Bill O'Reilly and the American example: Secular equals left, religious is rightJeff Christensen/The Associated Press
Does Bill O'Reilly want to marry a duck? We've been wondering about this ever since we heard of DropFox.com, the website for a new campaign in the U.S. seeking to pressure advertisers to stop patronizing Fox News because of the channel's alleged homophobia. Media Matters, a left-wing media monitoring group, sent us a list of links to some hilariously hateful Fox segments, including ones in which Mr. O'Reilly predicts that legalizing gay marriage could lead to people walking down the aisle with turtles or ducks. Some years ago, of course, he was in the news because of suggestions that he'd wanted to get frisky with a falafel. Or maybe it was a loofah. Either way, why is it always people in glass houses who want to cast the first stone?
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Okay, it's true: We actually have no idea whether it's people in glass houses or mud huts or condo penthouses who usually cast the first stone, because that's the sort of data we lost when the Harper government decided to do away with the long-form census. That loss is top of mind this week because of a flurry of enormously useful statistics coming out of the U.S. from its 2010 population survey, including a demographic breakdown of social media users and the percentage of mothers in the work force. The census also found that the seven-year marital itch is apparently a genuine phenomenon. Alas, the average life of both a duck and a falafel is less than seven years, so we guess that bodes poorly for Bill O'Reilly.
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But let's say he does get to marry a duck. Would he be loyal? If so, that might make him an unusual millionaire. New research out of Harvard Business School suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, loyalty is a rare commodity among the high-end set. HBS profs who studied a large U.S. bank found that "the customers you think are your best and most loyal are likely to be the first to cast you aside when a challenger to your service superiority barges into the market." That doesn't mean, the profs warn, that there's no point in offering good service; on the contrary, in some markets it means redoubling service efforts. Like, say, offering free duck paté with each new chequing account?
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Or maybe a free Prada bag with each new Hyundai? To be sure, the luxury bag-maker isn't the first brand we'd think would get hitched to the South Korean car manufacturer, but this week the two companies announced a happy marriage to produce the 2012 Hyundai Genesis Prada, a limited-edition, special-order-only model featuring a unique, three-layer paint application and a dashboard and upholstery done in so-called artisan-crafted "saffiano" leather. The press release also noted the "limited Genesis Prada badge and GP500 emblem will emphasize the scarcity of the car." Duck-feather pillows are not included. (Sorry, Bill.).
Simon Houpt