Don’t Ever Change
Never mind that the United States Army likely started the trend: from Madison Avenue’s traditional land of “You Deserve a Break Today,” the new rallying cry is “Be All That You Can Be.”
Call it “be yourself,” “feel good” or “non-advertising” advertising. The message: Be an individual. Be yourself. Be more of who your are. (Just don’t forget to buy our product. We can help you become more of you.)
Consumers beware, or at least be hip to media weather.
Consider Michael Jordan Cologne’s recent “Go Inside” campaign. Launched in both print and on TV, the print icon is a blank, black silhouette of Jordan on a vivid red background. No words or slogans, just the invite to look inside your own head.
Or try Timex’s latest ad. There’s an unglamorously photographed silver Timex with the tag line: “It is what it is. Are you?”
Last year, Calvin Klein’s minimalist, existential, “Just be” campaign for his new, unisex cK be fragrance was a new twist for an industry pegged to shouting to the victim in people. Klein’s “Be statements”--such as “Be a saint. Be a sinner. Just Be, or Be bold. Be shy. Just Be”--created cheers and some jeers, but “the idea is this,” says Barbara Lippert, advertising critic for Adweek magazine, “people are jaded. If a company tries to tell you you’ll have brighter, whiter teeth if you buy our product, consumers immediately think, ‘Hype!’
“But if a company uses this non-advertising approach it lets everyone in and doesn’t threaten anyone. It makes people feel good. More relaxed.”
This we-love-you-as-you-are approach hits many consumers above 30 as odd. Isn’t the world of advertising inherently full of problem-free, svelte, sexy, tan youngsters with ecstatic smiles? Aren’t we supposed to want to be them? Ah, but this is the postmodern world.
Youth-oriented marketers particularly embrace the non-self-improvement slogans with gusto. Miller’s Outpost, cK be, Michael Jordan Cologne, philosophy, Benneton, Saturn, Reebok, Isaac Mizrahi all build their corporate haikus on this idea: Fake glamour is out. You are in.
“Remember, kids today were raised on television, they’re extremely media savvy,” says Kirk Souder, creative director of the Santa Monica advertising firm Ground Zero, which conceived the Jordan campaign. “The best way to speak to them is a kind of radical idea in advertising: Tell the truth.”
Some in the industry go so far as to intimate that all this might help redefine society’s rigid rules about beauty and success. But others consider it just another passing fad. Mark Williams, senior partner of Bozell Worldwide Inc. in Chicago, a global advertising-communications company, says, “It’s still basically about branding a product. Companies have always been interested in creating an image that extends further than the product.”
“A lot of youth today is about not being pigeonholed, being yourself to the point of androgyny,” explains Patrick E. Murphy, chairman of Notre Dame’s advertising and marketing department. “And while the baby boomers might have toyed with the idea, Generation X seems to value it. It’s not surprising that advertisers have picked up on it.”
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Historically, advertisers use the invidious approach. “Aspirational advertising”--coveting a Cadillac, say--preys upon the negative emotions of envy, greed, discontent. But now, the “non-advertisers” are dumping the mini-skirted models selling shampoo routine. Non-advertising is about inner light.
Then again, this may be a type of “celebrity-endorsing backlash,” says Mike Shine, creative director of Butler, Shine & Stern, the Sausalito, Calif.-based agency responsible for the much-touted Millers Outpost “The thought” campaign. Out with the perfectly lit, blemish-free, skinny millionairess. Bring in skanky, skinny member of the perforati.
“Really, it’s about finding and having your own light,” says Christina Carlino, co-founder of philosophy, a Phoenix-based skin care line sold in chichi stores like Barney’s New York and Fred Segal. Carlino’s spiritualized philosophy is found stamped on her bottles.
Products include Hope in a Jar (moisturizer), Real Purity (cleanser), Head Trip (hair condition) and Be Somebody (body cream). Each has a Kahlil Gibranesque aphorism on the jar. Try Soul Owner, a foot cream: “i own my thoughts. i own my words. i own my actions. i own my mind. i own my heart. i own my spirit. i own my dreams. i own my visions. i own my integrity. i own my soul.”
“Only by getting our attitudes out in the open can we get over the anxieties that restrict us,” Carlino says. “We’re not trying to tell people they have to use this product to look like someone else to feel happy. We’re saying, go out on a limb and accept yourself and take care of yourself. I like to think of the bottles’ philosophies as little heart and mind awakenings.”
Profound philosophy from advertisers? Faith Popcorn, the consumer-trend expert in New York, says it has to do with society’s restlessness. “I view it in terms of anchoring,” she says. “The environment, ethics, job-downsizing, finances--it’s all an unstable grab bag and people are casting out for a spiritual understanding of who they are. Consumers want to know who a company is, what’s their philosophy, and they’re pathetically anxious to relate to them.”
If all this sounds a little odd, psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous list of human hierarchy needs neatly foretold the trend. “When people are in the society we are, surrounded with goods, homes, job, children, security, comfort, the esteem of colleagues, the only need left to fulfill is self-actualization,” explains Victor Visor, assistant professor of communication at York College in York, Pa. “And [advertisers say] that step is through a couple more products.”
How did Reebok put it? We let UBU.
