Last night we were treated to a non-stop news cycle covering Eliot Spitzer and his callgirl Ashley Alexandra Dupre. Whatever your thoughts on the morality of prostitution and sex, there is a clear fact of the matter: both business and politics are saturated with behind the scenes, secret, sexual activities.
To deny this would be to deny the obvious or to be oblivious to the reality we encounter around us. I’m not interested in whether you agree with this observation though, because as I said, I take it as obvious. What I am interested in is how as a culture we cope with and consume this state of affairs.
From a business perspective, sexual scandals are multi-million dollar events. When an event like this happens, the line between online website gossip mongering and high-standards journalism falls apart. Money is on the table. Advertising dollars. People care about sexual scandals. And because of this CNN becomes TMZ in the blink of an eye.
If you think about it, the state of affairs are a bit odd. We set ourselves up for this stuff. On the one hand, we live and breathe as if our leaders and even our co-workers are strong willed, upstanding and committed creatures. So when these private events become public, we act surprised, shocked and enthralled. Our eyes get glued to the TV set. But really we shouldn’t be surprised. If we’re serious with ourselves, and we take a long hard look at the world we live in, presumably our default stance should be to expect this sort of event. But for whatever reason, we engage each drama like it’s the first.
So I’m not making an argument in this post, just a few observations. First, sex scandals generate billions of dollars in advertising revenue each year. Second, they generate so much revenue because they grab people’s attention like nothing else. And third, we really shouldn’t be shocked by these kinds of events… they are hardly a surprise anymore, and if you infer the obvious, they are quite common.
For whatever reason, the drama starts anew each and the money rolls in for media outlets, each and every time.
