In the fight for truth and justice and obliterating marketing falsehoods, the MBD must refute some of the inaccuracies set forth, this time by a Global Creative Chairman, regarding ‘Love’ as it relates to Brands.
We love our friends and our families. Our pets. We cherish them. They are all that give life meaning. Nothing else matters. We love our good health if we are blessed enough to have it. Many of us Love our jobs. Then there are certain aspects of our humanity that so greatly manifest themselves in an art form, like literature or movies or music; those that are so close to the source of creation itself, that we love them too. We feel connected by them not only to one another, but to something else deeper and more mysterious. Not in this equation anywhere, are Brands.
I don’t love my socks. I do not want to ride with my car tires through the tunnel of love. It may appear as if I am making out with my toothbrush, but I’m only doing what is hygienically necessary.
The fellow I refer to above said something silly regarding Brand Love. “It’s here”, he shrugged. No man, it’s nowhere. The absurd conclusion began by putting forth the notion that because we were stealing music on Napster it gave way to a certain sympathy that led to a new acceptance of musicians using commercials as a source of revenue. No longer could we label our favorite artists as “sellouts”. After all, because music was being pirated and record companies plundered, how could we blame them? Now that musicians selling their music to the highest bidder is the norm, we can thank the Brands that pay them and, love them for funding our favorite content.
BZZZT!! Wrong Compadre !
The last time I checked I pay for content – cable bills, concert tickets, Netflix, abusive cell phones bill riddled with charges, in-app purchases, etc.. Brands leverage love, not the other way around. We get immersed in our connection to a Band or a TV show which extends to any messaging associated with it. Those who don’t want to pay don’t have to and those that do are interchangeable and replaceable. The content we love is interpersonal and irreplaceable. So by flipping this truth on its head, and saying that we love Brands because they connect us to content is just delusional.
