One thing that really surprised me on my last visit to the US was the amount of health product ads on TV. It is rather annoying to see that, in a country where the health care system is completely private and extremely expensive, pharmaceutical companies target consumers instead of doctors in their marketing, sowing fear and insecurity.
Update June 17, 2008: The BBC has an article on this as well.
Enough said. 😉
It is said that Hillary Clinton won Ohio due to her opposition to NAFTA (an initiative that her husband put into force, by the way). I understand that Ohio has lost quite a few jobs during the last 15 years, but renegotiating free trade is not a solution.
The American consumer on one hand loves low prices, which needless to say are helped by free trade. On the other side, however, the same person, now as American voter is afraid of the state of the American economy, and would like to protect it as much as possible.
The problem is, however, that the Ohio voter is between a rock and a hard place for one reason: if the United States shuts the door to free trade, many of those employed producing goods for the American market abroad will lose their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised if they would try to migrate to find a better life.
Therefore, the question is the following: free trade or immigration?
Compare this:
with this:
I'd say that aesthetically the main difference between NYC & Tokyo is that NYC looks somehow less well maintained, and the architecture resembles more the 50's than the 2000's in places. Both are definitely places worth visiting.
I was pretty surprised by the amount of fear I could see in the American media. I understand the shock caused by the unfortunate events of September 11th, 2001, but I think this doesn't only have to do with that.
The messages you hear in TV, in the news and in the street talk about fear: fear of terrorism, yes, but also of immigration, poverty, bad health, poor eductaion, peak oil, etc. I find it sad that such an entrepreneurial people can be held back by thinly veiled propaganda of fear. Awareness is extremely important, but frightening your audience won't take you anywhere.
I've talked earlier about the difference between the quality of service in Europe and other places around the world. I'm happy to report that in the U.S. the service level is in general much better than what we're used in Europe. The downside, of course, if that you need to be aware about how much you should be tipping, which is an arcane art I have pretty much forgotten.
I spent four days this week in New York City. It was the first time in almost 10 years I was outside of an airport in the US, as I've done plenty of transits but not many visits, and funnily enough last time I was in a city in the US it was NYC.
Funny way of closing circles, I guess…
William Gibson, the same author of the classic Neuromancer, wrote this book around the time of the unfortunate events of September, 2001. Even though it is classified as science fiction, funnily enough I would think of it more as contemporary fiction since its plot contains events that could be happening currently.
There's not that many novels that would star marketers, so that makes it interesting already 😉
I guess it's not a good idea to watch the National Geographic channel before a week on the move if they have "Air crash investigation" and "Inside 9/11" on air. Stupid me.
It's just that it was so interesting. I guess it has to do with my typical trait of being curious about how things work and why they are that way.
