{"id":1137,"date":"2014-03-16T08:49:17","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T13:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2014-03-29T21:29:05","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T02:29:05","slug":"smug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1137","title":{"rendered":"Smug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qGJSI48gkFc\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When I first saw this I was with my wife and our friend Denise was over at our house.\u00a0 When the commercial ended, Denise said bluntly \u201cWhat was that?!?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When I saw it again I had the same reaction.\u00a0 And I guess a lot of others have as well.\u00a0 GM executives have had to go to great lengths to defend it.\u00a0 GM\u2019s advertising director <a href=\"http:\/\/adage.com\/article\/news\/cadillac-clears-misconceptions-poolside-ad\/291925\/\" target=\"_blank\">Craig Bierley says<\/a> that the piece has been \u201cmisperceived.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n<p>Why the uproar?<\/p>\n<p>Well let me tell what does not upset me.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not upset about the ad\u2019s American exceptionalism and the dig on the \u201cother countries\u201d that take long vacations or enjoy cafes.\u00a0 That\u2019s been around for a long time.\u00a0 My wife was European (<a href=\"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=872\" target=\"_blank\">now American<\/a>).\u00a0 We\u2019re used to the jabs back and forth.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not upset about the ad\u2019s continued promotion of the American \u201cmyth\u201d that if you work hard, play by the rules and gut it out everything will be ok \u2026 that you\u2019ll end up with a beautiful spouse, adoring children and a house with a pool in Malibu.\u00a0 The actor even says definitively \u201cit\u2019s that simple.\u201d\u00a0 Of course it isn\u2019t simple.\u00a0 More importantly it isn\u2019t true.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But again, I\u2019m used to that.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m not upset about the ad\u2019s blatant consumerism.\u00a0 In her searing piece in the <a href=\"http:\/\/huff.to\/1nMyYad\" target=\"_blank\">Huffington Post<\/a>, Carolyn Gregoire writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i>The opening shot shows a middle-aged man, played by the actor Neal McDonough, looking out over his backyard pool, asking the question: &#8220;Why do we work so hard? For this? For stuff?&#8221;\u00a0 As the ad continues, it becomes clear that the answer to this rhetorical question is actually a big fat YES.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But consumerism and advertising have long been married.\u00a0 So nothing new there.<\/p>\n<p>No, what upsets me about the ad is the attitude it embraces and, indeed, celebrates which can best be summed up by one word:\u00a0 Smug.<\/p>\n<p>Smug.\u00a0 According to one definition, <b><i>excessive pride in oneself or one\u2019s achievements.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>More than capitalism, consumerism, and exceptionalism, this is what this ad celebrates.<\/p>\n<p>A celebration of being \u201csmug.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My good friend <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobdeutsch.me\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Deutsch<\/a>, a well-known thought leader in human behavior and advertising &#8211; once told me once that good advertising has three qualities.\u00a0 People see themselves in it; people are affirmed by it; and people are empowered by it.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>Even the great industrialists \u2013 the Rockefellers, the Fords, the Carnegies \u2013 had a sense of charity.\u00a0 And one of the icons mentioned in the ad \u2013 Bill Gates \u2013 has now turned his attention exclusively to matters of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gatesfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">philanthropy<\/a>.\u00a0 Charity and capitalism used to go hand in glove.<\/p>\n<p>But this ad from the nation\u2019s largest auto maker and one of America\u2019s most icon brands, ignores that to celebrate the opinionated, the abrasive, the dismissive, the derisive.\u00a0 You almost are waiting for the guy to say \u201cAnd if others don\u2019t like it \u2026 f&#8212; \u2018em!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not the America I know nor the America I want.<\/p>\n<p>The urban dictionary describes smug as being \u201chappy with ones self when others are not\u201d.\u00a0 It is no coincidence that pride was labeled by Dante\u2019s as the most damning of sins.\u00a0 \u201cSmug\u201d is not only absent humility, it is disdainful of others.\u00a0 It goes beyond a lacking of compassion and empathy.\u00a0 It borders on the sociopathic.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not something I\u2019d want my brand to be about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I first saw this I was with my wife and our friend Denise was over at our house.\u00a0 When the commercial ended, Denise said bluntly \u201cWhat was that?!?\u201d When I saw it again I had the same reaction.\u00a0 And I guess a lot of others have as well.\u00a0 GM executives have had to go&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1139,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions\/1139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}