Latest Epidemic

There seems to be a bit of an epidemic going on. No, I am not referring to mad-chicken-crazy-cow-bird-mosquito-disease... although that's going around too. I'm talking about foot-in-mouth disease.

In advertising, it's absolutely imperative you know your audience. You can create the greatest advertisement *ever* but if the wrong people are getting the message, your ad is as good as mud. Even worse, your ad might have negative effects (as opposed to zero effect).

With advertising running through my veins, I generally try to know my audience in day-to-day conversation, though admittedly I fail miserably from time to time. Actually, everyone does this whether they know a smidgen about advertising or not, as it's simply considered having social smarts. Knowing your audience makes it so much easier to be nice and pleasant or poignantly mean. Sometimes we screw up or want to say something even though it might be faux pas, so we instantaneously "cure" this disease with a simple "No offense" at the beginning or end of our speech, knowing full-well that this only cheapens the content of our message by half.

Right, so anyway, lately, I've run into a few people who apparently have no concept of audience interaction. They say whatever the heck they like, and damned be it if you're offended. It's enough to make you want to throw a copy of How To Win Friends and Influence People at their head. Of course, having hung out with various political-schiesters over the past many years perhaps I've simply been sheltered, as politicos are generally overly-conscious about how they come across. But still, I wonder how these people have made it through life without being decked once or twice.

Anders claims that everyone knows how they do and will come across and it's just a matter of whether we know so on a conscious or subconscious level. Those who do know it full-well are generally confident people who care about others, although not necessarily for them (hence, the meanness part). Those who only recognize it on a subconscious level have low self-esteem running through their conscious mind and thereby can't past themselves to see how they impact others.

Knowing less about psychology than Anders, I'll agree with him as it sounds about right. Or at least is pertains to the specific people I have in mind. But then again, Anders is just a geek... No offense.