Respect to the man in the icecream van

or "If only I kept it simple"

If you are familiar with German techno music then you may recognise this lyric from Scooter's 'Weekend' and since it is the weekend you know what that means.

They are not so common now but when I was a kid the man in the icecream van was always around. Such a simple business idea. Drive down a street playing a catchy little tune and very soon you would be swamped by eager hordes of children and adults who wished to acquire your wares. Indeed it is no accident that most of the truly successfull business ideas are simple. If you want modern examples then look no ferther than google, yahoo or even youtube.

But if a simple business idea is popular, the minute you try to complicate it you can have problems. Take that man in the van. He starts with just one product and his customers love it. They cannot get enough of it. The money is rolling in. Suddenly greed sets in and he no longer just offers one product but a whole van load of different flavours. And those once loyal customers are confused. They try the new ones but do not find them to their taste. But it's not a simple matter to go back to the old days and just offer what he did before. He has invested his previous profit in the new product and hopes that he does find the customer who likes the new flavours. And if those customers are not local he travels even ferther away in the hope that he does find that new customer.

And as he sees his profits go down he wonders "If only I had kept it simple"

I wrote this after witnessing the latest indulgence - the friday night show. After that opening sequence was over, I asked myself one simple question "WTF was that ?"

Well dear wannbe-the-best-tv-regie-in-the-world Vicky I will tell you what that was. It was 23 minutes of waste. It was 23 minutes of nothing. It was 23 minutes where some 6 models did not wear their headsets so no calls were received. Shall I do the maths for the potential loss of income for that indulgence. Maybe at the end of the show you also asked the question "If only I had kept it simple"

But there is more. A few days ago, my dear I-will-be-the-best-regie-in-the-world Hans must have thought that Christmas had come early. For his morning show there was not one but two for him to dazzle everyone with his 'neu bei uns' and hopefully followed by a liberal dose of 'ganz nackte'. But rather than introducing these girls in full picture, the most of the time all we saw was a spotlight. Maybe at the end of the show he also asked "If only I had kept it simple"

And there is even more. It is usual these days to find the morning show an over-mixed mess. It seems that the I-will-be-the-greatest-visionmixer-in-the-world cannot decide which camera to use, So he uses them all at the same time and you get all the shots on the same screen fading in and out quicker than a toilet seat goes up and down at a mixed party. I wonder if one day as he finds himself selling icecream he asks himself the question "If only I had kept it simple"

"Everyone will leave one way or another. It is the nature of the tv"

Illusion and reality can never mix. If you watch this for too long there is always a danger that you get attached emotionally to one or more of the participants. Indeed you can declare your love(respect) for them even though you will probably never meet them. In fact if fate is not so kind and indeed you did meet them, your illusion would probably be shattered. If you were lucky they would be courteous and say 'hello'. But you should not expect more than that. In their work they will have come in contact with many and you should never expect them to remember every one. And if you never called them, or sent an SMS, you simply do not exist.

I could have said a lot more but I have been there as well. In fact more than once. I was lucky. I found that the reality was much better than the illusion. That's where real respect comes from.

Footnote: All the above was written before the events of last night unfolded. Whichever version of events you believe, you are free to do so. Yet I am not surprised that nothing was directly stated on the tv. But here was a model that never celebrated her birthday in the studio whereas others, who had not been there so long had that privilege. And there were also other models, some of who hardly had time to take their coat off but were shown such affection when they left (some even came back). Interesting to note that summer is almost upon us. What better to find another seasonal job. Maybe a case of "stop me and buy one" :)
 

lol great article. you really know how to write such things.

not only respect to the man in the icecream van but to you too. ;)

Even the icecream business can be optimized ... [Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig]

Great article, my respect to you DB! Let's hope that these illusions soon have an end and some guys out there get back to reality again.