Team Nice Gets Political

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 207 months ago

Last Updated 30 September 2007

Team Nice Gets Political
Misery Ain't Working

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice.

18. Social Revolution?

When I was a kid, television was dominated by the game show, like The Price Is Right or Bulls Eye. I think the appeal was through empathy of that elated feeling of winning something great… Bully’s special prize.

Then our society changed. Reality television took over, we became more interested in how real people were and how we operated. When Andy Warhol said everyone gets 15 minutes did he realise how prophetic he was being?

In the world of marketing, marketers (my day job) became more aware of manipulations of consumers. If we use these colours, if we show our brand associated with this cause, then people will like us more and buy our product and we will make more money. Social responsibility marketing is just another example of this.

But by far the biggest and most important influence on marketing in recent years has been Search Engine Optimisation, SEO.

No one likes junk mail, or spam, both of which will die off in the next few years completely. Now marketing is happy. It’s a nice exchange. Play fair with Google and Google will play fair with you. The little guys selling hand made ceramic beading were now equal to the big corporate. This has promoted better manners, as there is less to be afraid of.

So also, I realise that whilst there is no such thing as original thought (well not in my tiny head), SEO actually inspired The Niceties Token Campaign and Team Nice.

And because the SEO exchange is so much more pleasant and effective, groups and social networking have sprung up.

You want to meet up with people in fancy dress? Then great. You want to read about a knitting blogger? Then go for it. You want to celebrate good manners and be proud to be polite? C’mon then!

The business world appreciates this too, and so begins ‘Network Marketing', and a renaissance of offline communities too.

So our society is rapidly changing. We are all becoming nicer and more sociable, caring and interested in each other. We are no longer disparate people living without community. What if we do have a general election coming up? How will the social revolution that we are on the verge of affect this? Hmmm…

This weeks niceness

Return of the scratch cards niceness lottery. Once again I left 10 scratch cards out for people to find, all with a note saying that anything won belonged to the finder of the scratch card. I empathetically hope they get Bully’s Special Prize…

Scratch cards

By Liz Akers