Category: Uncategorized

Mirrors

Generally in America, things like this don’t happen as much because standards of things like construction are just different. But here, it’s more of a “just deal with it,” mentality.

This is my bathroom mirror. Yep, that’s all of it…there aint no more (as they say).

You might be tempted to think that I just cropped the top of it off to make it look like it cut off there, but I didn’t. That is where the overhead cabinet basically starts, and that is where I took the picture from.

There is a small area (about half my hand width, above where the mirror ends and the cabinet starts, where I put a small mirror, that I angled so that I can see the bottom of my face, only. That helps me in daily shaving without having to find a chair, or bow low, thus making my back hurt in the process. although, when I shave my head, I still have to bow down or sit.

Filippino people are (on average) a bit shorter than me, but not at all that short. The average person wouldn’t fit in that mirror either. Every time I look at the mirror I wonder, “why didn’t they angle this up?”

Generally in America, things like this don’t happen as much because standards of things like construction are just different. But here, it’s more of a “just deal with it,” mentality. I think that brings up a positive and negative.

The negative is that you might think to just improve the quality of construction, and you wouldn’t be wrong. In my little apartment, it makes me laugh because if I drop a screw (or something small, made of metal) it makes a very different sound depending on which floor tile I am over. I know that this means that some tiles have a much different amount of thin-set mortar underneath. I wonder if the tiler was wearing a blindfold when he did the work.

There is a positive, though. The high standards in the US mean that people don’t “deal” with anything. If something is even slightly imperfect, many people will just want the thing redone to their liking. They might say, “I’m paying for it, so I want it done right.” They aren’t wrong.

But (and this is a big “but”), this creates an earned reputation of Americans being unable to deal with anything even slightly uncomfortable. Yes Michael Easter is very right, there is a Comfort Crisis in the West, and we’re not better-off by our addiction to that comfort. There should be a certain level of “just deal with it.”

So, I’ll learn to live with a mirror that only shows me the shirt I’m wearing. I’ll enjoy the pleasure of my little added mirror, and I’ll just deal with having to sit in a chair while shaving my head. I’ll be OK, and maybe even better-off for having braved the horror of such tremendous difficulty.

The Range Rover Sport, a lesson in how marketing should work

I don’t live in the UK, but I would venture to bet that there are many car commercials, and many of them might be astoundingly forgettable.  Even though you’ve seen them a hundred times, you still can’t remember the car they advertise or even anything remarkable about them.

I recently tried to interact with a LinkedIn post about a commercial for the Range Rove Sport (henceforth, RRS) that plays a lot in the UK.

I say “tried,” because like often happens, I will write a lengthy response, then someone will call me, I’ll switch tabs, and then LinkedIn will decide that all my work is for naught, and I’ll never even find the original post again.  It’s frustrating.

But, since the thoughts were significant (in my opinion) to marketing, I will try to recreate them here.

Before going further, if you haven’t watched the ad in question…you totally should.  Watch it twice, even.

Although the ad doesn’t play here in America, it is played a lot in the UK, apparently.  Commenters were not shy about all of the things in this ad that’s a bit non sequitur.  There are

  • Alpacas that the driver winks at
  • A giant chessboard
  • A woman riding a horse
  • Another woman watching it all with a telescope
  • An overly large mansion
  • And a big dog

What was amazing about all of this to me as I read it (and before I’d seen this commercial) was how meticulously all the commenters could pick apart this commercial.  It was universally declared a dismal failure by the commenters.

The initial poster had decried it and wondered what the original pitch was that got this thing green-lit. I’ll return to this momentarily.

First, please understand a general principle of marketing. 

It’s totally fundamental, but it’s one that people very often miss completely.

The way the human brain works is like a giant filing cabinet.  Anytime you encounter something, it builds a file folder on that thing. 

Picture this: You go to the beach and you see the sand, the waves, maybe even a bright red crab walking sideways into the water. Your brain builds a file folder on that, called “beach.”

Now imagine: You walk into your living room and you see a couch, a chair, a tv.  Everything is in its place. Your brain builds a folder, this time called “Living Room.”

If tomorrow, you go into your living room and you see a bright red crab walking sideways, across the floor, and behind your TV, you would do a double-take.

It’s not that the sight of a bright red crab is something new to you, but it’s out of place.  It isn’t what’s in the file folder.  Your brain says, “This is new.  Pay attention.”

That is the heart of good marketing.  It makes you pay attention.

I don’t live in the UK, but I would venture to bet that there are many car commercials, and many of them might be astoundingly forgettable.  Even though you’ve seen them a hundred times, you still can’t remember the car they advertise or even anything remarkable about them.

And yet, people remember ever single detail of that commercial, and the Range Rover Sport that it advertises.

So, you ask about the pitch.  Here’s how it might have gone:

“I have an idea for an ad.  It’s weird.  It’s very much NOT a standard car commercial.  People won’t get it.  They’ll laugh about it’s absurdity.  But they’ll take notice.  They’ll post about it on social media.  They’ll remember tiny details.  They’ll mock, but they will remember that it’s an ad for the Range Rover Sport.”

And that, my friends, is pretty good marketing.