Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Why Obama must win

Regardless what you might think of the man and how objective we're trying to be, let's not ignore the obvious. If Barack Obama loses his bid for re-election today, no matter what the reasons may be, he screws up posterity for the Black Man. And there a lot of people who can not wait for this to happen. A lot of things go unsaid in this world, but you know we'd have just given these guys an excuse to scoff at affirmative action. And they'd have a painful reference point. The beauty of democracy, some would argue. Is it though? The first votes have already been cast. Whatever happens, we're about to take a new turn in history. Hopefully we take the one that allows us to still proudly tell our kids they too can be president, without cringing. I'm just saying.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Flee from Marketing BS.

Jargons. I blame them for the decline in innovation. One person tried something new. it worked. People copied. it got inducted into the "best-practice" hall of fame. And then everybody jumps onto the bandwagon, even those who have no idea why the bandwagon exists and what it actually used to stand for.

I hate jargons. And the more i work in advertsing the more i detest them. I feel infected when people use them near me. It always makes me question their motives.

Sometimes you catch yourself asking whether all people have done is find ways to fit a marketing brief into their favourite jargon set and build statements and campaigns around them. I want to bang my head against a (soft, cushioned) wall whenever one slips from my mouth. And i admit they do.

But they only do because for a moment there's a gap in my thought process and a big fat jargon makes me sound nice and impressive again. But in the back of my head, a little voice is saying "you uneducated wanker, you couldn't say that in plain english?" And i speak about advertising but it's not just in advertising. Bankers use them. But Politicians are going for the title.

It's a shroud. When someone can't say what he's going to do in simple English, he either hasn't thought it through properly, or he has no idea what he's talking about in practical terms. And that's because without a big fat jargon to fill up a gap, we actually have to explain the WHATs and the WHYs. And those require thought.

I wish they would make these helmets for real.