Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Complicity, Corporate Evil, Corporate Gaslighting, Fear, Prejudice
A few years ago, I wrote about the worst experience of my career.
I wrote how it threatened to completely undermine me.
Do permanent damage to me.
Rob me of my self-belief and confidence.
So my abuser/s had more power and control.
All while making me feel it was my fault so that the shame kept me quiet and complicit.
And I wrote about how it was only when I discovered I was not the only one going through this behaviour that I was free to see what it actually was.
Abuse.
An act of deliberate, professional violence.
Which led me to start Corporate Gaslighting, where I was then flooded with stories of more people going through the same thing.
All of those stories were hard to read, but one stuck with me.
In essence, it’s the story of someone who felt they couldn’t leave their abusive job because it might look like they’ve failed to people on Linkedin.
People may not understand that attitude, but it’s real … which is why the summary of the post, ‘sometimes changing job is not about growth, but mental health’ is one that still rings loudly in my ears.
I say this because I spoke to a friend recently who is going through a version of this.
Believing that because they’re well paid, it would be stupid to leave – despite the continued, systemic abuse they take.
I too was in that situation at one point in my life, which is why I was able to tell them something that [hopefully] helps them acknowledge what they already know – which is:
“How can you say you’re being paid well, when you’re being paid to accept illness?”
Illness in terms of your mental health.
Illness in terms of the loss of self-respect.
Illness in terms of seeing your confidence and wellbeing be shattered.
There’s a moment in some organisations where you realise the salary you receive is not for your talent and expertise but to be complicit to managements bad behaviour and/or accepting of the abuse they subject you too.
Now I appreciate some people will have less sympathy for someone earning a good salary and facing abuse than someone without the safety net of cash.
I get it … but you’d be wrong.
Because while certain contexts are different, the destructive impact is the same.
The feeling of being trapped.
Lost and helpless.
Paralysed.
Reinforced by feelings of it being all your own fault … that you’re not good enough and you’ve let everyone down.
An endless cycle of being taken apart piece by piece.
And while you may think all they have to do is leave, it’s almost impossible.
Because you feel shame.
Embarrassment.
Believing you’ll never work again because you’re not worthy of being hired.
So you just sink deeper into your shell and take their shit.
Systematically being stripped of everything that makes you, you until the abusers have had enough playing with their power and decide to kick you to the curb … resulting in you feeling even more alone. More isolated. Which you keep to yourself because you have been made to feel it’s all your own doing.
And while you may think an alternative approach is to try and prove to your abusers you are good enough … you’d also be wrong. Because apart from the fact that being respected by people you don’t respect means you’ve still lost … the only way to ‘win them over’ is to be just like them.
The reality is no job should cost you your health.
None.
Salary is not about ownership or control.
Which is why being paid ‘well’ is more than what you get, but how you’re treated.
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I’m travelling for work for the rest of this week so there’s no blog posts till next Monday. Try not to be too upset. Actually, can you try to be a little upset … that would satisfy my delusion and make me all together happier. Ta.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Cannes, Chaos, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Effectiveness, Emotion, Imagination, Logic, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, Paula
Just to be clear, I am not anti-logic.
Of course not.
But I am anti-blinkered logic.
Where anything outside of established rules or norms are discounted because they’re outside of established rules or norms.
It was the foundation of our Strategy Is Constipated, Imagination Is The Laxative talk, last year at Cannes.
And ironically, if I thought it was important then … it’s become even more important now with people like Jon Evans waxing lyrical about ‘System 2’ thinking.
Have a look at the functional benefits he is stating:
+ Facts don’t care about your feelings
We all know how unreliable our feelings can be so why would you make a large business decision based on what people feel about it?
+ Measure Everything
I never understood at System1 why we worked so hard to reduce it down to a few key metrics. The results also came in this super easy online report rather than PowerPoint. Now you can have every measure you ever wanted in a shiny PowerPoint presentation with our ‘minimum page promise’ of 93.
+ Infinite personalisation at scale
We have finally achieved the holy grail of marketing reporting namely infinite personalisation at scale. With so much data at your disposal whatever conclusion you need to make we can provide it. We also present it in such a scientific way that no-one will be able to challenge your conclusion. Imagine that!
+ The Price is Right
One of the reasons you employ McKinsey is because they charge a lot of money and therefore must be making a huge impact on your business. We have followed this immutable logic to ensure this is the most expensive research you will ever pay for because, well, we’re worth it.
Now on one level, a lot of what he’s saying isn’t wrong. But by the same token … it’s also not entirely right.
The reduction of everything to a quantifiable – and historical – measure ultimately means you’re advocating, at best, for incremental change or, at worst, following a model of ‘best practice’ without remembering that best practice is past practice.
Of course some will love it. But then, some love beige office furniture.
Which is why this old ad kind of sums up my concerns with myopic approaches based on models designed to not fail rather than liberate possibility.
History is littered with once great brands and ideas that fell foul of ‘the research says no’.
What makes it even worse is often that research is based on the lowest common denominator of audience versus – say – the highest.
Resulting in commoditised mediocrity, hidden under ‘effectiveness and optimisation’ justifications.
Or said another way, outsourcing your cowardice to ‘for profit, external organisations’.
I am not saying what Jon is saying is wrong.
I am not saying using facts and data are wrong.
I’m saying his view – as I say about many people who sell their specific processes/programs as guarantees of success’ – is.
[For example, as the very brilliant Lee once told me, “if you’re measuring everything, then you don’t know what is important”]
As I wrote a while back, there’s many examples of brands who buck his view.
Hell, I work with a bunch of them, including:
SKP-S … the most profitable luxury retailer on the planet.
Gentle Monster … the fastest growing and selling eyewear brand across Asia.
Metallica … the 2nd most successful American band in music history.
… to name but 3.
The point is, for all the cleverness of Jon Evans – and he is very clever and I respect him, what he does and how he does it – the implied suggestion, whether intentional or not, that his way is the only to be successful, is wrong.
As is his new statement around ‘system 2 thinking’.
I get why he says it … just like I get why many people in that industry say it … because it’s as much what they believe and how they make money.
And while that is all well – plus they’re very good at what they do … especially with organisations who are conservative and/or have people with little formal training – they’re services are more like insurance products than business accelerators.
Nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not claiming otherwise.
Which is why it’s important to remember – to paraphrase what Martin and I also said at our ‘The Case For Chaos’ talk in 2019 for WARC at Cannes – logic might give you what you think people want, but chaos gives them what they’ll never forget.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relevance, Resonance, Review | Tags: 15
OK, so after the ‘hilarity’ of yesterday’s April Fool post, let’s get back to the tragedy of this blogs traditional banality.
So as many of you know, I love rock music.
Loud rock music.
I mean, I like other genres too, but rock/metal/blues has always been my first love – no doubt influenced by the fact it features the guitar upfront and centre and I play [or more correctly, played] the guitar.
So it should come as no surprise that when I was younger, I was a weekly buyer of heavy metal bible – Kerrang!. [Don’t forget the exclamation mark, ha]
There were many reasons why I loved it …
Sure, it was the only mag at that time dedicated to my favourite music, but I also loved the tone of the writing. It was both in-depth and humorous … gave equal measure to new bands and classic and asked questions to rock stars that were both incredible deep and incredibly stupid.
It was magic.
Every Wednesday morning I would go to Helen Reid’s News to pick up my copy … and have her shout at me saying, “this is a newsagent, not a library so you better buy what you’ve touched”.
And after I bought it, I’d go to a cafe and read it over a bacon or sausage sandwich while pretending I was at a client meeting. Which I am confident no one believed but no one questioned … mainly because I was so low level, being out of the office was probably less hassle for them than being in it and having to deal with my endless questions about how they approached their job, hahaha.
But of all the things I liked about Kerrang! – and there was a lot, including all the great reviews they gave of my band when we were reviewed by them [see above for 2 of them] is that they didn’t just see their role as telling the stories of the genre, but to protect the integrity of the genre.
I’ve long thought that is where a lot of industry has gone wrong. Not wanting to offend anyone and seemingly giving out endless ‘participation awards’ to all who do something, regardless of quality. And while there is definitely a need for us to be supportive to others, it’s getting ridiculous we see people more focused on getting the acclaim of the industry without making any work of note within the industry.
And no, a personal newsletter that offers ‘tips on how to make great work’ doesn’t count … especially when you didn’t have anything to do with that work and you keep trading off the clients that worked in the agency you were at, rather than you worked on at the agency’.
And that’s why this review I read from Kerrang! in 1995 really hit me.
OK, so Nickelback are an easy target.
And I appreciate everyone has different tastes and views.
And – as I said – I know we need to support each other.
But that still doesn’t take away the joy I felt reading a sharp, objective review by someone who had the knowledge, experience and desire to protect the discipline from exploitive, populist imposters – acknowledging that is as much about the record company as the band.
It all feels like a bygone era.
A time where there was debate and challenge not endless echo-chambers of like minded people slapping each other on the back. I suppose that’s why I loved the crap I copped on this blog … because among all the [hopefully well intentioned] abuse, I did feel people wanted me to just expand my perspective and view.
And while that didn’t always happen, it did in a lot of areas and subjects and having this blog to remind me how far my opinion evolved is a great reminder of the importance of perspective, experience and depth and breadth of knowledge, delivered by people who want to help me grow not want to bury me alive.
But we’re not in that era anymore.
We talk a lot about ‘cancel culture’ but it feels we’re more at ‘cancel challenge culture’ … where any opinion that questions perspective, regardless how well intentioned it may be, is met with pile-on abuse.
Which is why there must be a lot of people in adland who feel very fortunate they don’t live in the days of Kerrang! ‘feedback’ … so they can carry on spouting their self-defined genius on Linkedin as if they’re the bastard love child of Steve Jobs, Dan Wieden, Elizabeth Warren and Rihanna.
I appreciate this sounds angry and pissed off.
I guess I am.
Not for me – because I know how fortunate I’ve been in this industry, even if I have worked bloody hard for it [despite what you think, hahaha] – but for the truly phenomenally talented people I know, have seen and have met who don’t and won’t get anywhere near the acclaim or respect they deserve, simply because they spend their time making great work rather than living on social media telling everyone how great they are.
If only certain members of the industry press had been more about protecting the integrity of the craft of the industry rather than just reporting, fluffing and profiting from it – then maybe we wouldn’t fall so easily to hype over substance.
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This is the last post of the week as tomorrow is Anzac Day and then Friday is a ‘why don’t we take it off and make it a long weekend day’ … so till Monday, see-ya!
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Apple, Attitude & Aptitude, Creative Development, Creativity, Otis
So a few weeks ago, Otis – aged 9 – turned to me and said:
“Why didn’t Apple call their charging cable, ‘Apple Juice’?
I know he’s my son … my brilliant, wonderful son … but you have to admit, that’s brilliant.
Up there with the time Apple gave their iMac’s names of fruit to correspond with their colour.
And back then it was hailed as a legendary marketing move … reframing, differentiating and humanising a tech company.
OK, so this isn’t that … but by the same token, it’s a damn sight better than a lot of stuff out there. Stuff created by people who are a lot older and on a lot more money than the small amount he gets Robux each month.
So I’m pretty proud, even though being a natural at marketing means I can’t look forward to a future where he pays for my life, not the other way around.
Damnit.
Filed under: Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Context, Culture, Perspective, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Relevance, Resonance
Maybe this is an American thing, but what the fuck is a Fluffer Nutter Pie?
More than that … why is something with that name associated with childhood?
That seems the least appropriate audience it should be connected to.
And finally, why is a ‘pie’ a sandwich?
A sandwich you apparently ‘scoop’.
I am so utterly confused … but I also acknowledge, this may reveal I am a sicko with zero culinary appreciation.
But it does highlight a valuable strategy lesson …
Because far too brands/agencies/planners evaluate other cultures/communities/categories by their own contexts and definitions … never having the ability to appreciate what is normal for them may not be normal for others … meaning they end up building barriers to audiences rather than removing them. Which is literally their fucking job.
These people and companies make a mockery of strategy, curiosity, exploration, humanity and understanding … choosing the convenience of self-comfort over the richness of new perspectives.
It’s an attitude I see everywhere …
A general attitude of blinkered arrogance.
A way for them to remain in the comfort of their own self-delusion rather than accept the need to question, challenge and relearn their own perspectives.
Professional fragility, so to speak.
I used to see this in China ALL THE TIME.
And while some may claim this attitude could equally be levelled at people and companies across Asia, in my experience they know far more about people in the West than the other way around.
But the reality is this situation is not limited to people engaging with other cultures … but people who engage with anything or anyone outside of their circle of life.
People who have a starting point they’re right and everyone else is wrong.
Which – as bizarre as it may be given where this post started – is my way of saying that everything you say reveals more about who you are than the people you’re talking about.
So make sure you embrace the outsiders, not just the echo chambers.