Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Corona Virus, Culture, Differentiation, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relevance, Resonance
So Corona is still going strong.
And I suspect it will be for some time to come.
As much as it has shown who are societies assholes – and, as usual, a lot are the usual suspects – it has also shown the humanity of business. Or at least some business.
Doing rather than saying.
Acting rather than claiming.
With the beautiful benefit being that these actions will speak for your organisation in ways your media budget could only dream of pulling achieving.
I’ve got to be honest, this has been a revelation to me.
Yes I know it’s exceptional times, but here we are … with company after company stepping up to the plate, doing what’s best for society while doing what’s best for their people.
Whether that’s giving health workers free food and drink and times where they get priority to shop in supermarkets through to paying the salaries of workers who have been told not to come to work until the worst is past or, as is the case with Fuller’s brewery [pic above], paying their landlords rents.
Hell, even the British government have made positive moves with protecting income for the employed/self employed as well as tenants rights.
It’s – to coin a phrase used 10 billion times already – unprecedented.
Of course that doesn’t mean companies who have not been able to do this are bad.
Some just don’t have the resources to do it.
But the key is how they handle the situation.
Companies who think “it’s just business” is a ‘get out of jail card’ to do whatever the hell they want, need to understand it’s always personal to the affected.
Everyone knows we face tough times … hard decisions will likely have to be made … so being considerate and generous to those who have to pay the price is absolute essential.
But there’s something else.
Something that became apparent as I watched Netflix’s Dirty money documentary series, Dirty Money, on loan shark Scott Tucker when he gave this remarkable answer to the question “are you moral a person”?
While we all hope CEO’s show compassion to their staff and customers, the reality is we know many don’t.
But this situation with corona has altered attitudes and states … shown the masses what companies can do and how they can do it … and so to those bad leaders who see corona as a chance to hide previous bad decisions and let go of people to ensure their bonuses remain unaffected, I say this.
You are being watched.
You will be judged.
And unlike the situations we’ve seen with the financial crisis, people won’t be so forgiving or feel they have no power to act.
The rule is painfully simple …
Respect the people and the people will respect you – even if you have to make tough decisions.
But if you treat people badly, this time you won’t be able to get away with it so easily.
The power dynamic will always be in favour of companies, but at a time where unions are slowly being pushed out – society finding its collective power to keep everyone a bit more honest … a bit more compassionate … can only be a good thing during such bad times.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Brand Suicide, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Content, Context, Corona Virus, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Culture, Cunning, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Marketing Fail, Media, Prejudice
Tomorrow I’ve written a positive post about some of the stuff Corona virus has revealed we are capable of being.
Today I’m writing about the worst of it.
Specifically The Daily Mail.
As we all know, they have become one of the most successful newspapers and internet destinations in the World thanks to their fear-mongering, shock-creating, prejudice-encouraging bullshit, all wrapped up in the illusion of being a family newspaper caring about family values.
If Donald Trump was a newspaper, he’d be The Daily Mail.
They have absolutely revelled in the corona virus.
Equally challenging the scientists viewpoints and then the people who don’t follow it.
They play both sides with such obviousness [see photo above] and yet they – like Fox TV – claim to be consistent, fair and balanced.
The fact they get away with it means either no one believes them or – as I fear – their readers don’t question a word they say.
While they like to focus their hate on minority groups, no one is immune from their hate.
Even the middle-England elderly readers – their core audience in the UK – cop it with headlines that suggest ‘they will all be left to die’ or ‘isolation till 2021’.
They are the embodiment of ‘take no prisoners’ …
For me, they are basically a far right political party.
However, unlike the far right, they have found a much more powerful way to operate.
They don’t openly show their hatred … oh no, they slowly and quietly infiltrate mainstream society so they can undermine the minorities, the unemployed and the poor by making prejudice, illness and poverty seem the words and beliefs of the irrational.
To be fair to them, they may not even realise it.
They are so myopic that they fail to appreciate other people have different circumstances.
Which is why they – like that other prick, Piers Morgan – don’t realise their commentary is so harmful because they’ve never experienced any of the issues they are so quick to either claim don’t exist or they would never advocate … like prejudice, racism and poverty.
As you’ll read in tomorrow’s post, corona has revealed the best of many companies and news organisations.
It has changed the dynamic between corporation and society.
It’s why I hope after this, the Daily Mail is seen for what it is, a social manipulator – a company who only acts in the interests of its owner and no one else.
A great villain for a Bond movie, but not a great company for society.
It’s been a short week.
And I’m glad about that, because it’s been a tough one.
Sometimes you feel you have this life thing under control and then it just pulls the rug from underneath you.
This COVID-19 thing is a perfect example of this.
Everyone seemed to be excited about 2020.
For whatever reason, people were happy to wave goodbye to 2019 and welcome a new year of possibilities and opportunities.
Well 2020 has been utterly crap so far, hasn’t it?
That said, it has ignited some wonderful acts of humanity and compassion – of which the incredible walk by 99 year old Captain Tom Moore is a perfect example of one of them – but we can’t forget the reason for this is because there are people who are beings severely impacted by all this.
Not just all the amazing essential workers out there, but others around us.
Neighbours. Friends. Colleagues. Peers.
People who are being impacted financially, professionally, emotionally or mentally.
One of the worst feelings in the World is when you think you are on your own.
The pressure that puts you under – and that you place on yourself – is suffocating.
Add to that quarantine, and these feelings can be amplified enormously.
While I know we are all being impacted in some way, checking in on those who are having the hardest time is important.
Because while we will come out of this – as we always do – it’s situations like this that remind us the only thing we really have is each other.
Take care of yourselves.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Corona Virus, Family, Jill
After a week of listening to me in ‘work mode’, Jill said my job consists of me having lots of conversations where I ask one of 4 questions …
“What’s the creative opportunity?”
“Are you excited by this?”
“Where’s your energy at?”
“Why are we being so nice?”
So as much as I thought there were certain enjoyable byproducts of working from home’ due to corona … mainly that I get more sleep, I travel far less and spend much more time with the family … now I’m not so sure.
Suppose it’s revenge for the Jillysim blog I set up years ago.
God knows how she’ll review me by the end of this week.
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Update:
So last night Otis got a fever.
He has been quarantined for the last 2 weeks with a nasty cough so this fever – which falls within the 2 week incubation period of corona virus – has caused us some concern.
While kids are thankfully, much better placed for recovery, we will be keeping a close eye on him – and ourselves – so this is the last post for a few days.
See, corona virus isn’t all bad after all.