Surprise! There was no content here other than my great title when this post went up. Why? Well, that is the stuff of another very important post on security that I will try to get up later in the day.
Long story short, security maven me had my iPad pick-pocketed on the CTA train, the L or blue line. Grrr. I had set it up to publish with just the title and was going to edit and approve the text upon arrival at the #Sheraton (whose desk and security staff were) wonderful about helping me figure out what to do per reporting the theft and bumped me up a notch on the nice room scale to make me feel better about Chicago and my experience here but…. the text was local to the iPad. Say bye-bye to 2 hours of writing. Grrr and double Grrr! By the time I got checked in
But yesterday on the flight in, to O’Hare , I wrote an absolutely amazing post – on my iPad in offline mode – about why I like Coca-Cola, why I am NOT boycotting them at #BlogHer13, even though people might expect me, a purportedly knee-jerk liberal, to join in a few bloggers who are up in arms about Coke sponsoring a health track at this HUGE conference.
Okay, Back to Conference Sponsorship
I take my political activities very seriously and do not give my support to any action lightly. I value our democracy and freedoms of speech and action far too much to diminish the power of my voice without significant thought and research.
I get a lot out of attending the BlogHer Conferences. I tried to attend in 2006 but wanted to remain married to my grumpy old hubby, who has never really understood my writerly proclivities. So I didn’t actually get to BlogHer until 2007. I had found my tribe. It was wonderful. It takes a lot of bucks to underwrite the costs of a major production like this wonderful conference. Big conferences take big sponsors.
Coke v. Water
I am a borderline diabetic, pre-diabetic I think they call it. I like Coke Zero. I get tired of drinking water. I can’t stand the taste of other diet drinks. At one time I did not ever drink any diet anything…until two years ago. From my time as an underpaid Academic Science Reference Library type person I found out about the stats on cancer increase after the introduction of artificial sweeteners into the American diet. But correlation is not causation and there were other things introduced into the American lifestyle at the same time.
Would I be happier if all Coke products tasted like Mexican Coca-Cola? Would I be happier if there was a stevia-sweetened diet drink that was readily available. Would I be totally ecstatic if I could go back in time and visit my grandparents in the little burg of Etna and pop on over to village grocery with the gas pumps outside that looked like something out of a Hopper painting, and dip into the Coca-Cola ice chest and come up with a cold Coke in one of those cute little bottles? Yep, yep, and triple yeppers. But that is in the pipeline I am sure… the stevia thing, not time travel.
Like all things, moderation of soda intake is probably a good thing. But no one is forcing me to drink Coke. And I am happy that major sponsors support this conference so I can afford to attend.
Boycotting Symptoms v. Making Change Happen
Change is hard. Creating change is difficult. Creating the exact change you want down the road is impossible.
Okay, I will fess up. I am a “brain.” Intellectuals “R” Us comes to me for ideas. I can’t help it. It is just how I am: analytical, research oriented, techy-geek. Change happens through a complex process that is mercurial, multi-faceted, and high level. What does that mean? In plain English it means that you may be putting energy into preserving the very system you wish to change, the status quo, through efforts to change basic behavior. Reaction most often simply reinforces the behavior you are protesting.
When ad folks say any press is good press they are not far from the truth. Want to change the corporatist culture of the world. Going after specific products and brands probably will only serve to reinforce name recognition for your nemesis. Getting your city council to recognize that corporations are not people… that might have REAL impact.
It Is All Good
Please don’t think I am dissing anyone! Action toward health and corporate responsibility is good. We are not going to take down any iconic brands, and we may not want to. We are the consumers. The corporations will give us what we want if we are their market, make our concerns clear, and behave responsibly and consistently.
Let’s just have fun, learn and network for the next few days, okay BlogHers?
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