For Fox Sake

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Long before it was safe to do so, when the United States was reeling from the sky scraping collapse of three buildings in New York and any suggestion of even handed analysis or    probing and difficult questions was yelled down by people screaming 'they hate our freedoms'. I made my political position clear although you might be surprised to find I'm neither Democrat or Republican.


What annoys me is that those same people baying for blood invariably couldn't point to Iran on a map and are unaware of having their political opinions shaped by the media and its business driven agenda (industrial military and media complex and so forth or MIC as its often known). FOX is most certainly part of this machine as is CNN although they are both complicit in addressing real issues.


Noam Chomsky made clear this complex communication topic of media manipulation in his 'Manufacturing Consent' book. During that post 9/11 I was unpopular and (I lost friends over it) specifically yelling (to the TV) at the disgraceful cowardice of the White House Press Corps as they group fellated then POTUS Bush 43. I've also made clear my views on FOX NEWS (Fair and Balanced) over here but I think it's important that if you haven't watched how media really works that you take the time out to watch the Manufacturing Consent Video below.

There really is no excuse for not being informed and if you find it dull. Perhaps you need to  back to your day job because being part of the solution and not the problem is only for the sentient classes.

Disclaimer: Noam Chomsky is my favourite Jewish Person. I imagine if he lived a couple of thousand years ago, that with legendary embellishment he could easily morph into that other profoundly important Jewish figure..Jesus Christ. Watch this and see why he's on another level. I know of no other person who cuts through issues with such compelling truth that it leaves me bewildered as to how he made the lonely journey to what become self evident conclusions.

Green Is Green

I was taking an early morning swim yesterday. It's a good time for me to think, and as ever when I'm surrounded by the sun, the sea and the sand I'm reminded how beautiful nature is and that we're really confronted by a logic bomb when considering how the system we all conspire to take part in, points at the asymmetry of global finite resources and our wasteful production (most products don't exist within six months of their manufacture) and of course our decadent disposable lifestyles. There's a way out of this and advertising or communications has a powerful and wealth creating role to contribute towards a virtuous solution but I've written about that extensively elsewhere (and here) although intend to probably recap on some of John Grant's The Green Marketing Manifesto at some point because many of those issues were thrashed out then.

In any case, I can quickly highlight that the behavioural changes required to make a sustainable lifestyle are largely a marketing problem and where there's a marketing problem there's a business solution if supply side economics are given the credence we already do.

Anyway I was dipping a few toes into the sea and I suddenly recalled that JWT's future trends watcher Marian Salzman was predicting back in 1988 that Blue was the new Green. That we'd be seeing the environment issue as a blue one where it was once green. A lot of us didn't like it at the time because many people from the consumption classes (I use that term deliberately) are still confused as to the extent of change needed and the last thing the communication classes should be doing is confusing them with bogus rebranding efforts. Anyway, Marian was wrong as most future trend watchers are. I've enjoyed some of her work in the past but frankly I think it's time that these charlatans should put their hands up and admit their error rather than just concentrating on their successes. Don't you?

You can read how common sense and Green won the day over here, here, here and here.

Silhouette

China's ability to make knock off copies on luxury goods is sometimes frighteningly close or at least visually. I bought this iPod copy recently for US$37 (8 Gigabyte) and while it's got lots of drawbacks such as slow boot up, quicker battery fade and slow processing plus no interface. It does  have a few advantages. It's got a radio and I couldn't care less if it was stolen like my last two were in Hong Kong. No shadow of a doubt.