Recession Schmecession

At a recent out-of-hours event, the second slide one presenter showed betrayed his allegiance to the type of networking organisation only truly embraced inside America.  He trumpeted their current slogan, that you can even buy on a dollar-a-throw pin badge; “I Refuse to Participate in a Recession“.

I’m minded to accept this kind of thinking as a good thing (as I’ve blogged before at the outset of all this) yet I have felt this conclusion come under threat due to the way in which the mantra is being carried.  My unease was exacerbated by my not being able to put a finger precisely on why this was.

Then from a bizarre corner of the media, I found out exactly why.  Channel-surfing the tv looking for Lion’s rugby reaction, I bounced through a closedown message.  Here’s a photo of the screen:

I was instantly struck at how much better your anti-recession thinking could be framed using CNN’s approach.

For me, merely saying you’re not going to take part in any credit crunch slide can come across as a bit King Canute.  I feel it is also a touch too negative.

Whereas if, when someone asks you how business is going, you respond instead along the lines of your sole focus being that other r-word, Recovery, then I believe that you provide a far more potent message about where you’re at.  Hats off to CNN’s copywriter for going against the grain of tv news editors and understanding the power of Recovery over recession.