Right and wrong. Left and right. Up and down. Hot and cold. Fire and water. New and old. Happy and sad. Fish and fowl. You get the picture……
Last week was a great debate on absolutes. When are they real, if ever? If there are absolutes, when and how do you apply them? And when you apply them what do they really mean? It seems we did agree on certain absolutes—morality and ethics. So I take those off the table for this discussion. Although in one of my college philosophy classes even that was challenged. Do you recall a professor who said “morality is the venue of the victor?” However, that’s a discussion for a beer and a long night…
The bottom line (the real absolute that I see) is there is none (beyond what we agree on). Or maybe there are….
Think on this…
“Color television! Bah, I won’t believe it until I see it in black and white.”
Samuel Goldwyn
And, there you have it!! Show me the absolute in black and white and I might believe it…
What do you think?
As i commented previously, there are in reality no absolutes, no entirely black and white situations. Take the work we do: even in a really crappy concept or execution, there is always a redeeming quality, even if it’s ever so slight. Likewise, the greatest, award-winningest idea can be improved somehow. It too is never the absolute best. (Practically speaking, we might spend another 40 hours to improve an idea, but one must always weigh the ROI of such an endeavour… will any client ever pay us to spend 500 hours to reach 99.99% perfection, when we can spend 50 hours to reach 99%? Absolute perfection is an ideal, not practical reality.)
As you allude to in your post, absolutes are for the ethics and morality and philosophy classes. In our world, the only absolutes are the opinions of those who have the final say.
Right and wrong, black and white… it seems everything is a matter of choice. It is true, and probably too easy, but it still applies to branding. Mac or PC? Breitling or Cartier ? Ferrari or Porsche ?, Beattles or Rolling Stones…
I am definitively Mac, Breitling and Ferrari My choices have been made. But does it really matters? Are my choices a reflection of an extreme option? Do my choices stereotype or put in a specific league?
This in turn raises an argument on point of views and perspective. Is the famous glass still half empty or half full (by now one would have assumed that it has been fully drunk!…)? Does it really matter, regardless of the way you look at it? It is still half!!
Being on one side of the river matters. It is like being right or wrong. You make a choice and you stick to it. However, when it comes to qualifying that choice, does the same logic apply? For example, presenting our ideas or concepts to clients. Do we have the best concepts ? Or are they qualified as ‘winning concept’ when they are selected by our clients ?
In such a cases, we would probably talk about relatives. But I guess even then, the debate will turn to relatives or absolutes ?
Finally, maybe absolutes exist only because they coexist in a relative word…
Think about Terry’s point — look at the same history written by winners and loosers of the same conflict — what do you think?
As for music I’m still a Doors fan but the point is interesting — you make a choice — and you stick with it — until you change yoru mind……I just heard Lester speak at a conference and his point always is — who is going to make eternal choices for toothpaste?
You’re right on, David. Without getting overly political here because I don’t quite think this is the forum, listen to the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict from both sides and you’ll think you’re hearing about two completely separate set of events.
We all make end up making judgments about a variety of issues or (in the case of marketing,) purchases, but those judgments and decisions are subject to a long list of factors that can even shift from day to day, or hour to hour. Truth is a moving target.
Its not a statement of politics or sides — I agree with you — so how does this impact our business challenge if everything is a moving target?
I guess that’s what business is really all about, isn’t it?: addressing challenges at a particular moment in time. In other words, the solutions we divise, be they marketing plans, media plans, ad campaigns, etc., only work for a given time and place. And then we have to analyze, research, redefine the challenges and repeat. I suppose I’m just stating the obvious because if everything was black and white, right and wrong, someone would have found the absolutely perfect solution to each business’s challenges and we would have put ourselves out of business by now.
It dawns on me (and this veers into a WHOLE new thread!) that earlier you talked about leaving aside the moral/ethical side of black and white, right and wrong, for the sake of this discussion, but I wonder whether one really can, even when we’re talking about our world of business. Here’s what I’m getting at: Let’s say hypothetically (!) Nike sets itself the goal of making the best shoes it can make at the lowest cost possible — on a scale of absolutely good to absolutely bad, that sounds absolutely good. But then let’s say Nike decides to hire child laborers to achieve that goal. Well, from a business point of view, this is perfectly acceptable in that it helps achieve the stated goal and provides value to customers and stakeholders, but obviously from an ethical point of vew, this is not acceptable. So, we end up with two diametrically opposed parts to this equation, one pretty darn good, the other pretty darn bad. Once again, a moving target — in this case, finding a solution that can maximize a worthwhile business objective without minimizing our worthwhile moral responsibility.
Ok, I think I need to shut up now.
New thread? New set of clothes! In fact a whole new closet!!!! But you are right — in fact what you have touched on is going to be core to our seminar in Cannes this year — stay tuned