Seth Godin: The Placebo Affect.

Would your iPod sound as sweet if everyone else had a Rio? Would your Manolo Blahniks be as cool if everyone else were wearing Keds?

Johnnie Moore: Changing behaviour.

Freddie goes on to talk about co-creation, which seems a rather more organic and exciting idea than one that tends to see our fellow human beings as objects.

One reason why brands often miss the mark is that they are so concerned with influencing (manipulating?) customers that they stop paying attention to what customers are doing and what they want. That way they stop learning. Somehow the idea of being surprised by, and learning from customers, seems to get squashed somewhere.

Hippyshopper: Even fairer coffee

Oxfam’s Progresso cafes do just that. Naturally, all the coffee’s FairTrade and Oxfam can tell you all about the three co-ops that provide all the beans. But Progresso goes one further - it’s actually part-owned (a 50% share, no less) by its producers in Indonesia, Ethiopia and Honduras.

Awesome!

I recently mentioned Gil Friend’s Declaration of Leadership - he now has a site. More info over at WorldChanging.

Gil Friend: The Sustainable Business - A Declaration of Leadership.

Johnnie Moore: Podcast: interview with the founders of Zopa - Zopa seems like an interesting concept - something to check out…

SMH: Mr Sustainability pours some oil on troubled waters. An interview with WWF’s recently appointed CEO. (Disclosure: for those that don’t know I work at WWF-Australia in the comms team)

The article focuses mainly on his previous job, but it’s still an interesting read. One of his comments in the article caught my attention: “I was a person first before I was an oilman, but behind every job title is an individual with his or her own deeply held values.”

The reason it stood out was that last night I finally had a chance to watch The Corporation. In it Shell’s CEO says some very similar things. BP and Shell, IMO, are far from angels, but The Corporation does show that the individuals in these organisations, sometimes in positions of significant influence, seem to be aware of the issues and in some cases are attempting to shift the 40 tonne gorillas that they lead in new directions. Success in this regard varies dramatically, and then there are those that don’t do anything, but it is promising nonetheless.

As an aside, The Corporation was an awesome doco - well worth watching. But be forewarned - it’s a long one coming in at about two and a half hours. Regardless it is an excellent piece of work. I certainly got a lot out of it and it prompted me to think about a few things in new ways. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Coupla quick notes:

• The voiceover artist strongly reminded me of the intro to two of the “historical” Animatrix segments. Wondering if it’s the same person?
• Before I’d even seen Naomi Klein on screen I knew it was her just by the words she used (I’ve not heard her speak before). Just goes to show how deep an impact her book No Logo had on me.
• In the bit about advertising to kids, I recognised just how removed you can get when you think in marketing and communications land. Everyone becomes “targets” and it’s easy to lose sight of the individuals that you may be affecting. Something to think about in my new line of work.
• I couldn’t help but think we, in Australia, are heading rapidly down the same path as the States - in media ownership, politics, privatisation and corporate law. And this process is only going to dramatically speed up over the next three years when Howard and co. gain control of the senate.

Gil Friend quotes what he terms a “contrarian perspective on outsourcing” by Roland Tangloo.

One snippet in the quote caught my attention - “A $1.5 billion trade deficit increases wealth in the U.S. by some $16 billion - I’ll take that trade any day.” I’ll preface by saying that I’m not sure on how much of that deficit is corporate and how much consumer. But, I think it’s a fair bet that the $16 billion coming back in is not going to the people that are losing their jobs, nor the ones that are spending the money to finance the deficit. In other words money is going out of the pockets of some to fill the (already overflowing) pockets of others.

Nothing new there, of course. But that’s the missing detail in that argument - where is the money flowing? Speaking in GDP terms does not show the full picture.

Scott Rosenberg: Google and the public good:

Google’s leaders are demonstrating that their corporate mission statement — ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ — is not just empty words.

… This is all such a Good Thing for the public itself that we may be inclined to overlook some of the more troubling aspects of the Google project. …

This, as Scott points out, is a big deal. His words of caution are also important to heed.

We’re going to see the film “The Corporation” on August 3 (at the Chauvel cinema for an Oxfam fundraiser). I missed it at the recent Sydney Film Festival which was a bit of a downer, because it looked really interesting. It was timely that I (finally) read Abe’s excellent review (pt 1, 2, and 3). Makes me want to see it even more.