In recent weeks and months I have developed an almost irrepressible desire to let go. Or has it come over me? I'm currently letting go of things I didn't know were there. Ballast disappears - wonderful!
Of course, it's also the turn of the warehouse and the many things that are kept there because they are irretrievable treasures that will be worth a lot one day. Today one sees that they were mostly not even worth what they were worth; and therefore not worthy of a glance for decades.
TOO LAZY TO READ ON? THEN LISTEN TO ME:
In the blogcast, I read this recent blog article to you. With emphasis, of course!
And memories, of course! Memories of heroic deeds by ingenious people whom one admired beyond measure, in other words: one's own advertising works. Tons of booklets of presentations to companies, some of which have long since ceased to exist, which gives the greatness of one's own heroic deeds an additional hue somewhat reminiscent of the cape of the Boandlkramer. Some booklets smell a bit like that, too.
Because, like any decent creative, I take every opportunity to procrastinate, even if it wasn't necessary, I naturally leafed through this and that concept when letting go and found, amazingly often, that I had in fact already worked with story in advertising at a time when I had no idea it was possible. If I had known what I was doing back then, my exploits might actually have been such; I just hope and tell it around every campfire from now on without being asked.
But for now, I am the Marie Kondō of myself, sweeping through my past with a spirited "Magic Cleaning, Baby!" on my lips and letting go of things I gave birth to at a time when Marie was still a glint in the milkman's eye.
I remember most of my many years in advertising with pleasure. Although: I never quite understood some things in this industry. Most of it had to do with the ego of the protagonists. Ego, as we all know, lives in the immediate vicinity of disrespect, and disrespect now lives practically everywhere. In any case, disrespect makes so many house calls that one might think it is omnipresent.
The ego of the advertisers certainly contributes to the fact that their place on the image scale is way down there. Wherever there is heavy rain, they huddle together with politicians and journalists. Presumably so that their egos can have a good banter at eye level.
The image of advertisers was bad even in those days when it was good, and I remember those days quite fondly. I have always tried to do the best for my clients and to engage them in a qualified conversation with their audience. Sometimes it succeeded; often this conversation sounded like a monologue. Advertising, but nevertheless my conviction was always that one should not let go of respect for each other just because one wants to sell something to someone who does not need it.
Is there respect on Spotify only from ARETHA FRANKLIN?
Yes, good old respect! He's homeless now, I heard on the radio. Now there's room in my warehouse again, in case someone sees him, the homeless Respect ... But I don't listen to the radio any more, I listen to Spotify, and I have a basic account there. That means that I get advertisements. Among other things, pretty stupid spots from Spotify explaining to me: If I switch to a Spotify Premium paid account, I won't get any more adverts. No stupid spots from Spotify either.
This deal would actually be worth considering: "Give us money and we won't shit in your brain any more". We know this from Bild, Krone and Österreich, only the other way round, which, from a purely economic and hygienic point of view, gives the Spotify dealan aura of Brigitte Bardoch irresistibility.
Then, on a news portal, I read a matching report about an advertising feat by Kentucky Fried Chicken that took place in sunny Dubai. The superstars at Memac Ogilvy, the advertising agency there, were able to convince three art-creating artists named Flipperachi, Moh Flow and Shébani that it would be a good idea if they replaced their profile pictures, headers and even album covers on their Spotify profiles with photos of the new Kentucky Burger. So that advertising trickles out even to those who spend money on Spotify Premium, so they don't see ads anymore. And my theory that advertising has now been turned into adverstalking is once again officially confirmed.
Attention: Interjection!
Of course we know that in the open-air swimming pool all the children pee in the pool. But when the first one lets his fountain jump off the three-metre board, then a heckling call is due from the Badewaschl, and in this case I let one go.
Dear Ogilvys, dear Spotify, dear Flipperachi, Moh Flow and Shébani, dear KFCs: this is not a good idea, this is disrespect on a scale that turns even a stomach used to system gastronomic burger food and format radio. Honestly, now. Even for those who only recognise a good idea by the fact that they can earn money with it, it's good once again, isn't it?
Kentucky Fried Chicken, your mission statement says: "We have three very simple house rules: Be your best self. Make a difference. Have fun." You succeeded magnificently in Dubai!
Spotify collects money from people who disavow their business model and thus shows what their mission statement is worth: "... to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators". It's worth as much as you pay for a Basic Account.
Flipperachi, Moh Flow and Shébani allow even their album covers to be replaced by a picture of a burger for a handful of dollars? Well, I know some artists whose fans would just think they had a new hairstyle. But the artistic integrity of these musicians is probably sleeping under some bridge next to their respect for their fans.
And you at Memac Ogilvy - do you really only have people whose best idea is to throw up the new Kentucky Burger through the window of people who have a "Please Quiet" sign hanging on their door? Do you seriously believe that so many of them like it that the campaign pays off, or is it the earned media you get for it? Or maybe an advertising prize?
Honestly, aren't you a little embarrassed in front of yourselves and your standards - and wait...: Do you smell that? Take a whiff ... it smells a bit like ... yes, exactly: like one of my old concepts from the warehouse, a bit like Boandlkramer. Can it be that those who say advertising is dead are right? And if so, then it's not the internet's fault, but yours and your unbelievable disrespect.
And: Does the name David Ogilvy mean anything to you at Memac Ogilvy? "The customer is not a moron. She's your wife." David Ogilvy knew these things. What he didn't know is that after his time on earth, offices with his name on the door will be staffed by people like you who treat clients like idiots without any respect.
Leo Burnett, also one of the old, faded advertising icons, gave an extraordinary speech on the day of his official retirement in 1967, entitled "When to take my name off the door ".
He said that a day will come when he will return from heaven to earth and single-handedly tear his name off the door. It is the day: "... when you spend more time trying to make money and less time making advertising - our kind of advertising. ... When you are no longer what Thoreau called a corporation with a conscience - which means to me, a corporation of conscientious men and women. ... When you begin to compromise your integrity - which has always been the heart's blood - the very guts of this agency."
Our story gives us orientation.
It's about respect and integrity in everything we do. What we decide for and against. Especially in business: how do we earn money and how? Our values, our world view and our story help us to do this. Roy Disney said, "It's not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are." Our decisions show who we are when we are once again faced with the choice in our story that determines its further course. This is the essence of our story, the story of our ventures, our company and our brands.
There are two ways, the right way and the easy way, they say. Everyone can decide for themselves, because everyone naturally knows instinctively which is the right way. In business, too. You just have to take it.
Nobody can be that stupid, neither at Spotify nor at Ogilvy, KFC or the artists, that they don't notice what they are actually doing: shitting in the brains of Spotify users. By the way, the Austrian cabaret group "Die Hektiker" produced a nice video on the topic of "Music & Business" years ago, a classic indeed and can be viewed on YouTube, the repository for moving images.
More and more often, you hear people talking about mindfulness, especially in connection with business and brand stories. That is good and right. A lot would already be gained if, before this topic is rolled out, the spirit of Marie Kondō were to perform a little magic cleaning on the responsible specialists and first dispose of the un-mindfulness. This can easily be done with the control questions from the KonMarie method:
Does this thing inspire me?
Does it make me happy?
Does it give me joy?
And then, poof, the un-mindfulness is in the rubbish bin, and we have made room for a few cultivation boxes for the tender little plant of mindfulness - filled with a fat humus mixture of respect and integrity.
Bertolt Brecht said: "First comes the food, then comes morality". And he also said, "He who says A need not say B. He can also recognise that A was wrong." Anyone who recognises that can give his story the right direction in that second, can take a different path, start it at least once. In fact, anyone who recognises that can't do anything else. Step by step, small success after small success, also once again a step backwards, then again a diversion, but in the right direction.
To where our story leads us.
That is where the lighthouse of our values stands, that is where our ray of hope falls. Everyone knows this from cycling: Where our gaze falls, there we go, and as long as we keep moving, we don't fall over. It's as simple as that.
That's true for every one of us, it's true for artists, it's true for companies of all sizes. Like Unilever, for example. They have recently introduced a 15-point plan to ensure that their products are "responsibly communicated, responsibly sold, responsibly developed". Therefore, Unilever will, among other things, no longer advertise ice cream to children under twelve. Will this save the world? I don't think so. But it is definitely a step in the right direction. It's not the "happy ending" of the story, but the first step in applying what you've learned on your own hero's journey to the world in which you live. In my blog article series on the "Hero's Journey" you will find some more thoughts on this.
No one should prevent us from becoming a little wiser every day. Our values in our story help us to do this, because they give us orientation, bring order to life and also to everything else. The Japanese say: "The disorder in the room corresponds to the disorder in the heart." My grandmother, old Story Dudette, would say, "No Story. No Glory."
And I've shouted enough, now I'm going back to the warehouse to see if anything else can go into the residual waste.