You Made Your Bed

When I was a kid, my mom used to say, "You made your  bed, you lie in it."

I didn't actually make my bed very often, but I knew what she meant.  You're responsible for dealing with the situations you create.  And you're responsible for having created them.  Don't blame others for your problems, or expect them to help you out of it.

When I look at the situation with media today, I see large media, retail and telecom companies trying to blame others for the problems they got themselves into.  And they expect others to help them get out of it.  Take this article in AdAge: "Survey: 48.9% of Marketing Execs Have Paid for Placement in Content".

Traditional media companies wonder why ordinary Americans would see any value in a blog, written by an amateur?  Well, of course we would, if the published, edited, "professional" content we read is nothing but a big ad.  According to this article, 65% of "consumers" assume product mentions in editorial are bought and paid for.

I've mentioned here before that retailers spend millions trying to get customers to "switch" brands, and then complain that "there's no customer loyalty anymore".

Hey, you guys teach us stuff, we learn.  You made your bed, you lie in it.  And don't come crying to me if you need to figure out how to handle the fact that your traditional ad campaigns aren't working anymore, or you need to learn how to do user-generated content or build an online community.  Oh wait... do come running to me.  That's my job, after all.