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

Her point was – with social media companies bending to Trump’s will – we were witnessing the crumbling of established and vital democratic systems. Most people were in violent agreement until someone wrote this comment:

“Can you elaborate on ‘democratic systems are crumbling’ please? My in-laws were born and raised in Russia, and they believe Venezuela is doing great and Cuba is heaven”.

It was not just a good point, but an important point one. Not said to insult or embarrass, but to simply remind us that context is everything and rarely is it experienced equally.

I say this because it reminded me of a similar situation I experienced a few years back… except, unlike Zoe, there was no legitimate reason not to have considered this from the beginning given I’d been living in China for a long time.

You see, back when Trump was running for his first Presidency, I was running The Kennedys at Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai.

Because the election was a hot topic, I set them the challenge of creating a campaign to tell voters Trump was a monster.

For a few days The Kennedys went about researching more about who Trump was until one day they asked if they could have a chat to me.

“We don’t get the assignment” they said with genuinely confused and harassed looks on their faces.

I must admit, my first impression to this was consternation, until they added:

“Maybe Trump is a bad person but America gets to vote who they want to run their country and that seems amazing”

Basically, they couldn’t understand the task because as bad as Trump may be, the brief was still about democracy and democracy is good. Especially when you don’t have it.

[As an aside, a young, brilliant Chinese planner once described the Government as ‘Rock n’ Roll’ and when I asked why, they replied, “you told me Rock n’ Roll is doing what you like and not caring what others think and there’s no better description of the Chinese Governments attitude and behaviour”]

Anyway, when they said that to me, I realized just how badly I had fucked up – not them.

That I’d made the cardinal sin of taking my context for granted. That I’d assumed everyone understood and appreciated the context and situation I was asking them to embrace and communicate.

And I was obviously wrong.

I’d made the most basic of fucking mistakes – albeit one practiced by most companies and marketing departments around the World.

And I hated myself for it ….

But as they say, it’s only a mistake if you don’t learn from it and I learned from it. Big time.

A lesson that I remind myself – or remind my colleagues/clients/researchers – literally everytime we talk about people, situations and contexts.

And while Zoe wasn’t as naïve as I was – because for her, it was more about how she phrased her point rather than being ignorant to the wider issue – she has also likely learned from it. A lesson that will make her even better than she already is – which is more than can be said about the people who voted for Trump again, even though I have far more understanding and even respect for why they did it rather than just assuming ignorance and racism.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I recently saw a tweet that reflected how young Chinese people see Americans – in relation to the most recent election – and I found it fascinating. Because rather than viewing ‘democracy’ as freedom of choice, they now see it as something else … something that not only may be the best take on what modern democracy is, but also explains why all the social media companies have been so desperate to bend to the will of the new administration and why Trump [as much as I hate to admit this] probably understands how modern communication works more than most media and ad agencies.

Have a look at this and remember, what’s normal for you may be abnormal for everyone else.