by Hans Ebert
To try and understand marketing and who and what works and why, one might as well store everything that’s come before in the memory bank, get out a blank sheet of paper, draw up a mind map and see where it leads.
Of course, being creative and mentally agile works and these are things that cannot be taught or learned.
Copycat “creative” is exactly that: copying. What copying does is ignite a chain reaction of more sameness and fakery that leads nowhere.
One might think that all the buying of Instafame is leading somewhere, but as Jerry Maguire screamed all those years ago, SHOW ME THE MONEY. How many can? And if money doesn’t come into play, what does? Keeping busy doing? Keeping busy posting? Keeping busy being?
Not to sound facetious, but what’s really the end game in the here and now? There’s no point writing about the new abnormal or the new normal as those have times have already come and gone.
Most of us have our phones for company and are happy to live in appland. We’re constantly scaling new apps. There’s an app for everything. And because many of us are hoarders and boarders, we keep collecting what becomes a life plan that lives and controls us on our phones.
When the phone is on overload and falls apart, and it’s time to visit the Apple store, there’s cause for something approaching a major breakdown.
Crikey Bukowski, it might actually mean having to get out there naked without your iPhone or iPad and actually be productive and communicative and shift that tedious conversation about vaccinations and side effects to something else.
How many can?
It’s why being around people is becoming more and more difficult- you know, those people who can motivate you and understand what you’re saying and what you’re doing to get away from small talk that lead down the pipeline of vapidity.
And so you pop a pill and hope this might offer up some answers. It seldom does except for another Big Day Out in the long forgotten past with most of it belonging there or with everything coming out in a lesson in self help therapy called an autobiography.
Who’d wanna read your autobiography? Depends how interesting you’ve made your life. If not, you’re someone no one knows living on Facebook and not understanding The Far Side.
Meanwhile, in the business world, companies and monolithic organisations are trying to teach their people about social media.
Bitches Brew, please.
Social media is not only unsociable and has pretty much stopped one-on-one conversations and the give and take of genuine teamwork, it’s no damn different to traditional marketing. It’s just been packaged better.
This time around, many have allowed themselves to become slaves to the algorithm speak of technology.
It’s become all about being “liked” by a button.
Bet Don Draper and all the other Mad Men saw this coming decades ago.
This was when the best advertising and marketing came from personal feelings and with nothing to fear from facing honesty and using this as a tool to write, to strategise to present in 25 words or less and think on one’s feet.
The tail is wagging the dog right now and the dog is happy to be on a leash and be taught new tricks on how to be obedient and behave.
The Peter Principle now includes a new chapter about walking on eggshells and falling into line. But what line when these are so blurred that they don’t exist. Duh.
Before one can say, Generation Z and zoomers, it’s Tik Tokkers and randomness. It’s everything that defies definition.
Father Time has overtaken the world and many don’t seem to care.
There’s another new genie out there changing the social eco system.
It’s not about more Clubhouses, man. It’s about cancelling the membership and being exclusive.
It’s not about inviting everyone in to the party. It’s about finding that right team- they’re out there somewhere-without having to lower standards and follow herd instincts.
Herd instincts only lead to stepping on more and more cattle cakes.
