By ironic, I’m referring to the fact that Glenn Beck has named his production company “Mercury Radio Arts”. Um, is it really the best idea to name your company, that purports to be warning people of very real threats to our nation, after a company that is best known for panicking the country about a fake, fictional threat? I don’t think so.
I understand why he would want to do it, though. Orson Welles’s Mercury Theater radio company, with a series known as Mercury Theater on the Air, was a hugely influential production company that revolutionized radio. But today, it is probably best remembered for its 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds, which tricked some Americans into thinking the Martian invasion had started for real. So the first thing people may think about when they hear the name “Mercury Radio Arts”, even if they don’t know about Orson Welles at all, is that historic event that conned America into panicking about nothing. And then they might think there’s a logical connection, through the name of your company, to assume you’re trying to do the same thing.
I’m not saying Glenn Beck is conning America into panicking about imagined threats, but that’s certainly what his critics claim. What I’m saying is this: if you want to be taken seriously, you have to try to look at how your company will be perceived based upon the name you give it or the advertising you do for it (that’s why I do so many ad critiques here). And in this case, in light of what people charge him with (being a doomsayer of fake threats), the choice was perhaps an ill-advised one.
