So you’re a Fortune 500 CEO. Your market share is evaporating. Margins dwindling. Unions revolting. Cheap generics replacing your premium brands. India’s stealing your intellectual property. China’s knocking off your patents. Environmentalists are picketing your house. Class action attorneys leeching your cash flow. Eliot Sptizer’s office requesting your personal fax number. Board is paralyzed by Sarbanes-Oxley. And now, this morning, you open your Wall Street Journal and in the first section, spread over several pages you’re greeted by soothing pastel colors, flowers, pleasant calming images and the word SPECIAL splashed everywhere – which is how the precious little IBM’ers want you to feel and your business to be.
The major headline and thrust of IBM’s new ad campaign is "How to Get Special". Special being another way of IBM talking about innovation in a very Blue Ocean sort of way. As I read through the words I felt like I was reading words written by Oprah and I kept hearing the CEO voice in my head saying :
I don’t want special. I don’t need special. I need weapons. I need bullets. I need warriors. I need bulletproof. I need barriers. I need creators. I need producers. I need followers. I need geniuses. I need to kick ass. I need lawyers, guns and money. I need RL Burnside hollering "Shake’em on Down". But I don’t need NO special. I need TO BE COMPETITIVE. And I need to be competitive in every sense of the word. Got it?
George Parker picked up on the TV campaign here.
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