When Those in Power Realize They Aren’t
August 9, 2007
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You can almost feel sorry for the powerful elite who used to control the flow of information in this country
and around the world. But then there is the perverse pleasure in watching the power of crowds setting things right. Two stories come to mind to illustrate the point:
Story #1: In Michigan, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, an otherwise solid legislator, inexplicably tried to ban one particular blog from all state senate computers. He had the IT team block access to this blog, written by a political hobbyist. His ground were that people in the Senate were spending too much time on her blog. Perhaps her left leaning views irked him?
Of course, being banned was the best thing that ever happened to Blogging for Michigan, her website. Traffic spiked. Even conservative blogs like RightMichigan.com said Bishop was wrong. Bishop relented, and access was restored.
Power shift #1: The leader of the Senate was trumped by a part time publisher. In fact, he inadvertently turned her into a power player in Michigan politics.
Story #2: In Germany, in January of 2006, an ad agency released a slogan designed to “fight grumpiness” in the country. Unfortunately, the themeline (You are Germany) was very close to a Nazi convention sign (Because You are Germany) that Hitler stood in front of in an obscure 1935 photo, found of course, by bloggers and posted.
The campaign was crushed. The head of the advertising agency, who was no doubt trained to control messages, sent an internal email calling blogs “the toilet walls of the Internet” and asked what gave bloggers the “right” to express their opinions? Of course, this email ended up on the blogs, forcing the ad executive to quickly apologize and run.
Power shift #2: While advertising still very much has a strong role in promoting ideas, every campaign now exists in the unfettered marketplace of ideas. No creative director, no chief marketing officer, no company controls their brand anymore.
Napoleon, take your hand out of your shirt, step off the pedestal, and come on over here and just talk to us.
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