Selling and @FIFAWorldCup #Brazil2014 , Social Media and the shadow of 2022

"Obrigado Brasil pela recepcao calorosa", which translates as "Thank you Brazil for your warm welcome" read a banner held by the England football squad at their training centre in Rio.

 They were then serenaded with a version of 'We Are The Champions' and traditional music from a samba band from the Bola Pra Frente favela. 

Yet it was FIFA, the body responsible for the beautiful game of soccer who headed our football news last night. This story about alleged wrongdoing over the 2022 bid has emerged just as the soccer festival begins in Brazil.

The alleged bribery story was exposed by The Sunday Times.

 One of the FIFA Corporate Partners Sony has demanded an investigation into the alleged bribes.

Sony stated  "As a FiFA partner, we expect these allegations to be investigated appropriately."

"We continue to expect FIFA to adhere to its principles of integrity ethics and fair play across all aspects of its operations," it added.

Sony, Adidas ,Coca Cola. Hyundai / Kia, Emirates, Visa are the six main FIFA sponsors who collectively paid around $180m last year. Most have now followed Sony’s lead.

Their statements have stressed  “principles of integrity, ethics and fair play across all aspects of FIFA’s operation”.

Sony's sponsorship agreement expires this year, which gives it particular leverage as it negotiates a new deal.
“We expect FIFA will take the appropriate actions to respond to the report and its recommendations,” said Melissa Cassar, a spokeswoman for Foster City, California-based Visa, in an e-mail. “We will continue to monitor its internal investigation.”

Hyundai Motor Co. is “confident that FIFA is taking these allegations seriously and that the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee will conduct a thorough investigation,” the South Korean FIFA partner said in an e-mail.

“Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the FIFA World Cup is a concern to us, but we are confident that FIFA is taking these allegations very seriously and is investigating them thoroughly,” Alison Brubaker, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Coke, wrote in an e-mail.

Anheuser-Busch inBev NV also is monitoring the situation, Laura Vallis, a spokeswoman for the Leuven, Belgium-based company, in an e-mail. “We expect FIFA to take all necessary steps to address the issue”

The real world factors of the marketing model PESTLE will still play crucial role for the main sponsors. The world cup in Brazil and after will be affected  by factors such as politics, economics, society, technology,  legal issues and environmental which will bubble on during the tournament and beyond.

For the 2014 tournament it is expected there will be a big increase in brand promotion via social media.

Artist Paolo Ito's powerful mural - ethical/political  dilemma of the World Cup 2014

Courtesy of Paulo Ito at www.flickr.com/photos/pauloito/13998946669

A number of social media pundits suggest Digital consumption will be central to the 2014 World Cup. Paolo Ito's mural went viral.

Twitter and football go hand in hand : in the UK specifically, research from @globalwebindex shows that

•         90% of Twitter users in the UK will be watching the World Cup

•         Over two thirds of UK users use Twitter for something football related

•         43% of people on Twitter in the UK follow football clubs, with all 20

PremierLeague clubs active on Twitter

•         54% of football lovers say that news breaks fastest on Twitter

•         40% of UK users tweet when there is a goal, and 61% tweet post-match

Apparently Brazil is  Facebook's second largest market and provides YouTube with its second most unique visitors. There will a tsunami of engagement   which sponsors will no doubt be geared up to exploit.

Yet brands are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of showing the public they are aware that there is a social aspect to being a sponsor for such huge sporting extravaganzas.

Some of the Brazilian political protesters may see an advantage of pointing the finger of guilt around the World Cup costs onto the sponsors if conventional strikes and protest don't get media coverage.

The sponsors have paid anything from an estimated £8m to £120m to have their names associated with what is one of the biggest events in global sport.

Meanwhile, FIFA has  benefitted. Selling the rights

 By selling the rights for firms to be associated with the event, it is estimated to make some £850m over a four-year World Cup cycle, making up the majority of its non-TV revenues during such a period.

With the 2014 tournament just days away, it means it is not just the 32 national teams competing that are fine-tuning their plans, but also the 22 corporate sponsors. FIFA will want to kick the 2022 bid issues into the long grass...........( depending on announcements from Sepp Blatter or Mr Garcia )

Good luck to Roy Hodgson and the England team (especially 'Lamps' if he plays) on Saturday, against Italy in Manaus, Brazil. 

Let's rejoice in joy of  football and Brazil not forgetting  the  sponsors  Vauxhall, Mars, Budweiser, McDonald’s,   and William Hill, Carlsberg, Nivea for Men, Samsung, Lucozade Sport, EE, Marks and Spencer for the team England!!!!.

Good selling ,Good Samba, Good Football

Better get some cachaca for those Caipirinhas folks ! 

Selling Confidence Matters - 5 key actions to build up your selling confidence

Oliver Moody of the London Times provocatively headed his piece on Saturday 17th May on some recent behavioural research  from the USA

“ FORGET TALENT, IT’S CONFIDENCE THAT MATTERS”

Perhaps we should not be surprised after all we have seen those TV shows where an amateur can pass off as a professional with suitable training at least in the short term. 

We also know how a supremely confident person  can  ‘get away with it’. ( for a while)

So in the movie world. Leonardo diCaprio /Tom Hanks' 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can is a  biographical crime drama film based on the life of Frank Abagnale. It tells the story of Frank before his 19th birthday, successfully performing cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor in addition to financial frauds.

None the less a study from the Universities of Pennsylvania and California have done some work on the importance of Confidence and published in the journal  “ Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision processes.” ( Elsevier publication) 

“ Confidence is compelling to observers because in the absence of information to the contrary observers assume it reflects superior ability”

“It is important to note that being perceived to possess these valued characteristics is the key to attaining higher status . It is not necessary to actually possess these characteristics.”

Mr Moody’s article also suggests that  the gloss of competence lingers  after it is shown to be a found out.

One the study’s conclusions suggests in  persistent peer impressions of social skill and task ability, groups may not penalise a confident individual, even if their confidence is revealed as being unjustified by their actual task skills.

So for some, an overestimate of one’s abilities is seen as an advantage as a persuader.

But what of those of us who may not be like that?

 Perhaps we have been raised up on the virtues of humility and modesty? We must build our confidence

What will make us come across as confident ?

1.       Thorough Knowledge  such as :-

Product Knowledge what it is, does and means to your cleint

Company Knowledge

Client’s Needs

Client’s Company

The Client’s Clients ( Top 5)

2.       Developing those communication skills of Listening , Questioning and Presenting

3.       Training and practising those communication skills

4.       Persistence

                                                               Persistence

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

- Talent will not

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent

-Education will not

The world is full of educated derelicts

-Genius will not

Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb

- Persistence and determination alone are all powerful !

( This quote has been in my little black book for many years.  I can't remember where I first saw it .no attribution sorry !)

Related Links

3 ways to improve your chances of winning sales


3 levels of Sales Research

Presentation to Clients

38 Great Sales Questions

Social media - less talking more LISTENING

Selling Biscuit occasions through Biscuits Re-branding

How often do you engage in a biscuit occasion ?

warmth, comfort, sociability, sharing  - occasions and childhood memories

United Biscuits - who own brands such as Jacobs and McVitie's - is in the midst of spending  £12m in a re-branding the business.

Chief executive Martin Glenn said  the campaign came about after a year of research that found biscuits evoked childhood memories, "images of warmth, comfort, sociability, sharing".

"The challenge we've got at McVitie's is that, whilst we're the biggest in the UK, we're facing a lot more foreign competition... so we need to up our game."

 

Fruits of Success' Little Bogdan
was an audition hopeful for
 the Advertising campaign (not)

Fluffy kittens, corgi puppies and orange-eyed tarsiers are being used to help sell more Digestives and Jaffa cakes by United Biscuits ahead of a likely sale this year by its private equity owners.

Biscuit Heritage 

The 160-year-old McVitie’s brand  relaunched with a £12m advertising campaign, focused on “sweet” animals that Martin Glenn, chief executive, said was aimed at “supporting our efforts to drive growth for the category”.

He has embarked on what the group said would be a record level of capital investment this year, of more than £50m, compared with £38m last year.

The private equity companies bought United Biscuits for £1.6bn eight years ago – an investment horizon that is longer than the norm in their industry. They sold the KP snacks unit last year for an undisclosed price, thought to have been £400m.

Money in Biscuits

Jeff van der Eems, chief executive of the international division, said: “The sale of KP Snacks in 2012 has allowed us to focus on our core businesses of McVitie’s and Jacobs, and to expand our international operations which we hope to account for 20 % of sales in three years.”

Mr Glenn has since regrouped the group’s products into two divisions – sweet products under the McVitie’s label; and savoury biscuits, such as Mini Cheddars and Carr’s, under the Jacob’s brand of crackers.

United Biscuits is the second-largest biscuits group in the €12bn industry, with a 7 % market share, which is less than half that of industry leader, Mondelez. The maker of Oreo and TUC biscuits has 17 %, according to Euromonitor.

In the UK, where 90 % of households buy its products, United Biscuits has a 40 % market share.

But it has had a tough recession in the face of “difficult market conditions” for at least the past three years as consumers focused on “value”, the company said.

Broken Biscuits

The market is fragmented, highly competitive and is having to address consumers’ increasing health concerns.

Marc Kennis, analyst at Rabobank, which recently issued a report into the sector, said biscuit makers faced volatile wheat and sugar prices and hard bargaining retailers.

“This creates substantial uncertainty in the variable cost base for manufacturers, who have limited room to pass on any price increase to customers due to intense competition and the sheer size of food retailers. Biscuit companies are caught between a rock and a hard place,” he said.

What have fluffy kittens or a tarsier got that
a baby meerkat has not ?

The quirky campaign, the biscuit makers’ biggest investment in media, highlights the occasions in the day when its biscuits are eaten and the feeling people get from eating them.

One Grey London created spot for Digestives shows a family settling down to relax with a biscuit before a Corgi puppy emerges when the packet is unwrapped.

 Another for Chocolate Digestives sees a group of nurses settling down for a tea break and being confronted by kittens when they reach for the biscuits,

A third for Jaffa Cakes shows a young man confronted with a Tarsier when opening a pack (see ads below).

The Biscuit Mix for Marketing

The TV campaign is supported by GreyPossible created digital activity, including the launch of a new McVitie’s website, social media and press. The campaign will also see an extensive in-store campaign created by Dialogue London. 

The McVitie’s logo features prominently in all 'executions' and all packaging has been redesigned to give the name more prominence.

Brands including Club and Penguin will be brought under McVitie’s later this year.

It is hoped the ‘family of brands’ strategy will create a halo effect and boost sales across the portfolio.

United Biscuits wants the campaign to help it achieve its ambitious target of claiming a 30 % of the sweet biscuit market for McVitie’s, up from the 21% it enjoys at the moment by capturing more of the 7 billion “biscuit occasions” it says take place in the UK every year.

At an event in London to mark the launch of the campaign, Glenn said the relaunch of McVitie’s is an example of how the company is “re-energising” to “take our place on the world stage”.

The firm plans to employ the same master brand strategy to Jacob’s later this year , with savoury brands such as Cheddars and Mini Cheddars joining the likes of Cream Crackers under the Jacob’s

Back in the day... 

In my childhood I remember the Lincoln Cream biscuit . The Lincoln cream had a  pattern of dots on the top in concentric circles. The McVitie's version had the word 'Lincoln' embossed on to the biscuit at the centre. I wonder whether its return is in the United Biscuits re-branding plan. Little Bogdan will be up for acting in any advert for Lincoln Creams !

Related "Tea and Biscuits" selling skills links

Tea time personality matrix

sweeet ™ campaign videos You tube - United Biscuits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOmIDhBDoww

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/video-mcvities-puppies-kittens-biscuits-3131269

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BCieS2Opco

3 Social Selling tips from the Vikings - Trade, Raid and Invade

* “Those that go down to the sea in ships, do business in great waters..” 

Business development is not the sole province of sales and marketing folk. Historians are also minded to re-think and even re-write their history.

The current “Vikings” exhibition at the British Museum, London has gathered some amazing artifacts that show us there are still further things to learn from the Vikings. The ‘old skool’ Viking mission statement that I grew up with was the classic three

Sack, Rape and Pillage.

But the Vikings were more than their stereotypical portrayal as eleventh century asset strippers and slave masters.

For those of us with an interest in commerce and human behaviour (Social selling) there are some fascinating exhibits on how Vikings went about their business and managed their export drives.

Outside the British Museum for the Vikings exhibition 

We can also see parallels of business of today’s digital business development which is following a similar path to how Viking business developed.

Perhaps the Vikings’ mission statement is better understood as:-

Traders, Raiders and Invaders

“They journeyed boldly.

went far for gold out in the east,

and died in the south in Saracenland”

                                              Gripsholm runestone AD 1000-1100

The Viking exports included timber, furs, amber, jet  and lignite. From the North Atlantic they used whalebone, walrus ivory .The hides of seals and walruses were made into ropes .

For these exports they traded with the east for silks, rock crystal,  beads and precious stones.

Vikings -life and Legend at British Museum 2014

At first the Vikings used simple barter where goods of the same value were exchanged. 


 Today the Internet provides barter platforms which the Vikings could only dream of !

Barter Internet sites such www.swapz.co.uk  Swap site offering many goods and services.

www.swapcycle.co.uk and www.swapitshop.com Goods for exchange, ranging from cars to ukuleles.

www.whatsmineisyours.com  Clothing and accessories.

www.swishing.org  explains you how to arrange a clothes swap party with friends.

www.readitswapit.co.uk Book-swapping site.

www.u-exchange.com Houses all over the world available for holiday exchanges.

www.letslinkuk.net Community networks which link people who want to swap their skills and goods.

www.staffshare.co.uk allows businesses  to swap staff members' time with specialists in other firms.

For eleventh century Vikings beads, furs and dried fish were used as currency of ‘ commodity money’ because they held their value and came in quantities that were easy to measure.

Before 800 CE the Vikings had no coinage of their own .The first imported coins as metal valued for its weight and purity.

  There is a fascinating display showing portable scales to weigh things and also a mould for making silver ingots .The  eastern dirham  and western coinage were absorbed into their trading. They later developed their own silver and gold coinage.

inside the covered courtyard of the British Museum.
Love the way the shadows from the ceiling make a pattern on the walls.

Perhaps we can see a parallels here in  social selling where conventional money  has now seen the internet’s own ‘coinage’ such as bitcoins.

In the commercial exhibitions’ arena there were the Great Halls  of Viking communities . They would gather in such a place which could be  some 80 metres in length. These were spaces for public shows of wealth, gift giving and entertainment - a forerunner perhaps of the courts in  17^th century Aragon which previous posts on this blog have  examined.

Through wonderful oral tradition of the Viking sagas later written down  ,the exhibition quotes from Havarmal written in  1270 CE on etiquette in the Vikings’ business.

“A man shouldn’t clutch at his cup but moderately drink his mead; he should be sparing in his speech or shut up; no man will blame you for bad behaviour if you go early to bed”

Regrettable photos on today’s Facebook come to mind. Quite possibly  the Viking selfies would  have be even more extreme than Neknominate snaps.

The Havarmal  offers pretty sound advice on the conduct that Professional Salespeople should employ at corporate hospitality events and business entertaining activities today .

So fellow modern day Vikings -I wish you Good Selling to you in your  equivalent to ‘trading, raiding and invading’ inspired by  our courageous Viking forebears. 

 Good fortune whether you go down to the sea in ships, on land , in the air or the virtual space of the Internet to do your  business.

*Psalm 107: 23

Related links

Words of Wisdom from 17th Century Spanish Court

Subtle Selling

Scorn in Social Selling , 'Two Muppets and a Dunce' dangers of rubbishing your Competiton

Scorn in the Chamber of the Palace of Westminster 2014
 - 
Scorn in the Court Of Aragon 1647

Question:         Should scorn ever be a part of Social Selling as it is a part of everyday party  Politics ?

The weekly session of Prime Minister's Question time has a popular following for those enjoy  sound-bite political polemic. As an election approaches the questions and answers slip into school-yard name calling and scorn.

This week her majesty's opposition launched their attack on the cheap selling of the Post Office. The leader of the opposition Mr Milliband used a movie metaphor quipping that Mr Cameron was not so much The "Wolf of Wall Street "more "The Dunce of Downing Street." 

The  Scorsese film , still showing at selected Cinemas in the UK , is the story of a New York stockbroker.Jordan Belfort's life is enacted from his early life living the American dream to corporate greed. Belfort starts from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late '80s. 

The power of Milliband's scorning rhetoric played  on the alliteration of Wolf /Wall and Dunce/Downing street. The Prime Minister's retort was to refer to the Shadow Chancellor and Leader of the Opposition as the two Muppets  ( possibly referring to the new 'Muppets most wanted' movie ?) who with the previous Prime Minister Gordon Brown sold off the UK Gold at knock down prices. The content  detail of the debate will probably be forgotten but the Dunce and Muppet scorning will be remembered longer.

Scorn in the Court of Aragon and Social Selling

Baltazzar Gracian's 1647 guide The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence is worth looking at particularly his maxim No. 205 .

Know how to use scorn.


Gracian writes " The only maxim of the wise is never to defend yourself with the pen. since the written trace it leaves only contributes to a rival's renown rather than punishes their insolence."

The  2104 'traces' we social sellers leave today include email, twitter, facebook , LinkedIn , blogs and video sharing websites like You Tube.

" Unworthy people " Gracian observes " astutely oppose the great in order to gain a reputation indirectly that they do not merit by right...We wouldn't be aware of such people " Gracian notes  " if their far superior opponents hadn't paid them attention."

Gracian makes me think back to those strange requests to Link up with LinkedIn with folk one are unsure of their true motivation. Similarly  how threads on group forums where the 'conversations' can deteriorate from  uncivil through the banale to abusive within 5-6 comments. This also has echoes of Margaret Thatcher's phrase " the oxygen of publicity"

So what does Gracian advise that we Social Sellers consider as a better way to scorn ?


" There is no revenge like oblivion, which buries them in the dust of their own insignificance...The way to silence gossip is to pay it no  attention; to fight it causes harm, to give it credit, discredit. It causes rivals rivals satisfaction, for even a shadow of a blot tarnishes the greatest of perfection, though it can't totally obscure it."

The upshot of this advice of from 17th Century Spain is that it is seldom useful to rubbish or scorn the competition. It is unwise to be draw into being scornful of a competitor's offering by a potential client.

The tactics of scorn in politics do not transfer well to the world of selling. You never know in these days of multi careers, you may want  to sell for them later in your career. Keep your options open.

Good selling


Related Links

Pocket Oracle of the Art of Prudence - Book Review

Other selling Tips from Gracian

 Selling Trust

Know the price of things

Your Selling Persona

Courtesy Selling

Don't over-explain in Selling

Know how to ask in selling

We all need the touch of a seller

Social Selling Attention tips from the OSCARS

Well done to Steve McQueen and team on  winning best picture for "12 years a slave." at this year's OSCARS..

Every year the Oscars' celebrations grab our attention. 

 The whole OSCAR's show  is trailed through  skillful orchestration. Those of us in selling can learn a lot from the selling tactics and strategies  that Hollywood employ.

 First there are the premières,  then the nominations, the rounds of chat show interviews, plus the trail blazing of other award festivals such as Cannes, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs etc.

All generate an attention earning sale of the films ( movies).  To be able to advertise your film as an award winning film is worth a lot.

But also the OSCARS have been doing social selling for years. Their leveraging of media in the social space is all part of the sale.

Glamour, gossip, fashion, tears and dedications make for an inclusive sale. From personal thanks to parents and work colleagues through to the moving speech by  Lupita Nyong'o winner of best supporting actress

"It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is due to so much pain in someone elses's "( her role as the slave Patsey)

In every social selling touch point, whether repeat or first time, we need to gain the client’s full and undivided attention .and direct  conversation towards our specific business conversation objective(s).

In today's  business world we have to do this in a swift and nimble way. Our window of opportunity is a few seconds. 

 Outside advertisers have similar short windows of time to grab our attention so to illustrate the four principal methods, plus a fifth for repeat contacts / follow on  only let's look at the work of the Outdoor Site Clever Advertising Representative Salespeople

Research data used catch the eye  Factual

Factual opening: state an interesting fact which relates to either the client personally or their business; the fact will also usually relate to your product/service, either directly or indirectly.

Fulham Broadway Tube Advert:
Thought provoking and location relevant question
"Which 2 underground stations contain the word
CATLIKE?"

Question opening: ask a question which is relevant to the client’s business and also to the purpose of your call.

Reference opening: build confidence and interest by referring to the experience and satisfaction of another client; either a well respected client (confidence) or a client in a related business (interest).

Eye catching visual and fun question
 from a Bus Shelter Ad

Visual aid opening: involve as many of the client’s five senses as possible by using a brochure, photograph, working model, sample etc.

Remember that the purpose of the four attention getters listed above is to create a conversation that takes you directly to your real goal - investigation of the customer’s needs. 

Listen first and don’t launch into a sales presentation of the benefits of your offer until you have identified their needs and wants.

  Link opening (repeat call only): link this call back to a previous one by summarising where you left off last time.

Although the most important occasion for the use of the above techniques is early on in the call, remember that each change of direction or change of topic means you will have to “gain attention” all over again.

Algorithms in Social that cant (!) spell don't sell, Cynics & Sentimentalists

Are the selling deductions from Algorithms in Social 

really so accurate or a load of Tisch Tosh ! ?

The appeal of numbers to control-minded business leaders is obvious:

 they are easy to test, 

and therefore to measure, unlike vague, slippery emotions !

We need numbers but....

False comfort in attempting to make all selling activities into a process can result in a sales management control mirage.

 Artificially allocating values to the stages of the sale can no doubt be algoritmised ( I have no idea if such a word exists.) and  may give the illusion of being in command or even a feeling of sales management . They are easy to test and measure.

There are plenty of sales force control systems up there in the Cloud for example sold as the nirvana of sales management. They are very helpful tools but certainly not the whole story.

British businesses, gripped in the vice of targets, crave quantification.

Yet the limitation of mere number creation and artificial process formulations to the world of selling and work of all kinds can been disastrous.

Do you remember when... ?

  Just think back to the  shortcomings of algorithm models of markets and compliance procedures and targets in the finance field. Consider the  'unfit for purpose' bureaucratic 'standards' of all sorts from  CRB check system that failed to protect many poor folk from Jimmy Savile to standards which failed to ensure nurses nursed instead of ticking boxes.

 Who know's what the shortcomings of the procedures  and algorithms for flood defences of our beautiful island. Will the mathematical models of water management and the actuarial insurance calculations  be found wanting we wonder ?

These number and process obsessed cults have therefore made what is measurable important, rather than what is important measurable. 

“They are like  Charles Dicken’s Hard Times Mr Gradgrind's useful idiots “ to adapt a quote from Simon Jenkins of the Guardian.

I still mistakenly imagine that like the 1960s TV series “The Prisoner” filmed in beautiful Portmeirion  played by Patrick McGoohan that   “I am not a number !”

An algorithm developed by a team at Tisch University tested their methods on anonymised data from 1.3 million randomly selected Facebook users aged 20 or older who listed their status as 'married', 'engaged' or 'in a relationship', according to the Cornell Chronicle.

  (Naturally enough this was reported in the press  on the feast of St.Cyril and St. Methodius-  more popularly kept as St.Valentine’s day Feb 14th .)

The Tisch team were able to identify the partner 70.5 % of the time. Others who might be chosen by the algorithm are most often family members or their partners.

The researchers were also able to determine, 68.3 % of the time, whether a given user was or was not in a relationship at all, and with 79 % accuracy if the relationship was a marriage.

Maybe such data can be used for those selling dating and wedding products and services.

I guess nobody is immune to advertising.  I am not.  I confess to buying loads of quite unnecessary stuff. The advertisers would not plough so much money into adverts if it did not work at some level.

Are Algorithms true ?

We are told that social media data can determine accurately who we are through algorithms. 

They can then use this data to help their clients target me in a focused way for advertising.

Yet when I look at the aligned sponsored advertising in my social network home page I do not recognise myself at all.

Apparently I am interested in the following:-

·         Beating rising funeral costs

·         Industrial deafness claims

·         Equity release calculator

·         Women looking for a date who spell can’t as “cant “  e.g. “Looking for a date? Our singles cant wait”

·         Gossipcop dot com.

·         Your life after 40 dot com

For those with whom I work and live amongst I doubt they would  recognise me from the above either. I doubt dear readers  who follow this blog would.

 Oscar Wilde’s quote on cynics  perhaps should always be paired with his definition of a sentimentalist. From Lady Windermere’s Fan

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn't know the market place of any single thing.”

Of course on Wilde's measure I  may be the  sentimentalist. But maybe I should be a cynic

After all to everyone in the “Village” back in the 1960s including the interrogator No 2 in his hanging egg shaped chair -  considered The Prisoner as No.6 !


 Good Selling folks

Related links

    You tube clip of The Prisoner

  Current cult of School maths