How would George Gallup feel if he could see how today politicians are guided by the views of idiots?
I have been writing a memoir of my experiences working with David Ogilvy. Others knew him far better and longer than I so I have confined myself to fairly personal reminscences
One story I omitted, because his work in that area is pretty well-known, is about his time working for Gallup, the great pollster.
One evening at his chateau he showed me the books based on the research he did into the “marquee value” of various film stars – that is, how much people were influenced to go to films by who appeared in them.
The tastes of the public differed quite radically from those of the critics. Greta Garbo, for instance, was box office poison.
I am not sure that we should be guided by public taste. Lord Reith, the first man to run the BBC said he planned to give people programmes better than they knew they wanted.
The BBC has lost its way in many ways, but one is by ignoring that aim, and chasing ratings at the expense of quality. The things it is admired for around the world are its news coverage and comment, not its popular trivia.
If you want ill-informed rubbish, watch almost any U.S. news channel. You will learn far more than you need to know about Simon Cowell and Kim Kardashian’s arse but nothing about what is happening in the world.
Yesterday I read about the way people like the US president are too frightened by the polls to gainsay people who ignore the findings of centuries of science and take the bible literally.
Giving people what they want is the high road to disaster. What they want is McDonalds KFC. What they get is blubber and heart attacks
We need leaders, not followers.
You might like Edward Bernays’ short book on Crystallizing Public Opinion. He talks about how the public comes to hold and changes their views – and, contrary to the conceit of some PR people – talks about the limits on the ability of public relations practitioners and the media to alter the public’s views.
Here’s a link to the book: http://tinyurl.com/coccnll
And I wrote something about it the other day: http://www.alexsingleton.com/why-the-credibility-of-expert-research-is-vital-to-pr-campaigns/
While I agree with: “Giving people what they want is the high road to disaster. What they want is McDonalds KFC” ….
The problem is you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who will say: “Drayton, you’re kidding me, you mean to tell me McDonald’s isn’t healthy?!?!?” and get them to change their minds.
Metaphorically, what we need to do is package the veggies to look like a brownie – maybe then we can make a difference….
To my surprise, science is filled with followers; fortunately, now with BioMedLib those followers are exposed, so people will know who REALLY contributes.
What is BioMedLib?