Comments on: Advent of an era? Corporate America finally gets contemporary culture?

By: Candy Minx

Candy Minx — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:05:25 +0000

Okay, let me see if I can say this is a different way, maybe even feeble-ishly…clearer. I agree completely that “artists, intellectuals and avand garde” were displaced…and I blame them completely. They segregated themselves with their silly “oneliner art pieces” and hot air theories. They deserve their own tepid voices. The most out of touch people you can find are most of the well heeled art mafia crowd and intellectuals, especially academic intellectuals. But see, you and I differ…because I just don’t see a heck of a lot of wisdom around ANYWHERE in any so-called professions. And I don’t hold out a lot of trust in the idea that CEO’s or marketers are sitting on the pulse of the planet either. Culture competence? Well, see, I have a kind of sicko attitude towards management struggling to understand iPod generation(whatever that is supposed to mean, it’s that kind of association that makes me laugh as I add another song to my iPod.) I love it when corporations and marketers fumble around trying to understand peoples trends. It’s kind of like watching a bad psychic(I am open to the idea that maybe there is a good efficent accurate psychic out there…more than a corporate suit). I guess I would prefer to see this kind of desperate grappling at prediciting the future used for something more…well altruistic. I care as much about an artist who drops ping pong balls down a flight of stairs as some guy who forgot to buy mySpace. As far as I can see they are both as out of touch with the human condition as each other. They are the butt of jokes for us regular folks out here. Heh heh…I’ve seen Syrianna the few people who run the world don’t give a shit about mySpace or art. They have predicted the future because we let them own the
future. And they let us play with iPods and monitoring pathetic little CEOs…keeps us out of their hair.

By: Grant

Grant — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:40:20 +0000

Candy, funny I was just thinking about this topic last night while not sleeping in my Beijing hotel room. Artists, intellectuals, that avant garde suffered a displacement sometime in the last several decades. They are no longer the alternative to bourgeois fixity, cowardice, and convention. The bourgeois busted out, capitalism embraced certain of creativity and variation, and increasingly the arts carry on a self absorbed conversation that sustains itself with rank prejudice and a refusal actually to examine what is taking place in the mainstream. And, yes, there is an ethical issue? What does it mean to take make yourself the community of obfuscation, that continues to turn out arguments and mythologies that prevent the mainstream from a clearer more profound understanding of itself. But as you say this is a larger debate that we should probably not negotiate with mere comments on a blog. Thanks, Grant

By: Candy Minx

Candy Minx — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 11:31:09 +0000

Yeah, I know this is a few days old this topic…but I’ve been thinking about it, and a couple more points/ideas come to mind. Again, it is the difference I feel of confidence of marketers and CEOs being so trusted…and Grant you and I very much differ on this. In fact, I have serious doubts about the relationship of observing anthropology/economics and being a marketer. But that is another story and another set of ethics. I mean, I realize we all have to make money…so I understand, but it seems a little desperate…the association.

In the meantime I must reinforce my feelings with a little anecdotal evidence why I think CEO’s and marketers are out-of-it “predicitng and profiting wise” and best suited as secondary creatives for their clients-artists.

One is this quote…

“The artist is always engaged in writing a detailed history of the future because he is the only person aware of the nature of the present.” Marshall McLuhan (Understanding Media)

and two is the actions of Billy Bragg with myspace. My Space and it’s bosses are out of it here and there, it is the consummer and artist who always choose the way the current flows. Bragg has his stateemnt about pulling out of MySpace and then rejoining at his weblog below…you need to scroll down to find it though.

http://www.billybragg.com/news/archive.php?action=wholearchive_db

By: steve

steve — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 18:44:58 +0000

MTV really has been cutting-edge in televised entertainment. Running a video jukebox was a pretty clever idea when it was new. The Real World wos the first reality-drama and paved the way for all the rest. Now they’ve had some success with The Hills and The Real OC: Laguna Beach with a very weird scripted/verite approach. They’ve extended this to the world of high school football with Two-a-Days; it will be interesting if the soap-opera reality format works in that environment. So I wouldn’t say that the network is purely a trend follower.

That said, I sense they’re running into problems when they have to fill up their schedule with lame game and dating shows and derivative makeover shows. It’s a content company, and if they can’t come up with compelling content, they’re toast.

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 11:24:16 +0000

Graham, to accuse those with cultural literacy of being slaves is really to accept the only terms of the debate, that fashion is so much froth, that to follow trend is to be mesmerized by them and finally taken captive. I sometimes think that a CEO who doesn’t have a nodding acquaintance with contemporary culture is like a CEO is just isn’t keeping up with the major business trends. At some point, I think we are entitled to say, that’s what we pay you for. Thanks, Grant

Kevin, I couldn’t agree more. MTV enjoyed a monopoly position and was only sometimes a conduit for things that were genuinely innovative. But still as you say, compared to Wall Street and most CEOS, it was well informed, and I think that must have helped prepare Frston for the Viacom assignment. Thanks, Grant

By: kevin r.

kevin r. — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 10:00:30 +0000

I kind of get the feeling that hiring someone from MTV was the first problem. To older people, MTV = up to date and hip, but to younger hipper people, MTV = a badly done caricature of what is cool. MTV is a step behind what is actually cool and when it catches onto cool it kills it dead.

…but maybe i’m just a cynic.

By: Graham Hill

Graham Hill — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 03:12:44 +0000

Grant

As Steve quite rightly points out, it would be highling troubling if the heads of companies more concerned with the nuts & bolts of contemporary business than with the bits & bytes of contemporary culture, suddenly started to follow every fad & fashion.

Ditto for the b-school graduates who will likely go on to become the heads of those contemporary businesses.

I think it prudent to largely leave contemporary culture to those whose business it is to slavishly follow fashion.

Graham Hill

By: Marketing Pop Culture

Marketing Pop Culture — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 00:25:08 +0000

Can Not Knowing About Contemporary Culture Be A Career Liability?

Grant McCracken presents a provocative take on the Sumner Redstone’s (right) firing of Tom Freston (left), which kicked off an intense discussion. He read the situation like this:Freston got his job as a CEO of Viacom because he was deeply

By: Christopher Hastings

Christopher Hastings — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 21:44:48 +0000

I hate to be too optimistic – but what if the executives hang out with their kids and grandkids more? What if they were focused on the moment their grandkids were in and actually lived there with them – great role models and understanding the customer. How many executives kids could have seen MySpace coming?

By: Candy Minx

Candy Minx — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 20:35:27 +0000

As usual I am not as eloquent as other comentators here. Always inspired by Grants visitors! Thanks guys. Um, I took a chance using the word cool-regret that decision now, but no matter seems we have sorted out a couple things…but my aim was to approach the issues that Rob Walker makes, quoted by Irene, and Steve I am with you “BTW, Freston was not previously successful because he knew what was cool; by all accounts, he was successful because he was good with the artistic talent that constitutes the raw material of MTV, and who themselves have to figure out what is cool. ” This was what I was attempting to express.was that executives and producers in entertainment feilds need to harbour and allow artists to express their visions. It is not the job of anthropologists or executives to create or monitor art…but to observe it and support it so it may continue to grow, transform and express itself.

Any self respecting scientist may dedicate themselves to the discovery and articulations of intangibles……but a smart scientist knows no matter how hard they try, poets have so far been the professionals who have nailed the intangible.