What you see isn’t necessarily what you get

The downside of keeping up appearances

The other day, on the treadmill at my local gym, while watching Sky News, I was struck by something.

No, not a dumbbell or a gym shoe. But a thought. Am I the only person in the world not dyeing my hair? Now of course I’m not, but watching the newreaders, sports reporters and correspondents, you could be forgiven for thinking that we live in a world where grey has been banished forever.

Salt and pepa (and more salt)

OK, time for a little test – on me. Here’s the photo you’ll see popping up all over my site. It was taken a few months ago, and (if you get up close and squint) it shows some grey hair:

Let’s indulge in some time travel. Fast-forward and we get this:

Now I don’t know about you, but I think that looks pretty distinguished. I’m thinking George Clooney, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, or even erstwhile Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling (minus the caterpillar eyebrows, obviously). On the other hand, I could decide that grey was a bridge too far, and go for the raven’s wing look:

Hmm. East End car salesman? Dodgy geezer at Newmarket offering odds on the gee-gees? Desperate-but-loveable on a dating site? I don’t think so. Maybe instead I’d go for a halfway house solution, the preferred choice of newsreaders everywhere. The silver wingtips that they hope that will make people think He couldn’t be dyeing his hair. If he were, he wouldn’t have grey bits on the side.

Oh dear. Now that’s just sad. And the problem is that the greyer – or whiter – the wingtips get, the bigger the difference between the sides and the unnaturally dark top. Cruella de Vil here we come. Not for me, I think.

The colour of money

And the connection with copywriting, marketing and the world of business? I hear you ask, weary after last night’s office party and struggling to follow my seasonal meanderings. It’s simple. Everything you do sends out a signal – including trying to appear to be something you’re not. It speaks volumes about your honesty, integrity and credibility. The business equivalent of a hint of a tint might be:

Pretending your company is bigger than it is (we, we, we).
Claiming the offer is free when it’s actually free*.
Talking about a product that’s worth X so that Y seems a really good deal by comparison.
Dodging responsibility for a problem that’s clearly of your making.
Talking in a language that overblown, larding it with marketing hype and a generous dollop of business buzzwords.

And the solution? Well you could try to:

Be yourself (people might just like you).
Humanise your company (people might just like it).
Admit your mistakes (the sky won’t fall in).
Not conceal yourself behind pompous circumlocutions and grandiloquent expressions (like those ones). Talk normal.

And remember, if everybody else is coming over all black-and-silver-wingtips, being different can set you apart. Keeping up appearances and doing a me-too means you blend in with the pack. The bottom line? It’s OK to be grey (as long as you’re not dull, that is). And if you’re still not convinced, here’s one last test. Santa A or Santa B? Thought so. Merry Christmas.

P.S. Is it just me, or do you start humming Nessun dorma when you look at B?

Kevin Communication, Ideas, Marketing.