Have you ever been in situation where the outcome was less than desirable? I was asked to hold a ceremony where there were several players involved and tried to please them all. That was my first mistake. When there are that much politics involved in making a decision, things get screwed up.
So now there's an occasion to repeat the ceremony with slightly different players involved. I have a feeling the outcome is going to be the same. I'm going to end up getting angry phone calls form a variety of different parties for things that weren't ever discussed.
Basically it translates to this: Work sucks.
Today it was announced that the soft drink industry is going to be cutting back on their stranglehold in schools. I'm reading the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. One whole section of the book was dedicated to how marketing companies are now negotiating deals for schools to help soft drinks companies get more of their product in the schools.
In fact, one school system had a quota of how many cases of cola they had to sell. If they didn't sell that amount, they had to give the money back. So, do I think this sudden development of social conscience is for real? Hell, no.
10 comments:
Corporate social change is never brought about simply because the corporation wants to do "good," as it is generally not conducive to meeting a business's primary goal of profitability.
However, when a company is generally perceived to be doing "evil," (in whatever bullshit documentary of the week that is playing at the Von Lee) and enough people buy into it, it can erode a company's profitability, hence the "positive social change." (McDonalds has been at the forefront of this since they did away with styrofoam McD.L.T. containers.)
Of course, the parents of these soda-chumming brats could simply, I don't know, not give their kids enough money to buy a soda, or even (god forbid) say "If I find out you're buying soda instead of lunch, I'm going to cram the can up your ass." But, of course, we put the impetus on the company to change our habits instead of accepting the responsibility ourselves.
America needs to change its motto to "Land of the Callow, Home of the Whiny Pussy."
If you don't like it get the fuck out!
What the hell... I feel like I have accidentally stopped at a blog that actually accepts thoughtful commentary instead of just making fun of shit. Where am I?
There's a difference between having schools house vending machines and giving them sales quotas to hit. Besides, I've been on the opposite side of this battle locally for over a year now and I can tell you the fighting tactics are ugly. So the big about-face was a surprise.
When the idea of a sales quota was even proposed, the school should have taken the appropriate action of saying "Uh, you're fucking crazy, go fuck yourself."
While I agree that such marketing is irresponsible, it's the school's fault for agreeing to it in the first place.
Again, the only responsibility the corporation has is to its shareholders. That's the way it is, and that's the way it should be. I don't want to have to start relying on corporate entities to police cultural values. I want them to make sure that when I start investing in them, they bring me back a nice, fat dividend.
Dude, your blog just became spam central. ugh. I hate people.
I will agree my comment was over the line, but I stand behind it. There is no end in sight for commercial evil doing, simply because of human nature, and greed of course. You think this doesn't happen overseas?
Yeah, what's up with the spam crap?
Yes, I agree that companies will try to get away with as much as they can. HOWEVER, when corporations pretend they only have to answer to their shareholders, they usually get busted by the government, the public or both. PG&E, Enron, Worldcom, etc.
I'm not saying that companies should do anything illegal. Since when is it illegal to sell a fat kid a Twinkie?
Sell the fat kid a Twinkie or Ho ho or Ding Dong. Just do it somewhere besides schools. Don't give a school as sales quota or make their extra income dependent on peddling heart attacks.
Post a Comment