In the global community, New Zealand likes to be that kid at school everyone rolled their eyes at; the one who acted like they had it all together but was as patently flawed as everyone else, their behaviour the window to the masquerade.

In the wake of the budget and emissions reduction plan, I happened to be home in the early evening one night this week, and casually caught sight of the television as the dinner-prep frenzy commenced its momentary grip on the household’s normally calm environs.

Sadly, someone had left it on TVNZ 1, so as I looked up, there was the government’s nightly political broadcast behind the facade of Seven Sharp. It was bonus night, too, because Matty McLean was co-hosting, surely an honours graduate of the ‘Jacinda Ardern School for Communicating with Grown-ups Like They Are Three-Year-Olds’.

Tonight’s big theme appeared to be tapping the boss for more money. Evidently, now was the time; employers had scads of dough to give away by all accounts.

When the global supply chain is in crisis, inflation is making a sustained reappearance once again, and compliance costs are heading only one way thanks to debt and climate issues, that’s the message, is it? Oh, and let’s not forget that the fickle integrity of today’s workforce means their work-uniform cupboard often looks like the shirt rack at Hallensteins. Every time a person quits for a cent more next door, the cost to the economy is measurable.

I was relieved when an ad break turned up; until I saw the ad – the first of Kiwibank’s latest big branding exercise. Being 2022, it was all about youth, tech, ideas, a fleeting glimpse of a pushbike or two (tick climate box) and then the protagonist’s tiny idea – not tuning into something tangibly beneficial for tomorrow’s communities or the environment, but rather fame on stage. Marketing once again plays to primal drivers of power, influence, and affluence.

Yes, all in all, it would appear today’s ‘influencers’ lust after the same thing as their predecessors. Maybe it’ll be the next generation, the ones that come after whatever’s next, that will be the altruists? Or perhaps the whole sorry cycle will start over?

All the best

Dave McCoid
Editorial Director