Portlandia (Fridays, 10:00, IFC) has started its third season. Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) and Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney) continue to search the city for satiric targets. And because satiric targets are one of Portland’s chief exports, the comedic opportunities are many: Bed and Breakfasts, knitting, pickling — and organic deodorant:
Tag Archives: HBR
Method out of madness
In any square mile of ocean, there are some 46,000 pieces of plastic, a great and growing testament to people on ship and shore so spectacularly stupid or irresponsible that they would rather just chuck something into the ocean than make the small effort the recycling now takes. Every year, this “ocean plastic” kills one million sea birds and 100,000 sharks, turtles, dolphins, and whales. Every year, ocean plastic rises a little higher in the food chain. It’s destination: our dinner plates.
Finally, the planet decided to do something about it, patiently sweeping garbage together into the creation of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), an accumulation of crap rotating endlessly out there in the North Pacific.
And there it sits, a floating garbage dump visible even from outer space. Maybe this is an ocean’s idea of accusation. One piece of litter on the high seas doesn’t amount to much, but put it all together and you’ve got one really big ecological “j’accuse.”
For the rest of this post, please visit the Harvard Business Review Blog by clicking here.
Can Social Media Create Social Kindness
Please see my recent and wildly implausible Harvard Business Review post.
It’s about how the City of Boston could use a service called Thank Bank to create a more humane city.
Culturematics come to tourism
Please come have a look at my latest post at the Harvard Business Review “Conversation.”
With the Nextpedition, AmEx appears to be taking a Culturematic approach, taking out the predictable and adding in surprise.
See the post by CLICKING HERE.
Cool and the corporation
Please come have a look at my new post at the Harvard Business Review Blog.
It looks at the new VW ad, the one that shows a guy slapping hands with everyone he passes.
Look for a cameo appearance (in the post and the ad) from Shirley Ellis.
The post asks whether this ad defines a new approach to cool hunting for the corporation.
Who and what is an entrepreneur?
In this post, I offer an anthropological account of the entrepreneur, challenging the model proposed at TEDxOxford by Marc Ventresca of the Said business school. Please come have a look.
wars of a different kind
Someone called Veronica commented on the HBS Blog post “The War for the Soul of Advertising.” She suggested that my interpretation of the ads in question is sexist. (I don’t think I have the right to reproduce Veronica’s comment here. I will have to ask you to go here to see it.
My first reply, written last night around 11:00, was a little intemperate.
Veronica, I can’t help feeling this is a drive-by accusation. The use of this language judged by context and not by the instincts of an inquisitor is appropriate. I don’t object to showing someone as a “competent leader of outdoor expedition” but I wouldn’t have thought it wouldn’t take much interpretive skill to see that the ad in question makes the character in question look like a complete and utter idiot. (I mean, really, is the guy behind her actually made more secure by “watch your step.”) As to your difficulty figuring out “exactly” what my argument is, I would suggest reading it again. Thanks, Grant
My second reply, written this morning, was still more intemperate. So much for the clear light of day.
Veronica, I wanted to follow up on my original reply, my last night in haste about 11:00. As it turns out I am a fourth-generation feminist. My great-grandmother saw to that. I point this out not to argue that I am incapable of sexism. This is so deeply embedded in our culture and in our upbringings that I wouldn’t dare make this claim. I point it out to argue how seriously I take your accusation.
So let me give you a more detailed reply than the one I gave you last night. First, “brittle and shrill” is my reading of _a woman in an ad_. I am not imputing this to a real person! Second, it is the guy _in the ad_ who is “suffering” a call from his wife. Go back to the ad and you will see that _it is the ad_ that makes this guy nonchalant. And now to defend the creatives at BBDO. I believe they have made him so in order to set up the embarrassment that is to follow. I am not imputing his indifference, the ad is. And the ad is not doing it out of sexism, it is setting up the story to follow.
Having accused me of sexism, you carry on to diminish the men in the ads…as middle school boys and people with the memory of a goldfish. This is so shockingly hypocritical as to test belief. You can’t accuse me of sexism and then engage in it.
Then to leap to the conclusion that I “don’t relate to ads with strong women in them” This is, well, a leap, isn’t it? Pray have a look at my blog, specifically a post called Lighting It Up at the Coca-Cola Company, February 17, 2006. This post lauds Mary Minnick then the CMO of the Coca-Cola Company.
[I begin with this quote from Hein and Sampey] “The strategy for the global Coke campaign is to make choosing Coke a purposeful act,” said Mary Minnick, the head of marketing strategy and innovation. “We don’t just want to be entertaining or be different, we want to be more relevant. We want to build a relationship with consumers, not hold a mirror up to them.” (from Hein, Kenneth, with Kathy Sampey. 2006. Pouring It On: Coke Unveils New Tagline, Products, Philosophy. Brandweek. December 08, 2005
[the post continues] This is an interesting model that marketers may with to conjure with. In the meantime, we may admire the recent Diet Coke ad (“Haircut”) that seems to me to capture and perhaps illuminate Minnick’s philosophy.
A young woman enters a very old fashioned barbershop. She emerges triumphant. The risk has paid off. She went into the shop a great beauty. She emerges a great beauty who has claimed her beauty with an act of daring and imagination. [end of post passage]
I believe this establishes that I admire strong women in ads, and as makers of ads.
Best, Grant
I pressed on to suggest that Veronica seemed to me to be practicing the blogging equivalent of “vexatious litigation” (as Wikipedia defines it: “legal action which is brought regardless of its merits, solely to harass…”) but by that time I was feeling a little less irritable.
Last note:
I’m not sure exactly why I sharing this with you, to be honest. Your comments, please.
Why can’t we just get along: engineers and anthropologists at it again!
My apologies for having been slow to post.
I am working on the new book and with a deadline looming, every word I can put to paper goes to that.
I did have a chance to bang off an essay for the Harvard Business Review blog.
It asks why engineers can’t take culture more seriously.
There’s a lively discussion there. I would be grateful if you would have a look at the post and offer a comment. (Because This Blog has the best commenters.)
The post went up yesterday, but I only found out today. My apologies for being slow to let you know. I just found out this morning.
You will find the post by clicking here.