Who would have thought we'd get to this? That the hallmark of a bold revolutionary would be to suggest that businesses leave their politics at home and spend the working day simply selling the goods or services for which they are famous?
No collateral agenda, no social justice slogans and no mention of "culture" unless you're selling an Andrea Bocelli box set.
What Basil Fawlty would have called the bleedin' obvious, in other words.
Businesses shifting product and nothing else, to a deeply grateful public.
How radical; how refreshing. How to stand out a mile from your angst-ridden competitors.
In this episode of The Fuel podcast, former creative director Steve Harrison warns of diminishing returns for salesmen who wear their heart too much on their sleeve.
It takes too many customers back to a teenage rite of passage, I think: being lectured by our parents. It wasn't so much that they were wrong -- it was the preachiness with which they demonstrated that they were right.
There are echoes of that now, as too many companies try to shoehorn their social conscience into the buying process. We get the premise: it's the laying it on with a trowel that turns us off.
The more Harrison spoke, the more I felt a revision of McGraw-Hill Magazines' famous ad may be overdue...
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