Dick Clark's legacy: Interactive teens

By John McGory

“It’s got a beat and you can dance to it.” That phrase summed up the brilliant career of one of America’s great showmen, Dick Clark. He passed away last week at the age of 82.

Clark took over a local Philadelphia teenage music television program, Bandstand, in 1957. 

The national television networks were looking for programming and Clark pitched Bandstand to ABC. The network picked it up and changed the name to AmericanBandstand.  The program first aired August 5, 1957.

Clark’s easy-going style harnessed the power of the young to change popular culture.  He played a key role in merging television, advertising, music, dance and teenagers.

What can modern day advertisers and social media gurus learn from the media-savvy Clark?  What did he do that made American Bandstand a national sensation?

Clark’s biggest plus was not to get in the way. American Bandstand was not about Dick Clark. He wore conservative suits, smiled oh-so politely and introduced new music and culture with a simple wave of the hand.

The show’s highlights were new music, new dances and new clothing styles. Teens in small-town America could see what was hip in Philadelphia and later Los Angeles. The show allowed teens to be interactive.

He asked for their opinions on music and dance. The “Rate-a-Record” segment allowed teens in the studio and at home to judge new music. The phrase, “It’s got a beat and you can dance to it” came from teens judging records that appealed to them.

Clark gave some advertising advice in an article he wrote for Advertising Age in 1972 that still applies today. 

“Make sure commercials are believable.”  One suggestion for believability he had was through the “judicious use of the vernacular of the day.”  He warned not to be caught using out-of-date phrases such as “groovy.”

This advice seems obviously simple.  But take a look at today’s advertising.  Many advertisers are straining their credibility through the use of seemingly hip phrases and stunts that quickly grow cold with overuse.

Youth drives culture. Dick Clark understood that and didn’t try to be a part of the new culture. He said he couldn’t dance and, more importantly, didn’t want to dance. He was a reporter who gave the facts by showing teens as they wanted to be seen. The teens said it had a beat, not Clark.

  

Clark said this about the young. “They’re more fun. They’re not jaded, they keep you young. I’ve seen them lead the way—not only in sociological and political aspects, but out there on the street of commerce.”

Dick Clark’s ability to keep his dignity while still showing the newest trends and styles allowed him to prosper for decades. He didn’t get outdated because he never got sucked into changing along with the culture.    

Today’s marketing and advertising ego-driven world tries so hard to be hip and cool.  Unfortunately, they often end up looking lame.  Clark’s American Bandstand had a simple yet edgy strategy.  He let teens interact and got out of the way.   The world could learn a lot from Clark’s unassuming, hands-off style. 

John McGory is a partner at Webface, an original content creation company.   Let us help you reach your customers in cool ways.      

Women buying power and men

 By John McGory

Some Like it Hot, Billy Wilder’s classic comedy featuring Marilyn Monroe, is about two men who dress as women to hide from the mob.   Jack Lemmon tries to explain to Joe E. Brown in the final scene why he can’t marry him.  After numerous excuses, he pulls off his wig and says “I can’t marry you.  I’m a man!”  To which Brown replies, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”

Men portraying women on screen goes back to Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle and include Dustin Hoffman, Michael J. Fox, Alec Guinness, Tony Curtiss, Robin Williams, Divine, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Lewis and the Wayans Brothers.  The movies are often madcap comedies with the men playing outlandish female characters.

Today’s advertising and social media doesn’t need screwball copywriting.  It does need men who study how women think and act.  Why?   Here are three reasons:

    1.       Eighty-five percent of brand purchases are made by women. 

    2.       Surveys show 91 percent of women feel advertisers do not understand them.

    3.       Only three percent of creative directors for advertising agencies are women.

These statistics suggest the “Mad Men” stereotypes of advertising are alive and well.  Companies and organizations need to realize that women control $19 trillion of our economy.  It wouldn’t hurt to try and understand them a little better.

Here are a few physiological facts that might help a man channel his feminine side.

Women’s brains have more neuron cell bodies, giving them enhanced blood flow and better efficiency.  This may explain why women often learn language better, have a better memory for detail and can fight better than men.

A woman is generally more empathetic, expressive, articulate, diplomatic and sensitive to others feelings.

Trying to understand women is a challenge for men.  Actors playing a role will study mannerisms, facial expressions, speech patterns and body movements.  Great writers do the same.  

If your company or organization wants to reach women customers through social media and advertising, then paying close attention to how they think and feel is critical to your success.  What is funny or interesting to a man can very easily fall on deaf ears to a woman.  You need to know your customer.

Thomas Hardy, the English author, wrote in the great novel Tess of the Urbervilles “Did it ever strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?”  Men, we aren’t perfect and never will be, but keeping Hardy and your audience in mind may help you be a little more sensitive and successful. 

John McGory is a partner at Webface, an original content marketing company.  We produce videos and copy that can reach your clients.

Don't get slimed by social media

By John McGory

The Social Media Target of the Month for March was the ground beef product known as “pink slime.”   A social media-led groundswell of distaste for the product has fast food restaurants and grocery stores dumping slime-infused ground beef at an alarming rate.

Meat processing plants in Iowa, Kansas and Texas have closed and another producer filed bankruptcy in wake of the public’s outcry.  Governors of those states are calling for an investigation of the pink slime “smear campaign.”

Pink slime is lean, finely textured beef made by heating fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts to about 100 F and spinning it to remove most of the fat.  The lean mix is then compressed into blocks for use in ground meat and treated with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.  The byproduct is then used as filler for ground beef.

Until last year, schools, fast food restaurants and up to 70 percent of ground beef sold in grocery stores included pink slime. If you have eaten a hamburger in the past decade chances are you ate pink slime and survived.

The United States Department of Agriculture approved the use of the beef product process in 2001.  In 2002, Gerald Zirnstein, a USDA microbiologist, coined the term “pink slime” in an email to his superiors.

The New York Times first reported on pink slime in 2009.  Its critical report on the meat product raised eyebrows but did not slow sales at the time. 

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver began a campaign against the product last year.  Here is a video showing Oliver’s negative take on pink slime.  The combination of Oliver’s television show and 1.4 million views on YouTube were enough to start the slime’s demise.

McDonalds, Taco Bell and Burger King stopped using the product earlier this year due to the onslaught of negative media attention.  Grocery stores, schools and other institutions followed suit.  AFA Foods, a large producer of the product, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Beef Products has closed plants in Iowa, Kansas and Texas.

Where is the truth?  It is hard to say.  The biggest beef over the product is the use of ammonium hydroxide.   It is used in numerous foods such as baked goods, cheese, milk and chocolate.  It is approved by the USDA as a food additive.  It is also used in many cosmetics.     

The Republican governors of Iowa, Kansas and Texas are calling for a Congressional probe over the pink slime “smear campaign.”  It is interesting to note that the meat producers have donated $820,000 to federal candidates in the past decade, with almost $800,000 going to Republicans.

What is fascinating is the speed of the “pink slime” industry demise.  People ate the product for ten years and no one really complained.  The 2009 Times article barely moved the public into action.

What changed?  It is social media’s ability to grab people’s attention without a lot of facts.  Pink slime is made by boiling fat and spraying it with ammonium hydroxide gas.  It does not sound appealing.  But I don’t think many Americans want to know how sausage is made, chickens are raised or what chemicals are added to Ho-Hos and Twinkies.

Social media takes no prisoners.  A negative name, an unscientific public and a few blogs can end an industry.  I can’t say it is right or wrong regarding “pink slime.”  All I know is that pink slime is history and social media has another notch on its belt.           

John McGory is a partner at Webface.  They help companies and organizations from getting slimed through social media.