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You Say Patriotism, I Say Jingoism, Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain.”
Goerge Orwell — 1984
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”
Matthew 7:3
This could be your daughter.

When I was 12 years old I visited Russia during the summer of 1992. I arrived in Moscow about six months after the collapse of the Soviet Union and spent time with families, at youth hostels and visiting other parts of the country. I was old enough to understand the nature of the Soviet political and legal system, but I was also young enough to lack the common sense that would prevent many older and more educated travelers from asking the questions that they really wanted to ask. One such question that I asked a 35 year old engineer and father of 2 was, “Are you happy that the Soviet government is gone? Do you feel free?”. After a few moments of silence, the engineer answered, “What do I have to compare my country to? Are you free in America?”. I quickly answered with the naivety and the cockiness of a suburban raised know-it-all, “We are free in America. We have elections, and we have rights guaranteed by our constitution.” The engineer responded, “We also had elections, and we also have a constitution which gives us rights. But I do hear that your government pays people not to work and pays farmers not to grow crops.”

Years later, I was watching the show C.O.P.S. and I recalled what the Russian engineer had said to me, and I asked myself if I thought I was free. In grade school social studies I was taught that the Soviet Union was a dictatorship that sought to take over the world and enslaved it’s people to do so. It was said that the USSR didn’t have free elections, a free press and it’s citizens didn’t posses civil rights. This was accepted as fact without debate. It was also accepted without debate that America was the polar opposite of everything that the USSR was supposed to be.

Below is only one example of the cruelty that is institutionalized in our system. This kind of behavior occurs every day in America.

The question that I have for all of those who have the piety to get up on a stage and support America’s war against the Middle East, and for those who argue that we are The Greatest Country on Earth™, what do you have to compare America to?

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What a Man Can Be, He Must Be

Monday, January 4, 2010

Exodus 20:13: Thou shalt not kill.

“It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another’s existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same—people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world.”

- George Orwell — 1984

An estimated 849,845 people have now been put to death by American tax dollars. Of these fatalities, 795,763 were innocent Iraqi civilians. To the rest of the world it must appear that the American John and Jane Q. Public have lost their sanity. I imagine that the rest of the world looks upon America as middle school children look upon a text book on World War II, and all the while asking themselves, “how could this have happened?”.

Perhaps we truly have lost our minds. We watch American Idol or the next episode of Heroes, and meanwhile, willingly buy the daisy cutter bombs, land mines, and humvees to pursue an American pogrom against the people of the middle east. Most of the American public is silent about the war, and many feel that it is an unpleasant reality of living in an industrialized creature comfort society, or they simply put it out of their mind altogether. Perhaps you are too busy. You have schooling that needs to be attended. Kids need to be raised. Careers need to be advanced. Businesses need to be grown. It seems there is no time, so you watch the news, vote and wash your hands of it.

Many people voted for Barack Obama in 2008 under the delusion that he would end the Straussian Imperialism that has dominated America’s foreign policy since LBJ, and the inevitable Bellum Americanum that has been the result. During his campaign for President Obama promised to bring the troops home from Iraq by 2009, but instead of ending the war and it’s violence, he has added troops and has expanded it to multiple fronts even though 85% of the US population says that they are, “against the war”. Does this not illustrate a systematic failure in our governing system?

If the government will not change United States policy towards the Middle East (and the world), then do WE not have a moral responsibility to DO something? If we continue to pay our taxes and yet do nothing to stop the deaths of almost a million innocent people, are we not morally responsible for the deaths? If we murder an innocent man are we not responsible for the blood of his unborn descendants? Is the weight of this responsibility not ours to carry to the end of time, if we do nothing?

There are those who cry, “If I don’t pay my taxes, I will go to prison” or “I’m not responsible, I didn’t vote and I am compelled to pay my taxes under the threat of the law”. Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man. Racism and Segregation are terrible sins, and yet they are not murder. If Women and minorities organized and took to the streets so that they might be seen as equals under the law and fought for the right to vote, is it not with a sick irony that in today’s America we are actually forced to pay for murder, while casting meaningless votes to end it?

While you think about that, here is a song to to take you out…

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Fight the Banksters! Move Your Money!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this blog. I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do with this site, and I’m ready to get back into the blogosphere. That said, a good friend of mine sent me a link to a volunteer project that is dedicated to promoting the idea of local banking. I’ve been a big proponent of living local by buying from local farmers and shopping at locally owned small businesses. It never crossed my mind to keep my hard earned federal reserve notes at a local bank.

Visit www.moveyourmoney.info and watch the video below.

One can feel helpless opposing the Leviathan of Big Business and Big Government. As long as we are disconnected, socially atomized and pursuing artificially created wants, we will never regain our independence. If we bind together in our communities and rebuild our neighborhoods and towns into functioning and thriving communities, we won’t need the Leviathan.

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Build Things That People Care About

Wednesday, September 2, 2009
This sign was found in Northeast Minneapolis

This sign was found in Northeast Minneapolis

While walking my dog through my Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood, I came across this excellent piece of artwork and had to take a picture. The jackalopes are especially striking and upon further inspection I found that their arms are driven by an electric motor and the edifice will wave to cars that pass by. This remarkable piece of work was found on 2nd Street NE and 3rd Avenue NE.

I’m writing about this art because it reminded me of what Author and Blogger James Howard Kunstler said during a Ted Talks presentation, “if we are to continue the process of civilization, then we have build places worth caring about”. While Kunstler was talking about building livable communities that people care about and want to visit and live in, as a prerequisite for civilization, the same applies to business. Businesses need to produce and sell products that people care about, AND Marketers and advertisers need to craft messages that people care about. When we create products that lack meaning we create a throw-away culture, and eventually create a culture where people are not valued, but seen as expendable.

When we create and sell products that have meaning and posses value to people, we create a culture based on values and mutual respect. When we market products that have meaning to people, brand managers and marketers become artists celebrating the goodness of humanity. Products that we authentically value will make our lives better and result in a small but important celebration of our shared humanity. The photo above reminds me of this, as it is clear that the artist spend a significant amount of time and put a considerable amount of thought into this piece. Where anyone can run to the local Walmart and buy a lawn ornament, this creator of this piece decided to invest human and emotional capital to improve the neighborhood. Just as innovation adds value to the community, innovative products that people care about add value to the marketplace and the communities that markets define. After all,  as Jane Jacobs might say, there would be not city without the market. This places a huge responsibility upon business and marketers. We have a responsibility to ourselves and our communities to build things that people care about. We must act passionately and strive to make a difference in even the simplest ventures. Prosperity has a cause, poverty does not.

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Never, Ever, Market to Demographics

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

There is no faster way to kill your product’s appeal than to market to demographics. Demographics are abstractions devised to help marketers target media and to give an estimation of the lay of the land. When Marketers begin believing that the demographics are real, they can make serious errors.

Consider the case of the Apple iPhone and the Zune Mp3 player. Watch Microsoft’s TV spot target a supposed demographic…

Did this ad effectively sell the product? Could you even tell what the product was? No. The ad tried to be cool, assuming that “cool” people by Mp3 players. Now watch Apple’s TV ads…

Apple’s spots do a great job of connecting with individuals. The way that Apple’s TV spots are designed, they allow the consumer to define themselves as they do in reality. Apple’s iphone then transcends demographics like age, income, race, etc. Build a great product, and sell the product. Consider demographics when you select your media channels, but never let demographics affect your creative.

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Thou Shalt Love Thy Customer

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Over the years I’ve dealt with many clients and stake holders who throw around the term “Brand”, and yet seem to think about it one dimensionally. Creative types and brand managers who understand the types of clients I’m writing about will hear the phrases, “Make the logo bigger” and “Make it pop” and immediately run for the nearest air sickness bag or 12 gauge shotgun. With the emergence of social media and the setting in of Mainstream Media rigor mortis, there is no longer an option of coasting along on “luck”, “slack” or a long term customer base. If your company is going to stay in business, let alone grow market share, your brand must be authentic, personable and must evoke positive emotional responses from current and future customers. People must fall in love with your brand.

Those of us who are personable enough to maintain and grow a significant relationship already intuitively know that if we want to be loved, then we must first love. If your brand is to be loved, then every aspect of your business must truly and authentically love each and every one of it’s customers. People do not fall in love with logos that pop, and they don’t fall in love with clever ad copy. People fall in love with superior product offerings that meet their needs and in stellar service. It is not enough to train your sales customer service staff to be polite or to be service orientated, this is the the equivalent of the con-artist slouch who maintains his manners on a first date, but ends up neglecting his wife and kids before the first wedding anniversary. Instead senior management must champion the idea of customer service, while orientating the organization to an employee centric organization. When the service vision is articulate and championed by the CEO, and senior management truly supports the service staff, the product and service offerings will become loved. When that happens you have a great platform upon which to build and promote your brand.

Once you truly love your customers, you can effectively reach out to them. Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter are especially helpful in this area, but only if the message is consistent with the overreaching “theme” of the customer experience. It is very important that the entire organization speaks in one consistent voice. Great care must be taken to ask for customer involvement and feedback and to actually do something with it. By strategically linking your direct response email programs, social media, surveying and web marketing you can create a marketing system that will facilitate a two way conversation with your customer. You will learn more about them, and your marketing campaigns will see greater results.

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