in search of the great nothing

I have a hypothesis. which is really an extension of thought. but to present it, i must develop a context.(or trend-spotting as they call it)

1. nucleated world -> people are connected to more people far more thinly. (a lot of hi's, hello's, how are you's.. very few hugs, time-spent-together's, ILUs.)
2. people removed from cause-effect ->  most of us have no clue what their salary paying job's effect is in the world around, due to matters of scale and transferability of work. (did my work as biz develpment for a media company went into funding his accentuated war advocating rhetoric?; did my design for valve go into the bombs that shelled afghanistan's villages? is all that incessant printing in office and penchant for cleanliness causing felling of millions of trees?)

this ignorance of cause-effect also alienates us from what we consume. take that burger out of your mouth and see what's inside. can you name all that goes into it? did u know where it came from? do u know who all touched it? do u know how many people were involved to get that burger to your mouth which would go down in minutes without you yourself noticing it, being lost in staring at this screen?

this increased distance between us and things is definitely a child of industrialization. what we consume is nothing more than its price, and the pleasure of having it. we live a life never having had the pleasure of having created anything at all.

and this brings me closer to presenting the hypothesis...

We identify with abstract ideas more than concrete things around us. because media has brought the abstractness closer, and industrialization has sent the alive things (trees, soil, fresh air) far and replaced them with dead things (table, concrete, plastic) around us.


people have forgotten the joy of consuming. instead joy is found only 'around' the act of consumption.
( imagine a dinner without TV! :O or with friends in fancy gimmicky theme based restaurant.) (imagine drinking water. hmm .. or.. drinking fizz water with thousand static images of drinkers you see all around...on hoardings, on tv, on point of consumtion.)

(and probably its this joyless consumption that is leading to the worldwide epidemic of over eating and consequent obesity)

and finally.....

and hence, abstract brands that have no physical evidence stand to grow humongously, while palpable, consumable, substantiated brands will have to try much harder. so brands that essentially sell nothing, will be most valuable. lesser the substance, higher the value (not necessarily price).

from tea, iron supplements to computer peripherals.. all are selling emotions these days. (To planner -> While doing some category analysis, you might come across that only vacant positioning that is left to occupy is probably the ones that talk of what the product simply is .. physically.)
brand activism is on rise these days. in a few years realising that people can't take the hypocrisy anymore, the brands will move to some other area perhaps.. wonder where are brands headed...

physicality -> emotions -> morality -> ? 
next is what.

this century is going to see a race towards nothingness. in search of the great nothing. 

Consumer's bosoms

 

Coke, HUL.. are arguably amongst the biggest brands in the world. tell me how many people will buy merchandise of these brands without any push marketing (coke logo on Aamir khan's poster.. people are buying Aamir's poster, not aligning their identity to coke)
What does your brand mean to people? why should its symbol be cherished by people?
I took this picture at a stall on the way to a temple near Pune (where I was dragged to unwillingly, by parents as only parents can do. the trip was I think to alay fears of 'me getting lost' to them.)
The letters on the key chain is the name of a populist maharashtrian political outfit (with loud nasty agendas). It is populist, with its leader always portrayed with raised upright hand pointing in a vague direction. well, its not exactly vague... he is pointing to the 'others/outsiders'. The posture is allegative, on front foot.. saying 'you better do it our way, or else'. I wonder how was the revered german dictator's posture in then propaganda communication.
anyways, the point is, like all populist communications, some people love it with all hope that they can muster through their frustrations. while some hate it silently, for the sheer madness of it and their apparent helplessness.
with only this kind of love/hate polarity can a brand find a way in a people's psyche and become a proactive choice of advocacy or derision.
The brand is talking to the 'faithfuls' of a certain deity. its merchandise is sold at stalls selling faith in trinkets. people walk up the 200 steps in submission, collecting evidences of their faith on the way. They are most receptive to suggestion now. the brand is aligning faith in itself with the faith in the deity.
talk of activation. talk of engagement. the Rs. 5 key chain is doing it all.

Ofcourse, this doesn't hold true for all brands. brands like Volkswagen which are all about 'unassuming understated excellence' can't really afford a polar emotion. I wonder why then, they are doing 'the fun theory' experiments in some geographies. (well increased awareness can't possibly harm i guess. hmm.. )
but for tata tea which has aligned itself to anti corruption and waking up people from their reverie of citizenry's right without citizenry's duties, the measure of its success would be the consumer's adoption of brand identity to his bosom. waiting for the day when the consumer sports the tata leaf around its neck or on the wrist.

the pimp

i am a pimp. i hustle brands everywhere I can; on glowing rectangles you stare at, in schools that your children attend, in streets that you travel, in movies you watch, in books you read, on umbrellas of ushers, on clothes you wear; wherever your senses may take you, you will find a pimp hustling his brand. and i stop at nothing. (well, unless you go numb and in coma of some sorts. then why should my dollar and time be spent on you at all..?)

i brand cars, i brand tea
i brand you, i brand me
i brand everything.

In his book 'Identity', Milan Kundera has something interesting to say (though as a cynical provocation)about Advertising. He says 'thanks to advertising, everyday-ness has started singing.'
I follow quite a few publications, blogs etc where paeans to the joyous occasion of birth of a new brand or campaigns are sung.
Let me be the devil's advocate. i like being that. i will try here to respectfully shine on the ad world my views about advertising's effect on us.

hmm.. something like carbon foot print..
let the advertising message be the CO2 for your mind. i will try and measure its acridity on your soul.
but even devil sometime dissolves at the sight of a little kid fighting mud monster trying to cheer up her sister. so do not mind if, from time to time, i divulge and try and appreciate some good interesting work or write about some idea/theory that came in my head which i think is kickass.

until later.. have a good day.