Stupid PR Stunts
Watching Squawk Box this morning, I caught another prime example of business idiocy. They don't provide a link to the footage, so I'll have to explain:
Pitney Bowes was doing a PR stunt in Grand Central Station. They'd commissioned a far-from-groundbreaking study to show that people prefer to receive their Valentines in physical cards rather than e-mails. They had greeting card writers on hand to help busy commuters craft romantic sentiments. And they had Pitney Bowes' CFO Bruce Nolop there pimping the event, flanked by Aisha Taylor from Friends and 24 fame.
Aside from being one of the most desperate PR stunts I've ever seen, it was also a classic demonstration of idiocy.
While the event was to promote something as human as sending love notes, Nolop was stiffer than a board. He was looking into the wrong camera, and kept repeating his scripted lines. He may have stayed "on message," regurgitating the bullet points his PR team fed him, but his lack of humanity made the whole interview miss the consumer outreach (and mail mania) his marketing department had clearly designed it for.
In sharp contrast, Aisha tried to save him, dishing up improv thoughts about Valentine's Day, along with loads of overcompensating personality, plus tons of sex appeal. You could tell she wasn't reading from a script. But the CFO had no clue how bad he was, and he kept interrupting her to let "the real star" have his air time. It was pathetic! She was embarrassed, I was laughing hysterically at his lack of humanity, and Joe Kernan & Becky Quick were reaching big-time to throw forced questions at the two.
Why they brought in the Corporate Robot to man this event is beyond me. CFOs are famous for their lack of personality; so why would you invite one of them to an event about love? Even more, why couldn't he shed his business skin to tell a story about the best Valentine he'd ever given his wife, or the best love line he'd heard that morning?
This is symbolic of the dehumanizing transformation that grips business idiots in high places and renders them unable to relate to other people on the most fundamental level -- as humans. Blame the fear of liability, the inflated sense of self-importance among executives, the unwillingness to offer one's own opinions, and the blinding pressure to conform.
Coincidentally, Johnnie Moore had a great post today on the same subject -- about the cliched, robotic, inauthentic scripts that flight attendants are forced to read.
Pitney Bowes was doing a PR stunt in Grand Central Station. They'd commissioned a far-from-groundbreaking study to show that people prefer to receive their Valentines in physical cards rather than e-mails. They had greeting card writers on hand to help busy commuters craft romantic sentiments. And they had Pitney Bowes' CFO Bruce Nolop there pimping the event, flanked by Aisha Taylor from Friends and 24 fame.
Aside from being one of the most desperate PR stunts I've ever seen, it was also a classic demonstration of idiocy.
While the event was to promote something as human as sending love notes, Nolop was stiffer than a board. He was looking into the wrong camera, and kept repeating his scripted lines. He may have stayed "on message," regurgitating the bullet points his PR team fed him, but his lack of humanity made the whole interview miss the consumer outreach (and mail mania) his marketing department had clearly designed it for.
In sharp contrast, Aisha tried to save him, dishing up improv thoughts about Valentine's Day, along with loads of overcompensating personality, plus tons of sex appeal. You could tell she wasn't reading from a script. But the CFO had no clue how bad he was, and he kept interrupting her to let "the real star" have his air time. It was pathetic! She was embarrassed, I was laughing hysterically at his lack of humanity, and Joe Kernan & Becky Quick were reaching big-time to throw forced questions at the two.
Why they brought in the Corporate Robot to man this event is beyond me. CFOs are famous for their lack of personality; so why would you invite one of them to an event about love? Even more, why couldn't he shed his business skin to tell a story about the best Valentine he'd ever given his wife, or the best love line he'd heard that morning?
This is symbolic of the dehumanizing transformation that grips business idiots in high places and renders them unable to relate to other people on the most fundamental level -- as humans. Blame the fear of liability, the inflated sense of self-importance among executives, the unwillingness to offer one's own opinions, and the blinding pressure to conform.
Coincidentally, Johnnie Moore had a great post today on the same subject -- about the cliched, robotic, inauthentic scripts that flight attendants are forced to read.
<< Home