It's time to retire the "aspire to Maguire"


Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas and GOP Presidential candidate had a very interesting interview on FoxNews recently. On the set, he was asked why voters should consider him and he went on to list from his very impressive resume- balancing the budget as governor, cutting business and personal income taxes, gutting regulations and encouraging free speech and freedom of expression. You know, basic stuff a modern day conservative should care about but the interviewer wasn't satisfied and kept asking the same question.

See, we are in a world where people are constantly looking for the next "feel good" story and everyone's hero is a viral, internet sensation. Most people don't care about the most important, often basic sounding stuff, they want the thrill and fun of something that sound new, regardless of substance and that's a huge problem. That's how "aspire to perspire so you don't Maguire" was born. A marketer sounding more like a rapper than a finance and marketing guru, because explaining simple economics; demand and supply forces don't sound fun and ground breaking.

That's how fake stories are born, tales whose sources are deeply rooted in the foundations of "believe me, bro". If you're alive and remotely active on the internet, chances are, you have heard some. A popular one is that of a French Man, named Clotaire Rapaille who allegedly helped Nestlé market their coffee product in Japan through some groundbreaking psychological work, after the company had failed to enter the market, at the end of world war 2. A simple google search will tell you Nestle had been in Japan since 1922, decades before the man was born. Same man was said to have an extensive CV and almost fleeced the city of Quebec of more than $200,000 till an investigation revealed the man's purported list of clients were made up.
It's time to get back to the basics and embrace competent marketing and advertising and stop falling for trickery. That's how you end up believing "I'll build a wall and make Mexico pay for it".

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Life Is A Privilege.

Image
I spend the vast majority of my time alone so I have a lot of thoughts. Many times, I wonder if people unborn have access to those of us down here and what their thoughts are. I imagine an unborn looking down at a person on earth and wondering how much of a "screw up" they are. I think of them musing to themselves how well their lives would be if they had our talents, opportunities and privileges. How successful they will be if presented with a similar chance to try out as human beings. Sometimes, I wonder if they go up to God and beg for a chance to be born; "just give me half of the privilege this guy have and see how much impact I'd make" I imagine they say to the Almighty. Sometimes, I wonder if that's how some of us got here. I wonder if that's how I got here.  Life is a privilege, every waking hour is a privileged borrowed time but like every privilege, it's value and appreciation diminish with time and access. That's why some m...
Read more

Nigeria 2023: The contenders and Pretenders, Part 2.

Image
Imagine walking into a supermarket, desperate for milk and having only one store to pick from and as you scan through the aisle, you discover there are only 3 cans left, first one had expired 2 years ago, the other expired 6 months ago and the last just expired about a month ago, what do you do? Most rational people would choose the one that expired about a month ago and then try all sort of tricks to lessen the eventual damage and effect.  The scenario above is where most Nigerian voters find themselves on election day, when they pick the ballot to cast their vote. Most times, the only viable choices are just rotten to the core. A lot of people clamour for people to not sell their votes, truth is the votes have already been sold at Eagle Square. The elderly woman who collected a pack of salt and few naira notes on election day is not the one who sold Nigeria, those who traded dollars did months before she ever had a say and whether or not she takes the salt and cash, t...
Read more

God save us from the Buhari-Obi voter

Image
You may be wondering where I got the title from, well, it was inspired by American politics. When Donald J. Trump unexpectedly won the November 2016 presidential election in that country, many people who were taken unaware started traveling round the country to find out what made so many of their fellow country men and women fall for such a shallow con man and they found a bunch of voters who voted for Barack Obama 8 years earlier but switched parties and ideologies and voted for Trump. They were called the "Obama - Trump voters". Many of them sounded noble and like they genuinely loved their country but when you dig in to it and find out about the character of the two men they voted for, those voters begin to sound more like threats rather than patriots. A similar wave is brewing in Nigeria with many people who campaigned and voted for President Muhammadu Buhari all of a sudden finding a different calling and now campaigning for the Anambra businessman, former go...
Read more