Complete This Sentence: "The More Things Change..." (Classic Jack from 1993)

The following commentary was originally published in 1993 appearing in Jack Myers39 book Adbashing Surviving the Attacks on Advertising It is even more relevant todayDo you automatically complete the clichamp233 quotThe more things changeamp8230quot with quotamp8230the more things stay the samequot In business as in society we no longer can depend upon stability or consistency We no longer can expect things to stay the same Too many businesses today are locked into traditional patterns cycles and measures of success These molds must be broken Paradigms must be changed Clichamp233s must be discarded quotSome things never changequot quotEverything old is new againquot quotThere39s nothing new under the sunquot quotTurn turn turnquot quotThe past is precedentquot quotAll the world39s a cycleamp8230quotTHE MORE THINGS CHANGEamp8230 THE MORE THEY CHANGEIn the 1990s consumers are becoming far more discriminating Purchases are less conspicuous and far more considered Society like the tectonic plates in California is shifting and resettling into new configurations Marketers are hoping that the shifts are completed and consumers will settle into a new set of comfortable somewhat traditional patterns But more than likely the shifts are an early warning sign that far more cataclysmic changes are on the horizon Marketers may be facing shifts in consumer and communications patterns for which there are no precedents and for which they are ill prepared We need a new set of paradigms Our comfortable clichamp233s patterns and traditions no longer hold When we look back we are held back amp8211 in society and in business The past no longer provides us with adequate tools for building strategies for the future In a recent study a simple old fashioned clock was shown to a large number of 13 year olds More than onethird were unable to tell the researcher what time the clock indicated It wasn39t that they couldn39t tell time but they could only tell digital timeThis doesn39t represent just a simple shift from one form of time to another It reflects a way of thinking about life The generations running government and business today amp8211 the generations who are creating advertising and communications amp8211 subconsciously think in cyclical terms The new generation functions in a continuumRemember the old fashioned television sets with the dial channels 2 to 13 Television once offered a limited selection of programs The announcer could tell us quotDon39t turn that dialquot with a degree of assurance that we would obey Like the clock a TV quotdialquot is virtually obsolete for a majority of Americans Television channel switchers are digital as are our radios and our auto speedometers The average home has more than 30 channels with a promise that the number will increase to 60 by the end of the decade Many homes will have 150 channels When I was growing up in the 1950s in Utica New York TV programming ended for the day after The Late Movie at 2 AM We listened to the Star Spangled Banner saw the jets flying over the Statue of Liberty and then had only a test pattern to pacify us until 6 or 7 AM when stations formally signed on On Saturdays in Utica there was no TV until 9 AM when the single local station signed on with Howdy Doody Television each day had a beginning a middle and an end Today TV never ends One recent morning I turned the set on at 4 AM and scanned 38 channels with nary a test pattern confronting me Society too is functioning within a new linear context in which the future is uncharted new and not dictated by precepts or perceptions of the past Life is no longer a cycle the future is no longer predicated on the past Jack Myers is available to speak and consult on emerging media and advertising industry trends patterns and economics Contact Jack at jmjackmyerscom

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE MYERS REPORT RESEARCH & WHITEPAPERS

Complete This Sentence: "The More Things Change..." (Classic Jack from 1993)

Author

Publish date

Channel

Jack Myers

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

More Videos:

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE MYERS REPORT RESEARCH & WHITEPAPERS

Complete This Sentence: "The More Things Change..." (Classic Jack from 1993)

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Jack Myers

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

The payment was successful

Cookies