
When Meg was about four, the two of us were driving back home from the Palo Alto duck pond, a favorite hangout of ours. We passed my office, which I pointed out to her. She asked, "What do you do at work, Daddy?"
The question was simple enough, but I struggled to come up with an answer. How do you explain marketing communications to a four year old? Heck, I had to explain it to a lot of adults. So I decided to take a shortcut and limit my explanation to one of our more visible roles: advertising.
Just as McDonald's sells burgers and Mattel sells toys, I explained, my company sells things, too. McDonald's puts ads on TV to try to convince people to buy their food. And in the same way, I help create ads that tell people about the products my company makes, so that they'll be encouraged to buy them. I went on for a bit longer, not quite sure whether my explanation was getting through. "Do you understand?" I asked with some anticipation.
"Yes," she said, matter-of-factly. "You try to make people buy things they don’t want to buy.”
My first thought was that I had not explained it very well, and maybe I ought to give it another try. My second thought was that I might have explained it better than I'd intended. As I reflected on the excesses of my profession, I realized her innocent comment was more spot-on than I wanted to admit. Let's face it: sometimes we get so passionate about pursuing our craft that we forget this important truth: "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." I made a mental note: don’t just watch what you do, watch how you do it and why. Because she's watching, too.
Thanks, Megan. Lesson learned. Happy birthday!
1 comment:
SO funny! I can totally hear Megan saying that!
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