Posted 6:15 PM by Gene

I see Little Jeffrey Immelt, successor to Legendary Welch, is running all over the place screaming, "I RUN THIS COMPANY!!!!!" Some perfesser at Harvard has said the Goodthings campaign Little Jeffrey's tantrum has replaced was an act comparable to curing cancer. Its intent was always dishonest; when the sickeningly sweet ads and their attendant cloying jingle launched in 1979 they neutralized the inconvenient fact that GE was then a big defense contractor; two years later, when Legendary took over, they blurred the image of a company that fired people by the hundreds of thousands so ol' Neutron could have a huge payday. People forget that during all the firing Jack the Ripper spent millions modifying the GE logo so he could say, "I RUN THIS COMPANY!!!!!" For years The Goodthings Guys and ADM jointly sponsored This Week with David Brinkley, which made me think the two companies were in cahoots and that Legendary Welch and Dwayne Andreas were separated at birth. Alas, in the end, Goodthings did no good. Even the folks at Fairfield recognized its ludicrousness.

Do you remember the old GE slogan -- "Progress is Our Most Important Product"? I'll bet GE could have gone back to that and done better. Do you remember that GE sponsored the College Bowl? That probably engendered more warm feelings than the whole Goodthings campaign. Little Jeffrey would never think of it. He wants to RUN THE COMPANY.

(Heck, they'd do better bringing back Mr. Magoo as the spokesman for GE lightbulbs.)