Nontrivial Pursuits

Well, it appears that the time I invested in the Since Sliced Bread ‘new idea contest’ was all for naught. I rather expected that none of my ideas would be among the final 21 chosen—they’re a little too complex for most people to handle—-but I did not expect that the SEIU would handle the whole thing in a way that would end up tarnishing its reputation. When the 21 semi-finalists were announced last week, the public response—as expressed through the SSB blog—-was overwhelmingly negative.

I’d estimate that at least 90% of those who had been regularly expressing their interest and enthusiasm for the contest in the SSB blog were bitterly disappointed by the results. Not just disappointed, outraged. Yes, a certain amount of ‘sour grapes’ grumbling and nit-picking from the losers was expected, but not the nearly universal outcry that exploded onto the SSB blog. Instead of being the public relations winner that the SEIU had hoped it would be, it has turned out to be a disaster, instead.

About a month ago, the contest’s Official Voice on the blog asked visitors to make suggestions on what could be done to maximize the popular appeal of the contest. What the contest’s organizers apparently did not realize back then is just how important it would be for them to go the extra mile to persuade the losers that they had lost fairly. Now, because they didn’t, they have an outcome where the very people they were counting on to help popularize the contest have become the contest’s most vociferous public critics.

The single most compelling argument voiced by critics was that virtually all of the final 21 ideas were stunningly lacking in originality. Why should this be such a big deal to them? Well, perhaps it’s because the name the SEIU picked for their contest—-”Since Sliced Bread”—-loudly implied that, above all else, they were interested in ‘new’, ‘fresh’, ‘outside-of-the-box’ ideas. Very few of the finalist ideas possessed this quality.

Other complaints about rule violations were also expressed, but I somehow think that if the final 21 had at least shared the quality of being truly original, most of those now complaining would have been able to accept them as legitimate, even if they judged most of them to be ‘wildly impractical.’ At least then attention would have naturally focused on which of the final 21 original ideas ‘had the best chance of practical success.’

In spite of the magnitude of the outcry, the contest sponsors have remained almost utterly unresponsive. They have made no attempt to fix what was perceived to be wrong with the contest, or to even try to explain and justify the outcome they produced. This only seems to feed the sense of outrage that people are feeling. One articulate critic raised the possibility that some soul out there could end up winning $100,000 for simply writing down an idea that they had heard mentioned before. How could the contest sponsors tolerate such an injustice?

It really saddens me when unions do things like this because I am a ‘natural cheerleader’ for the working class and for those who invest themselves in the effort to advance the interests of the working class. I just wish they’d ‘smarten up’ and get a better grasp of what they are dealing with in the world of public relations. Who is advising these people, anyway?

James Kroeger<—4f9994879317256b65c857332c09c9e1—>

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 5:07 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.