The insecure brand.

When we consciously try to be unique, we turn out all the same.

Recently, a mathematician managed to come up with an equation explaining why all hipsters turn out looking the same.

“If you take […] any group that decides to go against the majority—by trying to be different, they will ultimately all do the same thing at the same time”

The same goes for brands.

Most conform by trying to be unique.

After all, it’s only human. And brands are supposed to be human, right?

Brands display what American novelist Edith Wharton called “symptom of immaturity” or the “dread of doing what has been done before.”

And in the process they wind up doing the same as everyone else.

Their picture of “new” and “different” is the same – at exactly the same time – as everyone else’s.

Shakespeare said “To thine own self be true”.

To have a self, to which to be true.

Brands struggle to be themselves every day, just like everyone else.

When they find themselves, it’s not uncommon that they come off as genuine as opposed to fake.

And instil an unusual sense of trust and authenticity in others.

They might become leaders in their field if they find some cause really important to them.

Or not. Which is fine.

They might find great success – or not, as their cause might be one that rarely gets much attention.

Which is also fine.

Remember, “success is the completion of anything intended”.

And not everyone intends the same thing – at exactly the same time – as everyone else.

Planning is not dead. Man.

Some say that planning is dead because we can test and learn from concepts in advertising in a more agile way today than ever before. That might be true, however we can’t deny that planning narrows the list of concepts we have to test a hell of a lot.

Envy and admiration 2

Help me find a product.

To fail in advertising is to assume that advertising helps products find audiences, when it actually helps audiences find products.

Advertising helps people find what they are looking for.

If you don’t know what people are looking for, you have to make it seem like they are looking for what you are advertising.

Since when was limiting beliefs such a crime?

An unbeatable combination.

An inflated sense of self.

The big fuss about storytelling.

Maria Popova from Branpickings explains very eloquently what wise storytelling conveyed by means of art or leadership is fundamentally about, and the role it plays in any organisation or ones personal life.

Storytelling might not give an definite answer to “What’s life all about?” although it might help us live with our uncertainty. Psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, revealing the true importance of not only art/storytelling in society, but also help with crafting them.

“In my 25 years of practising psychoanalysis, I can’t recall anyone ever asking me this question [what’s the point of it all?]. Patients do ask what’s the point of doing such-and-such or being married to so-and-so. And I’ve been asked—more than once—“what’s the point of analysis?”

Typically, the people who come to see me are in pain. They may be confused, or anxious, or depressed but, more often than not, their complaints are specific. They might be suffering because their husband has died, their marriage has collapsed, or they can’t find someone to love. They don’t ask ‘what’s the point?’ They don’t want to know the meaning of life—they want the suffering to stop so they can live their lives.

Often, part of the suffering is that they can’t articulate it. Pain is resistant to language; it can reduce us to a stage before language—to the confusion and anguish, the cries we had before we had words. Karen Blixen said, ‘All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.’ But what if a person can’t tell a story about his sorrows? Experience has taught me that there are stories that we never found a way to voice, because no one helped us to find the words. When we cannot find a way of telling our story, our story tells us—we dream these stories, we develop symptoms, or we find ourselves acting in ways we don’t understand. My job as a psychoanalyst is to help others find a way of telling their story.” STEPHEN GROSZ

Furthermore, Ray Bradbury provides an glimpse of the restorative and cleansing function of art, not only as a means of self-discovery of an artist, but also so for audiences. Artists providing words to our shared, untold stories regarding the predicament of being human.

The new is already old.

I think the budding civil war in Ukraine is the perfectly legitimate excuse I’ve been waiting for to quit watching television altogether.

A list of excuses.