Is CV-19 A Classic Case Of Media’s “If It Bleeds, It Leads”?

In his latest guest post, B&T regular Robert Strohfeldt argues amid all this COVD-19 madness, we need to take a second to understand the madness, much of which he argues is being fuelled by the media…

We have utterly destroyed our economy – it will take generations to repay, some people will never work again, prices will go through the roof and taxation will be at levels never seen before We have suicide, depression, marriage break ups.. The lucky country? Pig’s arse. The indebted country. And around 80 per cent of the population believes in this madness. Why?

Some facts: Sweden death toll, bugger all lockdown – 118 per million

Australian death toll – is 71. Directly following Sweden’s approach, death toll be been 2897. Could have halved this by being more like South Korea or Singapore. Let’s say 1500. So, have saved 1,439 lives.

Some 19,366 people die from a heart attack each year in Australia. The majority could be prevented by early testing (But no, do not do that!). In two days, more people die from a heart attack than total Corona deaths up to April 19th.

Going to sound like a cold bastard, but on average 3,5000 die from influenzas each year and 300,000 hospitalized, nothing done – majority old and have underlying heath complaint JUST LIKE MOST CORONA DEATHS. (last reported death a 95 year -old man. This guy was not hoping to get out of the aged care home in a couple of weeks)

How many people have died in Syria since the start of February- or don’t they count.?

Is the destruction of our economy (you ain’t seen mothing yet, what till they tally the real TOTAL cost) for generations, plus suicides, divorces, long term unemployment, huge drop in standard of living have only scratched surface of “costs” (Virgin went into Administration at the time of writing this)

The lives of millions, possibly up to 12 million – do not count the unemployment statistics which state 10% unemployed. How does this sit with over 40 per cent of workers who have had their hours of work/pay, severely errored?

So why is it so? Having met so many “digital marketers” particularly in the past 10 years, who have messed around with something “digital” (what isn’t?) claim to be digital marketing experts, but know 5/8^th , 40% of 1 fifth of Fuck All about “real marketing: a bit of history is required. (Yes, things did happen before the year 2000).

How This has Happened

In 1898, William Hearst needed more readership for his newspaper the New York Morning Journal. Some have suggested he started the 1898 Spanish – American War, which is not true, but he certainly helped fan it. How?

His newspaper and Pulitzer’s Journal inflamed the war to “fever pitch” by provocative headlines. Their papers “flew off the news- stands”. Readers could not get enough of it and the two publishers served it up daily. The fear mongering, huge headlines and graphic pictures, faked interviews (Fake news & this was still the 19^th century) and out of context quotes, sold far more newspapers and it has never been the same since.

Both papers share the dubious legendary credit for the introduction of “Yellow Journalism” – also called sensationalism

For the trivia minded “If it Bleeds it Leads” was coined by journalist Eric Pooley for an article he did in the New York Magazine –“Grins, Gore and Videotape. The trouble with Local TV News”.

Sound familiar? Today there are far more platforms for people to gain their news, but like the basics of marketing and advertising, the basics of journalism have not changed. There has been a lot of bleeding and a shit load lot more “leading”. The potential horrors of the virus are thrown at us no matter on what medium we use to get our news.

“New York Death Tops …” – huge headlines, disturbing pictures – all the way they were in 1898.

I visited Macquarie Hospital yesterday – a good friend is a radiologist and he was giving me ultrasound guided cortisone injections, which provides temporary relief to a screwed up back operation, done by “experts”.

A sight out of a science- fiction novels – deathly quiet, vacant halls and rooms. Talking to several highly intelligent and skilled professionals, scared the shit out of me more than anything I had experienced in life to date. And I graduated from University at the end of 1979, to start work as a mathematician in 1980 – a reason I can say the government modelling does not get within a bull’s roar of the truth. But how will the average person (or would they bother) try and decipher what is quite complex maths, to find the statistical truths?

And private hospitals have been “taken over” by the government, to provide beds for the hundreds of thousands of expected Carona cases. (Everything has been “taken over by government and don’t you dare disagree or you will be fined heavily, just as your income is slashed or even wiped out).Tens of thousands of hospital wards/beds/staff all idle. It seems elective surgery will now be allowed. “Tough titties” for all of those with say possible cancerous tumors – no biopsies could be performed, those beds had to be kept vacant, whilst for many the tumors grew, many becoming metastasized during the waiting a period – certain death sentence to keep an open bed on the less than 0.5 per cent chance every hospital bed would be required. (I know someone is this very position. The weight of the unknown has been devastating, like losing your job, your marriage or any of the other myriad of problems caused by this bullshit.

The public have also had the shit frightened out of them and who could blame them with the coverage. I swear if I see another TV ad in which some wanker says, “We’re all in this together”, I will throw my almost empty bottle of scotch at it. Every second TV/Foxtel ad is about a company (can’t recall who, as all pretty much the same) that is with me “all the way”. I keep wondering “where the fuck were you when times were good?”

As an aside, if your clients are going to advertise during this period and the fucking huge looming depression, and they should, advertise what you normally would, not this tear jerker “it’s all so tough, but we are with you”, shit. Tell people why they should buy the product and brand the shit out if. (Comms 101).

In every recession we have had, the companies which have maintained a decent presence have come flying out of the gate, much faster than those who did not advertise at all.

The media have doing a wonderful job for our country, keeping everyone so bloody terrified. And that is what they want. (No, I do not believe in conspiracy theories. As I said in an earlier article, a US President, Clinton, could not get a quiet blow job from Monica without the world finding out, yet another president, Bush Junior, could blow up New York’s twin towers and fly a plane into the pentagon? Yet plenty believe 9/11 was a US grown conspiracy.)

You can bet $1 to $1 million the government will be researching the hell out of public opinion – what is a few million in research up against hundreds of $billions. And a HUGE majority of the population think they are doing the right thing.

Hospitals are empty, radiologists and every other medical practitioner have empty rooms and the government is paying the cost of that. (And by government, I mean you, the taxpayer).

It won’t just be my grandchildren, but their great grandchildren who will still be paying the bill. Not just doctors/specialists and all the medical workers (be they cleaners, cooks and bottle washers). Think of all the other businesses closed and the cost to the government for all they have taken on. Of course, some people agree – give them money for doing nothing, not going to turn that down? And the police have powers they only dreamed of in dreams, wet dreams.

But talking to the people who know best, not Numbnuts Professor Brendan Murphy who loves this. Doctors work for the government because they are not up to private practice. Anyone who runs their own business from gardener to surgeon will tell you it is not the rosy path so often depicted. This guy has gone from “Neville Nobody” to two steps down from a dictator.

Yes, New York did have problems – with 20,000 people per square kilometre they were all breathing down each other’s neck. The high density, even in small towns in Italy and Spain suffered the same fate. Building back then used each other for support. Closeness was not a case of “love your neighbour”, rather don’t have his bloody tiny home topple down on yours.

And you must love the Chinese Communist Party, the far left does. They banned all travel in China from Wuhan province to all other provinces within China by late December/early January. In early January, they bought up every bit of protective clothing and masks from Western countries. Of course, the countries selling all this kit did not compare notes with each other. The one doctor who tried to warn the world what was potentially happening was locked up and died recently. Two of his colleagues have disappeared, never seen again – most likely ended up in a wet market. The CHO, sorry think that is the WHO, World Health Authority, said closing these markets will cause undue “Economic hardship to many people”. Fuck the rest of the world and the trillions of dollars this has cost them. Run by Tedros Adhanom the Marxist from Ethiopia, WHO wanted to appoint Robert Mugabe, the butcher from Zimbabwe, as Good Will Ambassador. (Seriously. And when Taiwan voiced their objections, they were called racists. Fortunately, the prick’s death stopped further discussion).

And now China looks like the saviour, sending all that equipment not needed by them, well not for everybody. 100,00 deaths in country as populous as China is not an issue. And who would complain? Your chances are better with Corona than have their “secret police” drag you from bed in the middle of the night and be thrown into a tortuous hell hole. And the many countries receiving Chinese help will be forever in their debt. (Not so much money, as propaganda support).

The China Communist Party’s tactics are also not a “conspiracy theory”. The big advantage of a dictatorship is the country can plan five and 10 years out and not have to worry about those plans being thwarted by pesky elections.

Western democracies could seriously fail and neither Russia nor China would have had to fire a shot in anger.

Anyone who has read my articles would know I have a lot of time and respect for Professor Mark Ritson. He calls it he sees it and has an earthy dose of reality about him. I have known many marketing academics in my career (not that I know Mark well), but only a few are more than just pure theorists.

I mentioned QANTAS in an article some time ago – the price gouging, reduced schedule, and shitty service when they were the only player. Mark went further in a recent Australian article to point out that Jetstar was only born because of Virgin. The average family could now afford to book a holiday a few months in advance and travel to places not only in Australia, but many overseas, that were beyond their budgets and wildest dreams not that long prior. (Not going to mention Tiger, they are more a disappointment than an airline.).

Recently Mark said he believed things will go back to exactly as they were in time. His qualifier of “in time”, is key. Call me a pessimist, but I think it will be a long, long time before we get back to normal. Mark’s logic is sound – people are not going to change their spots and become loving and caring.

Pauline Hanson said the first thing I agree with since she entered public life in the 90s – “Many of those small businesses who close their doors will never open them again”. Think of all the lovely, quaint towns within Australia. Most of their attractions are owned by small business. The little cafes/restaurants, B&Bs. antique shops, galleries, museums – the list is extensive, will have closed and each closed attraction reduces the tourists’ appeal of the town/area.

If anything, it may become more dog eat dog (the wet market again). Costs will go through the roof, as only the strong will survive (natural selection works well in nature, but not in the business community of a small and isolated, small population country).

The Government has us by the “opinion nads” and is not going to loosen their grip. And aren’t the police wonderful? Give a person a gun, a badge, a ton of authority and an average intelligence that would not hit 3 figures on a hot day and you are asking for trouble. (I do need to qualify, this is far from “all”, but still a significant number,)

In my previous article I recommended you go back through historical marketing literature and you will see the opinion put forward by many academics and practitioners that maintaining advertising during recessionary periods has always worked well for the companies that do. Not only theoretical articles but simple, clear data supporting this.

As well as advising your clients that although it may be a hard boardroom sell to ask for an advertising budget with, in some cases, zero sales (be a strange advertising to sales ratio), be much tougher trying to explain why they should keep their jobs when some competitors have leapt out of the blocks, taking significant chunks of your clients’ market share with them.

Run ads that brand like hell and tell people why they should buy. (No more, “We are all in this together”.)

But above all, do whatever you can through social media, organisations you belong to, talking with friends – our economy has died. But maybe, just maybe, CPR can get it breathing again. Unless of course you enjoy outrageous prices for “everything” and having all, but your private parts taxed, to pay back the trillion or so dollars that at least 75 per cent  plus of has needlessly been spent.

Connect with:

LinkedIn

Wow. What a diatribe about how wrong it is for governments across the globe (bar Sweden) for imposing lockdowns for Covid-19. Yes it's an economy-wrecking decision - we all know that. And there are many ideas for how to pay for it (cutting off corporate tax loopholes for one!!) How about being constructive (and more relevant) by imparting your wisdom about what should have been done instead Dr Strohfeldt? (Not a doctor? Oh well, stick with your entirely valid keep 'marketing in a crisis' point of view). And what's with the random attack on “digital marketers”? Finally, get an editor to spell/grammar check your stuff. It's a bad look.

byTim Nicholas FAMI CPM

Please login with linkedin to comment

Latest comments

1. Wow. What a diatribe about how wrong it is for governments across the globe (bar Sweden) for imposing lockdowns for Covid-19. Yes it’s an economy-wrecking decision – we all know that. And there are many ideas for how to pay for it (cutting off corporate tax loopholes for one!!) How about being constructive (and more relevant) by imparting your wisdom about what should have been done instead Dr Strohfeldt? (Not a doctor? Oh well, stick with your entirely valid keep ‘marketing in a crisis’ point of view).
   And what’s with the random attack on “digital marketers”? Finally, get an editor to spell/grammar check your stuff. It’s a bad look.

Robert Strohfeldt