Must See baby!

But seriously, there was one item discussed at the meeting, held in Boston May 27-30, that was of interest to me. It was a University of Michigan study that shows today’s college students are not as empathetic as college students of the 1980s and ’90s. The study analyzed data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students over the last 30 years.

It wasn’t as much that a lack of empathy caught my eye — I mean, who the hell cares (get it?)? More so, it was the factors behind the apparent reduction in empathy found in the study. They included increased selfishness amongst “Generation Me,” increased exposure to violent media content which creates a numbing effect, and the use of social media tools.

“The ease of having ‘friends’ online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don’t feel like responding to others’ problems, a behavior that could carry over offline,” Science Daily quoted U-M graduate student Edward O’Brien, who along with U-M researcher Sara Konrath and undergraduate student Courtney Hsing conducted the meta-analysis, combining the results of 72 different studies of American college students conducted between 1979 and 2009.

The study found college students today are less likely to agree with statements such as, “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective,” and, “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.”

“College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait,” Konrath also told Science Daily.

So with the study in mind, I considered some typical social media usage trends — and not just college students but the broader spectrum of upright mammals.

Assuming that conversation as a medium creates a more likely platform for empathetic reaction, increased use of social media tools has unquestionably led to less conversation. And many of us tend to now use tools like instant message instead of face-to-face discussion, email rather than call, 140 characters on Twitter — all the while, our communication styles go from long-form to shorter and shorter.

Maybe you buy it, maybe you don’t. Maybe you aren’t empathizing with my point and don’t care (there I go again). But if you’re an active social media user, it should at least should give use pause the next time someone calls your cell phone and you consider forgoing picking it up in favor of sending a response via text.

Oh, the hell with it. I don’t really care.

Click here to test your level of empathy and compare how you scored to the average empathy level of college students.

My wife and I have had the good fortune of moving around quite a bit during our 17-year relationship. I say good fortune because it’s enabled me to meet a lot of wonderful people, experience different cultures, eat different food, drink many local beers, and poop in public restrooms of varying cleanliness.

Much of our time has been spent along the U.S. Gulf Coast. We lived in New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast from 1995-99, and in St. Petersburg, Fla., from 2002-05. And while living there, we lounged on beaches from St. Pete to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach in Ala.; visited the famed FloraBama bar on the beachfront border of Fla. and Ala.; I played in basketball tournaments in Birmingham; went to barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi; and fished off Destin, Fla.

Indeed, while I now live in the absolute center of the country, some 12 hours from the closest beach, the Gulf Coast is very much a part of who I’ve become, and who I will always be.

That’s why I find it so frustrating to see day-after-day media coverage of oil spewing into the ocean that I have so enjoyed and connected with during these past 17 years. And while I am not a sentimental mammal — and often rather callus — the current state of my Gulf Coast just breaks my heart.

When the explosion and subsequent oil leak first occurred, I immediately understood the magnitude, even if the flow of oil had been stemmed that day or week. But I don’t think that most people living away from the Gulf Coast can truly comprehend the damage that continues to be done. We’ve heard estimates that oil will continue to spew into the Gulf until at least September. Thousands upon thousands of gallons daily for five months killing wildlife, ruining marine habitat, destroying tourism, wrecking property values, and crippling the fishing industry for decades to come.

A friend from my New Orleans days — we’ll call him Fletch F. Fletch — told me, “for us down here who lived through Katrina there is the same slowly building anxiety over this that is beginning to permeate our daily lives.  It may sound silly but it really is becoming a challenge to stay focused on our jobs and our futures when we know the New Orleans / Gulf Coast area will likely never be the same again.  It is much the same upset stomach we all had in late 2005 when faced with the dilemma of moving back to a questionable New Orleans or relocating to more secure areas.  The magnitude of this, in the end, will be far more devastating than Katrina.  Katrina was a broken arm and leg.  The spill is a cancer death sentence.”

I think what bothers me so much is that it appears little is being done, Kevin Costner “Waterworld” remake be damned. It’s like a shaving cut that won’t stop bleeding. The oil just keeps on flowing into some of the most beautiful waters I’ve ever seen.

I’d like to blame someone. It’s easiest to point a finger at BP, of course. But I’m not certain what that would get me. We hear varying sides of the story from environmentalists, BP, Gary Coleman’s widow, and local, state and federal government officials — and we must assume the truth lies somewhere in between what they are all saying.

All I know is that I’m frustrated, and I’d like someone to act, so that before I die in 40 or 50 years, I can go back to my Gulf and see it as it remains in my memories.

Carry on.

In Ken Auletta’s latest book, Zuckerberg is quoted saying, “Facebook is like a telephone conversation with all your friends on the same call. But on this call, your friends can share photographs, text, political summons to action, video, and music, or can click to make purchases… what [Social Networks] really are is a completely different paradigm for people sharing information.”

The critical piece of information here is the paradigm of sharing.  Within our social networks, it can be argued that our authentic selves have room to stretch.  Micro-blogging allows us pithy one-liners to communicate our deepest thoughts be they “TGIF” or a personal rant against whatever injustice has irked us that day.  Link uploads and ReTweets share the news that we find valuable, interesting or just plain hilarious and thereby defines us or further defines us to and within our circle.

The social environment is about showing our underbellies – the soft/gooey, the sarcastic or witty, the fiercely opinionated sides we don’t (always) show in our homogenized, politically correct, over-scheduled, constant-state-of-fear lives.  That’s why people are addicted to status updates – its personality voyeurism.

And while our country gets fat by eating our feelings, we are actually starving for personality – ours and others.  The social networking that occurs in digital environments like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linked In, and Bebo satisfies a primal need to know and be known.   

When a company enters this revelation environment with nothing more to contribute than “Buy My Product,” the disconnect is jarring.  Rather than ingratiating themselves, companies risk discomfiting their audience of consumers and would-be consumers alike. 

Companies need a personality, not just a sales pitch.  This goes beyond a brand voice or a marketing message.  Advertising as usual will not ‘play in Peoria’ so to speak.  Whether a company gives a body to its personality as in “I’m a Mac,” borrows a famous body for endorsement, or just lets its humor loose on the world, showing some ‘flava’ in the social environment should be the lowest common denominator.

Sadly, it is not.

Too many companies confuse the social environment with a chance to push commerce.  Keep your business card; tell me about yourself.  Better yet, ask me about myself.  I’m an expert at something (even it that something is just consuming your products). 

Find out what I care about, what I worry about, what I laugh at, what irritates me.  Within community, there is a great opportunity to relate, bond, befriend, inspire, share, educate, and learn.  To do this, companies will need to show some personality.

Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.

KMart, however, was ubiquitous. The problem being it had a less-than-glorious brand image. Giant strip-mall-based retail stores with dingy interiors that sold a lot of generic brand garbage at a time when generics had a bad name. KMart had the infamous and oft-ridiculed “Blue Light Specials,” and to a degree, it was unfairly mocked by the arrogance of the middle and upper classes.

Then Walmart showed up, changing the image of retailers that catered to the working class with better service, a cleaner in-store experience, creepy smiley faces stressing low prices, and somewhat better quality merchandise at a time when the perception of generic products had improved. It became everything to everyone, putting a variety of mom-and-pop stores out of business by selling an immensely broad range of everyday items:  laundry detergent, power drills, high definition TVs, feminine hygiene products, diamond rings, and oil changes. Brands understood this and began coming to Walmart, searching for partnerships, and music acts old and new — the immense AC/DC being just one — use the retail chain as a launch strategy for new albums.

What has KMart done to respond? Sears bought it, the stores have been modernized and they’ve tried rebranding (The Big K), but it has largely failed to keep up as it tries to hold some semblance of market share by working to be as much like Walmart as it can.

MySpace, to me, is the KMart of social media. It was the front-runner, and like KMart’s dingy stores in the ’70s and ’80s, its design has always been a total train wreck. Think Gary Coleman’s post-Different Strokes career train wreck.  MySpace was purchased by a company in a similar industry (media conglomerate NewsCorp.), has struggled along looking for relevance for a few years now, and demographics have gone from once broad-ranging, to now largely rural Americans and music fans.

Facebook, like Walmart, started from behind. Then, much like Mr. T’s steely gaze, Facebook systematically destroyed everything in its way — including MySpace — with a cleaner design and strategically partnering with application designers to provide features for just about everything. From polls to pictures to sending bacon to targeted adds with ridiculously large-chested women who supposedly went to your high school and are now searching for you on Google. Facebook has become top-of-mind for nearly all social media users and grandmothers alike, every company has a “Facebook strategy,” some companies have even left their corporate websites behind in lieu of Facebook Fan Pages, and the social network’s fastest growing demographic are women 55 and above.

Much like Warren Buffet’s $50 billion donation to the Gates Foundation did to the newsworthiness of other acts of philanthropy, Facebook has made every other social network irrelevant. It is the Walmart of social media, and has become everything to everyone.

And while KMart has tried to be as much like Walmart as it possibly can, give MySpace credit for going in a different direction as it strives to regain its once-lofty position.

Saying they’ll roll out a redesign that will thankfully limit the current clutter, new MySpace co-presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones are refocusing the site on a core demographic of ages 13-34 — far younger than Facebook’s largest age range block of 35-54. And MySpace’s new approach will focus on fostering interaction principally around entertainment, films and games — whereas Facebook is busy trying to convince people it is not a social network at all, as founder Mark Zuckerberg told Ken Auletta for his book “Googled.”

So while the reality is we don’t know if MySpace’s actions are too little too late, I was wondering whether KMart could learn something from MySpace. I think so, so here’s a couple of my worthless notions:

• Stop competing with Walmart. Like Chuck Norris’ beard or Dick Cheney on a hunting trip, it will kill everything in its way. Pick your niche and don’t try to be everything to everyone.
• Make things easy for your customers to spend money, as Target is by using mobile couponing. Have you ever come back from Disney World with a dime in your pocket? Of course not.
• Give a girl a ring. Engage your core customers — moms — with brand ambassador programs. Have non-KMarters pimping on your behalf.
• Show your customers you love them in every way you can. Give them free stuff, midnight specials, dance lessons, wine tastings, midget wrestling, whatever.
• Have some fun with your brand. Go old school with the Blue Light Specials. Never forget that consumers love companies that don’t take themselves too seriously. After all, I just told you so, and that’s all the proof you should need.

You’re welcome.

I recently polled a mix of reporters about news releases. They all said they mostly did not pay attention to releases, and didn’t care a great deal nor believe much of the content. They concurred that what mattered was the trust factor with the flak pitching the story and whether those flaks respected the process — short pitches, relevance to their beat, timely, and actually being newsworthy.

Plus, with all of the cutbacks in media, the reporters who are left have less time than ever for nonsense.

On March 17, Elasticity put this release on our blog about the hiring of two senior people.  Written in a parodying style, it mocks the model of the hiring news release itself while still speaking to the experience we added to our team. Just like some of our client work, we felt that using parody could break through a cluttered and boring space, in that hiring releases are particularly painful to read.

We sent the release to leading industry trades and local media, but also chose to include a news wire distribution. We first submitted the release to PR Newswire, which initially refused saying the content was not appropriate for the wire. Then we went to Business Wire, which asked for vast edits, written approvals from third parties we quoted, and a note from Epstein’s mother.

It didn’t seem to matter to the wires that the release was factual and had no make-believe CEO quotes as do most releases they run. It should also be noted that Andy Barnett does, in fact, love Norwegian death metal music. And while PR Newswire would eventually come back and beg forgiveness, the entire exercise was enlightening for varying reasons:

• News wires don’t understand that they have become part of the information clutter problem as they are unable to allow for variance from the formulaic styles and machinations of 20 years ago.
• How many hours and how much budget is wasted by agencies writing two- and three-page news releases that are not read beyond the first graph?
• And with editors and reporters ignoring the news release wire feeds, what does that mean for the news release wires as viable mediums for companies to reach the media?

The wires took exception to our release because we were not only parodying the hiring news release as a medium, but also the ineffectiveness of the wires themselves. What was amazing in our case was that the wires actually paid attention to, and questioned, the content they were reviewing — because more often than not they distribute releases that are filled with meaningless or unsubstantiated claims of excellence and falsified quotes.

In essence, news releases — which once were used to actually place stories — are now good for little other than proliferating the web with spam. Outside of earnings releases — which are legally binding — news releases have largely lost effectiveness and credibility, and as a result, the wires are no longer an effective tool for public relations practitioners.

So on behalf of every reporter out there with a jam-packed e-mail inbox, and with apologies to the good people whose livelihoods depend on the news wires, we officially beg the PR industry to stop. Stop with the contrived, corp-speak-heavy quotes that are manufactured for CEOs and dropped into news releases ad naseum. Stop thinking that reporters have time for, or are interested in, inauthentic releases from companies. Stop wasting your clients’ time and budget by manufacturing these things.

Let’s come up with smarter solutions than the tired mediums that last saw the positive side of effectiveness in the 20th Century, maybe even lighten up a bit, and create communications methods that focus on using today’s social tools that can create direct connectivity with consumers and businesses to engage in discussions about issues, products, or people.  Oh, and maybe consider joining the United Karate Kid Haircut Association.

But really, let’s kill the traditional news release.

You’re welcome.

Interviews Held in Dark Room Apparently Didn’t Tip Off New Hires

St. Louis (March 17, 2010) – Elasticity, a leading digital word-of-mouth marketing agency focusing on the triangulation of social media, blogger outreach, and traditional media relations, stunned its heavily mustached, bacon-loving social media following today by announcing two new hires. Joining the firm are:

• St. Louis-native Christine Schmidt Ryder, who formerly served in partnership development and digital marketing roles with iVillage and AOL in Chicago, who brings an expertise in marketing to women at a time when 80 percent of the leading online communities are predominately comprised of female users, and 80 percent of household spending is controlled by women. Ryder also enjoys long walks on the beach, L.L. Cool Jay’s “Bigger & Deffer” album, and thick-cut pepper bacon.

• Andy Barnett, who is unable to naturally manufacture facial hair, formerly served as the Digital Global Practice Lead for Fleishman-Hillard in its corporate headquarters in St. Louis. He adds deep expertise in digital and social media strategy, online research, and search engine marketing (SEO/SEM) capabilities at a time when web search has become essential for companies interested in better-managing their online brand image. Barnett also enjoys wearing thick brown belts (even with sweatpants), fruit-accented microbrew beer, Norwegian death metal music, and runs a wombat rescue shelter in his spare time.

“These dynamic additions bring strategic capabilities to our already robust team of remarkably productive leading-edge and award-winning professionals,” said Brian Cross, managing partner and director of rocket science of Elasticity. “They will be instrumental in ensuring our unparalleled industry leadership as we provide key synergies to our clients in developing the turn-key solutions that Elasticity provides.”

Cross then added, “I got synergies and award-winning in there, right?”

“We needed some people without mustaches and they were the best we could find,” said Aaron Perlut, managing partner and chief nuclear mustache grooming specialist of Elasticity. “They bring a fresh perspective to our work, because let’s face it, Burt Reynolds just turned 74 and Billy Dee Williams is on his last, Colt-45 loving leg.”

The sweeping announcement stunned leaders and slackers alike in the social media community.

“I have no idea who those guys are at Elasticity, but really, best of luck to them,” said Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, an 11-year social media veteran and co-author of the New York Times best selling book Trust Agents. “I really just wish they’d ease up in letting me know about what they are doing all the time.”

Jason Falls, principal of Social Media Explorer LLC and a nationally-recognized expert on public relations, social media and online communications, also struggled to capture his thoughts on the matter.

“I met the Elasticity guys once at South By Southwest,” he said. “I left my iPhone in the bathroom and one of them spilled a beer on it. I’m not quite sure why the hell they’d want to quote me in a news release but good for them, I guess.”

Brian Solis, globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media, felt the new hires put Elasticity on solid footing.

“Uh huh, yeah sure,” he said. “Does anyone even put out press releases anymore? I haven’t seen one in so long that I forgot what they looked like. ”

The greatest criticism, however, came from Elasticity follower @DrAbeFroman who expressed dumbfounded frustration in a Twitter post.

“Seriously dudes. What the hell? A chick? A bare-lipped mortal? Why not just hire Richard Simmons?”

Founded January 1, 2009, and based in the home of the world’s largest mustache – St. Louis and its Gateway Arch – Elasticity provides communications strategies that straddle the realms of new and traditional media, often using humor-based themes, working with companies that include Charter Communications, Monsanto, Capital One, Anheuser-Busch, Toro, Stifel Nicolaus, Lanworth, SFP, Stout, the American Mustache Institute, and the United Karate Kid Haircut Association.

No, don’t get the wrong idea. This is a family blog. What I mean is, remember my main man, the late James Brown, when he sang, “This is a man’s world?”

Sure you do. But despite the delicious, nutritious, sumptuous and scrumptious nature of that classic — let’s be honest — it’s an outdated perspective.

Certainly in today’s more progressive workforce, women in leadership have gained in stature. Right?

Not when you look at the CEO spectrum, no.  It took me to get until number 27 in the Fortune 500 to find a company — Archer Daniels Midland — that has a woman as it’s chief executive officer. Pretty pathetic.

Yes, things have changed dramatically since the 1960s – 70s. Just have a look at an episode of “Mad Men” or watch a 1970s newscast (no, seriously, watch that ’70s newscast hyperlink). But women are, in fact, leading in business, media, and elsewhere today.

Do you know where they are also leading? It’s a place where marketers need pay great heed. It’s at home. No, I’m not talking about cooking and cleaning. I’m talking about making family purchasing decisions that were once dominated by the “man of the house.”

Tech gadgets.

The technology industry has been slow to target women because the thought process had historically been that men were the ones who were focused on the burly, mustache-friendly hardware features defining many tech products. And that is no longer the case.

That’s why I found interesting this piece from Alex Johnson of MSNBC about this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) having a number of sessions dedicated to mothers and their use of technology.

As the story notes, the focus essentially “demolished the stereotypes of women as technologically illiterate.” Just consider that of the 200 million-plus online casual video gamers — more than half are women.  That’s why REO Speedwagon is trying connect with its largely female fan demographic with its “Find Your Own Way Home” video game. It’s also why when my wife and I just bought a new television for our bedroom — she drove the purchase.

One graph Johnson wrote that really grabbed my attention said, “When families with children set out to buy a new laptop computer, for example, it is Mom, not Dad, who is more likely to initiate the discussion, the study revealed. And Mom is more likely to make the final decisions on what features to look for and how much to pay for it.”

The importance of this trend cannot be overstated, especially when you think about the mentality of marketers and the considerations that go into developing a strategic campaign to reach consumers.

So I guess our centuries of bliss are over. My wife will buy the next big screen television and maybe even a chainsaw.

Having a penis is, in fact, highly overrated.

I’ll live.

When virtual worlds like Second Life were capturing the fascination of some, pundits forecasted we’d be living our lives in them. But while that faded, the reality has become that in a self-informatory sense, many literally now live inside of Facebook.

It’s not just the chatting, ranting, IMing, games, meeting future spouses, or read targeted ads about “Hot Asian Singles In Your Area” that’s interested me.

What I find fascinating is that we’re beginning to use Facebook as our primary source for news.

Consider that more than 86 percent of our loitering in Facebook is spent meandering through the Feed section, clicking on links people are posting. We’re checking out what friends are up to and slowly moving down the list.

But then we see a Facebook friend – we’ll call him Dan — who posts, “Really interesting piece on the plight of primate yoga instructors” with a link. You and Dan both love monkeys, of course, so you click and read all about it.

Forget going to CNN.com. You do that a few times with varying friends and it’s back to work or time to go pick up the kids.

For companies and brands, the landscape is changing dramatically. And it’s something that again will make and landscape even more about people than the brands that have tried to leverage Facebook’s connectivity to the consumer.

We’ve seen that many companies now have Facebook Fan Pages. Most don’t know why they are doing it. They figure their competition is there, so they should be too. That, or their PR or ad agency, which understands the implications even less, suggested a “Facebook strategy” (which is hilarious in and of itself).

Until now, the unwitting value for brands or companies on Facebook has had nothing to do with the Page itself, but in getting in people’s Feeds. If the brand can get into consumers’ Feeds, it gains a direct channel to a consumer to broadcast a message that hopefully will create interest. And as Brenna Hanley notes on The Next Generation, if a company wants to reach, say, millennials, they’d better provide some incentives worth paying attention to (a pet monkey would really work for me).  All this just to  drive the consumer either back to the Page or another online portal. That’s the Facebook value proposition for most companies.

Now, however, Facebook has changed the rules in a development that will take hold any day now, as getting a company’s message into its fans’ Feeds is no longer a right but a privilege that will be earned by publishing content that a company’s fans must react to.

In the past, all updated content from a Fan page appeared in Feeds section of anyone who was a fan of your brand’s page.  Content will now be surfaced based on a Facebook algorithm that takes into account how people are engaging with the company’s content that it publishes. The more people visit the Page and the more they comment on, and like, the content, the more Facebook will insert your updates into their feeds.

So as it was designed, Facebook is once again going to become even more about the people who use it, and less about the companies struggling to understand its value.

What’s the next big thing to happen in the Facebook world? Who knows, but I’m sure I’ll read about it in someone’s Feed.

Carry on.

We have seen time and time again, when someone makes a mistake, and then in response stands up and takes responsibility for that mistake, the American people, in general, will forgive and eventually forget.

On a completely different scale we’ve seen two examples of accountable behavior in the sports world during the past week.

First, there was Los Angeles Dodgers hitting machine Manny Ramirez — perhaps the best hitter in baseball over the past decade — testing positive for a drug used for either a female fertility drug called HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin).

Of course, this is a big deal because HCG has no use to a male pro athlete with two exceptions: he’s trying to get pregnant, or, he’s a steroid user trying to get his body’s testosterone production moving after cycling off steroids.

So Manny got caught, and what did he do? He said he made a mistake and that he was sorry. A novel concept in some circles today.

“Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy,” said a statement from Ramirez, more than likely written by agent Scott Boras and the Dodgers. “Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility….I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. L.A. is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.”

And even though many sports geeks outside of blind Dodgers fans assume Manny’s a steroid user, the situation has pretty much gone away.

Then came a situation featuring Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, one of the more vocal owners in all of sports, as well as one of the most digitally savvy for obvious reasons.

The ugly ordeal started last Saturday night after Game 3 between the Denver Nuggets and the Mavericks in Dallas, when the Nuggets benefited from an NBA-acknowledged officiating mistake and beat the Mavericks 106-105.

Cuban was understandably upset the referees had cost his team a valuable game, and got into a shouting match with Lydia Moore, the mother of Nuggets player Kenyon Martin.

According to Cuban, a fan called the Nuggets “thugs,” and he looked at Moore and said, “That includes your son.” Martin’s agent told The Denver Post that Cuban said, “Your son is a punk.”  But at that point, it didn’t matter. The damage was done and Martin was upset.

On Monday, Martin said he’d take care of things himself. “It’s a little personal, and I’m going to take care of it,” he said. “I’m not going to do the whole media thing, back and forth. That’s his thing. I’m more of a face-to-face type of dude.”

So how did Cuban react? Well, on the Dallas Mavericks blog today he wrote a post apologizing for his behavior.

“It doesnt matter why I said it,” he wrote while most probably wearing one of his trademarked not-so-good-looking t-shirts. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Now, the reality is that this has gotten out of hand…So at this point I would like to apologize to you and your mom KMart for my comment. I should have not said anything and I was wrong. Hopefully you will accept the apology and we can move on.”

Boom! Welcome to accountability my friends. Better yet, at least for Cuban, the story will be done by the Midnight ESPN SportsCenter.

What’s most interesting to me about accountability is this: if you think of today’s media consumer — from soccer mom to sports fan to corporate suit — they are looking for authentic voices.

That’s why they bypass the corporate Website and instead look for random virtual voices on blogs and social Websites which might provide an objective take about a company, a restaurant, an athlete, an issue, whatever. It’s why Amazon.com realized that it sells product more briskly when there are at least 12 customer reviews.

It becomes authentic, real, objective.  And when you think about it, there is arguably no more seemingly authentic behavior today than being accountable.