Make it personal
My inbox and message lists were packed with message subjects like this (even from the party I wanted to win):
- Please give us a chance to explain
- Please let us explain why this request is important
- We’ll be honest - Really? What were you doing before?
- Trouble - OMG! Stop the presses.
- We really tried to explain - Subtext: Since you were too stupid to listen the first time.
- I just could cry
- Can I call you? - In the email content: To show my appreciation, I want to give you a call…. If you chip in another contribution of $25 – or any amount – to our campaign today, the next time you pick up the phone, I could be on the other line. I am looking forward to thanking you for all you are doing to help us win this election.
- Is there anything we can say? - 76% chance of “No” on that.
This came from the Kamala Harris campaign. I think she has more emotional intelligence than to okay that. To be fair, I got similar ones from the Republican campaign.
These types of emails are the definition of cynicism: self-interested. They bear no resenblance to a personal or even relevant message. I suppose they got a green-light from some campaign underling with wording (hopefully) suggested by an AI. Then, they ran it through a mail-merge and viola`: an email that shows no interest in the reader nor the reader’s circumstances.
This is a shame. Personal messages matter. If anything might have tipped the balance in the recent elections, it would have been something that felt personal.
Mel Brooks took aim at modern cynicism in his comedic Western, Blazing Saddles. The evil rail baron Hedley Lamarr is going to seize the town of Rock Ridge from its poor townspeople. When other efforts to take the town fail, Lamarr decides to do it by force. The people get wind of his plan and decide to build a fake town, composed only of the facades of the buildings. They hope the self-centered Lamarr and his thugs will be fooled. It’s hilarious! As hoped, the fateful battle takes place in the Fake Rock Ridge: Lamarr and his minions are too focused on their immediate aim to understand they’ve been fooled. The battle surprisingly spills over onto a different Hollywood film set, a musical, resulting in utter chaos. Perhaps this is Brook’s way of highlighting our persistently self-centered focus.
I chose to focus on these impersonal messages because they are narcisstic and demeaning. They hurt rather than help. Our collective consciousness, left or right, is dying because of our loss of connection with people. It’s so easy to phone it in that we’ve abandoned the possibilities inherent in doing creative work that matters.
Do you want joy in this life? Do something personal. Create something that says, I think about you. Here’s something I made for you.
Resist the urge to phone it in. Unless, of course, it was phoned in* to you.
Above all, make it personal. Make it count.