Knock-Offs, Rip-Offs, and Just Plain UGLY!

[jingle_jangle]

Well said and amen. And I empathize with your personal wish re: caffeine, corn syrup and sugar.

[dale_fortune]

maybe i should write a book

[jingle_jangle]

You're already in mine, Dale.

[beatlefreak]

I think there's just about enough for a book in this thread...

[sowhat]

Maybe the example i'm gonna give is not much related to the discussion, but still...
A while ago, a certain brand of deodorants made a new "campaign" for our country. It started with a Russian girl winning the beauty contest, but when the host was giving her the prize, he was, like, thinking: "Why does she stink?!" And the message was, "Russian girls, don't be like pigs, start using deodorants, like European women!" [Methinks they meant their deodorants, cause all the ladies i know, including myself, use other brands ]
No wonder there was a huge web campaign against this ad, and the company removed the ad from its site and brought apologies. On the other hand, they got what they wanted: they drew attention to their product, which is perhaps the least popular of all deos in our country.
The customers don't like being considered stupid, neither do they like being offended. On the other hand, chances are in some time the name of the brand would be remembered & the sales would increase, while the ad would be forgotten...

[dale_fortune]

Makes sense to me Sheena

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Great posts with plenty to think about.

"I really feel sorry for the generations that came after mine."

The older I get, the more I view this as an eternal sentiment of the human condition. We worry about the generations with less grounding in the traditions we remember...but they are usually traditions we have consciously rejected, to a certain extent. Meanwhile, technology makes many aspects of life much "easier" than it was in the past. Calculators, cars and cell phones take away the need for planning, ingenuity, group effort.

It would seem that the key to this dearth of ability and original thinking, as usual, is in better child-rearing and education, and demonstrating self-reliance through example and the generous sharing of talent ...and we as a people, as usual, are more engrossed in making a better life for our families and ourselves than we are in building a better system in which to live together.

I don't want to drift too far away...the point I was aiming toward is a general agreement with Paul's lament, with an eye toward the million tons of musical and recording equipment that is being produced today, contrasted with a disproportionate amount of new musical directions. In other words, all these guitars and digital recorders do not appear to have produced a musical renaissance. For the most part, all that stuff belongs to the non-serious, mediocre noodlers: check me out, I'm Eddie Van Halen! But soon after, another Craigslist post appears for used equipment. "I just wasn't meant to play guitar..." or "Haven't used it more than 5 hours in my smoke-free studio..."

It's a free country, and we can do a lot of what we want. But not many of us actually take steps to improve matters, other than for ourselves. It's tough to make the time these days. Sometimes I wish I could BUY time.

Best thing to do, IMO, is turn off the TV and go make friends with our neighbors. Do I even know the names of my neighbors...?

[sowhat]

I really feel sorry for the generations that came after mine

I look at the generation(s) that came after mine with amazement and interest. I wonder if they'll manage to find answers to the questions and life puzzles i couldn't solve. Mass culture (TV, ads, etc, etc) is sometimes a hard thing to fight with, but maybe they'll find an antidote?
Dale: sorry, didn't quite understand what you mean... as always, dictionary gives several variants of translation.

[dale_fortune]

Sheena, I was agreeing with your explanation. Easy to understand

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

It's not easy making sense. Even God stopped after five or so.

[sowhat]

Ah. Sorry. Too hot here - we haven't had such a hot late August since like 1972. I was actually wondering, could that mean that it was a great campaign.

[ted_williams]

Sheena, it sounds like the deodorant company stole the ad idea from the Who's "Odorono".

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

[jingle_jangle]

Har!

I don't know if I even see my own observations as a "lament". To me, it's more a call to arms; and, reviewing some old literature on topics of design ethics, marketing, and social responsibility, it was seen the same almost 50 years ago (1961-63). (Ref: "The Case for Good Design", American Management Association Annual Meeting compilation, 1963.)

Sheena: you've touched on something critical to this discussion: The manufacturer's (and marketer's) respect for the customer. This used to be a "given", and respectful marketing was quite common, back when the "old" business model to which I referred, was the norm.

My favorite ads and marketing campaigns are those which show respect for the customers' intelligence and toss in a dollop of humor as the whipped cream and cherry on top.

Best example:

Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1959:



Voted by AdAge the #1 print ad of the 20th Century, too, incidentally.

My least favorites are the ones that insult the customer's intelligence. Too many to list.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Ah, the good old days, when advertisers had respect...

Doh!