Sam, Gary, Miley, Hilary and Van the Man

I’ve posted a few quotes from Seth Godin in the past. While he’s a marketing guy, he writes in a common sense way that makes his ideas easily applicable to many fields of study, including politics.

And after all, what is politics, but marketing anyway? You’ve got your product development (policy making), place (federal or provincial jurisdiction? Point Douglas or Polo Park?), price (taxes, government funding) and promotion (spin, spin, spin).

Here’s another healthy snippet from a recent Godin post. He’s ostensibly writing about how to write, but many of our local panderers, err, politicians might want to think it over.

Some politicians know all the tricks. They know how to get a crowd on its feet, every time. And yet, the best politicians don’t use the tricks every time. They slow it down, or get serious, or avoid pandering.

One difference between creating something you believe in and creating something that’s popular is that popularity seekers follow established steps. Do this, do that, do the other thing… lots of traffic. Do this, do that, do the other thing, a quick boost in Google. DT, DT DTOT and get a standing ovation…

The problem with this, that and the other thing is that you end up with a career filled with it. Instead of creating long-lasting art, ideas that matter and things that spread organically, you end up with a bunch of calculated mini-hits.

Wilson Pickett was a master at creating hits. He had an astonishing output–50 R&B hits. That’s amazing. It’s one way to make a living, one path.

The other path is to be Van Morrison. To blast open rules, not to follow them.

Write what you believe, not what sells.

Now some might take exception to the Wilson Pickett reference, as I think his collection of hits did add up to a fairly influential career. A better comparison might be to Disney’s recent formula for churning out tween stars like Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus or the cast of High School Musical.

And at this point, I think I’m just as likely to vote for Gary Doer or Sam Katz in the 2033 version of the Free Press poll of Greatest Manitobans as I am to support Miley or Hilary in a future list of most influential musicians. However, Van the Man will always get my vote.