You Better Be “That Good”!
I was killing time in a bookstore over a recent weekend as my wife was shopping in a store nearby…(yes I could’ve gone with her, but they don’t have a coffee bar, and wifi, so it’s not too hard to figure out where her helpful but somewhat impatient husband ended up). While there, I came across a book on “branding that can lead to instant riches”…wow; it’s that easy huh? Get on Facebook, Twitter and some of the others, and you too can become the next Zuckerberg.
Man, really…I did not know that…I’ve been missing out on some serious bucks. I have to buy this book immediately or my worth as a human being will be irreparably damaged, if not destroyed.
The “Reality” of Advertising
I can remember growing up in the suburbs of Chicago and observing the lives of my parents. It was your typical suburban couple, with a couple of kids and a modest but nice home. After a long day of working at a job that they really were not passionate about, but “pays the bills,” they would come home, eat dinner with the family and, finally, finish off the night with the 9 o’clock news. In between segments of the news, commercials of course! Advertisements filled the gaps between the gang crimes and how much snow fall we should expect for the upcoming week. These spots were filled with beautiful people, who seemed to have it all. They were living “the good life”. We would never identify with these people. Of course, even as a child, I knew that these were characters playing a fictional role.
Facebook vs. “Facetime”
So it’s been a while since I’ve written…I always remind PR guy that I really have to feel led to write something, and that doesn’t always have a deadline attached. He told me lack of ideas usually mean lack of creative discipline. I told him that while that might be true, ones schedule might have an impact…he doesn’t agree, but I digress.
The very writing of this piece sort of makes the point my title refers to. I spent lots of years actually speaking with people on the phone about projects…many times going to their offices and discussing what was being worked on in person…this all equated to relationship building based on “facetime” (even if it was on the phone, it involved one human physically speaking with another) and it was good. I also learned a lot, because I got to ask a lot of questions in the normal ebb and flow of conversation. I probably got my company involved in a lot more projects than we otherwise would’ve by doing that.
