Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Customer Service, Marketing Fail
So a little while ago, I was flying on DELTA from NYC to LA.
As I was settling in for my 5 hour flight [that turned into a 10 hour trip, which is a story for another day] I reached for the headphones so I could enjoy my new luxury of watching a movie uninterrupted.
So imagine my surprise when I found this …
Maybe it’s just me, but I find the most unhygienic thing about airline headphones is the fact they’ve been on other people’s ears so for the life of me, I don’t understand why Delta put plastic around the cord.
And before you say ‘it’s to keep the wire together’, that’s not true because when you ripped off the little blue bag, the wire was held together with one of those plastic tags.
Which begs the question, why the hell did they cover up the one thing that doesn’t need covering up.
Or said another way, why the hell do Delta think their passengers are more concerned about the hygiene of the headphone socket than their ears?
Lee … any ideas or is this one of those ‘no comment’ moments?
… as seen in NYC recently.
And no, I didn’t get arrested when I took the photo and even if I did, I am pretty sure the cops would agree that seeing someone pissing with the sort of confidence and swagger you’d expect from a basketballer is a sight worth photographing.
Remember when George W was elected?
The World’s opinion was a mixture of fear and ridicule and yet I bet we’d all have him back in a heartbeat compared to the mess that is Trump.
But that isn’t what this post is about, it’s about an article I read on Bush and Bill Clinton and the close friendship they have developed between each other. [No seriously, check this out]
Before I go on, this is the article.
To be honest, I found it enlightening.
Not just because you learnt the foundation of their friendship was based on how they respectfully handled each others victory and defeat, but because Bush brilliantly explains how a professional reputation can be forged and destroyed.
“The Presidency is often defined by the unexpected. It makes the job interesting.”.
I love that.
It’s a great lesson to us all.
Sure, there are more eyes on the President’s actions than a planner in LA [or NYC, Shanghai and London] but the principal is the same, how you are viewed by others is by how you deal with the unexpected.
And if that scared you to death, here’s the good news.
Given the majority of us are exposed to unexpected events on a fairly regular basis, you have the chance to redefine or cement your reputation on a continual basis … which might be a useful thing to remember next time a crisis hits your plate.
Wow, I’ve just been nice about George W but then, as I wrote before, it appears the Bush family become far more human with age.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, America, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Culture, Embarrassing Moments
You know you lived in Shanghai when you’re driving, see the sign above and think it’s a Chinese street name rather than how American’s roadsigns say ‘pedestrian crossing’.
I wish I was joking, but I’m not.
How I passed my driving test is anybody’s guess.
I’ve got to be honest, while I am really enjoying my time in the US, I am finding it harder to adapt to certain things than I thought I would.
Not just because I feel my frame-of-reference is more Asian based than American, but because there are some things I am being subjected to that I just never encountered before.
To be honest, this is a post for another day – because it’s actually been quite challenging for me – but let me just leave you with this as a ‘teaser’ for next time.
I had just been in a very, VERY boring meeting with someone.
When I got out, I was asked how it had been.
I replied, “I feel I’ve just been brain raped”.
Their mouth almost hit the floor. Literally hit-the-floor.
Trust me, there’s so many more stories like that. I’m amazed I’m still allowed in the country.
So a while back, Marcus [remember him?] sent me this …
Like him, I immediately thought it looked like me.
Then I looked again and I am convinced it’s me.
Sure, the glasses are wrong, but the rest is scarily right … so scarily right, I swear it has been taken from this video.
Now of course, there is a chance this is all one massive coincidence which would mean one of two things.
1. There is someone very, very unlucky out there.
2. If this ad career goes to shit, my calling appears to be in Tech Support.