Cable Ties - “Say What You Mean”
You know the part | Appears at 04:10
I’ve been in a shitty mood this week. I don’t know whether it’s because of festering late capitalism shaping every aspect of my life or whether it’s because I’m mad that I’m not succeeding in this tainted system better. I check my social media feeds and I’m hounded by auto-play videos made by KFC or PwC that are specifically designed to make me empathise with their brand. I feel sick.
Last week I went to a ‘video making’ class that my work paid for. It wasn’t so much about the technicalities of making a good video, but instead it was about how to best use people (‘characters’ according to the class) to tell the stories of brands. One of the examples was a healthcare company using footage of a father holding back tears because his daughter had been involved in an accident overseas and almost died. He choked telling his story, while a tag at the end promptly reminded us to get good health coverage. Don’t forget you could die at any minute! So could your family!
I’m a human being! We’re not a character to be used in your brand’s video. It’s especially disheartening because we all know this is nothing new. Tragedy is a commodity and we’re all complicit. Cable Ties know and they’re furious. So furious they had to stop singing and just yell about it instead.
I’m complicit. I am a cog in this ageing machine. It’s great and it’s also terrible. I get paid pretty well and I get paid to write about interesting things for an organisation whose morals align mostly with my own. Baby, I educate the world. But we use the same tactics to get people to choose us over others. When did we become nothing more than the sum of all our parts?
We target young people with content. We look at what they like and what they’re going to like and we exploit it. We’ve got your data and we’re here to help you. Choose us! We understand you! No one is any better than anyone and we’re all awful.










