Executive Orders: Week Notes #31
I’ve become slightly obsessed and preoccupied with Executive Orders. Donald Trump, on returning to office to serve his second term as US president has immediately issued over 20 of the things. Some, whilst morally dubious are entirely logical and coherent with what we know about the man’s politics. Examples might include the decision to leave the Paris Climate agreement and an order to pardon anyone involved in the January 6th ‘insurrection’. Others - at least to my humble brain - seem less logical, practical and less useful. Examples here might his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America or the slightly vague order that all federal agencies need to ‘address the cost of living crisis’ (source: Sky News)
Some of these orders will take place immediately. Others will not, and they will be reviewed by the courts of other forms of government before coming into action. Some could be reversed immediately by Trump’s successor, as he has done with many of the policies implemented by Biden’s administration. And some - like the cost of living crisis mandate - could in theory, never be ‘excecuted’ completely or at all.
What this flurry of executive orders might indicate is that Trump is a man who has little care for, or understanding, of the process and practicalities of the political system. By contrast, this person understands everything about marketing. Whether or not his 20 or so ‘orders’ come to pass, makes very little difference. These are a statement of intent to his base about his desire to break with the recent past and ‘make America great again (again)’. By comparison, many modern marketers seem stuck with the opposite affliction. They spend far too much time worrying about the practicalities of process and have lost focus on the actual act of marketing and all that it entails. We build complicated planning processes to manage our work, we follow them stringently and trust that they will show us the way. More often than not though, slavishly following processes leads to work which minimises the risk of something bad happening, but rarely leads to something great happening.
Doing
Annual planning season is in full swing. Work is characterised by lots of workshops, meetings and project timelines. New projects are always stimulating, as is the collaboration they call for. Had to travel to Birmingham for a session. It really is a pleasant train journey when everything works. Train travel is far too expensive in the UK to be properly desireable though.
Went to the Francis Bacon exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery on Friday before it shut. Truly remarkable.
Met Simeon for lunch and saw Steve for coffee. Always interesting to get a perspective on the bits of agency-land that I might not usually get exposed to.
Reading
Have really gotten into Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It is genuinely remarkable. And thankfully was one of those rare books where something between me and the book almost immediately.
Watching
Saw Nosferatu at the cinema. Properly chilling. Feel confused by the reviews. Some people loved it. Others hated it. I was definitely in the former, rather than latter camp.
Finished Skeleton Crew. It really is crap. Disney are milking the IP for all it’s worth.
