Dry Vodka Martini
- 1 shot, journalism
- 1 dash, persuasion
- 1 ice filled shaker
- stir in shaker, pour, then enjoy!
Lady Gaga’s Great and Insincere Persuasion
I lost my manufactured pop culture street cred when I stopped teaching my large lecture Mass Media course in 1998. Til then I had a relentless focus on the hipster world because it connected my students to the course and functioned as a hook to grab their Reception, then as a WATTage switch to get them to Process communication theory and research. Just as a man will do anything if he thinks it’s foreplay, students will listen to anything if they think it’s groovy, gear, and fab.
Now, as an aging FauxHipster, even I can see the pop success of Lady Gaga when the Wall Street Journal (!!!) gives her the star treatment. If you want a great demonstration of the truth behind All Bad Persuasion Is Sincere, now hear this: At the Simon Cowell standard of cruel honesty, Lady Gaga cannot sing, cannot dance, and cannot pose, but she can persuade the world to think her a Icon which means there’s nothing sincere about her.
She’s great!
But, will she last as long as the last one with Blonde Ambition who showed such Great Insincerity?
Mojo Times?
The Sunday New York Times today is one of the best editions of that paper since Pinch Sulzburger took over and nearly destroyed it. The paper is readable from <p> to </p> for every page. Perhaps they’ve recovered from their Bush Derangement? Once nothing but Biased Processing and Sincere Persuasion, the Grey Lady is gorgeous.
Today.
Auteurism at Apple: Sincerity?
Great feature on Steve Jobs at Apple and the Auteur of Innovation. Here’s the key persuasion point:
Apple represents the “auteur model of innovation,” observes John Kao, a consultant to corporations and governments on innovation. In the auteur model, he said, there is a tight connection between the personality of the project leader and what is created. Movies created by powerful directors, he says, are clear examples, from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” to James Cameron’s “Avatar.”
I’m uncertain how to understand Apple. Apple and Jobs attracts admiration from the Cool Table, but the Cool Table is rarely persuasive. Magnetic, yes. It attracts those who are attracted to it which is not nearly the same thing as persuasive which means you change the Other Guy rather than draw Other Guys who are Just Like You.
You see this in Apple’s market share. They get the Sophisticate Slice, but nothing like the Microsoft Masses. For example, if I wanted to win an election or a war, I wouldn’t ask Steve Jobs for advice (unless, of course, the election or the war only involved the Cool Table). I would ask Bill Gates. Look at Mr. Gates work with vaccine production and distribution. This is a guy who really thinks big and important.
Apple and Jobs reek with Sincerity. Granted they are cool, hip, beautiful, sleek, graceful, innovative, and on and on. But sincere.
Obama’s Persuasion Crisis
The Chinese ideograph for Crisis contains both Danger and Opportunity and the NYT offers a great perspective piece that embraces the dynamic tension Obama faces here.
Mr. Obama rode into office on one of the most elegant narratives in recent campaign history: that he was the embodiment of hope and change. It caught the national mood, yet remained vague enough to mean pretty much whatever a voter wanted it to mean.
The Times writer then notes various challenges to this Image. Reverse Bush, but Surge Afghanistan; help the people, but bailout the banks; and so on. The writer then unhelpfully quotes a White House perspective.
The White House largely dismisses the warnings. “The president has had a consistent political narrative since the day he stepped on the national stage in 2004,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “The interpretation of it is cyclical.”
I noted that Mr. Obama lost his way on the Persuasion Path last summer and think he remains lost.
Forever Green, Forget the Price
You can recharge your cell phone with a solar panel device that uses Ms. Sunshine instead of Mr. Coal. It only costs $99, but it comes with a bag so you can tote and charge on sunny days. Pouty lipped model not included, although this technology may be a Chick Magnet. Solar is sooo hot with Pouty Lipped women, isn’t it?
It costs about a penny to recharge the bad way (look it up). That’s 9900 solar charges which equals over 27 years of coal charges. Purple faced advocates: Yes, this is too simple. Yes, you are complex. You are smart. Yes, you are right. But, of course, It’s about the Other Guy, so who cares about you?
Go long on Green when you can put it in a box and make profit for yourself.
Money, Politics, and Attitudes
Fun report on an interesting money study. Researchers looked at how people handled their investments depending upon whether their political party was in or out of power. You invest differently if Your Team is running things compared to when the Other Team is running things.
One of the primary findings concerned the relationship between investors’ political optimism and their propensity to hold domestic stocks. When their preferred political party came to power, investors tended to become much more upbeat about the economy and the domestic stock market.
Now, of course, there’s no good economic reason to do this. It’s a matter of your political power perception making you feel differently about the stock market.
For Patrick
My nephew, Patrick, is a talented musician who plays the sax and wants to pursue a career in music. We often discuss the paucity of sax pieces in the classical music repertoire. Well, Patrick, here’s a nice Times story about Prism and how they’ve handled the problem.
Keep on moving, folks. No persuasion here. Just sax, but no violins.
Race and Persuasion
“I KNOW there is nothing a white person can say to a black person about race which is not both incorrect and offensive,” James Spader’s hard-driving lawyer says in the new David Mamet play, “Race.” “I know that. Race is the most incendiary topic in our history. And the moment it comes out, you cannot close the lid on that box. That may change. But not for a long long while.”
Makes it tough to write a review which, of course, is an exercise in applied persuasion.
Osama ‘Bama Wanna-be
Omar Hammami had every right to flash his magnetic smile. He had just been elected president of his sophomore class. He was dating a luminous blonde, one of the most sought-after girls in school. He was a star in the gifted-student program, with visions of becoming a surgeon. For a 15-year-old, he had remarkable charisma.
Great personality profile on an American boy, Alabama boy to boot, who’s now in Somalia leading Al Qaeda boys in jihad.
632,500
Read all about it.
