Business as usual?

Image via WikipediaSo yesterday the 3 CEO's from the auto companies road down in their American made cars.  Should we applaud them that something finally got through to them?  They have spend billions of dollars on lobbyists to make sure they never had to change a thing, just keep on forging down the same path without any eye to the future.  Now, they want to change their companies when the future is here.  The taxpayers should help them do that with our money.  Hmmm.  First, let's fire all 3 CEO's, and bring in some fresh innovative thinkers to figure out how to create a new car that people want to drive in less than the usual 5 years it takes.  These guys have been living in a time warp.

When we (yes we) bailed out AIG, AIG took out a full page ad in the NYTimes, front page section, letting everyone know that everything is okay.  They needed to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars of our money to do that?  That seems pretty much like business as usual to me.  Considering print is receding and the online readership is going up, perhaps they should have advertised online instead to get their point across.  What exactly was the point?

Today, on page 11 of the NYTimes, UAW did the same thing.  Basically letting us know that they were all hurting from the banking debaucle.  They are main street.  How much that ad cost could have paid a few of the peoples pictures on the advertisement for the year.  Business as usual?

I have been working with someone who is determined we do print advertising in publications that are cutting back because less people are reading them.  It is typical, business as usual.  I felt like screaming WAKE UP!!!

The world has changed, the way people do business has changed, the way people make purchases has changed, the way people read their daily information has changed, conspicuous consumption is out.  The best thing I read today was 60% off is the new black in NYC.  If the companies I have listed above don't have the vision to see the future and where it is going then the people running those companies need to retire or resign before the Government gives them anymore of our money.  Otherwise, it will be just business as usual.

Change was Obama's mantra and it was already happening right before our eyes.