One thing leads to another

This morning's post made me sensitive to the way people use movie references in daily conversation. We were talking about a bit of company craziness and after exhasting words to describe his frustration he said: "Chinatown."

That "she's my daughter, she's my sister" movie, built on shenanigans over water in Southern California, offered that one word as the only possible explanation when things can't be explained.

It reminded me of another movie sentiment that can be used as a filter for explaining quite a lot of business chatter. It comes from "The Big Kahuna," a Spacey/DeVito vehicle:

"It doesn't matter if you're selling Jesus, Buddha, or industrial lubricants. That doesn't make you a human being; that makes you a marketing rep. As soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore, it's a pitch. And you're not a human being, you're a marketing rep."

Forearmed and forewarned.