Issue 40: A Bulletin for Big Ideas and Better Business

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OPINION/ COMMUNICATIONS 

Jesting times: Humour trumps anger in fighting the absurd

💬 Sir John Hegarty

The Kiffness is a YouTube composer with an unusual niche. He autotunes cat noises to make songs in his home studio, adding extra components like guitar, keys and beats from a drum machine. The tunes are catchy, witty and – sometimes – oddly moving. When the musician heard Donald Trump’s false claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio had been eating pets, he responded with a track: Eating the Cats ft. Donald Trump (Debate Remix). It has been watched almost 12 million times.

Humour is among the greatest tools at your disposal

Watching Trump regularly spout lies to whip up hate and divide people is dispiriting in the extreme. Especially as he is vying to become the leader of the free world for a second time. The most concerning aspect is that one can be assured that droves of followers still take Trump at his word. In the face of something so demoralising, humour is the only recourse. Political satire isn’t as biting as it once was (consider how the re-boot of political puppet show Spitting Image was panned for pulling punches) but lampooning your opponents is still much more effective than demonising them. Barrack Obama carries this off well. At a campaign rally in Arizona last Friday he listed off a number of Trump’s inanities, then deadpanned: “You would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this.”

Humour is among the greatest tools at your disposal for those in the business of moving others. Great comedy is always based on truth, and truth infuses a message with power and the ability to travel from person-to-person. Then occasionally, something emerges that is so bewildering that absurdity becomes the only sensible retort. Trump’s claim that immigrants are “eating the dogs… eating the cats.” was meant to be a strident political message. Add a beat and some backing vocals, it becomes an effective way of humiliating him.

THE AGENDA

✏️ Pencil it in: your agenda for the coming week

1.
Football is called the beautiful game because of the balletic moves made by players. The most dexterous participant will be named – and celebrated – this week in Paris at the Ballon d’Or awards.
28th October

2.
Will Frasers Group, a UK apparel company, stump up the cash to buy Mulberry? It has until next Monday to decide. The future of the leather brand hangs in the balance.
28th October

3.
Three Just Stop Oilsupporters head to Southwark Crown Court this week. They deny allegations of criminal damage on two Van Gogh paintings after soup was thrown at the artwork. Activists, take note: making art changes things. Destroying it is simply obscene.
28th October

4.
The European Parliament is due to present the 2024 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism at its session in Strasbourg (see separate story). The prize rewards outstanding journalism that promotes or defends the core EU principles and values.
23rd October

5.
London Literature Festival comes to the Southbank Centre. It’s anything but bookish. Actor Keanu Reeves will open the fair with an exploration of his novel, The Book of Elsewhere. The event’s opening weekend is co-curated by UK rapper Ghetts.
22nd October – 3rd November

WASHINGTON DC / ECONOMY

The IMF, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, United States of America
Contributor: EggImages / Alamy Stock Photo

Structuralist thoughts

In a few hours The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will release its World Economic Outlook. The publication is a bi-yearly report card for global growth. Recent versions have painted a daunting picture for companies trading across borders. Tomorrow’s report will contain some policy pointers for overcoming inflation in future (drawing on hard lessons from the last couple of years). And it will call for a greater willingness to make ‘structural reforms’. That is, measures to help the economy cope with low growth, demographic shifts (read: an aged population), as well as the green transition and the advent of new technology. The IMF warns of folk who would resist such changes in light of misinformation and a general lack of trust. Indeed, across businesses – and society more broadly – such attitudes lead to inertia, and a stifling of good ideas.

ON CREATIVITY /

Credit: Sir John Hegarty

LONDON / LITERATURE

Dissidence after death

The autobiography of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, will be published globally today. Patriot: A Memoir is a collection of journals covering the activist’s life from 2020 until his untimely death in February this year. A vocal critic of the Kremlin, Navalny lived a life of intense peril. He survived an assassination attempt that was, it is widely believed, a conspiracy by Vladimir Putin and the FSB, the Russian security services. In 2021, after recuperating from the attack in Germany, he arrived back in Russia to a slew of trumped-up charges. Navalny’s demise is still the subject of speculation – prison authorities cited ‘sudden death syndrome’, even as the former lawyer was thought to be in good health just before. His story is a poignant reminder of why truth is the enemy of tyranny: “We must do what they fear—tell the truth, spread the truth,” he wrote. “This is the most powerful weapon.”

In memoriam: opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Contributor: Michele Ursi / Alamy Stock Photo

EDINBURGH / ADVERTISING

Never stopped…
Credit: Johnnie Walker

Still striding forwards

This year Johnnie Walker, the heritage whiskey, celebrates a major milestone. It has been twenty-five years since the brand launched its first global advertising campaign, under the end line – Keep Walking. In 1999, its bosses approached ad agency BBH with a problem. It had become a ‘Dad’s drink’ and sales had slumped by 14% in three years. The change in direction came when the agency suggested that the company ought to try looking forward, rather than focusing on its past all the time. A slew of creative work followed, with stories that highlighted the importance of pluck, fortitude and progress (a dram of the brown stuff helps more with the first two qualities, than the third). These included actor Harvey Keitel fighting lions in a coliseum, and a reminder of humanity’s humble – and fishy – origins. In 2024 bosses at the company are resolute in sticking to the message. Proof that an enduring brand needs one ingredient more than most realise: consistency.

It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.

/Henry James