Sentient Being

I was talking with a client about the general state of South Africa business and once again it became clear to me that we South Africans are completely losing our grip on what is and what is not public conversation.

I blame reality TV where every self-indulgent feeling, generally ill-informed thought and self serving action is raised to the level of public interest.

The thing is, when its a bunch of sunburnt Americans on a desert island there is no real danger, but when its Vodacom and Cell C (www.itweb.co.za/sections/columnists/doubletake/vecchiatto060531.asp?S=Cellular&A=CEL&O=FRGN) in an unthought out mud-slinging match in public domain it is damaging – and not just to the brands.

It felt to me that I had stumbled in on a family spat. You know the ones – it starts out being about whose turn it is to stack the dishwasher and ends up a teary four hour session about which child is actually the parent’s favourite.

Private discussion made public reveal far more than is often anticipated, and generally all the audience remembers is the rather uncomfortable feeling that had when reading or hearing the story rather than what was really being communicated – which means the emotive attachment to the brand has been damaged.

I was so pleased to be an MTN subscriber the week after the Vodacom outage. And not just because my provider hadn’t gone down but because the level of mis-communication between technical, marketing and business development had not be revealed and I could sleep safe in total ignorance of any internal problems at MTN. Which is just the way I want it.