Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes, yeah

They don’t tell the truth

Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof

(Beware) beware of the handshake

That hides the snake (can you dig it, can you dig it?)

— “Smiling Faces,” 1971, The Undisputed Truth

Many readers of this on-line rag should be keenly aware that I despise marketing and public relations, mostly because they dispense lies and promote ideas and notions to the public that aren’t true.

I have written before that the purpose of marketing and public relations is to get you to open your wallet and buy regardless of whether the product does what it is purported it to do. And there are so many corporate marketers who have gotten away with firing their executives and explaining to the public that the now dearly departed left to spend more time with family or pursue other career interests.

One of the best and up close examples I can remember occurred in September 1977, when Albion College found a gentle, but untruthful way to relieve George V. Mather of announcing football games from the press box.

I had long heard that the college had grown weary of Mather’s bland announcing practices and was seeking a newer, more exciting voice on the gridiron at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium.

I knew about this because George V. Mather was the longtime editor of the Albion Evening Recorder, the man I replaced at the daily newspaper because he retired and another staffer, David G. Moore, had been elevated to editor.

It was the season opener for a Briton football team that had been undefeated the previous season, and now all MIAA athletic teams would be post-season bowl eligible for the first time ever.

On the fateful opening day, a different voice came over the loudspeaker welcoming fans to the game and announcing a special ceremony honoring the “retirement” of Mather. Included in the ceremony was to be the presentation of an Albion College jacket as a token of the college’s appreciation for his many years of faithful service. To a man who graduated from the college many years before and remained in Albion.

After many kind words were offered to Mather, his voice in the press box was never to be heard again. And as far as I knew, Mather had no intention to retire from broadcasting.

The result was that the community and the college fans and students were led to believe that George V. Mather was honored with a jacket, rather than being handed his walking papers.

It was a lie, but not the kind that would be tattled in public, just like the former executive who went to spend more time with family.