A tainted love?
One thing that seems to have crept in with the commercialism of social media, is far too many companies trying to tweak their adverts to appeal to whichever group are in fashion at the time. So obviously in June, attention turns to Pride Month, and some firms try to make it look like they care about LGBT people, when all they are really doing is that by mentioning the subject, or maybe putting something rainbow on their banner that we will all conveniently forget how little they care for us during the other 11 months of the year.
Some fall for this, and said companies are duly grateful for said bonus business. Others just go on as before, completely ignore them, much as these companies will do with us, on July 1st! Then there are those of us who point out that the platitudes are little more than that, and suggest they do something to actually support LGBT people, and not just their profits. Today was one of the latter.
There was a group called EY asking on Twitter about who it was best for them to engage with to discuss LGBT inclusive policies. There were 3 options on the poll, none of which was the obvious answer, LGBT+ discussion groups, but all of which were groups that they would hope to grow their ‘advisory’ business through, at said profit to themselves, obviously. Their lack of response to numerous people, and groups pointing out their obvious omission to them, not a word! In other words, they wish to appear to be LGBT friendly, but its easy to see that their only interest in doing so is if it brings in business for them, presumably from people regarding them as LGBT friendly!
Mind, this isnt the worst case this month, would you believe. At the start of the month, some company duly posted on Twitter, with a Rainbow flag under their business logo, and trying to show their love. The trouble was, someone bought up their posting from earlier this year, which showing them to be just the opposite at that point, pretty homophobic, to say the least. They hastily removed the tweet, but of course it had been reposted numerous times by then, so hopefully their so called stance was thoroughly shot down.
Oh, and they arent the only ones, thousands of companies do what I would term ‘rainbow’ postings in June, only to gain business they might not otherwise get, and nothing more. And yes, this is just the one that concerns me, they do this for all campaigns, so think carefully before you support some firms that seem surprisingly over supportive, just saying.
OK, video time. Yes, its the obvious one. Live version, very well done, long after the song was a massive hit. And yes, the opposite to the ‘Hard Sell’ some companies seem to make. It is 10 minutes plus in all, just warning you.
When someone is on the line, 625 of them!
Lets just say that you never know who has seen you in the past, and I dont mean stalkers!
My first appearance on National TV, I never got to see! Why? Because I was about 12 at the time, and BBC pictures of Live Sunday League Cricket seemingly caught me on TV. I was at Gillingham, watching the game live, and seemingly my mother had it on TV at home. Yes, you can put two and two together, she saw me on TV. And because nothing was recorded back then, it was before the days of video recorders, and all that (hey, we only had black & white TV at the time, early 70’s), so its safely lost in time. I gather I followed up on a couple of other visits to cricket games (Kent were a strong side, reached cup finals back then) being on TV for at least a few brief seconds!
My first ‘proper’ showing on TV was soon after I started at William Hill in Somerset. It was a ‘well known fact’ that the government were going to change the betting tax rules at that point, and they wanted a representative from within the industry to comment on TV about it, for a couple of minutes of interview. Fine, head office was nowhere nearby, they knew I’d done some acting, so got asked if I would do it, and said yes. Again, I never got to see it, as I was still at work when it was shown on local TV. I did do a couple more related pieces for them before I left there in 1999, but it was unpaid work, and not exactly regular work either!
I did a couple more after moving to another shop in Newbury, again both betting industry related, though I did manage to catch at least one of them on TV! Nothing to get excited about, it lasted about 30 seconds post edit, but hey, I’d seen me on Local TV! I also gather that a play I worked in, during that time was filmed for TV publicity, though I have never seen it, so I have no idea if I appeared in the background or not!
After that, I managed to do a few more TV appearances, most of which I’ve never seen, because they were for foreign TV companies. I did some fembot related documentaries for a Canadian company, and a couple of US companies, which as far as I know, never showed over here. I did at one point have a video tape of the Canadian one, but have no idea where it is now! So no begging me to put it on You Tube lol!
Since then I’ve done a few diversity related appearances, pretty brief pieces, and no, I dont remember seeing them either. Again mainly because it seemed to be studios from across the Atlantic that was attracted to me! The British ones, no idea, but dont remember seeing them at least.
I’m told I’m in a few pieces on You Tube. An eclectic mix of snippets of said TV performances I suspect, some of the acting performances got there after they happened, and one rather lengthy hypno piece that I did with someone in Chester, about 4 years ago, that I blogged about. No, dont bother going looking for it, its tagged as private, so the only way you’d find it, is if you asked me nicely for the link! The others are out there somewhere, though I have no idea what they are, or where, never looked for them!
The only thing I know of recently (unless I’ve been in a crowd shot at a baseball game) that has been recorded, was the diversity presentation inside the Civil Service last winter. As far as I know, that was only recorded for internal purposes, so sorry, folks.
Where is this leading to, I hear you ask? Well, earlier this week, someone ‘friended’ me on Facebook, and told me that he’d done it because he’d seen me on MSNBC a few years ago. No, courage failed me to ask if it was robot related, or diversity related, though I suspect it was the latter. But yes, isnt it funny how fame can suddenly come back into your life? Fine, not real fame, but at this point in my career…
I suspect now, if I was to do anything, it would be LGBT diversity related, though its not so long ago that a fembot related documentary could have happened, had I been in Southern California, but I wasnt, at the right time. A couple of months later, but they wanted it done, so…who knows? But yes, if I was to do any speaking now, on any media, I suspect its more likely to be about LGBT, old age, disability, or combination thereof! In fact, someone would love me to do that to a Trans group in Florida, but fine, finances are my issue! But yes, I would, if I could!
OK, video time. Its a well known group, but one of their lesser songs. There is a clue in the blog title, but I doubt anyone could work it out from that!
stevielounicks 
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