September 27, 2004
love is viral
You ask folk to name some brands that really resonate with them, what Saatchi & Saatchi’s would call a
Hugh MacLeod
I'm a cartoonist.
I sell limited-edition prints.
I wrote a book.
I'm CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.
I also draw private commissions.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
Bluetrain |
$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
$650 | |
Portfolio #2 |
$300 | |
NY NY |
$275 |
love is viral but so is indifference. That is the problem.
Man, if indifference was viral my job would pay 50 times as much
i think indifference is equally as viral as love. say you become indifferent toward your blog. your content suffers, your readers become indifferent and drop off, you see the drop and become more indifferent, content suffers more, more readers drop off…
i would think it would work the same way in the business world. if you don’t love your product, no one else will. if you’re not spreading love, you’re spreading indifference.
Cynthia, the “Mediocrity is infectious” argument does not lead to higher insight and you know it (Shame on you!). All is does is give temporary comfort to mediocrities.
how does a warning that being mediocre breeds mediocrity give comfort? i don’t get it.
I don’t agree entirely. If asked that question, my girlfriend would never mention her hair-coloring brand. Those answers would go to Louis Vitton, etc.
Yet, when she sent me to get her some she specified the brand and described the box in detail. So there is some kind of brand loyalty. I guess the question is, how did she get it.
(Okay, probably told by someone else, thus, virally).
I think we’re confused between mediocrity and indifference. Mediocrity is a standard of human action and may be caused by indifference but indifference is an emotion and can spread through any demographic like wildfire.
I would have thought that indifference would make your job harder, Hugh. I don’t know much (well, anything really) about advertising or its associated industries but I would have thought that indifference to a brand/advertising campaign would make it more difficult to sell the product.
Thanks to a daily read of your blog I am learning more about personal philosophy and am beginning to set my own stall out (late as it may be at 28!) based on principles not unlike your own. I am beginning to see past the Bill Hicks mantra of anyone in advertising killing themselves
Anyway, less of me, on with show…
If you find indifference infectious, Cynthia, not my problem
no one said anything was your problem, i was simply asking for clarification of something you said on your blog.
but your indifference toward answering has infected with me with indifference, so don’t bother answering, i’m no longer interested.
Cynthia, you’ve made me so indifferent now!!!
I demand you apologize!!!
I think everything is infectious, but we all want to love and be love, and the best way to do that is give some love. Some say said it’s infectious.
but although I can hear music to set them to, pokemon it’s nothing solid, or it isn’t fully Right. That’s michelle vieth weird for me