“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-16 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of October 17, 2016
This Week’s Podcast:
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Media Done Well
There is plenty to criticize about the media. I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the seven or eight years of this program doing just that. So it’s nice to have the opportunity to recognize when a media outlet has risen above the every day to show how it should be done.
The story centers on the newspaper, the “Arizona Republic”. Published in Phoenix, Arizona, it is the largest newspaper in the state. Arizona is a pretty politically conservative state, and, over the years, the “Arizona Republic” has offered a consistently conservative editorial position to its readers. But late last year, as the presidential campaigns began to get serious, they took a long look at the potential candidates, in preparation for making their usual endorsement. The problem was that as the campaigns went on, the editorial board began to have serious doubts about who might end up as the nominee of the Republican party. After long discussion, the editorial board of the newspaper made a hard decision. For the first time in one hundred twenty-five years, they endorsed a Democratic candidate for President of the United States. They considered the possibility of not endorsing anyone but rejected it. In the words of their publisher, Mi-Ai Parrish, they “…chose patriotism over party”.
Not everyone was impressed.
Immediately, the newspaper began to receive threats, including death threats. Including one that would have struck a particular chord for anyone working at the paper who knew its history. The caller invoked the name of Don Bolles, a former reporter for the paper, who died after a bomb went off in his car. It is believed to be retaliation for his work uncovering corruption in Arizona. In her response piece to those threats, Parrish tells the story of the young woman who took that call. Who carefully went over the details with the police about the threat, and then went to church to pray for the person who made the call.
The column from the publisher is filled with stories like that. Of reporters and editors who heard the threats and went out to do their jobs the next day. Covering the stories they way they believed the news should be covered, as fairly and comprehensively as possible. I will place a link to the column on my webpage or simply go to azcentral dot com and look for yourself.
This is what the media should look like in a country like ours. It is the dedication to doing the job right. It is the courage to show us the truth, even when it will be unpopular. It is the humanity to respond with intelligence and compassion when confronted with anger and hatred.
It is exactly the kind of behavior that makes America Great.
Older Marketing
I came across a commentary the other day that struck a little too close to home. It was talking about marketing to older consumers, and how the author, Steve Sternberg, writing for the folks at MediaPost, wanted marketers to know that he wasn’t his father. And that they shouldn’t be marketing to him the way they had to his dad.
It struck me that there is a lot of truth to that. I’m 58 and as much as I still look and sound like my old man, he and I are two very different people at this age. He was a child of the Depression and Second World War. I’m a child of the Age of Aquarius and Disco. He was a member of the Silent Generation, a disciplined, careful group that was raised in an age of conformity. I’m a Baby Boomer, the original “Me Generation”. Raised in an age where to being a non-conformist was expected (and most of us never got that irony), we also tend to be a bit self-centered and self-righteous. We were the first media generation and the members of the original “Youth Culture”.
And now retirement looms for us.
So with people over the age of 55 making up more than half the population and controlling upwards to 70 per cent of the wealth in the country, you’d think we’d still be a pretty valuable marketing group.
But marketers are still stuck on our parents model of older demographics. Some of them are twigging to the fact that the need to eliminate the “O” word from their vocabulary. Boomers do not, generally, like being reminded that we are getting “old”. Not me, man, not me.
As I began to skim articles on the subject of marketing to more mature demographics, I was astounded at just how tone deaf the industry remains. One expert said that in marketing to this group you should go all psychedelic colors and music because we are all “stuck in the ’60s and ’70s”. You have to be kidding me.
We may not be able to keep up with our children and grandkids with technology, but for lots and lots of us, it’s not something strange or mysterious. Over a third of all Facebook users are 55 and up.
We’ve got free time and disposable income. We like to be active and we expect to be catered to (which means we are far more likely to change brands if we aren’t satisfied than our parent’s generation was).
No, I’m not my father. If companies, products, and marketers want my money, they better figure that out fast.
Because this here computer thing is pretty slick, and there are lots of other places for me to spend.
Dylan and the Prize
It would be hard to argue that there was any news more surprising last week than the fact that a Minnesota boy named Robert Allen Zimmerman won the Nobel prize for Literature. History knows him best as Bob Dylan.
When I first heard the news, I wondered what the reaction was going to be. Some of it was fairly predictable. The true Dylan fans have behaved as is the Swedish Academy had been slacking in not doing this sooner. Meanwhile, the “serious literature” folk were harrumphing at the indignity of it all. I have a couple thoughts on it all.
First, Bob Dylan’s lyrics (and remember he did NOT win for his singing) stand out from everything that came before and after. He raised the bar on the intelligence of song lyrics, on the imagery and the sheer craftsmanship of songs intended for popular audiences. I find the idea, put forward by a variety of people, that somehow he is not a “writer” beyond puzzling. Where do you think his songs come from? Under cabbage leaves? Delivered by storks? Poetry from earliest times has been sung. In fact, one of the three classical genres is “lyric poetry”, which, by its very nature, is sung. He has been referred to as a poet going back to at least 1965. So Dylan qualifies for the label of literature.
Then we come to the whole, “But this is for serious literature” argument. Curiously, the description from the Swedish Academy, the folks who hand out the Nobels, say nothing of the sort. The outline for the award says this “…in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”. Having already established Dylan’s literature cred, I think we can move on. Of course, they also speak sadly of “more deserving writers”. I’m still waiting to hear the name of one. In fact, when I looked at the names of the most recent winners, I recognized virtually no one. And I consider myself a fairly serious reader.
And that may be the crux of it. The literati elite sees the Nobel Prize for Literature as theirs. The award is to go not to some popular author, but to “serious” writers. It is intended to recognize the very best.
I think it has done just that. No songwriter has ever won before, and I doubt that any will be winning again soon. The arc of creativity scribed by Bob Dylan is not easily recreated. So far, the artist himself has not made an official response to winning. That’s hardly surprising. Dylan has traditionally pointed fans to those artists who influenced him, reminding us that we all stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us.
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that we stand today on the shoulders of Bob Dylan.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2016
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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