Posts Tagged “trends”

Every so often, the media latches onto the Next Big Thing. It’s usually hearalded by some book (which has a P.R. firm working overtime), with an author making the talking head TV show circuit. These writers prognosticate in grave tones about the future, and predict Where The Planet Is Going.

Feh.

Most of these clowns are wrong, in that they use the local TV weatherman as their performance model, as opposed to, oh, say an Old Testament prophet. (For those of you not hip to Bible prophesy, the Bible itself offers a one-stop litmus test to determine if a prophet is the real McCoy or a fraud. The Bible standard is 100% accuracy. Given that this is something of an exacting standard, it’s easy to see why the scribes would seek out a little less demanding spec.)

I’ve seen books on future trends (“Futuretrends”), books on the environment (“Earth in the Balance,” by that noted environmental scientist, Al” I invented the Internet” Gore), and even prophesy (“The Late, Great Planet Earth.”) All have proven to be a mixed bag – a mixture of outright mistakes, exaggerations, missed cues, distortions, and a fact or accuracy thrown in for good measure, just to see if we’re paying attention.

The sad part is that the media (and that portion of the general public that lets the media do their thinking for them, which at last count would be “most of them”) run around after these authors like the crowd Chicken Little gathered after he began loudly proclaiming “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” (Much of what is wrong with this world can be attributed to the fact that the leaders of New Education scrapped reading classics in empirical thinking like “Chicken Little” and instead foisted upon our youth such scintillating fare as “Heather has Two Mommies.”) They latch on to the latest trend like a life ring thrown to a man overboard upon the Seven Seas, and cling to it like white on rice…that is until the next trend comes along. Which is why we were all worried about Global Cooling in the 60′s (along with “nuclear winter”) and Global Warming in the “aughts.” Sigh…

I’m here to tell you, however, that there ARE trends you can latch on to, but they are driven, not by authors wanting to make a buck, but consumers wanting to save a buck. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people don’t do a lot of thinking, especially about current events. It’s true. Zogby did a survey of Obama voters, and a vast majority of them had no idea that the Dems were in charge of Congress. Because so few people do their own thinking, many people simply defer to the news media, and believe whatever pablum they are spoon-fed. This becomes something of a problem, simply because (unlike the consipracy theorists would have us believe) there is no monolithic organization dictating policy. Instead, we have a bunch of groups and individuals out there, whipping up the muddled asses…um, huddled masses, for their own, shortsighted aims. The result is that the media, trying to whip people up into a frenzy (to insure the election of Obama) latch onto the economy, and do such a good job scaring everybody, that we end up with an economy that is in worse shape than it would be otherwise. (Hard to believe, but true.)

So how do you market to sheeple? Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of folks would have you believe that the inauguration of Obama heralds the dawn of a new Age. Fiddlesticks. I’ll tell you what hearkens to a new age – the global financial meltdown. With gasoline here in Amarillo hovering at $1.65 a gallon for the last week or so (and likely to head lower, if you believe the forecasts), financial markets in turmoil, and the stock market circling the drain, it’s a Brave New World out there. So what’s a marketer to do? Read the rest of this entry »

When I began working in the marketing/advertising/design world, computers were something that only large corporations used – no such thing as a “personal” computer. If you wanted to create artwork that printed using more than one color, you needed Amberlith or Rubylith, and an X-acto knife. White Plaka and Liquid Paper were an illustrator’s best friends, and my biggest problem was keeping a set of Rapidograph pens free of India Ink clogs.

Things have changed. Read the rest of this entry »