Branding and marketing genius Bruce Terkel (pronounced “tur-KELL”) has a most interesting and insightful blog focused on – guess what? – branding and marketing. This one arrived amidst the turmoil, travail and truculence surrounding the harebrained, hateful and hurtful things said about gays and blacks by Phil Robertson, one of the pseudo-mountain men of the A&E show Duck Dynasty. Perhaps you’ve heard the wild-eyed, histrionic rants in support of this icon of idiocy. Perhaps you’ve read the painful prose postulated by civil libertarians. Perhaps you’re sick of this incident of ignorance and want it to go away.
And it will, just as soon as the next sensational event, stupid remark or manufactured emergency arrives to distract us. But do this.
Read Terkel’s piece to the end to accurately understand his message. Then apply the principle to our politics. The meaning of duck is that the branding and marketing of our politics is manipulating you. Decide for yourself what that is doing to America.
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue. Please help by passing this along and encouraging others to do the same. Thanks. JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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2 Responses to The Meaning of Duck
Dan Wallace December 28, 2013
Jack, you were right about reading Turkel’s post to the end. Priceless (yes, I’m borrowing a bit of branding there).
The only thing I would say about the political side of this is that it’s not new. In 1982, I got a guy elected to the House by writing and saturating the airwaves with a brutal 30-second radio ad. On the downside, in the course of the campaign, I called a political consultant friend of mine and said, “I, um, well, um. . .” He said, “I know. You’ve become concerned that your candidate is not intelligent enough to be a member of the United States House of Representatives. Well, let me put your mind at ease. I know many members of the United States House or Representatives, and he is.”
On the upside, he was a very decent, moderate guy, and the guy we kept from taking office was neither decent nor moderate. Overall, though I was shocked at how easy it was to elicit the response I wanted from the electorate. Branding.
Jack Altschuler December 28, 2013
“The best products don’t always win, but the best marketing does.” Dunno who said that, but I think s/he is right.