Who’s foolin’ who?
The New York Times ran an article yesterday entitled “Angry Ads Seek to Channel Consumer Outrage.” In this article, they offer insights from major advertising agency executives responsible for Harley’s screw it advertisement, Miller High-Life’s don’t cheat the regular guy advertisements, and Jet Blue’s CEO-taunting advertisements. The Madison Avenue crowd insists they are simply responding to a climate of fear and worry by channeling the angst felt by regular people over the “stink of greed . . . billion dollar bankruptcies . . . something needed to be said” experience of the past 24 months.
The agencies report that their angry advertising is working for them, that they have received thousands of consumer compliments, market share is up, and that they are striking an emotional chord. I find it interesting, however, that nearly all 52 comments posted online following the article reflect consumer cynicism that the advertising agencies are channeling anything other than the desperate desire to figure out how to sell things when consumers have finally learned that withdrawal from the national addiction to shopping is unbelievably painful.
Still, I’ve personally encountered folks who think the Harley ad is awesome (disclaimer – I do live in Wisconsin). Never mind that the ad was written as a sort of adolescent outburst to criticism of the company published in the New York Times, the ad turned consumer attention away from the aging demographics of Harley and other legitimate corporate concerns and focused that attention squarely on the economy.
What a glorious excuse for years of business ineptitude (American auto industry), waste (Joe Average cashing out his home equity to buy a vacation to Hawaii and two snow mobiles), and greed (all the above, plus the entire financial system) this recession has turned out to be. We are like the collective owner of the house that just burned down, freakishly pleased that the fire has wiped out all evidence of the murdered guy in the basement, and on the road to convincing ourselves that we didn’t off him in the first place. This recession is the financial equivalent of what every tax evader in the country was hoping for with the Millennium Bug, only it never happened for them.
Who, exactly, wasn’t to blame for the bubble that just burst? Yes, yes, I know, the vast majority of us did not and likely never will earn million dollar salaries with multi-million dollar bonuses. But are we conducting a trial-by-assets here? An economy is a collective entity, and we are the collective that created it. Running around blaming folks today is useless, petty, and one of the most cynical social activities I have ever witnessed.
So what does this have to do with personal development? Just this. If someone else is responsible for us – our pain, or our joy, doesn’t matter – that means we are not responsible for ourselves. And if we are not responsible for ourselves, then we have no control over our future. If we have no control over our future, the future is hopeless, because every adult human being ultimately craves the responsibility, the joy, and even the hardships of carving our own experience out of the stuff of life.
If you want to have a highly satisfying financial experience right now, you can. If you want to have a fun, recreational healthy summer with your family, you can. If you want to find the job of your dreams, you can. If you want to be a screaming business success, you can. Here’s how: Turn off the cynical advertisements that are catering to the woe-is-me-I-hate-rich-people proletariat, turn off the 24-hour-news cycle which has turned its attention back to the economy now that Swine Flu has proven to be far less deadly than desired, turn off your neighbor who is screaming about taxes and deficits, and turn your attention to what you do want. Run your business, create your art, design your designs, pay your bills, call your customers, make those sales, make that investment, and live your dream.
The doomsday reaction that has become our national background music is stultifying. The truth is, people are still selling houses, buying houses, finding jobs, taking vacations, making investments, buying products, and even getting raises. Perhaps they’re not making as much noise as the rest because they’re too busy. I am not denying that the economy has stumbled or that many people have lost their jobs and homes. True, roughly 13.7 million people do not have a job, which represents 8.9% of the working population. Even one family living out of the car or in a hotel is not something to be taken lightly. To compare, in May of 2006, seven million people were unemployed, which represented 4.6% of the population. Still sound like a lot? Consider this – anything under 5% could be considered to be virtual full-employment (depending on the economist). So we’ve not gone from zero to 13.7 million in the past year, we’ve gone from seven million to 13.7 million in three years. When we’re speaking of 13.7 million people not working (of which labor analysts estimate that as many as 4.5 to 6.5 million may not want to be working right now or are in previously scheduled career transitions), we are also saying that 140,233,000 people are gainfully employed. That’s the other 91.1%.
The best thing we could do for families suffering without income is to get busy so the economy can start growing again. Let’s get out of the national pout-mobile and back onto our uniquely American horse. Let’s choose to embrace life with a spirit of what’s possible, what’s positive, and what’s-available-right-now. Let’s reject cynicism, blamerism, victimism, and fearfulism, and replace them all with healthy, wealth-creating, life-affirming optimism and action. Let’s get on with it already. Wouldn’t you rather be having your independent fun, making your own assessments, determining your own value, and doing your thing? Are you really so unformed that you would allow someone else to tell you how you should feel? I didn’t think so.
Of course, that’s what Madison Avenue is ultimately afraid of. It is not in big advertising’s best interests to have a consumer economy that is comfortable with dancing to the beat of their own drummer. Better to stir up populist anger and rally us around irrational shouting points than to lose us to introspection about how things could go better during the next go-round. But my vote is with the individuals who can look at what has happened with a mixture of dispassion and humor. My vote is with the guy who has already turned his attention to the future and is energetically pursuing his next entrepreneurial success. My vote is for everyone who can use this as their rallying cry:
Yep, we did that! Funny. I wonder why it had to unwind in that way? Oh well, what do I want to do next? I think I’ll turn my attention to that now. No time for looking back . . .
© 2009. Andrea M. Hill
