ROI and the Dark Empire
I met someone over the weekend who was unprepared to let her children see (or I think read) Lord of The Rings because of its unnecessarily violent content. She holds this view, despite that fact that she hasn’t seen the film (or presumably read the books). This is not a view I have a great deal of respect for on a number of levels:
First I take the view than LoTR is no more violent than the folk and fairy tale traditions that inspired it.
Second, it has never seemed gratuitously violent to me (there is a moral imperative here based upon defending good from evil).
Third, we live in a relative world. Even if it does contain depict the odd fantasy figure taking an arrow, I would argue that this is considerably less insidious than the regular ‘day to day’ murder and abuse that forms the core material of a great many (often American) TV shows.
Fourth, LoTR deals with archetypes – the big issues of good and evil. I think getting a sense of positive and negative is very helpful for those still figuring out their place in the world – particularly when the ‘good guys’ are into beauty, nature and kicking back with an ale whilst the ‘bad guys’ build polluting machines, ravage nature, are coarse and ill-mannered and want to take over the world.
Fifth, it is always difficult to give much weight to the views of those who base their opinions on the trailer rather than a considered view of the big picture.
So what does this person spend her professional time doing? Cost accountancy is what – a process that involves evaluating a company’s spend in terms of short term return on investment and cutting out the ‘deadwood’ such as long term brand building, relationship marketing, social programs and so on.
Someone who regards marketers as ‘living in the sky’, who regards vision as a cost rather than human imperative, who takes the view that if it isn’t its own little profit centre, it ain’t worth a damn.
My guess is that anyone who has made even a half serious study of the world’s ills might identify ROI as having a role somewhere near the causal centre. I am not, repeat not, saying that profit is a bad thing. However, I am saying that the days of short term ROI thinking are numbered and that we, the consumer, is moving in a different direction.
In short, cost accountancy sounds like the sort of job that they would think up in Mordor!
