Rewriting History

Just caught this blurb in Fast Company Magazine…

To liven up a standard card-services conference, Bank of America asked two employees to write a song about the merger with MBNA. Although their heartfelt performance – titled “One Bank” and set to the tune of U2’s “One” – was ridiculed when it leaked onto the internet, attendees gave it a standing ovation.

OK. Wait a second. I remember this video. And if the guys at Fast Company are now holding this up as an example of something that works, even (ye gads), something to be emulated, well, it’s time to cancel that subscription.

For a while there, this was a gruesome favorite of mine. In the same way that you might have a favorite car crash.

At one point it was pulled from YouTube (for copyright reasons, not aesthetic reasons…) but it’s back.

I have sat through a lot of sales meetings and conferences and god-bless ‘em for trying to liven things up in between “compliance training”, marketing reviews and break-out meetings but really, are these people blind? Deaf? Please, please tell me that their standing ovation was just group-think. Please let it be that one or two assholes leapt to their feet and the others followed begrudgingly so as not to stand out as sour-pusses.

Because this is the height of lame. The very pinnacle! There is no place to go from here except to less lame.

You be the judge.



And of course, what would the internet be if there weren’t hundreds of mocking parodies for our enjoyment. And who better than David Cross?