Archive for March, 2014
March 16, 2014 1 Comment

Smug

When I first saw this I was with my wife and our friend Denise was over at our house.  When the commercial ended, Denise said bluntly “What was that?!?”

When I saw it again I had the same reaction.  And I guess a lot of others have as well.  GM executives have had to go to great lengths to defend it.  GM’s advertising director Craig Bierley says that the piece has been “misperceived.”  I don’t think so.

Why the uproar?

Well let me tell what does not upset me.

I’m not upset about the ad’s American exceptionalism and the dig on the “other countries” that take long vacations or enjoy cafes.  That’s been around for a long time.  My wife was European (now American).  We’re used to the jabs back and forth.

I’m not upset about the ad’s continued promotion of the American “myth” that if you work hard, play by the rules and gut it out everything will be ok … that you’ll end up with a beautiful spouse, adoring children and a house with a pool in Malibu.  The actor even says definitively “it’s that simple.”  Of course it isn’t simple.  More importantly it isn’t true.  For every Horatio Alger success story that you give me I can personally introduce you to one or two people who have done all of what they have (and more!) and are poor, struggling, and need help.  But again, I’m used to that.

And I’m not upset about the ad’s blatant consumerism.  In her searing piece in the Huffington Post, Carolyn Gregoire writes:

The opening shot shows a middle-aged man, played by the actor Neal McDonough, looking out over his backyard pool, asking the question: “Why do we work so hard? For this? For stuff?”  As the ad continues, it becomes clear that the answer to this rhetorical question is actually a big fat YES.

But consumerism and advertising have long been married.  So nothing new there.

No, what upsets me about the ad is the attitude it embraces and, indeed, celebrates which can best be summed up by one word:  Smug.

Smug.  According to one definition, excessive pride in oneself or one’s achievements.

More than capitalism, consumerism, and exceptionalism, this is what this ad celebrates.

A celebration of being “smug.”

My good friend Bob Deutsch, a well-known thought leader in human behavior and advertising – once told me once that good advertising has three qualities.  People see themselves in it; people are affirmed by it; and people are empowered by it.  If that is what is happening with the Cadillac ad, then I agree with Ms. Gregoire that in describing the American dream this ad portrays the American nightmare.

Even the great industrialists – the Rockefellers, the Fords, the Carnegies – had a sense of charity.  And one of the icons mentioned in the ad – Bill Gates – has now turned his attention exclusively to matters of philanthropy.  Charity and capitalism used to go hand in glove.

But this ad from the nation’s largest auto maker and one of America’s most icon brands, ignores that to celebrate the opinionated, the abrasive, the dismissive, the derisive.  You almost are waiting for the guy to say “And if others don’t like it … f— ‘em!”

That’s not the America I know nor the America I want.

The urban dictionary describes smug as being “happy with ones self when others are not”.  It is no coincidence that pride was labeled by Dante’s as the most damning of sins.  “Smug” is not only absent humility, it is disdainful of others.  It goes beyond a lacking of compassion and empathy.  It borders on the sociopathic.

That’s not something I’d want my brand to be about.
March 6, 2014 2 Comments

Apologies

 

proper apologies

Something is happening to apologies.  I don’t find them as much as I used to.

A report will be late.  Something won’t get done.  Or it will get done incorrectly.  Someone says something harmful.  Or takes an inappropriate action.  And more often than not when I raise this with a person what I’ll get is a blank stare and an “OK.”  Maybe a question to the effect of “So what do you want me to do?”

Nothing wrong with a blank stare.  Nothing wrong with asking what I’d like them to do about it.

But no apology.

Am I asking too much?  I’m not asking anyone to grovel.  No need to tear your clothing and douse yourself in ashes.  Just makes me feel a bit better and give me a sense that you understand that you messed up.  Just so I know that you know.

So why are apologies disappearing?  I’ve got some theories.

First, they increasingly aren’t received well.  Apologies used to be viewed as the path toward forgiveness.  And forgiveness was the path back to wholeness and community.  Today, apologies are viewed less as the first step toward reconciliation and more as weakness.  That is, nowadays people often use someone’s genuine confession as a club to whack them upside the head.

All quite sad, really. I remember a rather infamous event at a business meeting when I apologized to a client for running late on a small and somewhat inconsequential element of a project, promising that we’d do double duty to catch up.  What I saw as a small acknowledgement sparked a client explosion.  He harangued me with a series of screams along the lines of “how can you …?” “how could you …?” “explain to me why …?”  “I demand an answer …!”  If that client was the only measure, I’d likely never apologize again.  The broader point is this: if apologies are disappearing perhaps it is because society isn’t embracing the apology as it ought.

Second, the apologies we do see are pathetic.  What apologies am I talking about?  Lance Armstrong.  Tiger Woods.  Paula Dean.  Anthony Wiener.  Need I say more?  Not exactly role models, eh?  If those were the only examples I had of a person apologizing, then I would never apologize either!

Finally, there may be a link between the decline in apologies and that of religion.  Let me explain.  A generation ago in the United States, religion was mainstream.  And as most of that was Judeo-Christian religion, there was a very common practice that most people learned through their weekly trip to the synagogue or church:  asking for forgiveness.  It was an apology of sorts.  It was a weekly recognition that you messed up.  In the Anglican tradition it was framed as messing up in “thought, word, and deed.”  And you asked God for forgiveness.  Then things are better.  You do that throughout your growing up and it becomes a habit.  A lot of young people today don’t benefit from that practice.

Whatever the reason, I’d ask that we bring back authentic apologies.  Let’s celebrate them, embrace them, reward them.

And if you think I’m way off.  If I have offended you, your faith, or your generation in any way.

I apologize.