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Loading ...by Jonathan Trenn
I was about to blog on a bunch of stats that came out of a study put out by Universal McCann about the adaption of social media when I came upon a quote by Senior Vice President of Consumer Insights. In talking about that fact that more and more people are adopting what at least Universal McCann called in their study “social media”, Hutton gave us this gem:
“We’re definitely seeing continual shifts. The great unwashed - those people who have never sent a text message - is getting smaller all the time.”
The Great Unwashed. A most definitely negative description. The Unclean. Sounds like a report from a British imperialist observing the hoards of poverty stricken living in squalor on the Asian subcontinent 100 years ago. My apologies to the Brits if that offended anyone.
I write this because yesterday I began following @BlogActionDay on Twitter. Blog Action Day is an attempt by socially conscious individuals to draw attention to a cause or an issue that Last year, we at Abraham Harrison were associated with a related effort on the environment, so I took notice of this year’s effort. It’s against poverty, be it world poverty or poverty right here at home. Wherever “at home” may be.
But back to the statement - and attitude of Hutton. A Senior VP of Consumer Insights no less. I’m glad he’s got an insight into how we consumers think.
I’ve long felt that one of the biggest problems about advertising is that so often the people that are in the industry feel a sense of superiority over the masses. Or some oddly feel that most everyone who is “with it” thinks like them. Has the same values, same worldviews. Some do, some don’t. And, obviously, those that don’t - the masses - who perhaps may be a bit behind are “The Great Unwashed”.
Here we have the words of someone very high up - a Senior VP - of a major company - Universal McCann - who handles Consumer Insights. What does this show?
It shows me that once again there’s a disconnect between people in corporate thought leadership and, oh, say half the population of the United States. They often can’t relate because they take no time to understand. They’re so self-satisfied they don’t even recognize that what they say smacks of superiority. This lack of understanding leads to a benign self-righteousness that’s often constantly reinforced by like-minded colleagues who also take pride in being on the cutting edge.
A lot of people are in lower middle to lower classes can’t really afford the latest this and the most up-to-date that. A lot of people who are a bit older, or a bit less adapted to certain things. They need not be tagged with negative terms. Especially by those who profess to have great insight.
While it’s true that those of us in advertising tend to be early adopters, we also are informal anthropologists, learning and (to borrow a phrase from Chris Brogan) listening to the different publics out there to get insight. Hence, Hutton’s title, misapplied as it may be.
Some of you will think I’m overreacting. It’s just a phrase you’ll say. So here’s a phrase from me:
Maybe Graeme Hunter can take his insight and Great Washed Ass and do something about poverty for Blog Action Day.
Filed under: Marketing Hubris
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