Inspiring indifference in my readers

Go on, give in to the hate

Yesterday I read with interest the blog of some young upstart from the States.

Alex Bogusky, or whatever his name is, wrote about success, how you define it and how you go after it. It’s a pretty nice post if you like that sort of thing.

That’s not my point.

Something in his words made his fellow countrymen so furious they almost choked on their collective cheeseburgers and immediately began waving fully-licensed firearms around willy-nilly at anyone daring express an opinion in the land of the free.

The anonymous bloggers bravely accused him of being arrogant, smug and shallow. And having long hair.

Now I couldn’t give two hoots whether he’s arrogant or not. What really upset me is the vitriol he managed to provoke in his readers.

This guy's only been blogging for a month and he’s already upset scores of people. I’ve been at it nine months now and have had virtually no insults in my comments section. Those that have come have been half-hearted at best.

It’s a well-known principle in advertising that our number one challenge is to get a reaction – better to be loved or hated than ignored.

But this is me. The Magnolia of creatives. The plain boiled rice of writers. Not great. Not bad. Just there.

I know there are people in the industry who hate me. They’ve told me as much on several occasions. But even they can’t be arsed to comment. Whereas this Bogusky chap has angered people who’ve never even met him.

Where’s the fairness in that? Come on guys, show me the hatred.