The100: Marketing bubbles, Bud Light and Cockney accents

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The reaction to the reaction that created more reaction

It wouldn’t be an issue of The100 without Ritson’s recent ruminations (apologies for the excessive alliteration). He’s written about the US backlash to a Bud Light ad and how it shows the complexity of mass marketing:

“Watching the full interview with Heinerscheid [VP, Bud Light] is important. Many of her comments have been taken out of context and a full viewing reveals a smart, driven, impressive marketer […] But three significant flaws emerge […] The lack of consideration for existing Bud Light consumers creates a vacuum that Heinerscheid’s own perspective fills. But she is not the market. She’s the marketer. And that eternal, often missed distinction is apparent.”

“It’s about how marketers work, not where they work”

Andrew Tenzer had a similar point to make on marketers’ ability to estimate the values and aspirations of mainstream audiences. 

“I see an industry failing to confront the deep biases that contaminate the way we think about mainstream audiences […] Let’s stop hiding behind the concept of a ‘London bubble’, and acknowledge that the real bubble is the culture of marketing. No matter where you’re based, the only way to overcome this is to recognise your own biases…”

Despite the UK focus, there’s something universal in what Andrew says – that no matter where humans live and what they do, most of us tend to keep our worlds small, familiar and insular.

Here there be schisms

Roger Martin is excellent on how we’re taught to analyse the past to make decisions about the future, and the assumption that the future = the past. 

“Every single time that you consider an analysis, you have to ask yourself: Am I sufficiently confident that the future will be identical to the past? If so, go ahead and make the decision based on your rigorous data analysis. If you aren’t confident that the future will be identical to the past […] then be really, really careful about using your analysis.”

Al desco

Microsoft has been doing some digging into how people are using their applications in the workplace. Unsurprisingly, a lack of uninterrupted focus is becoming a problem:

“68% of people say they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday […] Across the Microsoft 365 apps, the average employee spends 57% of their time  communicating (in meetings, email, and chat) and 43% creating (in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations).”

The writers’ room

Hattie Crisell interviewed the screenwriter, Georgia Pritchett, who’s worked on corkers such as Succession, Veep and The Thick of It. Georgia had some good stories to tell on the research they did for Succession and writing about characters you share nothing in common with: 

“None of us had a clue what it was like to be rich, so we had to get these rich consultants on to help us, and they really gave us a hard time […] I think I wrote that the napkins were in serviette rings, because that seems really posh to me, but they basically said I was trailer trash and knew nothing.”

And finally…

Why are so many young Americans adopting British accents? No, me neither. But this gem of a quote had me choking on my Rosie Lee:

“The tougher the conversation, the more Cockney I become.” 

@monachalabi shared some lovely infographics that show the difference between median US income vs. Jeff Bezos wealth. 

This has been well shared, but it’s a quite lovely watch on what the London Marathon is all about. Pretty cool. 

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