I Liked Your Writing Better When it was Funny

My response to Rich Siegel’s Round Seventeen blog dedication to yours truly.

Rich Siegel is one of the sharpest writers I have ever come across.

If you want to see what true headline-writing craft looks like, peruse his ABC TV work (above). Some of the wittiest lines ever to grace a billboard.

Even Rich’s blog name is clever: “Round Seventeen”.

That said, his piece about me lacks Rich’s usual genius, as well as any genuine substance.

Rich is quite upset I criticized the new corporate religion, DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion), which he called a “philosophy”.

Of course, DEI is not merely a philosophy, it’s a practice. And in practice, it’s leading to tribalization, compelled speech, exclusion and discrimination. You know it’s a fragile and flawed ideology precisely because you are not allowed to question it.

That said, Rich doesn’t bother to take on my actual concerns about DEI, but he does call me silly, predictable names, like “Brownshirt” (i.e Nazi paramilitary).

(You demean the term, Rich. But then, you know that.)

Now, Rich Seigel, back in the day, would have skewered me with his acerbic wit, but this is a deflated, uninspired piece of writing that limps, and then crawls, to the finish.

It’s not surprising, because Rich is hamstrung with an impossible brief: side with an industry that has become intolerant, conformist and censorial. He knows it, but he’s still clinging to it because he feels he must.

Also, Rich is seething with rage towards anyone he believes has the scarlet “R” in front of their name - this also short-circuits any coherent thought.

Interestingly, the Rich I knew back at Chiat/Day spoke out against censorship. I faintly recall when he protested - via an agency-wide email - the fact that the company announced they would be blocking certain websites.

Rich wasn’t having that. The company backed down, if I remember right.

Classic Siegel before wokeness killed comedy.

The back-in-the-Chiat-Day Rich was sarcastic. Rebellious. He was a curmudgeonly Liberal in the best sense of the word. And Chiat/Day was a wildly creative place. The agency said things like “Think Different”. Can you even imagine?

Now. Everyone. Must. Think. Exactly. The. Same… or else.

Back then, you could sooner tell a bull not to charge than tell a creative like Rich what they could - and couldn’t - say.

That version of Rich has gone missing (for the same reason the industry’s creativity has: the woke trinity of DEI).

Rich has been replaced by some listless doppelgänger. Still curmudgeonly, but no longer funny. And he’s now a guy who’s desire to stay relevant compels him to ingratiate himself to an industry that no longer wants the things that made Rich great.

I suspect that’s why he also constantly plays the ageism card. It’s the intersectional Ace up his sleeve. And today, everyone has to have something that qualifies them for oppressed status.

After all, in corporate America, victimhood is the new merit.

Of course, there certainly is ageism in advertising. But the truth is, Rich could write circles around the industry today. (And after the terrible writing I witnessed in response to my “nose-tweaking” recruitment campaign, clearly the industry needs more people like Rich.)

But the agency world doesn’t need the new compliant, body snatcher version of Rich that currently controls his pen. It needs the other, brilliant Rich I described.

That said, we discover the true purpose of Rich’s glowing essay halfway down when he says this about me:

“This former agency bigwig is now nothing short of a pariah in the ad world. For that, he only has himself to blame. I, on the other hand, consider myself an ally and proponent of DEI.”

In this one statement Rich reveals the brief for writing his piece: to present himself as the noble and useful “ally” to the wokeists, while getting to put his metaphorical boot on my throat - all to industry applause. (Quite the hat trick). Rich even uses their goofy language (“ally”), hoping to win plaudits, but it all feels so inauthentic coming from him.

Rich, am I a pariah to this industry? I should hope so. As intolerant, conformist and corrupt as it is, I would be worried if it celebrated me.

To gain the agency world’s approval, would mean I would have to act as you have: virtue-signaling and calling people Nazis.

So,“Pariah” is just fine with me. Although I was warming to “Menace to Society”.

Looks like I might have to make a new t-shirt for the Daily Wire store: “Brett Craig is a Pariah.”

And Rich, I presume you’ll want it in brown?