Janet Collins
Billy MStyle or Substance?
November 17th 2008 10:59
Image is very important in just about every profession these days. Looking right and sounding right has never been more encouraged but have we downgraded the importance of the substance behind it all? Are we just taking this image thing just a bit too far?
Palin is not alone in trying to upgrade her image. An executive’s image on TV has now become so important that over the last few decades whole industries have been built on it. It goes much further than the regular corporate public relations - something that has been around for a good deal longer. Former journalists become media trainers and consultants and if they are good at it, then their fortunes will triple that of their past media careers. Fashion stylists have become corporate stylists advising on suits and shirt and tie styles and colours to project the best image possible.
For the past decade or two, other players have been coming onto the scene of the corporate image maker. These are actors, both screen and theatrical, who can join the corporate image industry, not only to act in corporate training videos, but to give much sought after advice on voice and voice projection, body language and facial expression.
In fact, our own National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) has been long running its own corporate training department. So successful has this department of NIDA become that it now offers courses that have been designed specifically for women executives keen to make it to the senior corporate level. In the Brisbane Times last week, Sarah Thomas wrote about NIDA’s “Women in Leadership” program that has been running since last November. The article can be viewed here:
Really Long Link
Some years ago similar experimental programs were being tried by The Sydney Theatre Company and I remember reading about a program that swapped a corporate sponsorship arrangement with a training program for the company executives.
Where are the skills, industry knowledge, experience and ability in all this? Are all the top executives now just fast talking, good looking, well-dressed clones of each other or do they actually know as much about what they are telling us as we are led to believe?
There should be nothing wrong in putting your best foot forward, looking and sounding convincing and knowledgeable but not if it’s only masking the fact that you don’t know too much and don’t really have as much experience in the subject that an unsuspecting audience may believe you do have.
If you really consider our obsession with image, it has helped many forge careers they had once never considered. Journalists, fashion consultants and those trained or experienced in the acting profession have all been able to share in corporate wealth. On the other hand, this obsession with putting image first and substance second is probably one of the many reasons the world is in the position it is right now.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
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Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Neither do I think it wrong that they share their knowledge and skills with executives and CEOs. But the knowledge and understanding and of course, experience in their particular industry of these senior executives should be more important but it is fast becoming a lot less.
Comment by colocountry
While I congratulate you on another well-crafted blog, perhaps we shouldnt question any avenue for talented actors to ply their craft. My first hand experience of a family member, of some considerable talent, attempting to make a living from thespian related pursuits in Austraklia, is a tragedy in itself. Ask a gifted actor if they can understand the full scope of the entrenched 'givens' of their trade in the modern age and I dont think that we would have the large queues to enrol in NIDA and WAAPA and their equivalents in Australia and overseas! We have become fascinated with all that appears to be rather than what is. Sad really!
Col
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
It was this last part of your comment that my post was all about - judging the book by its cover rather than its content. I have no problem with actors using their skills in another area.
Take care.