Attention publicity hounds. Live by the sword, etc etc

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

“Never pass up an opportunity to have sex or appear on TV.”
Gore Vidal

• Nothing a Caucasian heterosexual male says or does in 2016 is right.
• A white straight dude could discover the cure for cancer these days and he’d still be frowned upon.
• Sorry folks, it’s the new normal.
• Not too long ago, for some inexplicable reason, women couldn’t vote or attend college.
• Not too long ago there were restaurants in Miami with signs that read “No dogs, no blacks, no Cubans.”
• Fast forward to 2016.
• The Mayor of Miami is Cuban.
• And everything a white male says or does is wrong.
• Unfair?
• You bet.
• Life is not fair.
• Never was and never will be.
• Still there’s not much you can do about it, folks.
• So you’re a white straight male navigating the treacherous waters of the workplace in the age of Kardashian?
• Brace yourself, buddy.
• Hold on to your Miranda rights.
• Hold on tight.
• And don’t expect guys like me to rush to your help.
• I have my own Latino Catholic straight dude problems to deal with.
• Where was I?
• A week or so ago, Saatchi & Saatchi’s chairman Kevin Roberts made a fool of himself with some tin-eared comments about gender bias in Madison Avenue.
• While he was at it, Mr. Roberts also took a swipe at Madison Avenue feminist activist and digital entrepreneur Cindy Gallop.
• Ouch.
• It reminds me of another of Gore Vidal’s brilliant bon mots: “It is not enough to succeed; my competitors must fail”, or something along those lines.
• A savvy politician like Mr. Roberts should’ve known better.
• Shortly after his comments emerged in the social chatterbox, several high profile execs occupying senior positions with big marketers rushed to attack him and to defend Ms Gallop.
• Hey, his barbs about Ms Gallop did carry a load of personal animosity but, nevertheless, they were accurate.
• In a nutshell, he accused her of being a self-aggrandizing publicity hound.
• So what’s wrong with that?
• Who isn’t a self-aggrandizing publicity hound these days?
• Can anyone build a career in modern marketing & advertising without being a self-aggrandizing publicity hounds?
• Why the f**k do you think I write this column every week?
• Ms Gallop is hard at work building a public persona.
• So am I.
• We all are.
• She needs visibility and funding for her initiatives and her lifestyle.
• So do I.
• So does Mr. Roberts.
• No blame in doing so.
• We are all attention whores in 2016.
• I’m sure there’s a psychologic and even anthropologic explanation for our behavior.
• The alienation and loneliness of modern life probably plays a big part.
• Whatever the reason, Kardashianism is here to stay.
• To be continued.