It’s all about focus isn’t it? Unfortunately, many of us seem to lose that fact. It’s like in the adverts. You can’t help asking yourself, “Is there some unwritten mandatory in-house rule within the advert community?” Don’t you ever wonder why there so many pretty young ladies in almost every advert? Maybe just for being nice we might try to understand why those pretty souls are featured in certain adverts.
I don’t have any reason backing this assumption so let’s skip the details. Of course the catch here is impressing us customers and clients. Are we impressed? Well let’s be frank why might not actually impressed a faint whistle or two would not be out of the question. Do we really focus on the service or product being advertised while there are the pretty young ladies their smiles radiating even in our living rooms? Am I letting out some secret here? Hmmm.
I mean everything is about focus. The entities behind the advertisements would like us to focus on their products and services, don’t they? We are supposed to be so mesmerized, so attracted by the advert they wish we crowded their offices and shops.
But we’ve got a story for them here. Life was never meant to be that easy that you get what you want. Our focus could be so fragmented by the very presence of the pretty lady we might miss the core message. It’s not that easy also to have the pass into our minds at a time when we are burdened by a hundred and one issues and worries.
So, it’s all about focus. You missed our focus means you missed our attention; and that means if our focus isn’t on the services or products then there will be no way we’ll be acting. If I’m a sorry creature asking what in the world has a pretty lady to do with some electrical gadget or building materials. If you’re selling screw drivers and the like and you show me a pretty girl holding one I can tell you I’d zero in on the pretty girl not your screw driver or whatever.
Then it isn’t only the question of the young souls, at times it becomes about what percent of the anatomy is covered and what percent bared! Look some of us may sound too conservative primitive creatures when such issues are raised. Maybe the competition is getting so fierce that those writing the advert scripts should be innovative. But alas! Do some of them do it in all the wrong ways! I’ve to confess that despite being confronted with scenes we would have liked to avoid turning off the TV seldom becomes the nearest option. Still however the flesh baring scene is overdone we still don’t focus on what is being advertised. And in the event of there being multiple people the conversation goes somewhat like this;
“Do you see how pretty this young lady is?”
“You bet I do?”
“I wonder where they are getting such beautiful ladies. We don’t even see them in the streets!”
“See them in the streets! You must be kidding.
Competitions could drive you all the way the edge of the cliff if you’re not smart. In case of adverts the talk of the cliff and its edge is about us. It means you’re losing us and better wake up! to say it again in other words some gents even ladies are not at all comfortable with much flesh being exposed. This is not about conservatism or sticking to old ways. It’s more about being civilized and putting things where and where they should be. What do you feel if the singer of a truly traditional filling TV screen with the shortest skirt? Just think how many of you would be focusing on the actual song and how many on the skirt!
There’re so may adverts in the evening hours these days that sometimes you feel like you’re being robbed off your precious time. But then the pretty ladies fill in for a very poorly written script, still the message is usually either ignored or, at the worst, lost. Indeed these days there are so many riddles that need to be solved but we’ve so little interest, time and motivation we’re in the dark about many things.
In the morning we would be talking about the pretty lady who was advertising some item and not about the item advertised. That, gents and ladies, is the reality. Of course there is nothing wrong with that. How can you pay attention to the item being advertised when they have made sure to focus on the pretty soul whose smile overshoot the edges of her mouth and spills into the living room? I mean actually spills.
Take meetings many of which we seem to have these days. The initial agendas might be interesting and participants, some of them at least, come armed with ideas and suggestions. But once the meeting begins things don’t go as stipulated in the initial plans. In the first place the chair and the never-missing guest of honor take much of the time with largely issues which have nothing to do with the meeting or anything at all. The minutes tick by and suddenly an hour or so has just gone out of the window.
Then the chair, a not so-impressive fellow, reads the first agenda. Some section or department head takes the stage and starts what his section has been doing with much self-applauding rhetoric without actually deliberating on the issue at hand. By the time he finishes he hasn’t said anything about the issue at hand and the funny thing is he still gets applauses. Don’t you sometimes think applauses have become mandatory for everyone who speaks however nonsense and brazen still getting the applause? While the focus should have been on the agenda he strays miles away. Then participants are given the chance to make their views heard. Believe me those who have come with ideas they thought were worthwhile are left confused and choose to remain silent. Hands are raised and most of the opinions deviate further from the agenda with focus going elsewhere.
Where focus is lost, everything is lost. It’s as simple as that.
EPHREM ENDALE
The Ethiopian Herald June 30/2024