By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (page 11)
September 22nd, 2011
Perusing through a department store, a stunning dress caught my eye. Peeking around the mannequin, to my disappointment, a paperclip held the dress to create the very silhouette which made the dress stunning in the first place.
The window dressers definitely scored an A+ for the "Made You Look!" effect but it turned out to be a bout of bad PR for the designer trying to market an ill-fitted dress. Though in the designer's defence, not everyone has a lanky far from realistic Barbie-like figure but in all honesty, a paperclip does not scream "Buy Me!" nor does it make for a tasteful fashion accessory.
Window dressing is a serious business because it is an important point of contact with potential customers. In high-end shops on London's Oxford Street, window displays are envisaged months before.
Plans are drawn up and precise details disseminated to the stores for perfect execution. One shop in particular puts much thought into the three different lifestyle price markers it's catering for – not-too-shabby, good and fabulous.
You decide which lifestyle suits you or what lifestyle you want – skint but can afford plastic cutlery, middle-class with glass tableware or obscenely rich eating off bone china holding a crystal champagne glass with a designer suit to boot.
If window dressing is done right, it gets you to enter the store and at least check for paperclips. What it really has done is sell you an illusion.
The same goes to window dressing in mutual funds. In this regard, window dressing is executed to make funds appear more attractive. A fund manager might sell stocks with significant losses to improve the appearance of the fund's portfolio just before the quarterly report is sent to clients.
No harm I suppose, after all most people like me don't really know in detail where the money is being invested – we just want to see profits. To make us happy they window dress. It doesn't seem harmful at first but the problem with this public relations mechanism is that poor performance cannot be hidden for too long – window dressing can only do so much and has a short lifespan before the truth shows its ugly head.
There's a lot of good window dressing going around these days. Lots of PR companies making various politicians shine, become more personable and relatable. Everyone wants to look good – and that's what keeps spin doctors in business; selling an image. Though what we really need is to be told the truth.
It's easy to be caught up in spin – the difficult part is tearing away the suave charisma and theatrics to reveal what is real and what is the truth. Spin doctors don't only spin positives; they spin negatives of others to make their clients look good – either way – good or bad, an illusion has been created and the idea without its back-story sold to the multitude.
It's worrying, especially with a general election looming. What happens when we vote based on an illusion – within months things will fall apart or revert to what was or worse and it's another four long years before we can vote again.
The reforms being promised and transformation programmes scream window dressing. Such reforms like the promise to repeal the Internal Security Act are praiseworthy though for now it remains a promise.
Face-lifting an old draconian law into multiple security laws to include monitoring race and religion needs to be done carefully with the wisdom of a blindfolded judiciary and neutrality on the part of the lawmakers which is something we need to drastically improve on.
The real test about repealing the ISA is not how loud the cheers are now but how well things hold up months after the general election.
Natalie knows that everyone can make promises – what we really need are promise keepers.
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