A benign but drunk man sits in a bar, and the tavern’s waitress keeps ignoring him. He tells fellow patrons that the waitress cannot be from Paris, as she’s claimed, because that’s not how ‘Paris women’ would treat someone. That’s the scene from part of The Sure Thing, a 1985 film starring John Cusack. The…
Marketing
City, Marketing
Forget Selling
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater can do much better than this. There’s a useful place for sales and marketing in commerce, but they’ve been applied mistakenly and ineffectually to Whitewater’s politics. It’s been years and years of selling the town, with every tired expression about being a destination community, exceptional place to live, work, and play, etc. Those who…
City, Development, Marketing
One Reason a Comprehensive Marketing Plan Can’t Work (Now) in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s talk, about every six months or so, about launching a comprehensive marketing plan for Whitewater. (This must be version 17.0 by now.) I’ll set aside the problem of past efforts at marketing the city dishonestly, as though prospects were too dim to see through blatant exaggerations or omissions about life in town. (See, The…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Local Government, Marketing, Politics
‘The Future Writes the History of the Present’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It’s an oft-repeated truism that the future writes the history of the present. That’s true in Whitewater as much as anywhere. It is a truth (like the most important truths) apart from both independent present-day commentary and contrasting, mendacious marketing and press-flacking. All the marketing in the world cannot shield against this simple question from…
Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing
Structural Limits and Wishful Thinking
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
If there’s a limit to a fraud (like Enron), it’s not simply because a swindler is discovered; it’s because some swindles (Ponzi schemes, for example) are impossible to sustain everlastingly. Cleverness doesn’t matter – there are structural limitations that cannot be overcome (only so many people, only so many future victims, only so much money…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Marketing, Planning
How You, Too, Can Be a Smooth-Talking, Super-Sophisticated Marketeer (Assuming You’d Be Foolish Enough to Want to Be One).
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Real marketing is a legitimate pursuit. By contrast, manipulative, smooth-talking, super-sophisticated men & women spend hours convincing others that the next big thing is, in fact, the Next Big Thing. They declare that millions of taxpayers’ money spent on white-collar projects, while truly needy people receive no benefit whatever, are Astonishing Feats of Global Significance…
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing, Planning
The Failure of Marketing (and the Marketing of Failure)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I respect the work of those honest people who practice or study marketing. There’s a place for marketing, and even a place for marketing public projects. In the end, though, it’s the product or service, not the presentation of it, that matters most. There should be nothing startling in so declaring, but for the marketeers…
Business, City, Marketing, New Media, New Whitewater, Press Release
Wednesday, May 1st: The Digital Whitewater Mapping Project
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Federal Government, Government Spending, Marketing
Why there’s Room and Reason to Reduce the Military Budget
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s much worry – but not reasonable worry – about the imposition of sequestration, across-the-board cuts to reduce overspending, on America’s military budget. Our fundamental security will always come from a healthy economy that fosters the economic growth and innovation that makes a professional, well-equipped military possible. Second, we would still have an unmatched military…