Things sent to try Prince Philip
Posted by Fraser at 1:12 pm
Prince Philip is a grumpy old man and frequently the laughing stock of those who appreciate a tosser who’s always ‘two steps behind’.
But the man did have a point when he recently told of getting his grandchildren to programme his TV.
He apparently said: “To work out how to operate a TV set you practically have to make love to the thing. They put the TV controls on the bottom so you have to lie on the floor, and then if you wanted to record something the recorder was underneath, so you ended up lying on the floor with a torch in your teeth, a magnifying glass and an instruction book.”
The 88-year-old gent was laughed at by most media accounts I saw, but he was clearly lashing out at the design of modern televisions, claiming they are too hard to use.
We all know people who communicate so that no-one can understand what on earth they are saying. In individuals I’ve assumed it has something to do with the mixed-communicator’s perverse need to control relationships or attract attention to themselves, even if only for petty scorn. The mentality seems to be; if others are set up to fail because they’re confused, you can be the winner.
But why is it that so much commercial communication is incomprehensible – text in a brochure that’s eye-strain small or graphics that scramble the brain? And why is it almost impossible to tell the difference between the ‘shampoo’ and the ‘conditioner’ when standing in the shower with soap in your eyes?
I’m sure that the answer is not a perverse one. Communication that doesn’t communicate clearly is bad communication and it results from a lack of care and judgement.
Grumpy old men complain about nearly everything, but in this case, Prince Philip communicated with great clarity.
In a future post I’ll raise another issue on the subject of loony communication – billboards.