PR and advertising will fix anything.
That is the big lie of our time. Most of the time, of course, it’s not a big lie. It’s not even a lie. Most of the time, PR and advertising can smooth over just about anything.
But not right now.
The reason for that, of course, is that we’re in a political crisis period. Assumptions are being challenged, assumptions so basic most people don’t even know they share them.
- The assumptions of the Nixon Era — conflict, enemies, strength — they’re not working anymore.
- The assumptions of the Democratic AntiThesis to Nixon — compromise, The Third Way, leaning toward the middle — they don’t work either. Because there’s no middle to lean toward.
Advertising demands a common vocabulary upon which messages can be based. There is no such vocabulary. Disbelief in the current Thesis, the Thesis of Nixon represented today by George W. Bush — is nearly absolute. Not just among Democrats but among many Republicans. Lou Dobbs Republicans are aghast at the failure to control immigration or deficits. Social conservatives no longer believe global warming can be ignored.
In this kind of environment, everything is automatically questioned. Astroturf campaigns – like those the Bells are trying to run on net neutrality – don’t work anymore. Skepticism toward all advertising rises to all-time highs.
This is going to get worse before it gets better. The election of 2006 will settle nothing. At best it will produce a stalemate against which the election of 2008 and the next two years might be fought. It may merely continue the Thesis, or it may be stolen outright, which could threaten the very existance of the state.
Note that what follows is not really an ad, but an explanation:
Under these conditions, what can a company which is trying to simply "do bidness" actually do?
- Have values and stick to them.
- Be ethical and transparent.
- Don’t depend on advertising alone.
If these sound like the values of open source politics, well they are.
But at a time of crisis people see through lies. People assume lies.
Cynicism is the common stance. Extremism finds a common purchase. There
is a lot of flailing around, and people do things they will later be
embarrassed by, some things that they can’t live down.
But so it goes.
