someone who hasn’t got good results can win an award simply because it’s well written – but I do find it annoying that campaigns that have followed a generic approach can still get credited when the award is supposedly about clever thinking and approaches.

Let’s look at AKQA’s campaign for Fiat’s ‘eco drive’ campaign from a year or two ago.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful and clearly articulates the product and it’s benefit – but in my mind any ‘effectiveness’ credit should be at the very least shared with FIAT, rather than given purely to AKQA … and yet when it was up for submission, FIAT’s role in developing the product [a product that genuinely made a difference to owners and differentiated the brand from the category] was hardly given a whiff of attention.

For an industry that likes to say how they’re media neutral and focused on business solving ideas – it never fails to amaze me how time after time after time they just focus on what they know or – worse – try and claim something traditional is new.

Are you listening Dove and your ‘Evolution’ TV ad, repositioned as an effective digital strategy campaign?

Have a look at this …

Yep, in front of a lady pulling her top down to reveal her breasts is a sticker stating “Unsuitable For The Young”.

No shit Sherlock …

The thing is, I wonder who the people who place these stickers think it is for – the potential purchaser or the retailer?

For me, such a sticker acts more as a magnet than a deterrent and if a retailer can’t tell that some babe with her boobs out isn’t exactly appropriate for a 12 year old kid, then they shouldn’t be in business in the first place.

The thing I find really interesting is the movie Inception, is currently the hot, hot movie in China right now.

This is a movie that is universally accepted as being complex … a movie that requires multiple viewings to ‘get it’ [and that’s in English, so it potentially becomes even harder when you need to read the subtitles to understand what’s going on] … and yet millions of people are flocking to be confused and questioned.

Thinking is not a bad thing.

Thinking is not a barrier to purchase.

Thinking is good for all parties – from the audience who get to grow from the experience to the brand who can justify their price point [and inspire their R&D] to the ad industry who can start to show what they’re really capable of.

OK, so they’re not hitting them with an upfront bill – but they are saying that when they’ve been trained, if they leave within a designated period of time [normally a year] they have to pay the cost of the training back to the company.

Is it any wonder so many employees have no respect for their company when they pull shit like that?

OK – with my corporate hat on – I can sort-of understand if the company has sent someone to a special course that has cost them a considerable amount of cash but I’m hearing there’s companies trying to pull this stunt even when they are sending their staff off to do some small internal training course.

I remember when I was at JWT for about 2 weeks back in the dark ages, I was told they had decided to give me a payrise but rather than give me cash [which I deserved and needed because I was paid a fucking pittance] they were going to give it to me as a training course.

A training course they were going to run.

In the office.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

HahahahaHahAhahAha.

Training is an important part of any job.

ANY JOB.

Mainly because it does not just benefit the employee – it also benefits the company which is why for this reason, I believe it should not come with any strings attached – especially if the company is running the training themselves.

Oh, and if management have decided to run their 2-bit course in another country, then that’s their problem … there’s no way that should financially impact their employees, especially when they’ve had no choice in the matter.

It’s bad enough more and more companies are exploiting the financial times to make their staff work longer and longer hours without additional benefits [sorry, but a pizza and taxi home don’t count] … and it’s positively criminal more and more companies are trying to stop staff taking their legal-right holidays … but to now try and charge staff for training – internal training – is sick, especially when they have a bland mission statement that spouts their ‘staff are their greatest asset’.