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…an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge…” R.B. Sheridan The Rivals, 1775

That video

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by

Tom Roper
in

I suppose my public expect me to comment on this, the first salvo in the propaganda bombardment we can expect from the big guns between now and CILIP’s AGM on 21 September. It is a YouTube video of a man in a pink shirt, reading nervously from a script on an iPad in a bathroom. 

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Watch it, though I take no responsibility for the consequences.

As for what he has to say:

  • without any disrespect to Mr Du Bois (and why doesn’t Mr Spencer appear), could they not find an elected member of Council to make the case for the name change? This seems unfair, both to CILIP members and to the consultants themselves 
  • the 6 minutes and 6 seconds are largely free of evidence for a change of name; the closest we get to it is a selective reference to the survey, a survey profoundly methodologically flawed, as has been pointed out in detail
  • CILIP members are grown-up professionals. We don’t need the Rebranding for Dummies lecture, especially for a rebranding exercise as flawed as this one
  • ‘we were right but not quite’, he says. Hmm. 

There’s been lots more on Twitter. I give you Charles Oppenheim’s four-tweet critique

Comments

3 responses to “That video”

  1. Mrs Angry Avatar
    Mrs Angry

    Just FABULOUS: I feel inspired, and galvanised, even though I am not a CILIP member … from CILIP to what was it, ILPUK?
    Worth every fecking penny of whatever it cost to come up with that, no? The sort of name that is memorable, and one that will enhance the space, status and people, in my view, but I am obliged to write to Mr Du Bois to explain that my breakaway group, the British Association of Local Library Services, may wish to stage a coup, at some point in the near future and force yet another change of name.
    I must say Max du Bois is a terrific brand name too. It says: Barbara Cartland, Daphne du Maurier, Mills & Boon: maybe a touch of something a little more Black Lace?
    And I like his use of a. the bathroom setting, both homely and acoustically pleasing at the same time, and b. emphatic, shapeshifting hand gestures – always a bonus.

    Reply
  2. Cliff Edge Avatar
    Cliff Edge

    Clytemnestra gasped as the major-domo announced in clear tones, ‘ Max Du Bois, Esquire, and his manservant, Dolan’. She felt an inward quiver as his piercing eyes ran up and down her body. Was he remembering the last time they had been together, in his bathroom?
    She blushed, recalling the sensation of being clasped to that pink-shirted chest, how he had torn the clothes from her body with a cruel sneer and how he had laughed as Dolan had pressed the burning iron brand to her peerless left buttock while Max filmed her suffering on his iPad. She seemed to smell her singed flesh once more, and to hear his rich baritone utter those words, ‘there my dear, you’ve been rebranded’. The wound on her buttock seemed to sting again and she felt hot shame as she recalled looking at it in the mirror afterwards. In the middle of a circle were the letters, ‘property of ILPUK’. So what had brought him to her boudoir?

    Reply
  3. Mrs Angry Avatar
    Mrs Angry

    Cliff – this is the stuff of every librarian’s dreams, as they stand quivering behind the stacks, avoiding shelving duties, and waiting for five o’clock.
    No, hang on: that was me.
    Who needs Christian Gray, when they could be well and truly ILPUKed by Max du Bois?

    Reply

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