Corporate Flair

Ahh, the corporate executive, the c-level, upper management.  Ascending the corporate ranks to a position of this esteem and responsibility requires many things...hard work, loyalty, dedication, smarts, political savvy, often a blue chip education, and as of recently, an absolute commitment...to wearing a lapel pin.

Somehow the trend I associate with George W has become de rigeur for the executive set, and is trickling down to the lower ranks via adoption by the overly exuberant ambitious types.  Let's take a lapel pin history stroll to see how this has come about...

Although George has invented some other things (WMD's in Iraq for starters), it seems he did not invent this fad.  Surprisingly this craze even slipped by the Rap or HipHop street culture, reversing the typical direction of adoption (HipHop to 'burbs) to bring this craze to the masses.   If you're not familiar with a funny MTV parody of this typical adoption process check out "bling bling":

It seems this lapel pin trend started with a snobbish american brand trying to make their american mark in a place where being american doesn't bring it's own cachet: Paris.   Ray Ban wanted to stand out at a Parisian tennis tourney, and the lapel pin was a way to market their brand to those that wouldn't dare dream of putting a sticker on their clothing.  As with many trends in the "reacher" demographic, the pins became a must have accessory to show that you in fact belonged to a more elite set than those not wearing them.  True story.

Along the way, the snobbish quality of the lapel pin morphed into a patriotic one, and I'm fairly sure this had its roots in the 9/11 era.   Not to bash patriotism whatsoever, but there certainly was a lot of patriotic flair going on in quarter of 2001 in the US.  I recall a few cars that couldn't exceed 27 m.p.h. due to the unparalleled number of flags flying from them.  So, George starts wearing an american flag lapel pin to prove his dedication to America, and the key word of "dedication" is thus now conferred onto the lowly lapel pin.  George's pin wearing makes his patriotism absolutely unquestionable.

As the marketers cringed at the lapel pin's loss of brand commitment, politicians rejoiced as they now had something else to add to the clean haircut, blue suit, and red tie list of things that ensure people know they are the best candidate.  Just like any other wearer, this pin marks a truly dedicated individual.  

This may have been the lapel pin's grandest moment (I'm excepting the military's use of lapel pins which truly signifies something earned and honorable) as from here the pin became in with the corpo crowd.   First with CEO's and then waterfalling to the layers of management below, the corporate logo lapel pin surely marked the wearer's dedication to the brand, the company, the mission statement!

At this point, corporate lapel pins have also been added to the list of those things that supposedly make one more c-level marketable, and I surely wish I was a manufacturer of them, as they are seen on many lapels around my office.  Hopefully soon we'll see lapel pins ascend to the level of "flair" that some less-than-great chain restaurants have taken buttons, awesomely parodied by the film "Office Space"...

Keeping the entrepreneurial hat on, perhaps I should design a new unisex suit that has a massive lapel, as surely more pins, and larger pins, are the next logical step.  We also need to work on removing the word "lapel" as a descriptor of the pins.  Let's here forward deem them "dedication pins", as I see no reason why these can't be worn on t-shirts, hats (already are), trousers, and even underwear.  Scratch that last one...I did just think of a reason.  Well, I better wrap this post up - I'm hungry and before I can eat, I've got to change my "blogger" lapel pin to my "lunch eater" pin.