Pronounced (Ka-Bee-R)
Hears how i see it; I have maybe 60 good years in this place and then who knows where I go, so until we find other worlds to travel and explore, let me travel this world and learn the ways of these people,
hear their stories and dance their dances,
taste their nectars and sing their songs.
For a while now i have been observing how our attention span has diminished. People don’t want copy ads anymore instead they want picture centric ads. Everyone is eager to read the conclusion than the story that led to that conclusion. This is in my opinion a result of our instant gratification impulses. But how does it affect us in the long term. Does such snippet hunger make us less able to comprehend complex issues cause we crave a quick answer.
This article in the NYtimes gives a detailed account about how the information we are getting is influencing our decision making process.
It’s a good read for anyone who’s been feeling like there just isn’t enough due diligence done before making major decisions in todays world.
You’d think not at all, and you’d most likely be in the majority.
Both these professions have vastly different requirements/ambitions/practitioners as per common sense.
Politicians are supposed to be representatives of the people. They are mirrors that reflect the ideals and beliefs of their constituents in government. They are supposed to stand for all that is good or be voted out in the next polls.
Advertisers are marketers. Sellers of goods and services, at any cost. They are known to be hoodwink artists, small print practitioners and generally low moral individuals. Always ready to confuse and then place their brand as the solution.
Today, Age old Advertising tricks are being used in politics. Advertisers are considered the 2nd lowest profession for ethics (only used car salesmen beat them). So how can Politicians, who are answerable to the public, act like advertisers (false claims and the like) and get away with it?
By muddying the commonsense of an individual, by resorting to emotional tactics and ever more often to religion, creed, race and all that divides us as human.
When it comes to ads about a product we know to take it with a pinch of salt because the ad is made by and paid for by the company selling the product.Yet there seems to be no disconnect about trusting political ads paid for by the candidate they are endorsing.
Laws are now being passed that look like misleading ads, which say one thing then deliver another (tax breaks for the rich, laws that benefit companies not people etc). Almost as if advertising copy writers had written it themselves.
Advertisers are always trying to find a rtb (reason to believe) it could be a celebrity endorsement, or a testimonial (like dove ads where “regular” women vouch for the product and its claims). We are starting to see this same logic being used with the Joe the Plumber and Tea Partyers who claim to be “regular” people. They aren’t, they are paid for by the opposition. Just like the dove ladies are paid for by dove.
Another common advertising technique is the “Vs. The other leading brands”. These ads or dummy tests are always done under conditions favorable to benefit the brand paying for the advertising. Just like studies, statistics or research findings are exploited to further the political agendas of those paying for them.
When our purchasing decisions are made by advertising gimmicks why can’t our political decisions be influenced by the very same tactics.
Today advertising and politics are bedfellows. Consumers are voters and vice versa.
The recent Israeli attack on an aid flotilla to Gaza, has forced Israel into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. I concur with Mr. Amoz Oz (World Famous Israeli Novelist) who says “Israel is turning into South Africa in the Apartheid days … We will become a pariah state that nobody wants anything to do with.” If that’s what an Israeli has to say what will an Arab have to say?
Such irresponsible, hard-handed and anti-humanity actions by Israel will only bolster the claims of militant Islamic outfits that they are right in their violent ways. This will fill their ranks and make moderate Islamists seem out of touch with reality.
President Obama needs to distance himself from the new Israeli Government and strongly condemn Israel’s actions along with backing The United nations in it’s call for a full international inquiry into the raid.
On Thursday, Israeli officials rejected that demand in favor of a narrower, internal investigation, news reports said. It’s crucial that the US use it’s close relationship with Israel and make it accept an UN inquiry in order to curtail fundamentalist Islamists from making this incident a rallying cry.
This one man broke a colonial empire, now Obama has his own empire of the rich to topple.
Edison gave us the affordable lightbulb! He made the night a less dangerous place and a more productive one.
Gandhi showed that resilience and morals are stronger than violence and fear.
One man can change the world, but only if he is allowed to make that change.
The fact is a brilliant man is President of the World (for all means and purposes) and if we allow him to do his work he could bring us all out of the darkness.
But sadly Obama is answerable to Americans (who as my previous posts have stated.. have fallen greatly in the world’s eyes). This is why Europeans, Asians are vocal about their support for Obama and his policies.
Not because we want the US to mirror Europe or be answerable to Asia. We respect and enjoy diversity, what seems bizarre is that the opposition in american does not. A country founded on and built by immigrants and whose secret to success has been immigrants. An Immigrant Einstein helped the US win WWII.
The world is watching and waiting to see if the opposition will have its way and stop Obama from making changes or will sanity prevail (the teapartyers gave everyone a big scare) and Let the man do his job.
Everyone knows that the individuals at the health care town halls and at the teaparties are completely misinformed, easily mislead with rhetoric and sensationalized facts that are totally false. E.g “I don’t want the government messing with my medicare” or “Why does Obama have czars? he’s a socialist!”
But America’s place in the world is still held firm by a belief that they are in the minority. The arguments to prove this are that Obama (who is clearly a brilliant and Smart Individual) would not have been elected if they (idiots) were in the majority.
I ask would Obama have been president had the US been a multiple party system or even one with a strong 3rd party which would have put forward a mediocre white man. Would this mediocre white man have won over a brilliant black man?
The teapartyers , ppl who are easily swayed by rhetoric and moved to action with wrong facts and mis-information seem to be in the majority in America still. The Iraq war was fought on wrong information but no-one was educated enough or smart enough to understand the need for due diligance.
The recent financial crisis has benefitted a few and ruined many. Based on mis-information and sensational deals these ppl were duped. The numbers of those duped are far greater than those who gained in this exchange of wealth. So if a few smart ones gained and a lot of dumb ones lost. Who really is in the majority?
People who just act against their own self interest.
A few smart manipulative americans took advantage of a multitude of gullible ones.
It made them rich and made the poor ones feel rich for a bit and then the repo man came, but only to the poor ones homes.
Then the Bubble burst.
Obama came into office and was briefed..
We have a bunch of rich people with power and connections who don’t want the money they made in this past cycle to be taken away from them cause that would be socialist, and just to prove their power, they mobilized unemployed dumb voting americans to their cause –read teabaggers.
So now Mr. President do you want to side with the dumb asses? Maybe not.
But if u let things be.. corporations will fail and the US financial system will crumble and the one’s who were duped of all their money will lose everything, will be put on the streets and you will go down in history as the president who ruined the US.
So we need to prop up the companies and pay for them over the years (time heals all wounds) with the taxes of those same individuals who were duped over the years.
But don’t raise the taxes on the rich who gained from the bubble cause they can mobilize the unemployed “true blooded americans” to rally for their cause.
Remember they are smarter, Such is life Mr. President!!
You could argue about the chronology of the events, but that’s the beauty of keeping it under wraps till the new president came into office.
This begs the question who or what is the vehicle that forwards the agenda of these manipulative fatcats!
It’s Fox which is responsible for misinforming and mobilizing these gullible americans towards the cause of its owners and their friends (read billionaires)
Cause if it truly was a grass roots movement. Wouldn’t it have been NPR mobilizing the masses.
And since when did an australian owned company (FOX) gain more credibility in the heartland of America than perhaps CNN or MSNBC?
These people are really dumb and ignorance/stupidity has always been exploited by mankind.
But why won’t they support Obama? Support the president! The thought of not supporting the president was shouted as unpatriotic and outright un-american by the very same republicans while Bush was in office.
They know that Obama had tremendous following during the elections and afterwards, both in the US and worldwide. Secondly he’s not stupid to fall for their theatrics or to get embroiled in a shouting match by their “UnAmerican” this and that BS.
They won’t support him because that will make him achieve goals and achieving goals, leaving a legacy will make him a president who is worthy of that office. But they would rather have their sons and daughters in that office. They have no one of that caliber and will never attract anyone of brilliance, with their ideology.
Hence they need to make obama fail to survive. The republicans cannot and will not support Obama not because his plans are unamerican, but because the success of his plans are seen, by them, as their failures!
Instead of changing they would rather drag Obama and the country down so as to stay in power. History is littered with such people, only time will tell if they win or will change prevail.
The reasons behind the death of advertising is very similar to the story of the boy who cried wolf one to many times.
Over the years bogus claims and the ample use of the * has made consumers have no faith in the marketing communication of companies.
Why should they trust any claim made in an ad that is paid for, made by and distributed with the companies funds?
It’s about time ad agencies realized this and became moral custodians of the products and the communication they use to advertise them. It’s important to tell a client when their claims are only marginally true and often misleading. Cause this will hurt the brand the most in the long run.
But sadly today ad agencies are seen more as vendors and not as partners.
This leads to a “shut-up and do it our way” mentality on the clients end and a “Do it or else the client will go to some agency that does” on the agencies end.
In all honesty both parties are guilty of focusing on short term gains at the expense of long term success. It is important for the client to understand this and it is the ad agencies duty to make them understand.
A marketing manager wants to change his job every 3-5 years. A brand wants to stay in business for much longer. If an agency desires a long term relationship with the brand, it must understand and communicate this conflict of interest.
A brand might move to PR, seen as significantly more believable, but an ad agency will cease to be an ad agency.
