Friday, September 5, 2014

Friday. And thoughts of Mammon.

Since the beginning of humanity we've always chased things that we can never quite touch.

Maybe, the bones of a Saint. A splinter from the True Cross. Or the Holy Grail.

Maybe we were chasing a perpetual motion machine. Or looking to turn lead into gold.

Not long ago, it was flying cars and colonies on the stars.

Yup.

We chase after illusions.

Doing so is as human as flatulence.

For the last 15 or 20 years, we've lusted after the killer app.

The one thing that will change everything.

It's the path to riches beyond our wildest dreams.

Marketers look for it. They have entire departments of powerpoint creators writing incomprehensible drivel about it. Agencies do the same, matching the most prolific MBA powerpoint page for powerpoint page.

The worst, of course, is the aristocracy of the world. The great Guru Class. The spouters, the poseurs, the do-nothing anointed who ride their soaring cipher to fame and riches. That their proclamations are banal, trite and facile, it doesn't matter. They supply and feed the great cliche machine that keeps the whole bullshitocracy going.

There is a killer app.

If you're a client, do something different. Do something better. It's really that simple. It works time and again. Samsung is doing well, as are Tesla and Chipotle and HBO, because they make something cool that people want.

If you're an agency, do work that gets noticed, that's disruptive and inspiring.

We all look for the magic potion, the fairy dust, the sorcerer's stone, the hand of god or something cosmic--the stars, maybe--that have all the answers, that will give us an EZ-Pass to Mammon.

I happen to believe that it's there.

It's only ephemeral or hard to reach because it takes work to reach it.

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