In Very Bad Taste
Image: onlineadvertisingexecutive.com
During a trawl for relevant articles for a client this morning, I happened across a piece on a dining-out website. This is an extract, and it is quite genuine:
“Natural or manmade catastrophes can act as earthquakes, which then generate tsunamis of interest in the flavors of that region …And now the newest incident with the devastation in Japan turns the world’s eye toward that island nation. Like its cousins, expect flavor interest in Japanese cuisine to spike. So while many crystal ballers are touting Korean cuisine in 2011, the disaster in Japan is a game changer as far as food and flavor trends go.”
Personally, as I watched the images of the sea flooding onto the land and taking the lives of thousands, I wasn’t thinking about sushi and sake.
This could easily be some sort of thoroughly sick sketch on a really bad-taste comedy show – a roving reporter standing in the ruins of Sendai oblivious to the death and carnage all around and instead spouting about culinary trends.
Can you believe that any freelance writer would dare use such a monumental tragedy as a springboard into an article on possible future restaurant trends? I am not easily shocked by some of the things humans do and say, but I am utterly staggered by this.
The person in question, according to her biography on the website, is very well educated, with a couple of degrees and a Masters. I suppose this just goes to show that there is a chasm of difference between being academically intelligent and possessing good ol’ common sense.
One of the key skills of a freelance writer is to be able to self-edit. That may come at the end of the process after allowing an unimpeded free flow of creativity and ideas to roughly form the article, but it has to come at some point. The smart writer absolutely has to swap out their passionate head for their analytical head and read and read and read again. They have to be satisfied they are content to publish their thoughts and take on the chin whatever criticism those thoughts may provoke in others.
Just read that first sentence again. This woman is actually punning on the words “earthquake” and “tsunamis”.
Hands up which of you would have failed to edit that (if not the whole idea of the article) out of existence? Yeah, I’m not seeing any hands.
Don’t get me wrong – I like to be contentious at times. I like to challenge and unbalance and “put it out there”, but I could never write the tasteless drivel puked out by this socially clueless lobotomy-job. Who … who could possibly read her article and not think it thoroughly ill-conceived and inappropriate?
I assume she got paid for it. Maybe she can use her ill-gotten gains to visit a Japanese restaurant.
And I hope she chokes on it.
About the Author: I have two novels published hardback and paperback by Hodder & Stoughton - The Short Cut and Man On A Murder Cycle. I live on the Murcian coast of Spain with my beautiful wife and daughter. For the past five years I have been working in corporate intelligence for some of the largest companies in the world.
Angie | Mar 18, 2011 | Reply
Whoa… not cool. Not cool at all.
What she wrote was in very poor taste – and like you, I can’t even imagine how any sane person (let alone freelance writer) could have made those connections and thought they were okay to broadcast.
Sad.
Jim | Mar 18, 2011 | Reply
> “The person in question, according to her biography on the website, is very well educated, with a couple of degrees and a Masters…”
She could have more degrees than a thermometer, but the fact remains that she’s been educated far beyond her intelligence.
Steve | Mar 18, 2011 | Reply
Hi Mark:
EXTREMELY poor taste.
We shouldn’t be shocked any more. Nowadays attention-getting, ego and greed are a driving force behind lack of courtesy.
Steve
Mark | Mar 18, 2011 | Reply
Angie, hi. Sad indeed. As I get older, I normally just sigh with a weary resignation at the ridiculous things I see around me, but this angered me. I left a highly negative but non-swearing comment in the box after her article, but, gosh, it hasn’t been approved. Wonder why. Thanks for your input.
Jim, yes, a strange but true concept being educated beyond your intelligence. Case in point: Chef-turned-irritating-do-gooder Jamie Oliver has a show on UK TV at the moment called “Jamie’s Dream School”. The idea is to take a bunch of no-exam school-leavers with bad attitudes and bring in famous people in various fields to teach them in an attempt to drum up some interest. (It’s not working very well.) The history teacher was a guy called Prof. David Starkie, a well-known TV presenter of all things historical and general all-round boffin. In his first class, without any provocation whatsoever, he called one of the kids fat. The kid and the rest of the class nearly killed him. Why did Starkie’s immense intellect not see that coming?
Thanks for jumping in.
Mark | Mar 19, 2011 | Reply
Hi Steve,
All of the things you mentioned, plus that whopping big Bowl of Stupid. I bet she’s a hoot at dinner parties, crunching on those whilst laughingly talking about the latest world tragedy. Cheers, mate.
Mark
Steve | Mar 19, 2011 | Reply
Mark:
True — and I can almost bet that yours wasn’t the only negative comment in her comment box.
Either people just dont think, or don’t attempt to do so properly.
Steve
Allena | Mar 20, 2011 | Reply
Do you think it was a keyword thing?
Steve | Mar 20, 2011 | Reply
Allena:
Very good point, but even so…
Steve
Mark | Mar 21, 2011 | Reply
It is an excellent point, Allena, and one I didn’t think of because the article was on/in one of the restaurant industry’s main websites/newsletters, so I imagine it receives significant targeted readership without really having to tout through SEO. And, as Steve says, SEO or not, there’s just no excuse for such crass insensitivity.
Thanks, all, for chipping in. Appreciated. Mark.
George Angus | Mar 21, 2011 | Reply
Mark,
Jiminy-freakin-christmas. What the hell is wrong with people.
Poor taste, amateur, insensitive – hell I don’t know where to start here.
Just like our spoken words, our written words can and do have an impact. They are a reflection of who we are and writers need to keep that in mind.
This person needs to be drummed out of the writing guild.
George
Allena | Mar 21, 2011 | Reply
oh, it’s certainly not an excuse.
Scarlett Crimson Souza | Apr 1, 2011 | Reply
It’s quite disgusting, actually. Not exercising decorum as part of one’s etiquette makes me want to vomit. Wait, I just vomited a little in my mouth.