Self Destruction, Cadillacs, and Publicity

Publicity and I have a love-hate sort of relationship. On one hand, I find it disgusting that the marketing elite of the United States have such a firm grip on the minds of their country’s citizens; they say buy, and the people run to do their bidding.

On the other hand lays the interest of progress and a pursuit of a greater understanding of the human condition that stems from research on the effects of publicity. There is so much to be understood from merely observing people’s mental and physical reaction to advertisements that it would simply be blasphemy to ignore its presence.

Of course, there is no doubt that far more people will agree with me on the former than on the latter. And therein lies the distrust of publicity, the unkind Big Brother of marketing; a behemoth with the firm belief of the ignorance of the public, a conviction culminating only in results of the most self-destructive nature.

The reason behind these thoughts on publicity stems from a lecture on an advertisement that has been named one of the greatest campaigns in the history of marketing: The Penalty of Leadership written by Theodore F. MacManus for Cadillac in the early 20th century.

"In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man's work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone - if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountback, long after the big would had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy - but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions - envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains - the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live—lives.”

(At the time, Cadillac had been assaulted with accusations of fault with its 1915 V8 Touring model and though the ad ran only once, it carried the company into a great prosperity.)

That such a straightforward idea could carry a company to the forefront of a notoriously brutal market is nothing short of fascinating.

When compared to the ads we are assaulted by on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis, it’s somewhat discouraging that the marketing firms of today have since lost so much faith in the intelligence of the consumer.

We are no longer assumed to understand (or to have the patience to read), but seen as lemmings that will laugh at, buy and consume anything that moves – we are driven by explosions, technology, and talking cavemen whose fabricated disgust with prejudice and stereotypes elicit hours of unrefined laughter.

I hate to advocate a return to simpler times, or play the part of the sandwich board toting “prophet,” but it does seem that if we are not given the benefit of the doubt in regards to intelligence, there will nothing stopping us from rejoining the ranks of the Geiko cavemen.

(Sorry for the rather longwinded and erratic commentary, but I needed to get this off my chest.)