I’m alone in my car, scrolling through the radio stations and I stumble upon a song. One I start singing along to and am too embarrassed to name. Then I read about a Nielsen study that said this type of “guilty pleasure” listenership leapt when the people meters came into play. Listeners like their well-worn ballads.
Guilty pleasures are those things “they” say we shouldn’t like, but we like anyway. We just don’t admit it. Hence, the guilt. But then, of course, knowing we shouldn’t drives the pleasure part.
Even in the workplace, indulging a guilty pleasure on occasion has its place.
So I asked some SMZers (what’s embellished and what are mine?) to name their guily pleasures and our high confidence interval study yielded:
- Listening to Glen Campbell’s greatest hits
- Reading The National Enquirer other than at the supermarket checkout line.
- Watching cheerleading competitions on ESPN
- Actually understanding sheet thread counts
- Binge watching Justified
- Drinking orange juice straight from the container (when no one’s looking)
So what are your guilty pleasures? And who do you let in on them?
And by the way … Google, Facebook and Nielsen already know.
Jamie Michelson, President/CEO