THUMB SUCKING

by Don Hermann
Columnist

We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it.

We are so busy listening to statistics we forget we can create them.

These are two of the most profound observations by Bill Bernbach, selected by Advertising Age as the most influential person of the last century in the advertising business.

Think of people in the media, think of people in politics, think of all the gurus out there all suffering from an insecurity having to offer solutions to meaningful problems.

Polls dominate their reporting. Focus Groups are also offered up as reliable tools to verify and discover attitudes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if most of those just mentioned were belt and suspenders people.

The New York Times, considered the paper of record by many people, when offering opportunities to submit op-ed type posts, asks that the person has experience and or expertise in the field. In effect, they’re not asking for original thinking, they want the same old, same old safe stuff that hasn’t gotten us very far.

Can you picture some of the individuals responsible for the most imaginative inventions or discoveries relying on polls and Focus Group results?

Hey Columbus, what did the polls show you?

We’d be back at the Stone Age. Maybe better off.

Kudos to Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. The other night he said that he won’t report polls because yesterday’s polls have nothing to do with what happens a year from now.

It is known that Focus Groups are the least effective form of reliable research.

When you have to fill space and maybe sound authoritative, the polls serve a purpose.

Could it be that one of the problems is the concept of news, morning, noon and night?

One does have to admit that this has provided additional income and notoriety for lawyers, professors, journalists and a variety of others who otherwise might be on the street.

It has also saved many publishers who were hanging by their fingernails to survive.

Plus it has given people like me a platform to shout, complain and at times be like the rest.

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