Marketing an Accent and Coming Clean

BBC America runs a funny series of commercials about how British accents elevate the receptivity of the audience to a character, and their good example is Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard on Star Trek. I definitely would take him more seriously than Captain Kirk!

I was in a Minneapolis restroom looking to dry my hands, and I came upon a new hand dryer that was different from the ubiquitous down spouted, hot air blowers we've all seen. This one was made of a familiar grey plastic, and was dubbed an "Air Blade" dryer or some such name. It was made by Dyson, the company that has made a fortune selling bagless vacuum cleaners that "never lose their suction." More on this later.

The Dyson dryer was said to be more efficient at drying and more sanitary than wiping your hands. You put your hands together, fingers pointing down, into a slit-type opening and air dries your hands. I couldn't see the difference compared to the old, Edsel-style dryers. Dyson's great advertisements feature its very studious, well coiffed founder speaking in a great British accent. The first time I heard him, I ran out and bought the first Dyson vacuum cleaner. After all, he was an engineer, an innovative problem solver, and he personally hated vacuums that lost their suction, just as I did! What could be better? He had my implicit trust, and the accent was key.

This wasn't David Orek, who sounds like a carnival side showman, lifting bowling balls with his little vacuum cleaner. Dyson had size, design, plastic, and style.

Where am I going with this? One of Dyson's messages is that it solves the important problems, like unsanitary conditions from poor hand washing and vacuum cleaners that clog and lose suction. A recent Mayo Clinic study looked at hand washing in public facilities and found no relation between the use of towels versus the use of air dryers and better sanitation. The important variable in reducing germs and improving sanitation was technique in washing and time spent drying. Spend the right amount of time, and good old, brown paper towels are just fine. So, Dyson didn't solve a problem that was specific to the drying medium (towels), but it might have fed our own laziness that we'd rather have blown air than our own muscle power to dry our hands. Not to mention that lower waste from towels is offset to some extent by the constant repair and replacement of the air units, in addition to their energy costs. To paraphrase Alexander Graham Bell, "What have we (sic) wrought?"

Finally, as I sit here cleaning out my Dyson vacuum , I can come clean. Yes, the vacuum cleaner has no bag, and therefore it cannot lose suction from a full bag or a blocked filter. However, it does lose suction, often and unpredictably. There are some vents in the cyclone housing that clog up easily with lint or dust. Once these are blocked, the Dyson, cyclonic moving air mechanism comes to a halt and nothing is picked up. Yes, they got rid of the bag problem, but they substituted another problem, which is really the same issue. I really wanted to believe Jim Dyson, I really did, but he wasn't honest with me or millions of other consumers.

He really does make the best commercials though, and he has that great accent.