The Naked Jumper – Pt. 1
“Hey Sheeple, you’re in a stew”
Beware of wolves in bad jumpers…
A “Jumper” is a sheeple who pulls the wool over their own eyes and tells you “you should” and “you ought” to do the same … plus they’re also better than you because they have the ability to tell you that. There are lots of different varieties of Jumpers but they have one overwhelming trait in common, an internal blind spot to one thing, themselves. They have lost the ability to define themselves and cannot tell anymore what is them and their thoughts and what is not; they have a nasty habit of internalising values that go under their “me” radar and these values end up as them. It’s not like they think or make a choice or decision about it; they just let it happen and that is their choice/decision. Consequently, they become a blurry arbitrary amalgam which they are guaranteed to enthusiastically defend tooth and nail.
Unfortunately, we substitute a self-defined, ever-evolving sense of being, for an obstinately defended blind spot of social conformity. It seems we are hard wired to be social. However, “social” is no bad thing but it has been hijacked and deformed into a mental straitjacket that we are pseudo-oblivious to. It is very much like a hypothetical situation of being tied up in a straitjacket and someone pointing this out to us; our reaction is to insist that we both like our straitjacket and that this situation is of our own choosing. When asked about the restrictive nature of our apparel we will sing the praises of confinement and restriction as if they were virtues. If the subject is pursued we’ll make justifications that “sound” rational and logical about our restricted state, talking freely about the straitjacket; making out there is nothing amiss or disturbing about our situation. We’ll be strangely unashamed of what’s supposed to be the “elephant in the room” i.e. the straitjacket but the real “elephant” is the humiliating fact that the straitjacket confirms we are out of control i.e. likely to cause harm to ourselves and others. The real reason we are so keen on our straitjacket is that if we direct focus on the “object” that we are actually hiding (our inability to control ourselves) remains hidden. Thus, we hide our discomfort and everyone else who also sports a straitjacket will be encouraged and will do the same. What was something to be ashamed of has become a source of pride. Unfortunately the people that don’t require confinement of this kind are shunned and humiliated for their abysmal lack of “respect for themselves” because they are “unable to control themselves” (i.e. their lack of a straitjacket demonstrates this fact). (more…)
The Digital Branding Iron: The Advertization of Me! Pt. 5
Part 5: “Dr. Feelgood”
Brand New Me: Over the Rainbow
What is the most powerful element of brand? It’s the ability to produce “feelgood”. The gifted among us ooze it from their pores; creativity, vision and the know how to wield their power with grace and dexterity. From the very start, the moment a brand comes into existence, its purpose is to make us feel good; even the act of promising makes us feel good and that’s only the brand prelude of what’s to come.
“Feelgood” is a precious, hard to come by and supremely coveted commodity in this day and age. No matter how unbelievable or fleeting it may be, we want it. We’re not fussed as to what flavour it comes in, we just don’t care. Even when “feelgood” comes labelled as perishable, as long as it gives us relief from our crippling insecurities or the banality of modern life, we’ll suck it up without hesitation. Wherever “feelgood” resides we’ll be magnetically drawn toward it. If it resides in a person, a place, a product or an idea, we’ll take out more than our cash to have it, hold it and hope that it’s forever.
Brand faces a new challenge, the growth and evolution of a new, multifaceted digital existence and fragmentation of a once coherent hierarchy of mass social identity. “Feelgood” will be the most likely culprit for the failure of brand creators in their pursuit of the new digital dollar. So, what are the new values of “feelgood” and where are they found?
The real place that “feelgood” resides in is the mind and heart of the brand beholder. Ultimately, brand is an idea in people’s heads but a one trick idea is a flat line for commerce. Currently brands are still screaming churlishly for us to imitate and participate/engage in it, but these are the old ways of swimming in an ever-shrinking broadcast pond. Times are changing and brands need to radically evolve to survive and flourish in a shocking new eco-system of digital diversity. It’s in nobody’s interest to contribute to a festering cesspool of mediocrity. Brand needs to be less of a prima donna-dictator and more of a factory that produces many subtle variations and nuances of meaning under one umbrella. It cannot afford to be dragged down by the pathetic accommodation of obsolete social standards and outdated ideals. Instead, it needs be inventive and find the wherewithal to stand up, stand out and be noticed. (more…)
The Digital Branding Iron: The Advertization of Me! Pt. 4
Part 4:”Mr Poogle and I”
Public Relations: A walk down the garden path
I was alarmed when I discovered that “Mr Poogle” was making inroads into my psyche and was attempting to make the word “advertising” interchangeable and synonymous with the word “information”. I knew that inherently there’s nothing particularly wrong with “information” and that it could be biased and tainted. However, even biased and tainted information wasn’t necessarily trying to transform me into a customer; if it was, it was advertising (i.e. “the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, need, etc., esp. by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc.: to get more customers by advertising”).
However, Mr Poogle’s trick bothered me. Mr Poogle, the magician, was performing a sleight of word rather than a sleight of hand trick. He was doing more than simply advertising to me, he had imparted the slippery rhetoric of pubic relations. Mr Poogle was supposedly “letting me know” about advertising and I was asking myself “what was wrong with that?” I posed myself a story about someone suffering from hubris to figure out Mr Poogle’s game. The hubris sufferer was outrageously and offensively bragging and boasting but when questioned about their behaviour, they’d say they were “just letting you know about themselves” and that would follow with a “what’s wrong with that?” Of course, what was wrong was their bragging was offensive. However, the “look at the birdie” temptation would be to take issue with what they were saying about themselves e.g. whether what they were saying was fact or fiction, or the manner in which they were bragging. The “birdie” is always adjacent to the issue but isn’t the issue. What they were doing was offensive i.e. glorifying themselves. Thus, hubristic bragging was the issue (not the “how”, “why” or the particular style of self-admiration).
The PR techniques of the hubris sufferer are almost identical in structure to some of those used by conjurers and magicians in sleight of hand tricks i.e. the focus and subject of attention being simulated, misdirected and switched. In the hubris story, the bragger 1) misdirected the focus away from the unsavoury nature of bragging by suggesting they were “just letting you know” thus making bragging suddenly “helpful” and “wanted” , 2) switched “bragging” for the innocent action of “just letting you know about themselves”, 3) simulated innocence with “What’s wrong with that?” i.e. pretended he had done nothing wrong. Thus, the hubris sufferer’s misdemeanour of displaying excessive pride magically ceased to exist. (more…)
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