I never thought that after almost a year of not writing that a story about apple would get me back on my blog, but I’ll take any opportunity to write again.   Today, Tuesday July 27, 2010, I received this email (attached image capture) from Apple about their latest iMac computer.  What captured my attention was the subject heading “Introducing the most powerful iMac ever”.  I think by now everyone knows that Apple’s business model is to always release a computer that is faster than the previous generation – hence the notion that the latest version will be the “most powerful iMac ever” is a given and a moot point.  Then I reminded myself that Apple is very precise and calculating. Every word in an ad copy is there for a reason. Every word on Steve Job’s PowerPoint presentation is there for a reason.  These words are powerful and  incite in customers the intended feeling that they must buy this amazing product even though the words in the subject lines are utterly absurd when held against the backdrop of reality.   Why did this newsletter from Apple incite such passion in me today? I think it was a combination of this newsletter and another newsletter from a internet marketing coach  named Mark Joyner at www.simpleology.com who’s been sending emails after emails wanting people to buy his marketing program and today he was giving away couple of chapters to a book called  “Mind Control Marketing”.    As a marketing professional myself, I had to think about whether I wanted to read a book with that title.  Do I want to learn “tricks” to get people to buy stuff?  In an age where the preferred method of learning about products is through word of mouth and one’s “social network”, I’ve got to believe that we are entering an age where we don’t need mind control tricks anymore.   I’m now taking a pause to reflect on what is “ethical” marketing? Language that clearly assumes gullibility or even worse, ignorance in the part of the people interested in a product clearly is not language fitting of an advancing civilization.

If you’re wondering what may have been a cleaner subject heading…well here’s one: “Introducing the new & faster iMac.” This new subject line doesn’t make the notion of Apple releasing a more powerful iMac a new phenomena in a computer launch- every computer from Apple since the release of Apple II in 1977 has been “more powerful” than their previous generations.. Just wait another year or two and Apple’s newsletter headline will once again be “Introducing the most powerful iMac ever”.  I’m a believer that words are powerful and that the words we use when we speak to our children, partners, friends, family members and to the public in general – i.e. our fellow human beings -  should carry the highest of intentions.  I can’t say that I follow this rule all the time, but I’m often reminded when I don’t – so Apple marketers, what do you think?

I saw this image today of an ad campaign by VISA.  I couldn’t help but be saddened by the image of all of the electronic stuff that is being depicted by VISA as having something to do with “Life” or the stuff of life. It made me wonder about the thinking behind this campaign.  Do the folks at VISA and their Ad agency really believe this notion to their individual cores and do they think that people (i.e. consumers) will resonate with it? Is this line of marketing similar to the slogan now written on the entrance to every Best Buy store: “You Happier”.  As if Life is all about buying stuff, stuff that requires VISA.  When will we learn our lessons that “stuff” does not equal to life or happiness, and when will corporations stop feeding people the myth.  I guess these days its Life as usual when you live in a country which can’t keep up with its own national debt, its banking system is on the verge of collapse due to bad loans, and where the value of the currency is plunging so low that the price of everything is rising to the point where most people have no choice but to buy “stuff” with their VISA cards.

The tragic irony of the image in this particular campaign is that it looks a bit like the Manhattan sky line, and ominously reminds me of the aftermath of 911 when President Bush told the nation to go out and spend in order to help America.  What a double-edged sword credit is.  It is an instrument that can both heal and harm at the same time, especially depending on whose hand it is in.  It is part of the fabric of most societies but like some of society’s other features, it is largely misunderstood, abused, and seen as natural and necessary.  Sounds like another institution/instrument that is greatly in need of a conscious revision.

I myself am deep in the process of re-evaluating and re-defining how I use all my credit cards, how I take on false labels like “home-owner” based on debt financing, and revisiting various forms of debt that on the surface seem benevolent like micro-finance(a major topic worthy of its own post in a later time).

For more info, follow the following link:

http://www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker/2008/08/monsanto.php

I had to take a little break from writing and editing in order to attend to life. This post was actually written a couple of months ago but is just as relevant today.

My last post about Monsanto included an embedded video from the French documentary “The world according to Monsanto” originally taken from the Internet Archive’s website. It didn’t take long for that copy to stop functioning and apparently many more versions around the internet including ones on Youtube(apparently all taken down – done so by the producer of the video or Monsanto no-one knows!). It looks as if for the time being, we can see the film on YouTube. The embedded video is part 1 of 8 so please make sure to check out the person who posted the video to see the rest of the footage. An amazing wakeup call to this company who single-handedly will be shaping the future of our collective health..

I don’t want to go on a bashing spree about a company which is ultimately run by fellow human beings who for one reason or another are not at a mental and conscious level to fully understand the harmful impacts of their acts even with preponderance of readily available information both in print and on the internet about the safety and health-effects of their products. Similar to how our parents who in the past only knew how to raise us to the best of their abilities and based on their conscious level at that time, we ultimately can’t blame these workers at these forms of companies either for they too are on their learning journey. A company with so many lives(ie. years in existance) is a living being and therefore we must collectively work to make sure that the offsprings of this being, much like our own children, can grow to be of higher consciousness so that they too have the opportunity and ability to change the world for the better.

The direction I’m wanting to steer this post towards however is the relationship between Monsanto and what some would coin the “Green Movement”. How is it that one of the most notorious companies, fought by so many environmentalists(see for yourself in the video) has stories on their website such as “Monsanto’s Biofuels Story — Food and Fuel: It’s not an “either/or” equation” with language that you’d normally see on a “green” blog or green news site such as GreenBiz.com? How is a company such as that connected with “green/clean-tech” companies such as reported in this article from Monsanto. Similarly how the big agricultural firm ADM makes an equity investment into a Bio-bases lubricant company. These examples show just the extent to which big agricultural and bio-engineering firms are now embedding themselves with the growing list of seemingly clean-tech/green companies. Is there anything to worry about you say? I won’t even go into the food supply impact but as more and more of our non-edible products such as building and manufacturing materials, special fluids including fuel, are going to be coming from plant based sources, its going to be critical that we pay attention to how and where these plants are grown. These companies clearly represent entities who are in the business of creating new life-forms made at the lowest price, to be sold at the highest price and with zero disregards for human and planet safety. As apposed to the downstream pollution of the petroleum era, we may soon be faced with an era where we will no longer be able to find plants that are not genetically altered, seeds that can’t be provided to poor or rich countries without patent licenses to companies like Monsanto or lands no longer profitable for anything other than for growing specialty crops to feed our new “green” lifestyle, our new biodegradable plastics, our “green” polymers, and lets not forget our compostable plasticware and green fuel at the pump. In terms of seeming opposition to nature, disregard to societal values and negative impact on world health, Monsanto, ADM and the likes may just be the Chevron, Mobil, Shell, BP of the future(if they’re not already there).

To finish this train of thought, I recently came across this chart showing the amount of crop land the US needs to convert in order to put a dent in our current oil consumption diet … it doesn’t look pretty. If companies such as Monsanto have anything to do with it, they will soon have proprietary, patented genetically modified blends of seeds and herbicides that will go after that market..

[See my retraction]