What about the 3 billion viewers who saw the XYZ concert on global TV broadcast,

or the 400 million who tuned into some obscure sporting event. Or fashion week, for example.

I DON'T THINK SO

The program may have been beamed on a network or 2 such that at peak potential if every one of the viewers had the TV on and their mothers in law visiting on the day, if they could have had the motivation to turn on the box for a minute before being repelled by the manufactured nonsense, it may be a POTENTIAL audience, but that is about all. Intuitively, they would be about an order of magnitude out, at a guess.

And while we are at it, when Mark Weber came to race in the Aust GP in Melbourne, 'visit Canberra' paid a huge amount of money ( I think $300,000) to have this message (http://WWW.visitcanberra.com.au or whatever) put on his helmet in the vain hope that the in-car camera, (that is assuming he was in the first three and getting incorporated in the broadcast), would pick up this image and beam it around the world to 3 billion viewers (or however many). Who would then drop everything and go to the internet and find Canberra a compelling place to visit.

As it was, Weber finished towards the back of the field. By writing about this, I have probably gained as many 'eyeballs' as did this profligate waste of a marketers (wet)dream. Mind you, spending that money, someone from the sponsor probably got a Backstage pass or 2 and extra tickets for their son-in-laws.

And while we are on the matter of back stage passes, we have a Canberra festival that incluses a Fringe component. Very hip, very bohemian, very tolerant. Very c00l. And what do you get in the social pages but happy snaps of the freeloading canape eating, chardonnay swilling, Chopin listening, social butterflies with their "Acess all Areas' ID around their necks, slumming it at the Fringe. How to kill a subsidised event in one easy lesson.

Which brings us to an Annoying Popular Saying Endlessly Right:

"Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." - Groucho Marx

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I notice I have used both "Compelling" and "eyeballs". Very improper, Mr B.

And they probably think Chopin is French, too!!

When President Kennedy said "Ich bin ein berliner"

he actually said that he was a sausage, like a Weiner or a Frankfurter

More accurately, he should have said "Ich bin Berliner"

.

Heard a howler the other day

"The tipping point of the iceberg"

.

did read an interview with the ' yesterdays man' morrissey .[used to have a band that put adolescent existential angst to poetry that didn't rhyme]
he loudly proclaimed that vegetarian or not, he would---
'rather eat his own testicles than reform the smiths'
at first glance this statement is comforting on so many levels--------no more smiths,cheer.
morrissey chowing down on his own prarie oysters,lightly braised with a chilled chianti----beaut visual...
it is annoying because you can't rely on him to keep either part of the promise.

Matt
The short answer to " The market is always right" would be "then why do we have corrections". My particular "run from the room screaming" is when someone uses "Pacific" instead of "Specific"
Happyjack

pet gripe of the week

essential, when used by 'entrepreneurial hippies' in describing their massage oils

Of the possible definitions:

adjective 1. vital, important, needed, necessary, critical, crucial, key, indispensable, requisite, vitally important, must-have
adjective 2. fundamental, main, basic, radical, key, principal, constitutional, cardinal, inherent, elementary, innate, intrinsic, elemental
adjective 3. concentrated, extracted, refined, volatile, rectified, distilled

they do seem to confuse #1 and #3, but then for hippies confusion goes with the territory, as it does with entrepreneurs, I guess
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On a related theme, ever wondered why it is called a "Health Food Store" when you are confronted by bottles of pills and little else, when walking into one?

Ben,
must be a slow week if that is your gripe, thousands of things annoy me more.

I've got an insiders view of this, having known a lady who was one of the afforementioned entreprenuerial hippies.
She was just as hip as she needed to be for cred in that industry sector. Just as an aspiring financial type might wear
a suit and tie, etc. What is the "acceptable" uniform and demeanour for public servants nowadays?

But back to the use of essential which raised your ire, "they" in that industry, clearly mean the refined or distilled versions of essential.
Petro-chems use octanes and the oil (olive) industry has the mortgage on virgin and extra virgin. Which raises an interesting
point about designating a saying endlessly wrong. If people misconstrue "essential" then that is a convenient mistake for the purveyors
of snake oil, but it is not wrong, on their part.

btw: It was a very lucrative hippie business. Largest overseas customer was the middle east - yeap - selling oil to the arabs,
and rose oil was ten times more expensive then anything else. the essences in those very small bottles is cut by 10 or 20 times with a "quality" base.
Compare that to the Aromatherapy from the Reject Shop, where you can smell nothing but the cheap & nasty parafin base used.
Its actually like checking good and bad oil saturation for cholestrol. Heat 'em up (with a drop of water) if they set to a waxy blob they are rubbish.
If they retain the fluid characteristics of oils then you have your essential quality.

Oils aint oils Sol.

Mutt,

"What is the "acceptable" uniform and demeanour for public servants nowadays?"

Don't ask me!! I live in their city but that's about the limit of contact. Anecdotally, different departments have different 'codes'. I think Treasury and Finance are formal, and the ones that have 'customers' are down dressed, with quaint customs like slack Fridays etc

& thanks for your insights and fleshing out of the volatile world of real essential stuff.

As to my 'slow week" I do get a bit thematic. Once when a hubcap was stolen from my car, I was transfixed for weeks staring at all passing cars. Never realised the variety before. But I got over it.

While probably not wrong, these are popular words and phrases which get right up my nose (a phrase which is also annoying)

From CBS Moneywatch and other sites but just as applicable in Australia

Leverage. Deployment of an insufficient amount of something to do that which was previously done with much more. Example: After the layoffs, we can leverage our staff of three to cover the entire Eastern seaboard.

Reach out. Deliver the bad news. Example: Reach out to the customers with a letter announcing that their interest rate just doubled.

It is what it is. Get used to it. Example: Your administrative assistant doesn’t know how to answer the phone. It is what it is.

Viral. So prevalent that you want to barf when you hear about it. Example: Twitter has gone viral.

Game changer. A catalyst that will transform a frog into a prince or vice versa. Example: Getting indicted for fraud was a game changer for Bernie Madoff.

Disconnect. A situation in which you wanted jelly, but someone gave you peanut butter. Example: There is a disconnect between what the consumer wants and what we intend to provide.

Value-add. A gain, usually financial. Example: She refuses to donate to charity unless she sees some value-add, say, eternal salvation.

Circle back. See you again and again and again whether or not you want to be seen. Example: I’m having cocktails with Mervin, but I will circle back around midnight to see if you’ve finished the Implebottom Report or The stalker abided by the court’s restraining order but then circled back to hang out by my garbage can.

Socialize. Jam the idea down their throats. Example: We need to socialize to our patients our practice of closing the doctor’s office every day for two hours at lunch. In other words, “Call 911.”

Interface. Have relations with. Example: I interfaced with Charlie, and now I’m pregnant.

Cutting edge. So modern, it’s to die for. Example: Sleeperama’s cutting-edge mattress will take the country by storm.

Value Proposition

I know what it is meant to mean, but it is fast becoming "This is a good idea (but I can't be bothered explaining why to you)"

from Investopedia: What Does Value Proposition Mean?
A business or marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement should convince a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings.

Investopedia explains Value Proposition:
Companies use this statement to target customers who will benefit most from using the company's products, and this helps maintain an economic moat. The ideal value proposition is concise and appeals to the customer's strongest decision-making drivers. Companies pay a high price when customers lose sight of the company's value proposition.

Ah but there you go. Now we have an "economic moat " Well, that is fascinating; I hope some of the water in the economic moat doesn't seep into the 'economic silo' nearby, because that's sure going to contaminate that little old value proposition.

.........but that is silly of me; because there are sufficient "barriers to entry" and we will all be all right.

Its all marketing bumph.