Chris Locke posts a second instalment of Gonzo Marketing. More great stuff. My favourite bit:
In marketing just as in government, professionalism tends to hew unimaginatively to its own timid orthodoxy. It does not provide leadership, enthusiasm or the kind of impassioned personal engagement that has come to be called gonzo. In stark contrast, business professionalism tends to be arid and passionless, narrowly focused, self-involved. However, this doesn’t mean that everyone in business fits this damning characterization.
Far from it. In my own experience, there are many more lively intellects at work in the workplace than the misbegotten “corporate communications” coming out of those places would lead one to believe. There’s often more going on in today’s corporation than today’s corporation would care to admit. New life is growing between the cracks in the corporate edifice, and it’s spreading like a weed.
I fear that some marketing departments are simply getting in the way of the connection an organisation can make with its marketplace. Looks like the CBO agrees.
