Mark Dolliver's Takes

credit risk: Why Don't They Tell Me How Wonderful I Am? Even in good times, people can find something to feel dissatisfied about. In fact, good times bring their peculiar dissatisfactions. A survey featured last week in The New York Times Magazine points to one of these. Nearly half of the respondents (48 percent) subscribed to the statement, "I wish I got more credit for what I do and who I am." Numerous other surveys have shown people to be happy with their jobs, families, neighborhoods, future prospects, etc. In its own evidence of such contentment, The Times Magazine survey finds just 35 percent agreeing it even "sometimes" bothers them "that my life did not turn out as I expected it would." And a remarkably low 32 percent "ever daydream about being famous." For the 48 percent cited above, though, it still rankles that they aren't accorded more personal credit. Of course, one can't look at such a number without suspecting lots of these people get quite as much credit as they deserve. Might it be that the rosy economy (with its tight labor market and overheated stock market) has given them inflated notions of how invaluable and smart they are? When a rising tide is lifting all boats, some of the boats nonetheless want to be singled out for their levitational powers. If you're highly self-satisfied, as many people are these days, you may be disappointed if the rest of us aren't equally enthused by your marvelous self. Meanwhile, the economy works another way to yield this particular form of dissatisfaction. The boom has done much to gratify people's material appetites. But there hasn't been a parallel rise in gross domestic output of praise and affection. As such, the ratio of emotional satisfaction to material satisfaction has declined for many Americans. Understandably (if not estimably), this leaves them craving more credit for their individual worth and accomplishments. ------------------------------------------------- act your age? Merry Pranksters at Work Never underestimate the childishness of your fellow adults (or, perhaps, of yourself). A poll by Angus Reid Group finds 53 percent of employed Canadian grown-ups admitting they play pranks at work "to relieve workplace boredom." The 18-34-year-olds are more likely than their elders to pull pranks (64 percent said they do so). But a majority of the 35-54s (53 percent) get into the act as well. Even among the 55-plus cohort, 31 percent play pranks at work. The poll confirms suspicions that men are more childish than women: 59 percent of the former indulge in pranks, versus 46 percent of the latter. We are relieved to report that the number of adult pranksters who merely make faces behind people's backs (31 percent) far exceeds the number who give "wedgies" (9 percent). And though 27 percent have fond memories of speaking pig latin as kids, the practice doesn't widely persist into adulthood. ------------------------------------------------- pony dreams: Envying Family Life in Days Before Fast Food and TV If American kids expect birthday cakes made from scratch, they'd better think again. In a reader poll by Child magazine, 65 percent of parents said they'll go out and buy one when the occasion arises. Of the 29 percent who said they'll bake the cake, half said they'll use a mix. Such is the unleisurely nature of family life today. Further evidence: Asked how often "you and your spouse go out for fun without the kids," 37 percent of respondents said "once in a millennium," while 40 percent said "once a month." As the chart indicates, dinner on the town with the kids tends not to be an experience in fine dining. But it at least gets them away from the TV set and its array of unsuitable viewing choices. What programming would parents least like a kid age 3 or older to watch? WWF wrestling was the must-not-see choice for 56 percent of respondents, with South Park a distant second (28 percent). The nightly news came in third, cited by 12 percent. Under the circumstances, many parents would opt out of the present era if they could. Twenty percent said they'd rather raise their kids during Little House on the Prairie days; 18 percent would take the much-maligned '50s. Just 16 percent would stick with the current decade. If they did live in frontier times, it might be easier to satisfy their offsprings' fondest wish for a pet: 35 percent of parents said their child's "dream pet" would be a pony. ------------------------------------------------- satisfaction: Where Would Women Be Without Furry Friends? Humans have their moments, but let's face it: They can't measure up to pets. At any rate, that's the feeling of professional women surveyed by Young & Rubicam's Brand Futures Group. The respondents (all members of a Connecticut organization of professional women) were asked how satisfied they are with the relationships in their lives. With all due respect to kids, spouses and friends, "the only relationship a majority of women (54 percent) rated as 'very satisfying' was with a four-legged friend." The report is quick to note the women "place more importance on their relationships with various humans in their lives," even if they're a mixed bag. Indeed, relationships with their children came in a respectable second (50 percent). Husbands fared less well (43 percent). Just 29 percent find their friendships very satisfying--a circumstance the report says may reflect "a lack of time to cultivate friendships." But it's not as if these busy women are sustained by interaction at work, as a mere 35 percent said they get great satisfaction from their professional relationships. ------------------------------------------------- pity upon the poor: It's Their Own Fault, But Let's Help 'em Anyway Are poor people poor because rich people are rich? So the class warriors keep trying to persuade us. But a Harris Poll suggests the public doesn't buy it. A plurality of respondents (45 percent) said "most people who are poor are mainly to blame themselves for their poverty," versus 36 percent saying they're poor "through no fault of their own." Similarly, 77 percent agreed with the statement, "Most people who are unemployed could find paid work without much difficulty if they really worked at it." And 75 percent said most welfare recipients "would find paid work if they were not on welfare." So, is the public indifferent to poor folks? Oddly not, given the views cited above. Seventy-five percent also said "this is a rich country, which could afford to do more to help the poor." ------------------------------------------------- mixed blessings: The Decline of the '60s, A Bug's (Short) Life, Overactive Investors, Etc. Here's a telltale sign the '60s has begun losing its unique status as the decade that (take your pick) liberated America or wrecked it. An online poll by CNN.com lumps the '60s together with its successor decade in asking, "Did the '60s and '70s make things better or worse for the way we live today?" The fact that 58 percent answered "better" and 42 percent said "worse" is less striking than the fact the question was asked in the first place. The real test will be whether people start treating the '50s and '60s as a single, continuous era of American growth. Creating a spot in which a spokesman makes a claim of less-than-sterling truthfulness? Focus viewers' attention on his mouth, not his eyes. As reported by ABC.com, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma found "almost everybody looks for signs of hidden emotion in the lower parts of other people's faces," although "the upper parts may more accurately display the truth." This week's award for Most Plausible Claim in a Chicken Ad goes to a billboard for the Oregon Fryer Commission. As long as the person reading the text is willing to agree that he is indeed in Oregon, he's more than halfway to acknowledging the truth of this sales pitch. HMH Advertising and Public Relations of Portland created the ad. We looked for a disclaimer saying, "No actual bugs were bisected in the making of this ad." But Shimano didn't include one, leaving us to assume the company targets its new wheelset at bicyclists who have insecticidal tendencies. (Probably a lucrative niche.) Copy explains that the client's product is ideal for racing, "Yet supple enough for flying around town." Crispin Porter Bogusky of Miami put the ad together. Will Americans pay more for foreign goods if the workers who made them are treated well? You'd have a hard time finding tangible evidence that they do. But people are happy to pay lip service to the idea of global labor standards. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (as summarized on the Polling Report Web site), people were asked how much consideration they give "to the wages and working conditions of the workers" when deciding whether to buy a foreign-made product. Twenty percent claimed to consider this "a great deal," and 19 percent said they think of it "a fair amount." Another 23 percent said they give labor conditions "some" consideration in purchase decisions. Just 14 percent conceded they give no thought whatsoever to the workers; 22 percent said they give "very little." Let us give these latter respondents a medal (made in the U.S.A. by union labor) for an honesty lacking among many who vaunt their concern for the foreign proletariat. If you're a not-especially-active investor, how should you feel about the compulsive types who are forever buying and selling? You should feel grateful. Misled by their own overconfidence, these are people who sell you their undervalued stocks and buy the overvalued ones you (or your mutual fund managers) are happy to unload. A study summarized by Bloomberg, using 10 years of trading data, finds the most-active investors "earned an average net annual return that was 5.5 percent lower than that of the least-active investors." Men are more apt that women to indulge in over-active trading--in part because they're more apt to be overconfident in general. The gap is especially conspicuous among unmarried investors: "Single men trade 67 percent more actively than single women." As one might imagine, online trading has added to the hyperactivity. "We found that after going online, investors traded one-third more actively and their speculative trading nearly doubled," reports the magazine. Just the other day, someone at our office was saying, "It's been a while since I saw a good bike-shop ad that used a photo of an Accord hanging upside down from the ceiling of the garage." But you can't keep a good genre down, and the next day's mail brought this ad (via Minneapolis' Clarity Coverdale Fury) for Bokoo Bikes. Hard-core cyclists will appreciate the reversal of the usual garage-space hierarchy. On the other hand, it doesn't position the agency to pick up billings from local Honda dealers, does it

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