Hoi Polloi

Damn buzzwords

My colleague  and fellow IABC member, Wilma Mathews gave me a calendar published by a research and creative services outfit, The Rogers Group, that deals with buzzwords. It was in response to a post had written about Death By Techspeak on a PR blog.

The calendar is full of them, with the intro how it was once possible to attend a business meeting and comprehend what people were saying, until "everyone started thinking outside the box and taking critical path to seamless world-class value propositions."

It features words such as 'symbiotic realignment,' 'scalable exit strategy,' and something called 'robustivity.' The funny (and scary) thing is, I actually know people who don't think these words are funny.

On a related note, there's a paragraph in the intro to a book Why businesspeople speak like idiots, that goes:

"we have robust networks of strategic assets that we own or have contractual access to which give us greater flexibility and speed to reliably deliver widespread logistical solutions."

It was from the 2000 annual report of Enron. Enough said.

Big Brother --much ado over a reality show

I can't see why this has to be tagged as an 'international' event or a diplomatic fallout. Celebrity Big Brother, is after all a manufactured 'reality' and contestants know in advance the rules of engagement.
Shilpa Shetty was a victim, and is indeed the victim --of her own celebrity need to be on camera. But not of racism. She should have known going in, that bullying was to be expected, if she had done her homework on Germaine Greer's experience.
 

I am more interested in how Channel Four is handling this. As of today, the public is banned from attending the 'eviction' of a participant in the house. The crowd, scene, that is.

And how's this for damage control? A charity stunt!

As well as removing the risk of nasty, televised scenes this evening, the broadcaster announced that all the profits from its telephone vote — a direct contest between Shetty and Goody, which the latter is expected to lose — would be donated to charities chosen by contestants at the end of the show.

Advertisers and politicians have chimed in. One politician has suggested revoking the license of Channel Four. Oh, my. If TV licenses were to be revoked on the basis of how insulting the content is, then we may end up with a handful of stations everywhere. Which may be a good side effect to a ridiculous media non-issue.

Art Buchwald, what a man!

Art Buchwald was one of my heroes. Not only because he made us laugh, but because of his ability to turn adversity on its head and take him where he wanted to go.

In the obit at NPR, there is a line that captures this.

"He forced his way onto the Herald-Tribune"

"We" get it. Again?

The second coronation, this time by Ad Age.

Ok, we got it. The consumer is king, queen, king-pin. Agencies, aren't oblivious to this. Can we move on?

The iPhone is here. Yawn!

I suppose this is news, that Apple launched its iPhone, yesterday. For months, or maybe years, this had been predicted. The patent was filed last year. As expected (since the Rokr) it's the iTunes delivery/storage system. About the price of two smart phones, it has low battery life, but oozes with the cool factor.

These days, anything held up by Mr. black turtleneck, against the slightly out-of-focus logo, has instant coolness bestowed upon it by the media.   

Facing a Wi-fi reality

Amazing, how when they've painted themselves into a corner, some companies try to sound profound. Verizon's comment in TIME magazine, that "Wi-fi as a public service has serious issues like network congestion and security" is ludicrous. Of course some would defend their ability to charge for something that could be subsidised, or free, just like AOL did until it recently became free.

Here in Tempe, Arizona, municipal wi-fi is a reality. Around the world, cell phone companies are teaming up with wi-fi operators, as well. This picture shows how it's taking shape in other cities.

Dell's response to Robert Scoble'e response to Apple

On its blog, Direct to Dell, Dell came back fast on the post by Robert Scoble who posed the question as to why Apple gets better treatment, and Dell gets all the bad media karma.

The language (and hopefully the attitude) is largely influenced by the early Scoble

"We entered the blogosphere in part to take on negative issues. Will we make more mistakes along the way? Sure, but we are listening and learning as we go. In fact, the blog is all about those conversations, and it's why I'm recognizing this debate that goes on about and around us."

Scoble's comments are interesting, because Apple does get a pass, and great reviews. In a previous comment about the bad customer service his son got over a Macbook, he called on the heavywright media tech writers such as WSJ's Walt Mossberg to show off Apple for what it really is. (Note: Mossberg, who has been featured in an Apple ad, always acknowledges his Mac preference):

Hey, Walt Mossberg or Steven Levy, why don’t you call up my 12-year-old son and write a column about Apple’s customer service failures instead of giving them tons of praise about the new iPod cell phone that’s gonna come out at MacWorld in a week?

So Dell would have relished this, and reader comments to their post. Speaking of which Scoble was accused of drumming this up for turning his son's experience into a company face off, and doing it for the kind of traffic that Jeff Jarvis got for his Dell hell post. People see conspiracies in what they want to. If I write passionately about a great experience, or a bad one, does that mean I am going off at the deep end? This might turn out to be less of an Apple vs Dell debate and more about the reviewers and bloggers. Interesting.

Prescribing to doctors - scary marketing

Ever wondered why your doctor freely hands out 'samples' that sometimes run into boxes of product, saving you lots? I always suspected it was marketing, but not for these reasons.

Pharma Babes, the story about the well-heeled reps who are the new persuaders of pharma products (alongside the 'ask your doctor about...' ads) gives us a peek into this side of medical marketing. Scott Haig's 3rd reason this is even scary. he suggests that reps could be helping out the OR staff in tasks such as "keeping the trays and trays of little parts organized and ready for action." In any other industry, this would be unheard of, but it seems all Ok here.

I know many docs who probably wouldn't allow such marketing intrusions, but even if it does happen in some community hospitals (and Hoag's other 2 reasons this practice persists is true) it is going to have push back.

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Len is a fellow IABC member, author and journalist.