The New York Times is my favorite newspaper. I grew up on the Washington Post, but converted to the Times when they went electronic. Far and away, it’s the best newspaper web site out there.
But there’s just one thing: they lied to me. As I was reading the other day, I got a pop-up asking me if I wanted to participate in a brief survey that, the message said, would help the newspaper improve its site. While I normally don’t respond to pop-ups, I did so this time because I truly wanted to help the Times do better. It’s in my best interests as a reader. Happy to help.
Well. Within 30 seconds I knew my beloved Times was lying to me. The survey wasn’t brief, and it wasn’t designed to help the newspaper improve. It was a survey on brand awareness for one of the Times advertisers. I’m not interested in helping the Times advertisers. I’m not interested in doing what I estimated to be a 15-minute survey in the middle of reading the paper. So I clicked out. What do you think the chances are that I’ll ever respond to a Times pop-up again? Zilch.
I wonder how many of us are lying to our customers and employees about our abilities, our services, or our culture. Not necessarily intentionally, but lying all the same. If we can’t back up our marketing and advertising with skill and competency, that’s lying. If we don’t serve our customers well, but say we do, that’s lying. And if we really don’t have a high-trust corporate culture but we say we do, that’s still lying. You get my drift.
Some people might call this kind of lying “spinning” or “putting things in the best light” or maybe “aspirational messaging.” It’s still not true. Far better to tell the truth about who we are and what we do and the environment in which we do it. At least then, the consumer (either as buyer or potential employee) can make an informed decision and be held accountable for that decision. Anything else is just not truthful.
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