From the crazy photographic memory of Rose Herceg…
Some of Dr Mumbo’s favourite people are strategists – they usually have an entertaining and original point of view.
So Dr Mumbo was delighted to see a column on the home page of AdNews from WPP’s chief strategy officer Rose Herceg.
In the short article, Herceg makes something of a leap, linking a US Supreme Court Justice’s observations about pornography with the difficulties in defining trust:
By an amazing coincidence, the same observation has been made before, in a book about… wait for it… trust. According to David A Shore, in The Trust Prescription for Healthcare:
Which is, no doubt, all a coincidence.
And here’s another coincidence. Rosemary Herceg made what was presumably an unwelcome appearance on The ABC’s Media Watch program back in 2002.
In those days a trend forecaster with her own agency Pophouse, Herceg had a column in BRW magazine.
But the ABC TV show noticed an interesting trend. On a number of occasions, the observations she used in her column were remarkably close to those that had previously appeared in the US magazine Fast Company.
There was this example:
‘Today if you want to catch the wave of the future, you have to start surfing a lot closer to the Fringe.’ – Fast Company Magazine
‘If you want to catch the wave of the future, you have to start surfing a lot closer to the fringe.’ – Rosemary Herceg, BRW
And this one…
‘…they created the Scion brand from the ground up, starting with the actual silver-coated badge that appears on every car and ending with a cutting edge Web site that screams youth and exuberance.’ – Fast Company Magazine
‘… they created the Scion brand from the ground up, starting with the silver-coated badge that appears on every car and ending with a cutting edge Web site (www.scion.com) that screams youth and exuberance.’ – Rosemary Herceg, BRW
Media Watch used lots of unpleasantly judgmental phrases like “theft” and “pinched”. Even, unpleasantly, “plagiarism” and “rip offs”
After the ABC revealed a copy of a BRW column where almost all of the text had first appeared in Fast Company, Rosemary’s writing career with BRW came to a rapid halt. Then editor (and now Ten’s chief spinner) Neil Shoebridge told Media Watch: “‘Rosemary was dismissed as a columnist for BRW as soon as I could get her on the phone.”
Luckily, at the time, she was able to give Media Watch a completely reasonable explanation: “I have to tell you I have a crazy photographic memory.”
Fifteen years on, Dr Mumbo wonders if we’re any closer to a cure for a crazy photographic memory.
Some people are smart, some copy smart people. hard to tell the difference.
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Seems that Dr Mumbo has a photographic memory for dredging up old news to hurt someone…..feels a bit mean-spirited. I’m sure Rose paid dearly professionally and personally for being caught out by Media Watch all those years ago. As for the current example – she didn’t claim credit for the quote, but should have credited the source. Give her the benefit of the doubt in the spirit of kindness?
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Give Rose a break! Surely we are all guilty of learning stuff and then using what we have learnt. It makes the world go around. I have spent my entire career taking other people’s ideas and thinking, reshaping them, using them. I can’t even remember now which were originally mine or which I got from others. Isn’t that what Picasso meant when he said something like: “A good artist copies, a great artist steals.”? Rose is a great thinker, and I reckon she helps our industry grow with her ideas and thoughts. I don’t care where she gets her inspiration from, so long as she keeps sharing it. At least she is making the effort, while most of us sit passively on the sidelines, shouting criticism from the peanut gallery.
Give Rose a break! Surely we are all guilty of learning stuff and then using what we have learnt. It makes the world go around. I have spent my entire career taking other people’s ideas and thinking, reshaping them, using them. I can’t even remember now which were originally mine or which I got from others. Isn’t that what Picasso meant when he said something like: “A good artist copies, a great artist steals.”? Rose is a great thinker, and I reckon she helps our industry grow with her ideas and thoughts. I don’t care where she gets her inspiration from, so long as she keeps sharing it. At least she is making the effort, while most of us sit passively on the sidelines, shouting criticism from the peanut gallery.
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Chris – what on earth do you mean? Are you saying you lift and plagerise and don’t reference other people’s ideas too. If you’re admitting to that you’re mean and self centered.
People need to build their own thinking and if in the process of doing so they borrow from others they they should acknowledge it. Surely?
Also if I was public ally shamed like the above I’d make darn sure I never did it again.
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Give Rose a break! Surely we are all guilty of learning stuff and then using what we have learnt. It makes the world go around. I have spent my entire career taking other people’s ideas and thinking, reshaping them, using them. I can’t even remember now which were originally mine or which I got from others. Isn’t that what Picasso meant when he said something like: “A good artist copies, a great artist steals.”? Rose is a great thinker, and I reckon she helps our industry grow with her ideas and thoughts. I don’t care where she gets her inspiration from, so long as she keeps sharing it. At least she is making the effort, while most of us sit passively on the sidelines, shouting criticism from the peanut gallery.
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Dr Mumbo speaks too much mumbo jumbo shit (shit, did I just steal that line from this great tune: https://genius.com/Kasland-mumbo-jumbo-lyrics)
My friend there has never been and never will be a statue built for critics (shit I think I stole that line from here: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/04/statue-of-critic/) . And you are definitely no exception. Your so-called ‘co-incidence’ was a one-liner sentence which any idiot could recall, photographic memory or not. And you knew that, which is why you did a bit of a deep dive going back 15 years to 2002. My what a sleuth you are.
What purpose does your article serve, and what is your intention here? Rose is and always has been a shining beacon of positivity and brilliance in the ad industry. Ah yes, you’re the ‘anonymous’ guy who goes around trying to turn people’s lights off because you’ve got a chip on your shoulder and you make yourself feel bigger and stronger by treading on other people’s dreams (shit, did I just steal that line from here: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~ben/writings/TheClothsofHeaven.html)
May I suggest you watch Everything Is A Remix (https://vimeo.com/14912890) — it might help you to understand a little better how the creativity process actually works.
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She is a CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER for the world’s largest media holding company. She shouldn’t ‘make an effort’, she should provide original thoughts and lead by example.
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Hey, I remember you – the brand guy, right?
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Read it again my friend. Chris makes a valid point.. we all learn stuff and then use what we have learn to think, reshape, mould to our own challenges and thoughts.
I dont think you need to acknowledge something you have learned if you are not claiming authorship of an idea. That’s just talking.
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Why are there 2 identical comments from 2 different people? And as for the spirit of kindness. Give me a break! Once a fake always a fake.
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right
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that was funny Huw
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Why are there 2 identical comments from 2 different people?
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