ComplainLESS

// November 22nd, 2007 // Brain Dump, Logical Emotions

Wouldn’t you know it, I had just finished complaining about the insane amount of snow currently blanketing Toronto when I clicked on Mr. Parker’s feed (you know, the 212° guy), only to read about another brilliant campaign that his marketing company, Max Pitch, has come up with: COMPLAINLESS™.

Ok, yes, the last thing the world needs is another damned wrist band, however, it got me thinking… Yes, I like the idea of THIS wristband simply because it has universal application to everyone. I’m not about to wear an anti-cancer wristband because typically they’re pink and I have solid opinions about the lack of cancer CURING (not treating – curing) research and the politics behind things. Same goes for the red ones, the green ones, the black ones, and especially the camouflaged ones – they have all lost meaning and are sad attempts to piggy-back on the success of the original yellow ones.

Now, the thought of giving these out to select people over the christmas holidays does make me smile, but I digress.

Another thought that hit me was about Colleen and my usual conversation about tattoos. The next bit of art to add to the body is always a big question and usually surfaces in conversation somewhere near the end of the wine.. One of Colleen’s brilliant ideas is to get a stylized grouping of 3 “C”s on the underside of the wrist to represent, wait for it:

Don’t Criticize, Condemn, or Complain.

Brilliant. I then got thinking, what if everyone in the world was required to get these 3 “C”s on their wrist? The irony is that there would be much complaining and criticizing…

The stupid thing is that complaining is too easy, there is always someone to listen, and really, there is no polite way to tell someone to “Shut Up!” when you’ve had enough. Yes it’s strong, but it’s what you want to yell at the top of your lungs isn’t it? Wait, is that a complaint about complainers? Argh..

Ok, before I slip into some sort of diatribe about complaining, let me just say that the campaign is brilliant and it’s going to be one that this blog will support as well as practice!

Oh yeah, whipped up this little badge thingy for my sidebar and linked it to the site while I await a response from Mr. Parker…

Popularity: 34% [?]

7 Responses to “ComplainLESS”

unwesen says:

November 23, 2007 at 5:16 am

Hmm. Can’t say I agree with the campaign. Let me see if I can summarize:

Complaints have a source, and that’s that the person complaining is unhappy with something. There are two things we should distinguish:
a) the person might be unhappy about anything, and in their misery latches on to a minor annoyance and complains about it.
b) the person might be very unhappy with the specific thing they complain about.

Case a can, very roughly, be detected if the person complains about many unrelated things, rarely seems able to not complain about something, etc. If you complain like that, the complainless campaign might be for you… somewhat.

More important than complaining less would be to find the source of your unhappiness and change that. Complains are useful in this situation because it gives you and others the chance to detect your own unhappiness, and deal with it.

Case b is actually a very valuable contribution to society. If someone complains about a small number of things, but keeps up the complaints, chances are they’re on to something. Chances are, there’s a problem that should be solved. You might not have seen it before, but thanks to the complainer you can.

No, I don’t think stopping yourself from complaining is a good thing at all. Now if the campaign was named “complain smarter” (much as I hate the use of smarter in such a context), I’d find it a lot more understandable.

Similarly, I’d support a campaign called “whine less”. Whining is unpleasant and unproductive, complaining is necessary fuel for improvement.

Maybe I’m just reading too much in the choice of words. But hey, I have a hangover and feel miserable, so complaining about a campaign that asks me not to complain seemed like the perfect thing to do
Tully says:

November 23, 2007 at 8:53 am

“More important than complaining less would be to find the source of your unhappiness and change that. ” – um, yeah! If you find the source of that which you insist on complaining about, change it so you don’t have anything to complain about, are you not complaining less?

I have no problem with people voicing their displeasure about something, however,could we not get more than just the complaint? How about some thought into the whole situation, how does it possibly apply to others, and how about a solution? Is it really a big a deal as you see it?

I don’t care if your coffee was 3 degrees colder than the last one you got at Starbuck’s. I don’t care if the person in front of you is slower at checking out their groceries than you. And I really don’t care if Google changes their ranking system and you plummet like everyone else – complain less and move on because nobody is really interested.

I still agree with the campaign that we all need to complain less. I also believe that if you are going to complain that it is also your responsibility to come up with a solution and take action on it.

And stop whining about your hangover!
unwesen says:

November 23, 2007 at 10:51 am

Well, ok. Maybe this is just a matter of how we both use and understand language (English /is/ my second language, after all), and we agree.

On to taking action: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/complain

The above link suggests to me that I’m thinking more of definition #1 & #3 from the Dictionary.com Unabridged definitions, while you seem to be thinking more of definition #2.

Even more precisely, under synonyms it states that “to complain is to protest or lament a wrong”. I’m all for the protesting part, less for the lamenting. Furthermore, “to whine is to complain in a mean-spirited way”.

At this point it seems to me as if both of us were pretty much thinking of the opposite ends of the range of meanings the verb “complain” expresses.

So, I’d support “whine less” and “lament less”. A “complain less” campaign is too ambiguous to me, but I’d also support “protest more”.

Hope that clears things in the same way that my hangover cleared by now *grins* And in the spirit of ambiguity, I’ll leave undefined whether my hangover has, in fact, cleared now.

On a more serious note: I think I actually agree with you, but got backstabbed by my connotations with certain words.
Robert Hruzek says:

November 23, 2007 at 6:26 pm

Geez, Tully, how do you do it? Are you reading my mind or something? Or am I reading yours? (And this is not a complaint – it’s a sense of amazement!)

This post is a great predecessor to one I have ready to post on Tuesday next week!

Stay tuned…
William Tully says:

November 23, 2007 at 6:43 pm

Jens, I do appreciate the “other end of the spectrum” viewpoint on every topic you choose to comment on and I think it helps balance the post and provide more depth for anyone reading.

See I never really considered protesting to be complaining… Not sure what I thought it was, but in my brain I equate complaining with whining and I leave protesting on it’s own level until it becomes whiny..
William Tully says:

November 23, 2007 at 6:45 pm

Bob, I simply subscribe to the simple rule:

Post ‘em if ya got ‘em. ;P

(My great plan for the new year is to actually be ahead on some posts… the odd wordless wednesday gets scheduled, but everything else is pretty much published on the fly)
unwesen says:

November 24, 2007 at 4:52 am

If nothing else, this is a beautiful example of how difficult communication can be