Let’s get the embarrassing thing out the way first.
I subscribe to US Weekly magazine.
I know … I know … but in my defence, I subscribe to a whole host of terrible magazines and in some ways, US Weekly is almost academic in comparison to some of the other stuff I get.
There’s a couple of features I love.
The ‘Who Wore It Best’ is always great for a laugh because they always have some size 000 supermodel in a dress and then ask ‘people on the street’ to decide if she looks better than the size 18 ‘TV star’ who made the terrible mistake to wear a similar looking thing to an industry party. Seriously, it’s almost as good as the time I made a bunch of heavily pregnant women watch a show called ‘Runway Mum’s’ … which was a program featuring catwalk models who were pregnant but still looked utterly amazing.
I swear to god the level of hate aimed at the television would make ISIS feel awkward.
Anyway I digress …
There’s another feature that regularly appears, except I hate it … and it’s the ’25 Things You Didn’t Know About Me’.
Similar to the rubbish/lies adfolk used to write in Campaign magazines ‘A Day In The Life’, it tends to be an array of facts that have been focus-group tested to make the ‘author’ look witty, deep, sensitive and kind.
In other words, it has no resemblance to reality whatsoever.
The reason I bring this up is that Chris ‘girlfriend beater’ Brown recently featured in the article and his answers reached a new level of rubbish.
Sure, there’s the same bollocks designed to make him look good.
Sure, there’s a desperate attempt to look like ‘he has found God’ in a bid to win back some of his female fans, despite the fact the lyrics to his songs are about as un-Christian as watching a porn movie at the Vatican.
But after spouting how rich and successful he is and how many cars, houses, possessions he owns … he goes on to ‘reveal’ a secret towards the end of the list shows he’s not only stupid, but has about the same level of self-awareness as Donald Trump.
Or the average, multi-national ad agency boss.
See it you can spot it.
Filed under: Crap Products In History, Embarrassing Moments, New Product Mentalness
After the ‘heaviness’ of the past 2 days of blog post subject matter, I thought I’d end the week on something lighter.
Or maybe it’s not.
Maybe it’s an issue that is so deep and dark, few people recognise its significance except suffering from it.
What am I talking about? This …
Please discuss.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Brand Suicide, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Culture
Last month, the irrepressible George from Adscam posted an article about how Chiat Day announced the loss of the Honda account to their staff.
It’s the thing at the top of this page.
Frankly, it’s brilliant.
Not just because they did it.
Not just because they owned the situation.
But because they acknowledged where they had lost course.
The temptation for companies – and individuals – to chase the shiny or the easy is constant, but as Chiat realised, sacrificing your standards only means you end up screwing yourself.
The place everyone wants to reside in can only be reached if you work together, fight together & stay honest together.
It’s for this reason I have a little set of expectations for anyone who comes to work at this office and for my department.
Always demand the most from your team mates, colleagues & clients. Always be open to being pushed to places that make you feel uncomfortable but most of all, never, ever, ever choose popularity over having pride in the work you put forward and help to create. No exceptions. No compromises. No shortcuts.
I know it’s nothing new or ground-breaking, but it’s purpose is to act as an ‘authenticity insurance policy’ … because in my mind, the more people we have keeping an eye on what we’re doing and how we are acting, the less chance we can move – slowly or quickly – into being someone we’re not.
Filed under: Devious Strategy
I’m a massive fan of what I call, devious strategy.
In essence, it’s where you find a way to look like you’re giving people what they want, but ultimately are actually achieving your own personal needs.
You may call that manipulation, but adding the word ‘strategy’ to it makes it so much more acceptable I think.
Ahem.
Anyway, I saw this old picture a while back on a Mum’s website [don’t ask] and I thought it was another wonderful example of deviousness.
Though I appreciate some of you out there would call it bastardness.
Have a great weekend and spare a thought for Otis, who has all this to come.
… OK, it’s not just planners.
Hell, it’s not just people in advertising … it’s everyone.
Including brands. In some ways, especially brands.
Years and years ago, we did a study on the ‘art of conversation’ at Google and it definitely backed up this view.
We rarely have a conversation, we simply wait to talk about what we want to talk about.
What makes it worse is we don’t even realise we’re doing it … we think we’re adding to the conversation when what we’re really doing is simply shifting it to another place.
Sometimes that’s good, but it’s also very easy to walk away from issues and considerations that could breathe new life into old topics.
Though why I’m telling you this when the comments NEVER reflect the topic of the post is anyone’s guess.