Who doesn’t love a Good Chat?

Thoughts-

Question: Should King Charles have succeeded the throne to the Prince of Wales?

Question: Is booing sportspeople on the field acceptable?

 

These two thought-provoking questions formed the basis of Keep Left’s Good Chats this month – our friendly debate series based on current news and topics of interest which aims to encourage wholebrain thinking and unusual perspectives by splitting the team into four groups and tasking them to prosecute a side of the argument – whether they agree with it or not.

While fun is always on the cards, this is one practical way we encourage the team to embrace unlikeminded – a core value of the agency.

The first two teams – tasked with either defending the British monarchy’s current succession tradition or overhauling it in favour of installing a younger, more ‘palatable’ royal to the throne – got straight down to business with passionate points of view. “He betrayed the love he had for Camilla to marry Diana, before betraying Diana to carry on an affair with Camilla – you just can’t trust him,” began Account Executive Morgan Griffin on the pro-William side, showing an impressive cognisance of King Charles’ love trajectory.

But it was the ageism point that fired up Keep Left’s very own British import, Senior PR Strategist Tara Harvey. “The most beloved royal of all time, Queen Elizabeth, ruled until her death at age 96,” she highlighted. “How can you say that her son, who is 20 years younger, is too old?”

The audience mewled, woofed, and quacked its approval (the current method of allocating points when arguments are well made is via animals sounds).

Let’s face it: the monarchy is for the oldies anyway,” – Thomas Rennie

“Let’s face it: the monarchy is for the oldies anyway,” added Senior Art Director, Thomas Rennie. “Why would you deny them the King they expect – and want?” Not all, however, were convinced by these well-thought-out arguments and maintained that Prince William was the only person who could modernise the monarchy.

After a well-deserved drink pause, the next two teams were up. To boo or not to boo at sporting events? Tricky – and a little closer to home.

Booing is a key element of fan engagement – it’s a crucial part of the sporting experience.” – Zach Edwards

Booing is a key element of fan engagement – it’s a crucial part of the sporting experience,” began Cultural Strategist, Zach Edwards, arguing in its favour. “Sport is about highs and lows, cheering and booing. Without it, we’d just watch it on TV.”

But it was senior copywriter Ruby Gill’s moving speech that won the minds – and hearts – of the group. “Booing is a mob mentality, and a dangerous one at that,” she said. “It is also what adjunct fellow Poppy de Souza calls ‘acoustic violence’ – the roar of the crowd is the sonic barometer that measures who is accepted and who is rejected; who belongs and who is banished; who is loved and who is hated.”

As always, what Good Chats showed us once again is that there is value in seeing things from a different perspective and expanding our collective viewpoints. Until next time…