The new physics of super-meaningful change

Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken saw this sign on MetroNorth and meditates on why it doesn't work:

Accountant as super hero. Really? I mean, really? If there is a creature in the universe less like a super hero, it's an accountant. Or so the stereotypes tell us. Totally unfair, of course. And for all we know some accountants live lives of real adventure. Enron accountants, do you think?

So it's wrong to generalize this way, but it is also probably wrong to advertise...this way. Part of the problem is that this ad is trying too hard. A good ad is an act of metaphor. It transfers meaning from a world we know to a world we don't. In this case, it invites us to transfer what we know about superheroes to what we know about accountants. (This is straight out of Aristotle.) But some acts of transfer are more possible than others.

But perhaps I am missing the "premise." In the strange world that is Metro North, a new physics may apply. In this world, superheros are just little less heroic. Accountants a lot more grand. And the two are close enough, transfer is possible.

To see this transference played out in the real world, one need only look to the sandbox in which I play every day: social entrepreneurship. We tell people exhilarating stories of how they can create transcendent personal meaning and disruptive social change . . .

By amping up ROI and implementing rigorous metrics.

Now these things have their place, but the core mythology of social enterprise is, pardon the pun, unsustainable. It makes about as much sense in the long term as a flying CPA.

Update: Speaking of accountancy . . .