EVERYONE'S A CRITIC ... OR WRITER ... OR DESIGNER ...

Thank you, film critic A.O. Scott of The New York Times, for your elegant introduction to the art of criticism.

So, as is our habit, we’ll riff on your title, and apply it to our everyday business activities.

Straight out:  Regardless of our position as communicators, brand gurus, designers, marketers, and the like, and regardless of our industry tenure, criticism does rankle when coming from clients (who are not necessarily writers or …).  Scott does point out that judging work is an indispensable activity, and often a democratic and conversational one.  Yet sometimes the criticism is delivered a bit too sharply and gets under our creative skins.

On the other hand, our clients pay for our best work – and criticism, pundits say, must be calculated into the compensation.  Much like the system of performance management in companies, we’re suggesting that when drafts and storyboards are reviewed, the reviewers remember that criticism is based on a social relationship.  Herewith our ‘asks’ for our critics.  Ideally, your rendered judgments need to be:

• Timely
• Brief and succinct
• Relevant and to the point
• Clear, specific, and precise
• Well researched
• Sincere and positively intended and
• Articulate, persuasive, and actionable.

Which means, from our point of view, that you assess work fairly and accurately, with no blame.  For sure, we can fix anything – and will.  It makes it a lot easier when the judge is constructive:  no finger pointing, no negativism, and no personal attacks.  Tell us exactly what your vision is.  We’re happy to march to that aspiration.

HELLO? (with no apologies to Adele)

The telephone is dead.

Not so much the cell/smartphone, since our fingers twitch to text and tweet and reply-all email.

But the Alexander Graham Bell invention is moribund (especially according to statistics from Nielsen, claiming that we’re moving to a landline-less and voicemail-less society).

All of which we mourn.  To us, it signals an increasingly isolated population, at home and at work.  [Though for the life of us, we can’t figure out who’s talking to whom in our commutes.] 

It shows our determined individualism:  “Hey, we’re communicating on our own terms and in our own timeframe.”

And it points to an ever-decreasing competency in being willing to talk and understanding how to hold a conversation.

According to Miss Manners, phone calls are rude, disruptive, and awkward.  They interrupt our workflow, our home lives, and generally create havoc for those around us.  In fact, it’s become de rigueur to ask, in an email, if it’s okay to call.

Much of that could be due to the constant ‘dialing for dollars’ from robocalls or from groups we’d just as soon not hear from.  And much of that could be a lack of energy to speak with those who want to talk with us; after all, it takes a lot of energy to text and message and scroll through Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram and Pinterest and other social media.

Some say back-and-forth messaging is simply the new century’s conversation. 

We’d hang up on that.

ALL THE HUES THAT'R FIT TO PRINT

Our penchant for Variety-like headlines got inspired by the latest publishing news.

Which is that coloring books for adults have reached the 15 million mark in sales last year (from one million 12 months earlier).

Why the rebirth?  Psychologists position it as a form of mindfulness, even a block to distraction.  [Coloring inside the lines does, after all, take a lot of concentration.]

Others talk about its inherent creativity, pointing to completed pages posted on Facebook and Pinterest.

And a third group cites all things nostalgic, satisfying a yen for childhood stuff.

[Of course, there are detractors.  One calls it the sign of an infantilized culture.]

Regardless, this not-so-new trend has many pluses for us communicators and marketers, especially its work application.   It’s clear that our world today lives in the eye (and, yes, the “I”).  After all, most audiences prefer to receive visual communications, whether an infographic, a video, or a great series of photographs.  So adopting the ready-to-color book seems to be the next best thing to a business-focused graphic novel.

Some top-of-mind ideas:

• Why not, for instance, promote family-friendly products/services through a generation-spanning coloring book? 
• Or hold an internal contest (with a company-sponsored book) awarding prizes for children of employees?  
• Even educate new hires about the business using a series of illustrated, black- and-white outlined pages? 

It’s what we call down-to-earth doodling, for profit.

TAG. WHO'S IT?

Confused about the sell by and use by labels on grocery foodstuffs?  As well as the “I’m all natural” claims?

Rest assured.  You’re not alone. 

According to a recent Consumer Reports survey, nearly 2/3rds of respondents believe, for instance, that ‘natural’ implies the item is a better food and that it contains no artificial ingredients, chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs.  It’s food that is simple, less processed, and genuine (whatever that means).

Wrong.

Why?

The US Food & Drug Administration hasn’t defined it yet.

Which, of course, got us to thinking:  What about the labels we in the marketing and communications biz blithely toss around, like logo and tag line and slogan and campaign and … ?  Do our key audiences (for example, the C-suite) really understand what we’re talking about – and are we all on the same page?  And do all our labels result in further confusing the folks we’re trying to reach – and persuade?

You get our drift.  Obviously, we apply labels to simplify a complex world.  The words and phrases we use to describe things and ideas, according to a 1930s’ linguist (and proven true for decades and decades after), actually determine what we see.  Think of it as a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Twizzlers is a low-fat snack.  Natural cheese is simply that, without cellulose powder to keep it from sticking.

So is time to clear up our own noise – and, perhaps, set a great example for the manufacturers of this world?

OF SAGACITY -- AND LEADERSHIP WORDS

Bookstores overflow with ‘how to be a leader’ tomes, often with conflicting advice.

Never a month passes when the likes of Harvard Business Review or Fortune magazine doesn’t opine on the best ways to manage a merger or what to do during the first 90 days as an executive.

And then the consultancies go forward to conquer … (how could we forget?).

Yet there’s one recently published, probably overlooked modest collection of memos, penned by one of the original Mad Men, that we heartily promote browsing.  And remembering.

It’s Keith Reinhard’s Any Wednesday, one pagers written almost weekly to his colleagues at DDB Worldwide (now part of Omnicom Group) for some 23 years, covering not just advertising topics, but also musings around careers, communications, and the truth. 

Like this:  “Our management priorities should be … people, product, profit … in that order.”

Or acquiring new skills:  “… because the marketplace of the future will be one where advertising alone is not the answer to every client’s problem.”

And delivered with humor:  “The greatest human drive is not food, water or shelter.  It’s the obsession to edit another person’s copy.”

It’s not often (okay, almost never) that we recommend a read.  But it’s one that will net you a true ROI, in Reinhard’s words:  Relevance.  Originality.  And Impact.