A long time ago, I read a book where the main character tries to persuade his dad that he should subscribe to some magazine. He explains to his dad that the magazine aims to educate their readership and to give them insight into blah-blah-blah. “Nonsense!” says his dad,

“The aim of the magazine is to sell more magazines. Same as all magazines.”

This was an epiphany for me. It explained all kinds of things that I had not previously understood.

Whenever you see the media doing something that seems counter-intuitive - something that is not in the customer’s best interest - ask yourself :

“Who is the real customer for this product?”

If the product is media-related, there is a good chance that the customer - the party who pays money for the product - is not the consumer, it’s the advertiser.

[Thanks to Jeff for this last insight]

In the old days, if the commentators of one game wanted to share the score of another they would say..

The score of the XvY game is about to appear on the screen. if you don’t want to know the result, please look away now.

Now you have to take counter-measures to avoid finding out who gets whacked in The Sopranos before the season even starts. The media has whole teams of people whose job it is to spoil your enjoyment of reality shows, sitcoms, movies and even American Idol by telling you the ending before the show is aired.

It’s all a ploy to confuse the enemy. In fact, the whole Rooney/injury thing… all a ploy…

We do it every four years. Our strategy is to look really terrible for the first round and then just squeak out of the group by way of arithmetical gymnastics in the last game against Poland. In the following rounds, we put on a stunning performance against at least two world cup powerhouses - leading to predictions which include the phrases /this time/ and /all the way/ - before getting knocked out by Germany on penalties.

This year we are being a bit more adventurous by actually winning a game in the first round. This time I think we can go all the way.