AdAge: Transparency is Overrated

Eric Webber says he doesn't buy all this new-age transparency twittering and prefers his conversations with clients and publics fully clothed and not naked at all, thank you very much: "But it seems to me that all this talk of being "totally transparent" is overrated and takes things entirely too far. What's worse, it's just not honest." He's so getting shredded.

The one thing this whole deal about conversations brings to mind:




Perhaps because I've lived through the original perestroika (?), I'm wary about being irrationally exuberant over this one. I think the Cluetrain Manifesto and its derivatives really boil down to these few principles. My favorite one is about taking naps in the afternoon.



Comments are open (moderated for spam).
- Wednesday, April 11, 2007

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous13/4/07 6:53 PM

    Eric Webber makes good sense to me. In fact, the transparency (objectivity) issue was one of the first things we pondered when we put up our little blog. In the sidebar we put "We don't claim objectivity...since we believe in the company's product and its purpose, we will advocate it. We're pretty sure this beats advocating something you don't believe in." And in this case, what I don't believe in is transparency as I've seen it used. Objectivity is a fine ideal, if seldom attained, in journalism. PR and advertising are about persuasion, to make the case. Ideally the practitioners believe in what they're advocating. Credibility and candor I can get behind. But transparency, well, I think it's impossible, and I think that's a good thing. I've seen all the transparency I need at Twitter.

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