By: Tommy Druen
Guest Columnist
Over the course of the last year, my sanity has taken a roller-coaster ride as my kids take delight in serenading me in the car with that maddening Burger King jingle. While I can’t say it’s compelled me to devour a Whopper, it has indeed taken up residence in my mind for far too long of stretches.
Crafting successful ads is truly an art form. Some slogans and jingles have the uncanny ability to deposit themselves in our brains for a lifetime. We all remember whose ingredients make a better pizza. When someone suggests “maybe she’s born with it,” with reflex we know the alternative. And, of course, we’re all aware that resistance is futile once you first pop open a can of Pringles. These phrases embed themselves so deeply in our culture that we don’t even need to have seen the commercials. I routinely end a meal by saying “I can’t believe I ate that whole thing!” despite that particular Alka-Seltzer ad having faded from screens long before I was born.
Yet, one that’s firmly imprinted in my mind is tied to a product I’ve never even owned. Rewind to 1990 when Andre Agassi was the rising star of tennis, sporting both a head of long hair and an equally unconventional wardrobe. He was the game-changer challenging the stodgy reputation of the sport. Enter Canon, the Japanese camera giant, who elevated Agassi’s stardom with commercials that ended with Andre looking at the camera and stating, “Image is everything.” This slogan has stuck with me for over thirty years, carrying a depth that extends far beyond questionable fashion choices.
Though we might hesitate to admit it, image does wield substantial influence, particularly as it converges with its lexical companion, reputation. While it might not be fair, snap judgments are often spawned from reputation. Your mother’s high school counsel rings truer that we care to admit, but it took Andre Agassi to drive that point home.
The progression from image to reputation to stereotype is a predictable linear process. And for Kentuckians, this has not always been a blessing. Enter the caricature of the slack-jawed yokel, accompanied by his barefoot, pregnant wife, just itchin’ for a feud because of a cockfight loss. Thanks to the pulp novelists and Hollywood’s creative lens, Kentuckians have been battling this undeserved image for far too long.Yet, there are instances when image is to our favor. Over the years, I’ve learned that Kentuckians have cultivated a reputation for our kindness, warmth and hospitality. It’s a reputation that rings true. My wife may tease me for starting up conversations with total strangers, but it’s a habit I picked up having watched my grandparents have those type of interactions over the years. I’ve come to realize it’s something that is intrinsically natural for Kentuckians. It’s what we do, even if it’s not as widespread in other states, let alone considered bizarre in foreign lands.
The past few years have seen a decline in civility across our culture though. This shift is as plain as day. It’s almost become a spectator sport, as we watch the viral videos of people being ejected from airplanes or chuckle at parking lot disputes or department store showdowns. There’s even a thriving online subculture devoted to documenting the “Karens” of the world as they demand to speak with a manager RIGHT NOW!
The social restraints that once held sway now seem to be vanishing. People latch onto a single aspect of someone’s identity and let it define them entirely. Whether it’s race, sexual orientation, geographic origin, religion or political affiliation, they prematurely assume they’ve unlocked the blueprint to a person’s entire worldview. In an era of algorithms, some people have seemingly adopted the notion that their brains are equally as able to make predictions. To make matters worse, they unleash whatever fleeting thought pops into their heads without a second thought, ready to defend that they can say such things without pausing to consider whether they should say them.
Historically, such crudeness would not stand in polite society. However, the more refined behavior of such appears to be fading, dismissed as a vestige of the past, a charade where folks concealed their “true selves.” While I’m more than ready to criticize certain aspects of what I would label as “country club culture,” I can’t help but wonder if feigned gentility was preferable to genuine rudeness.Jeremy Irons, one of my favorite actors, once wisely remarked, “Civility, politeness, it’s like a cement in society: binds it together. And when we lose it, I think we all feel lesser and slightly dirty because of it.
In a world that increasingly reveres the “tell it like it is” culture of the talking heads and keyboard warriors, let’s defy that shift and fortify the reputation Kentuckians have cultivated. Let’s emphasize the importance of friendliness, courtesy and knowing when silence is the best option. At least pause for a second and think about Andre Agassi and the image we want to portray.
