Easter frolics: Schizophrenia on the bookstalls – and Nokialunacy on the streets

Strange as it may seem to intellectuals like you and me, most of the population give little thought to the weighty matters that command our attention.
They don’t fret about the future of the Euro, the printing of money or who is a bigger liar, Romney, or Cameron. They care little about the antics of bankers and politicians, the pensions gap or the plight of the polar bear.
They want to know what Lauren is up to – which judging by the two magazine covers illustrated here seems to be about 311 lbs.
The question that consumes their minds is whether Lauren (whoever she may be, as I have no idea, but I guess she is a “star” of something or other) is worried or not.
What do you think?
Maybe she is just confused, like the people who do Nokia’s posters, one of which I saw yesterday, too – and for that matter the people who design their phones.
 Not long ago my PA, the radiant Chloe, who runs much of my business life and my partner Marta who sorts out the rest decided that a Nokia would be good for me as it had both a touch screen and a mini-typewriter built in.
They had the best of intentions, and I thought it made sense (never argue with determined women).
But none of us reckoned with the fact that the phone is bloody useless. Nothing on it works well, and by some mysterious magic  it loses about 5 minutes a week.
Of course the reptiles at the Carphone Warehouse who sold it to me won’t exchange it for something simpler, so I shall have to buy something else. An i-phone, maybe. Or an android … but aren’t they creatures from StarWars?
Either way, their posters are an even bigger wank than their phones. Whoever put that one together or approved it knew less nothing about what makes people buy, let alone what makes a good poster (which, among other things, is a simple promise expressed in very few words and easily readable at a glance.)
Happy Easter, everyone.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

1 Comments

  1. I had a thing about phones being phones. You can talk on them or text on them. A colleague bought an iPhone and I called him a gadget sheep.

    Then my wife bought one or should I say, nicked mine when the upgrade came along. Technology has to do something for me and I wasn't convinced until I used the phone. Now hav been allowed to have one myself and it really does run my life. The various apps have solid backup if you have to restore to a new phone, so that took away a final hurdle in my decision process.

    Foursquare may seem a pointless app but it does have a built in pub detector 🙂

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