Stop smoking peace pipes

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: The starting point of this conversation is the simple observation that commerce and culture are increasingly interdependent and indissolubly intertwined. To quote Grant McCracken (anthropologist and author of several books on cultural anthropology): “It’s almost as if the brand can’t have a place in the present day marketplace unless it is worthy of a place in contem-porary culture. It can’t be commerce unless it’s culture”.

The ‘culture making’ power of brands and advertising in my view is not sufficiently recognised. The fact that we actually create ‘cultural capital’ is not at the centre of our conception of ourselves nor is it the articulated role we give to our brands.

Bad communication is in my opinion the single largest source of environmental pollution, to me it is cultural smoke. We just don’t see ourselves as environmentalists or ecologists, we don’t believe that our brands have a real role in people’s lives or that our adver-tising is more than just an act of appeasement, worthy of being stored, put up on walls, revisited like a good movie or music.

Our mental model of the world is of a blaze, perpetually distracted person, who is difficult to stimulate. Branding is like a little dance to catch their attention even if it’s only for a moment, the whole communications planning and touch point school of branding illustrates this anxiety. It’s no longer enough to make a good painting, or hang it in a great museum, we must actively gather people to go and look at it.

The implicit view is that ‘brands’ are interlopers and advertising is an attempt to give them legitimacy in society, that people have their impatient lives to lead and we must try and fit into it, the whole industry around consumer insight, the desire for people speak, and for representation to imitate their (popular) culture are peace offerings in exchange for a seat on the dining table, bedroom, bathroom, car, wallet, anywhere we can be fitted in.

Ever wondered why advertising is always good news? It’s like a smoke screen that we need to consume an otherwise unpalatable reality.

What if we take as our starting point the outrageous idea that we are already worthy, we exist because mankind needs us, we help give meaning and purpose to people lives, does it change anything?

I believe that language can lift things out their circumstantial imperfections and elevate them to a higher order of existence. Thinking can make the world more beautiful, and therefore the starting point for any new creation must be the question how does it make the world more beautiful.

Equally I believe that when you consider yourself intrinsically worthy you will say and do the right thing and not just the popular accepted things, you will have the courage to tell people what’s good for them and not just what they want to hear, brands will be culture leading and not just culture play back, therefore thinking needs to be brave, sometimes unpopular, what’s good for you and not just what you like.

Tomorrow’s brands to me will be born out of the tension and desire to be both brave and beautiful.

These brands will not just fit into our lives, they will have their own ideologies and a powerful point of view, they will have their own mission and purposes, they will lead the revolution and we will be invited to follow them, to live them, to be a part of their worlds.

They will not seek our permis-sion or insinuate themselves into our lives. They will be the artists of their own lives and we will be invited to participate.

To simply conclude branding is a search for new truths, its express purpose is to change the debate, branding is “transformational seeing”. It changes things in the very act of looking at them, offering us a fresh perception of the world around.

Powerful brands make their own culture. They will be our cultural capital, something rare and worth of being sought after. Advertising will be their smoke signals that people look forward to.