Human Magazine - Issue #03 by Ian Irving - The Creator of Human Magazine - Revelations in Modern Business and Culture

___ OCTOBER 2018

ISSUE #03 R EVELATIONS IN MODERN BUS IN ESS A ND CULTURE

CULTURE human. THE 'C' WORD S U B C U LT U R E F O R S A L E ARABICA, LOLA, AND BRAND ON THE RUN

human.

THE

TEA

IRV

EMILY

JAMES

HOLLY

CHRIS

MARCUS

BRYCE

SAMANAH

___the team

AM Editor-in-Chief Ian (IRV) Irving

Editors

Emily Perryment James Dutton

Creative Director Holly Rowlands-Hempel

Contributing Writers Aiste Miseviciute, Andy Plume, Basil Creese, Bryce Main, Chris Henry, Claire Walsh, Danny Clare, Ian (IRV) Irving, Emily Forrester, Emily Perryment, Emma Sutcliffe, Graham Hall, Guy Anderson, James Dutton, Marcus Freeman, Martin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Toole, Martyn Smith, Samanha Duran, and Alex Clough

Photography:

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recovering, or otherwise without prior written permission of the publishers. Although the greatest care has been taken to ensure all of the information contained in Human is as accurate as possible, neither the publishers nor the authors can accept any responsibility for damage, of any nature, resulting from the use of this information. The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Human. Rights owned by Kemosabe.

8-9 14-17 26-27 30-3 14_ Stop Bandying the ‘C’ Word about

16_Do Brands Have Permission to Spe

20_Brands and the Use of Brand C

26_The Rise and Fall, and Rise

32_A Fearless Girl and a Lo

38_Arabica, Lola and B 42_Tattoo Culture

46_Aligning Bra

52_Let's Sho

56_#BEY

58_S

CONTEN 8

eak?

Culture

e of Two Great British Brands

ot of Bull

Brand on the Run

and and Organisation Culture

YOUROWN

Street Art on Modern Culture

4-58 62-63 68-69 74-78

2_#SponsoredPost

68_Subculutre for Sale

72_Demin Through and Through 78_FCK YOU KFC

86_Yolcan: Back to the Roots of the Mexican Cultural Heritage 90_The Cultural Context of Me 96_What We Are Reading

100_What Does Authenticity Mean to You, Me, Everybody? 106_The Culture of Craft

NTS

FAITHFUL FRIEND. TRUSTY SCOUT.

Editor's Note Many global businesses attempt to reach customers from other cultures and, even more so, subcultures. The crucial aspect for the success of this venture lies in the understanding of cross-cultural differences. We now, more than ever, see a glut of brands trying to tap into subcultures; anything from sport, music and food, nothing is sacred when it comes to making money. We’ve even seen some true abominations recently from the likes of KFC, Adidas, Puma and Nike. If the people in charge of these ventures and their advertising agencies are not aware of their impact on cross-cultural and sub-cultural relations, then the misunderstandings, hurt feelings and communication mishaps that occur will inevitably cause serious damage to those efforts. In this issue we explore the good, the bad and the downright ugly from some of the world leading brands’ endeavours to tap into culture, as well as the many other cultural touchpoints surrounding today’s society. Enjoy!

IRV. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Stop bandying the ‘C’ word about

It’s everywhere these days. From the boardroom to the bar room and all across the electric internets, people are flinging the 'C' word around like it’s going out of fashion. It was not always thus. I joined the business of advertising in a gentler age. You rarely heard the ‘C’ word and if you did, it earned its user a stiff rebuke or even a thick ear – and rightly so. People simply wouldn’t tolerate such talk back then. Don’t get me wrong, culture’s great. I’m all for it. However, when people in our business start blathering on about “how millennials want to work with brands to shape culture”, how their work is “tapping into the cultural zeitgeist”, or “populating popular culture”, I reach for my gun.

C LT U

godlike powers, so of course they had an effect on our culture. But because being godlike is kind of fun, very few of us spent much time considering the value of that cultural effect.

While some brands may be exceptional, all brands are fundamentally alike. Their primary purpose is not shaping culture, but commercial gain.

Listen to yourselves for god’s sake.

You know – selling stuff.

It’s a sure sign that culture is in trouble when marketing people appoint themselves its guardians. So, can we please drop the pomposity and put this thing in perspective? The overwhelming majority of brands do not shape culture, they feed off it. They are tiny creatures scuttling around in culture’s pelt.

That’s a perfectly respectable calling. David Ogilvy saw no shame in salesmanship and neither should we. Your brand communications might be founded on an award-winning creative concept; they might be data led and digitally enabled; they might score a billion likes on social media; but if they’re not boosting the bottom line, they’re meaningless.

Admittedly, there are exceptions. The brands that have the greatest cultural impact are usually technological. Ford revolutionized transport, producing affordable vehicles that gave mobility to the masses and changed the landscape forever. Google placed all human knowledge instantaneously at our fingertips, saving us the trouble of all that book-learning. And Twitter? Twitter enabled a generation of idiots to smear their digital excreta on the walls of the global village (or if you prefer, gave smartphone users the ability to broadcast their wisdom for the benefit of all humanity). These brands gave us

If you own, manage or promote a brand, remember this: you are not raising the trilithons at Stonehenge; you’re not casting the Benin bronzes or stitching the Bayeux tapestry; you’re not writing Pride and Prejudice or recording Kind of Blue. You’re just knocking out a bit of gear. So, in the name of all that’s sacred I implore you, hold your head high, enjoy your work, do it to the very best of your abilities, and stop bandying the ‘C’ word about. It makes you sound like a pretentious cunt.

Martyn Smith

CULTURE

W NEE DO BRANDS HAVE PERMISSION TO SPEAK? The Nike anniversary campaign with Colin Kaepernick is arguably the most divisive campaign in recent memory, applauded and derided in equal measure with the most extreme of reactions on both sides. It revealed how polarised our world has become. People didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t grumble or applaud. They burned or bought. It is a sign of the times. Brands are actively finding their cultural voice, with many taking a stance on issues that matter to society-at-large and tapping into conversations beyond their business or product. This is nothing new. Corporate companies and their brands have impacted culture and societal issues in some form for as long as brands have been around, be it detergent 16

TA ABO COLI

manufacturers funding the creation of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;soap operasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to create an audience for their brands on TV, or public relations firms lobbying governments to advance causes which are advantageous to their business. It is more present in 2018 than ever before, visible across all marketing disciplines and communications channels. We see it in brand and product design, in advocacy and influencer marketing, and, of course, in both traditional and social advertising. Research suggests that a growing expectation is being placed on brands to have a point of view on cultural issues and topics, particularly among younger audiences. People feel unrepresented by politicians and elected leaders, and

WE ED TO ALK OUT IN.

social media gives them a platform to be heard and a means of finding others who share their point of view on culture and society. But, as trust in what they read on social falls, people are increasingly sticking with like-minded individuals or organisations causing polarisation of the cultural conversation.

It is no surprise that brands everywhere are tapping in to culture and finding a ‘purpose’ to help solve their problems and achieve their objectives. Marketers are simultaneously working with and against a combination of screen addiction, messaging fatigue, measurement scandal and ad-blocking technology. Despite channel proliferation, reaching audiences and having them care about what brands say has never been harder. Brands are scrambling to find new ways to have meaningful conversations with people, but in the angry, noisy and judgemental world in which we now live, navigating the cultural minefield is challenging. How, where and about what can brands obtain permission to speak in modern culture in a way that both builds their credibility and delivers business benefit?

Do their target audiences want them to be in conversations about culture and society? The short answer is yes – but not by everyone, and probably not in the ways brands are communicating now. Splendid conducted a study with research firm Opinium to examine

the role culture plays in modern marketing, the growing expectation that brands should have something to say about the world beyond their own products or services, and which topics they have permission to discuss. The findings are a wakeup call to UK brands looking to build a brand purpose, or begin tapping into cultural topics to reach new audiences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not everyone believes brands need a ‘brand purpose’ in their communications. Almost a third of the 1000 respondents believe a brand should not have a view on issues beyond their industry or product – only slightly less than those who do (36%). A further 34% don’t know either way. While the population at large may be undecided, younger social media 17

users feel differently. More than half (51%) of those aged 18-34 believe that brands should have a point of view on society and culture. But when it comes to what brands add to the world, not what they say, 52% of all those surveyed believe brands have an actual obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. This is applicable to all age groups as well, with more than half of all 18-34 (53%), 35-54 (52%), and 55+ (52%) agreeing with the statement, specifically around brand responsibility to discuss social issues that are relevant to its consumers. So, brands have permission to lean into culture and conversation, but they need to beware of the risks of doing so. If they get it wrong, they could lose their audience. Asked what would make them unfollow a brand on social media, more than half (51%) said that they would unfollow if the ethics of the brand were not aligned with their own, or if the brand shared something they disagreed with. In the case of Nike and Colin Kaepernick, some brands are consciously picking a side in their marketing and have therefore accepted that they will lose consumers, confident those that remain will spend, care and talk more. For many brands though, this isn’t an option. Brands without the permission that Nike has need to carefully figure out how to connect with an increasingly divided society.

Amid an existential crisis, the industry is rushing to give brands ‘purpose’ – just look at the number of Grand Prix and Gold winners from last year Cannes Lions. But, many campaigns are struggling to prove any meaningful impact to society, making a lot of communications feel cynical and self-serving – particularly when they’re managing to pick up awards for it. That aside, most British social media users do firmly believe that brands should be acting for the benefit of culture and society at large, and the topics they feel brands should speak out on focus largely on health – both physical and mental - as well as nutrition, diet, and race related matters. It seems that modern audiences have an advanced awareness of marketing and

messaging, and expect a concerted effort to be made by brands to benefit their world, not damage it. Transparency, consistency and integrity are critical to success here. Brands need to deliver real world impact. This is evident when you analyse the cultural conversation around the top brands in the UK, as defined by Superbrands UK. Splendid worked with Pulsar to analyse which of the top 20 were saying the most about cultural topics, and which we were being talked about in cultural conversations. We found that simply saying the right things more often doesn’t guarantee meaningful results in terms of building credible conversation about

a brand. Shouting louder doesn’t mean you are being heard. Brands need to work hard to ensure that their point of view on the world has a real, tangible impact on the people they are talking to if they want to connect in a credible and meaningful way. Only then will brands be able to have a wider cultural relevance around the issues that matter to their audience without over-stepping, over-stretching, or speaking out of turn. To download a copy of the Brands’ Permission To Speak 2019 Report in full, visit: http://www.splendidcomms. com/brands-permission-speakreport/ Alex Clough Splendid Communications

Brands and Misuse of Br

’

The most important quality for success in this business is sincerity. As soon as you can fake that, you've got it made.” Jean Giraudoux

In the modern marketing age, big name brands have an enormous hold on society. Whether it's food companies such as McDonald’s, or clothing companies such as Nike, brands generally seem to have somewhat of a cult following due to their age-old tactic of aligning customers with the brand for as long as possible, sometimes in any way possible. So, let’s look at what effect brands can have on culture, and how cultures can affect brands. At first glance, Adidas seem to have perfectly executed tapping into culture to further elevate their brand. Through the use of not only sport, but also the sponsoring of new-found grime stars such as Stormzy, Adidas have linked these two cultures together – signing football star Paul Pogba in 2016 and making Stormzy the cover boy of Manchester United. I guess the question here is what have Stormzy and grime got to do with football? Moreover, what is the future of this 'underground culture' of grime now that its godfather Stormzy will apparently turn up to the opening of an envelope as long as there is money in it for him? A spokesperson for Adidas stated that “this is what we are like. If you’re like us, this is your community, too.” This shows us that Adidas does not want to be a brand, it wants to be a community that brings in a certain target audience with a particular culture that revolves around general working-class life.

Cut to… Takeaway their youn range of f innuendo to use bla TV and ra chicken, so

The list o backlash i recent ex

Puma, wit tap into th by hosting burner ph "run the s Although class com to perfect attempte many pub the extrem

Amber G who work to Puma a account, c drug deal violence, e

the rand Culture

the next outing of Adidas and its Glitch y takeover, a fried chicken shop used to introduce ng black audience aged 14-19 years to their new football boots – surely no stereotyping or racist o intended?! Though, to be fair, KFC continues ack urban youth vernacular voiceovers on their adio campaigns despite the racial stigma of fried o Adidas is not alone in its ignorance.

of brands tapping into a culture and getting mass is getting longer these days. These are just a few xamples.

th their 'House of Hustle' event, attempted to he underground culture of London's streets g a drug themed party, handing each guest a hone and a fake fifty-pound note that read streets". Both very clear links to drug dealing. Puma's target audience is in fact the workingmmunity of Britain, it (unlike Adidas, who seemed tly tap into Britain's working-class culture) ed a campaign that heavily backfired, with blicly outing the activation as irresponsible in me.

Gilbert Coutts, a London-based social worker ks with vulnerable families, posted an open letter and event sponsor JD Sports to her Instagram criticising the brands for glamorising “adolescent ling”, which, she wrote, “so often results in exacerbated deprivation and community pain.” Source: Adidas

A Puma press release sent after the event described House of Hustle as “designed to specifically celebrate examples of creative entrepreneurial pathways that are being forged from within the often testing social and cultural environments that are a reality for an increasing number of young urban dwellers.” Then along came Nike with its nod to gang culture. Following a huge backlash, Nike had to withdraw its new balaclava, a piece of headgear that covered the majority of the face, neck, and chest from its shelves. Those opposed to the selling of the item insisted that the company was promoting and profiting from gang culture, citing the fact that the balaclava was modelled by a young black male, raising further concerns pertaining to racial and cultural stereotypes.

’

Your brand is your culture; your culture is your brand.

’

Some brands, alternatively, configure their entire company around one particular culture. A good example of a company doing this right is Vans, which has become a trademark shoe and clothing brand in a variety of extreme sport cultures and disciplines – specifically, the skateboarding culture. Vans created a shoe that was both decked and sticky on the bottom, making it the perfect shoe for skateboarding. After the first day it opened, March 16th 1966, the shoe rapidly became a fan favourite amongst the skateboarding community. Vans are currently one of the biggest skate brands in the world. This is due to a clever marketing technique that directly appeals to the skateboarding culture, keeping true to its classic style of shoe ever since the first one was made. This shows fans that Vans has, and hopefully always will stay true to the culture.

bankruptcy in 2003. In an initial attempt to survive, the brand started producing bigger bricks for varied age groups, based on the assumption that users thought Lego bricks were too small. Lego sales then plummeted by 30%. The turnaround came when ethnographic research revealed that people were willing to spend time and efforts using small bricks to build things that were culturally relevant. Lego partnered with franchises such as Star Wars and Harry Potter – this became an immediate success. Children started using Legos to tell stories and make culture through Lego mini figures, firehouses, police stations, homes and cities. In 2014, Lego became a larger part of popular culture through the release of The Lego Movie. It became an instant box office hit, grossing over $450 Million worldwide. Lego recently expanded on its ability to not only embrace but also make culture, with the release of Lego Batman and upcoming release of Lego Ninjago. Lego illustrates why implementing a cultural strategy is crucial to the health, growth and even survival of a brand. As discussed previously, marketers are often consumed by lower-funnel tactics and metrics. While web analytics and other behavioural metrics offer valuable insights into the consumer journey, one should never lose sight of their brand’s ability to engage with and even influence culture. I do worry that we may never see the likes of cultural giants such as Lego, Body Shop, Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and Dr Martens ever again as today’s marketeers seem to be missing the mark so drastically in their desperation to become culturally relevant. I guess you just can’t force culture – culture just is. IRV Editor-in-Chief

Brands that are out of touch with culture can decline as fast as they once grew. I spent a couple of years working with Warner Brothers, and the one brand that kept appearing in every meeting was Lego. Lego became a cultural icon with its hugely successful bricks and mini figures in the 80s. Then, suddenly, the business courted Source: Nike

y y y y y y y y y y y y y

your culture your brand. your brand. your culture your culture your brand. your brand. your culture your culture your brand. your brand. your culture your culture

Stop promoting gang culture 24

potS -omorp gnit gnag -luc erut 25

and rise Imagine... for years, decades, even more than a century, you’ve been building your brand, painstakingly striving to produce the ultimate product. You collect accolades along the way and a reputation which is second to none. And why not? Your product is the result of being built by proud British craftsmen, who have learned their trade with passion and devotion. These workers have put their heart and soul into making your product and your brand stand above the rest. The very finest that money can buy. You have Royalty, Heads of State and A-listers from Hollywood all proud to be seen wearing or driving your brand. It may have been a long and difficult climb to the top, to be associated with the exclusivity which you selfishly strived for, but the journey has been worth it, especially when you sell a raincoat for over £1000 or a car for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

ahead, which means extra investment. Expansion looms. Venture capitalists come on board. They try and force shortcuts on you, but you’re not having it; you stand by your morals and your very reason for starting your business. You want to be renowned as the best, remember. The best money can buy, remember. No one can buy better than what you sell. And you have a history. You have a pedigree. You have an order book which is always full. You’re certainly not going to let some wise guy hedge your future. Good for you. Pat on the back for you. And then something happens. Something which you have absolutely no control over. Something you can’t fathom, but it’s real. You wake up one morning and there it is. Staring right in front of you and there ain’t a thing you can do about it.

And you know what’s really good. No, not the fact that your brand is regarded as the best money can buy, and boy you need a lot to buy it, no no no, what’s really great is that you can see no end in sight for the demand to stop.

Overnight, your luxury brand has become... classless.

But you find you have to continue to improve your product, to keep one step

No one can argue their heritage.

Let’s take two of the world’s finest names, both quintessentially British: Burberry and Rolls Royce.

Rolls Royce was founded in 1906 by Charles Rolls (born in Berkley Square, the son of the 1st Baron Llangattock and Lady Llangattock) and Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, OBE. Sir Frederick came from more humble beginnings and had to go to work as a boy with only one year’s education due to his father dying at an early age. Charles died in an air crash in 1910, leaving Royce to carry on building an empire which he put his heart and soul into. The Spirit of Ecstasy still stands proud at the front of the very long bonnet, even though the marque is now owned by BMW. The car is still lovingly hand built by craftsmen, who have more than likely been employed all their lives, but they are there, not because they want to be on a production line, but because they quite frankly want to build history. Burberry is precisely the same. You can almost smell the quality. The famous and globally renowned Burberry Trench Coat came from where? Thomas Burberry hand made coats for the soldiers of the British and French Army in the First World War, worn by those who were in the trenches, hence the term Trench Coat. The coat still takes three weeks to make by hand and its weave is still spun in the same English mill today. The Burberry check shouts “hand made, exclusivity”. The Spirit of Ecstasy is a symbol of wealth and power. These two brands are inextricably British and such craftsmanship was, and still is, demanded by the upper classes, as they are regarded quite simply as a status symbol.

And therein lies the problem. Status. These brands have unfortunately created a platform of superiority for their clientele. The Rolls Royce. THE ROLLS. I mean, even Lady Penelope in Thunder Birds had a Rolls and her very own chauffeur. But back then, a majority of customers would rarely drive their Rolls, as they all had chauffeurs. They all had money for chauffeurs, gardeners, butlers and chefs. They all had one thing in common, one thing money could not buy. They had class. A Rolls Royce had something other car manufactures didn’t have. Heritage. Which was built on years of delivering the best to the best. Yes, you could buy a Jaguar E Type back in the day, a Ferrari Dino, even an Aston Martin DB5. But nothing could touch a Rolls Royce. You had a Rolls Royce, you had arrived and arrived in style. So, imagine then, you are the Chairman of Rolls Royce. You bought into the heritage of the company for some $450 million or so and you’re sitting having breakfast. You choke on your imported Brazilian roasted coffee beans whilst flicking through your satellite TV as you stop flicking and see your beloved new Rolls Royce Phantom. The majestic limousine is seen driving in slow motion, top down, with the palm trees of Miami reflected in its ludicrously long chrome bonnet. You stare in disbelief as you witness an unfamiliar star from a completely new era driving your beloved Rolls, all $300,000 worth of blinged up gaudiness.

STATUS 27

And to rub salt further into an already, coffee stained, white shirt, the guy’s gold teeth and gold rimmed glasses are matched by his bespoke gold rimmed wheels. Heavens forbid. What is old Queeny going to say. Well, to coin a phrase, “One will not be amused!” Look online and you’ll see most rappers and pop-stars now even have the marque in their lyrics as a sign of wealth and power. Well Rolls Royce, it’s your own fault. You created a status symbol. And guess what. These guys want it and want it more than your upper classes. The revolution has arrived and it’s turning up in its droves, driving your Rolls Royces or as they like to say, “The Double R!”. Welcome to the world of the free. If you’ve got it, then damn, you gonna flaunt it. “ I have the riches my bitches and I’m gonna flash that cash as best as I can. I’m as good as any Lord, the Queen of England and to prove it... I’m gonna take your precious Rolls Royce, the pinnacle of poshness and I’m gonna bling the shit out of it.” Why? Well, buying a car for $300,000 is one thing, but these guys need to show they have more power than the well-to-do, they need to show that the car is only half built when it rolls off that hand-built production line. It needs to be flashier, blingier. It needs to shout and scream wealth and power. And so, the rapper, the boxer or the football star can proclaim... “I have arrived” and, yes, you’ve heard it before, “I have arrived in style”. But not quite the style Mr Rolls and Mr Royce had imagined. And there’s the predicament. Something so expensive, which was once only attainable by the very rich, which in turn would naturally be the well to do, had its own brand image. They didn’t need any fancy ad agency telling them how to sell, it sold itself to an exclusive club. However, there’s now a problem. The wealthy clients are changing. The old school are being overtaken by a new breed. And you know what, Rolls Royce, fair game, are

changing with the times too. Their new cars are a huge departure from the old. They have lost that sense of grandeur, the beautiful lines of the 1960s Phantom, the curves of the Corniche Convertible. That unmistakeable double headlight cluster now replaced by a design which, quite frankly, looks like it’s on steroids, with tiny slit eyed headlights that projects a menacing “don’t fuck with me, cos I got power and money” kind of image. An interesting question to ask is... where will this end? I would suspect that corners may well be cut in the production because the new customers aren’t interested in the finer points which makes a Rolls Royce what it once was. They aren’t the old school, who would buy Rolls because it lasts. These new clients just want a status symbol; after 6 months they’ll probably chop it in for a newer model, and perversely enough, they would probably take pride and boast that they lost $150,000 by changing it. Why? Because that simply shows, once more, just how much they are worth. Over at Burberry, they suffered a similar fate. None worse than having an actress from EastEnders, cockney through and through, who drank, did coke, raised merry hell, and made a splash in the tabloids dressed head to foot in the Burberry check, together with her baby – not forgetting the pram, also decked out in the same check. As with the new stars of Miami with Rolls Royce, it seemed the youth of the street were also adopting a similar approach with the famous check. Between 2001 and 2005, Burberry became associated with "chav" and football hooligan culture. This change in the brand reputation was attributed to lower priced products, the proliferation of counterfeit goods copying Burberry's trademark check pattern, and adoption by a number of questionable celebrities. The association with football hooliganism led to the wearing of Burberry check garments being banned at some venues. They would wear it with pride. Why? “Cos they had the folding to do so sunshine”. They wanted all the posh brigade to notice them. But

But you can certainly gate crash their VIP party they wore it with vulgarity; they weren’t content with a little bit of designer label gear, oh no not this lot. They actually took that check and rubbed your noses in it. They wanted to be seen to be wealthy. Any given Saturday, thousands could be seen turning up at football stadia around the country, all wearing Burberry. And the more they would buy, the more damage they were doing to the shareholders. Profits fell as older clientele, those who would spend tens of thousands on one garment from their more bespoke range, were being driven away due to the brand’s association with the lower classes. However, a worst-case scenario soon became apparent with Burberry, one which Rolls Royce at least had a chance of dodging – the dreaded counterfeit merchants. Oddly, the Far East is probably Burberry’s biggest market, but they are also most likely the biggest supplier of counterfeit Burberry too. So that’s probably why Burberry were losing money hand over fist; because the youth wanted their look and could now get it at a fraction of the cost, driving Burberry out of business by virtue of being who they were and wanting to be something they were not: classy. So how did they survive? Weirdly enough, they both embraced this new clientele. With Rolls they probably reckoned that their target market were getting younger, so having a rapper flaunting it’s looks would actually do them some good. The younger, more affluent buyers wanted to be seen as being cool. Hence the radical departure of the styling, which also kept

their order books full for years. The Double R have rolled with the times and still keep their heritage. With Burberry, well, they did something slightly different. They employed two American women who were both Anglophiles. They also employed a British designer, Christopher Bailey, who was brought up in the same area as the original Burberry factory, as the company’s Creative Director. It was time to reinvent Burberry. They probably figured that the lower classes would soon be bored with the look, and how right they were. It was a fad. However, they had to spend years buying back the company before they could move on. This involved purchasing all the licences they sold years before, which ranged from cheap perfumes to nappies for dogs with the check design emblazoned across the mutt’s butt. I mean... c’mon! Now their name is back, in house, and under strict control. This has led to an astronomical hike in profits and a growing number of customers, mainly from the right side of the track. So now all is well. The dark clouds have lifted. The Great British marques have survived to live another decade or four. As long as there is cash out there, or bitcoin, then there will always be a market for luxury brands. Most of us may not be able to buy class, but boy, you can certainly gate crash their VIP party if you have the means. Andy Plume Picture This Entertainment

CASUAL GOODS FOR MEN. HANDCRAFTED IN HAMBURG / GERMANY. WWW.877WORKSHOP.COM

HTTPS://WWW.877WORKSHOP.COM/COLLECTIONS/RINGS/PRODUCTS/14-SIGNET-RING-NAVY

@877WORKSHOP

SIGNET RING NAVY

Rugged Signet Ring with an embossed anchor. Handcrafted in 925 Sterling Silver and solid brass. Patinated to get the look and feel of an antique find. The embossing form was hand engraved in 1910 in Hamburg, Germany.

fearless

A GIRL AND A LOT OF BULL Earlier this year, Jade Delaney — a newly graduated 23-year-old — showed up outside the Bristol office of McCann painted gold and dressed as Fearless Girl. Before she arrived, she’d messaged the agency’s MD with the challenge: “I’m advertising myself as a determined young creative looking for a placement. Know the power of women in advertising. I can make a difference.” The pitch paid off. Her ‘stunt’, as described by many of the national and international papers that ran the story, was a spectacular success. She was immediately offered a month’s internship with McCann and later offered a permanent position. The ad industry applauded Jade’s chutzpah and McCann Bristol enjoyed a brief and, let’s face it, barely deserved moment in the spotlight. And while I’ve got nothing but admiration for Jade’s fearless execution of a well laid plan, I, nonetheless, felt strangely conflicted by the whole affair. What rankled me so much? It certainly wasn’t anything Jade had done, although there was an element of uncomfortable gender politics going on there. And it wasn’t even McCann Bristol’s fault. What else where they supposed to do? They could hardly leave her standing outside on the pavement. I did feel, however, that within all of this, the advertising industry came out looking somewhat foolish.

Advertising or Art? I was never sold on the Fearless Girl idea. I have to admit I didn’t follow the brouhaha at the time of its launch and I’ve not really kept up in the following months when the little statue won pretty much every industry award going. I took a peek at the Fearless Girl last time I was in New York and have to admit it has a certain charm; an impudent waif looking defiantly up at the hulking form of a rampaging bull. Little girls all over the world feel empowered by Fearless Girl and that’s lovely. But what has this to do with advertising? What is it selling and what, indeed, is the underlying message? Don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of installation art as much as the next person. I admire Christo and Banksy. When I worked in New York, Jeff Koon’s Balloon Flowers would always make me smile as I walked past them on my way home from the office. But these are all works of art and not advertising, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much if they were. There’s no ulterior motive to a piece of art. They aren’t trying to sell me something. My response to them is personal and usually emotional. Would they be lesser works if I knew they’d been created to sell balloons or flowers?

YES.

Well, yes, they would.

CAPITALISM I’m no Roland Barthes, nor a qualified semiotician, but I do know that things don’t just exist in isolation. Things gain meaning from the context in which they exist, and this context provides the means by which we judge things. So, to understand Fearless Girl, we can’t just take it on face value, we need to understand its meaning and why it was created. So, let’s conduct a little thought experiment.

Let’s imagine Banksy created Fearless Girl. It certainly looks like something he might have cooked up in an old warehouse on the East River, audaciously installing it under the noses of an incurious police department one cold morning in early 2017. If Banksy had created Fearless Girl I’m sure it would have garnered a great deal of interest, notoriety and criticism. But if Banksy had created Fearless Girl would it have been a greater work of art? I think it would.

in the past, but I sense he’d more likely choose a child to suggest that innocence can be a more powerful weapon than brute force in these cynical times. I don’t think he would have chosen a small girl in order to comment on female empowerment.

Fearless Girl, after all, draws all of its meaning from the fact it is confronting the famous Wall Street Bull which has stood, rampant, on Bowling Green since 1989. Take the Bull away and Fearless Girl is simply left staring at the oncoming traffic.

Interestingly, the Bull, like Fearless Girl, was itself a piece of unauthorised guerrilla art when it first appeared. The three-ton bronze cost its creator, Arturo Di Modica, US$350,000 of his own money to cast, and, as with Fearless Girl, was installed under the cover of darkness outside the Stock Exchange.

Is it churlish of me to pour cold water on the efforts of two, no doubt, excellent McCann creatives (Art Director Lizzie Wilson and Senior Copywriter Tali Gumbiner)? Perhaps, but think about it for a minute. Banksy’s version of Fearless Girl would have been a witty, playful, political statement that pointed an ironic finger at the absurdly macho Wall Street Bull, seen so often now as short-hand for the greed and excess of Corporate America. Banksy’s version of Fearless Girl would have been an antiestablishment criticism of capitalism and all the unsustainable values many feel it now stands for.

Other parallels exist elsewhere. For example, an image predating Fearless Girl was created six years earlier by the Canadian agit-prop magazine Adbusters to promote the anti-capitalist event ‘Occupy Wall Street’.

In the choice of a small girl, Banksy’s version of the art work might also have made a statement about female empowerment, but, for Banksy this would perhaps be a little too literal. Banksy’s work has certainly featured small girls

You couldn’t make it up.

There’s a wonderful irony here. What we now see at Bowling Green is a genuine artwork in the form of a bull, created without a commercial agenda, representing capitalism, while a piece of advertising in the form of a small girl, and paid for by a Boston investment firm, represents the critics of a capitalist status quo.

And for this reason, I’d go as far as to say that Fearless Girl does not actually represent female empowerment at all.

WHY FIX WHAT ISN’T BROKEN? To which you might ask who cares? After all, Fearless Girl didn’t win all those awards just because it looked good. It won because it was effective. As the Chairman of the Effie Jury pointed out, ‘the Effie went to Fearless Girl because the daily trading volume of the fund she represented climbed 384 percent in three days. Not only was it effective for State Street's business and brand, it was effective because of its creative power.” Critics, however, point out that the client itself had done little to promote women on its board which, they say, amounted to “fake corporate feminism.” Others noted that using a young girl instead of a grown woman infantilises the issue. Even the creator of the Wall Street Bull is calling Fearless Girl an "advertising trick" and threatening to sue. So Fearless Girl is effective, but it’s also a fudge. It isn’t quite what its creators would have us believe. If we want to think about real fearless girls, maybe we should consider the members of Pussy Riot, who risk their lives to bring important gender issues to the world’s attention. If we want an example of art that causes us to stop and think, then perhaps we should refer to the 84 figures standing in silhouette on the roof of a London office block, created by American artist Mark Jenkins and representing the 84 men who take their own lives every week in the UK.

Taken on its own merits, Fearless Girl is a nice piece of art, yet few of those little girls who have their photo taken beside it are aware its real intention — which is to make corporations think about the gender composition of their board rooms. It certainly isn’t the greatest piece of advertising we’ve seen in history — which is what all the awards would suggest — nor even, in my opinion, the greatest advertising we’ve seen this decade. It certainly isn’t a profound statement about the rise of women in business. It’s a flawed idea that happened to succeed on some level. Likewise, Jade Delaney’s fearless bid to win a place at McCann’s in Bristol was not a triumph for women, and it shouldn’t be seen as particularly creative or disruptive for a global industry which prides itself on its creativity and disruptive behaviour. For the advertising industry to celebrate Jade’s pitch for a job so wildly reflects poorly on us. That level of thinking should not be the exception for this industry, but the norm. Graham Hall The Insight Edge

CONFUSION AND CONTEXT. 35

" FASHION IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY DRESS"

- JOAN SMALLS 37

Arabica, Lola, Lola, and and Arabica, Brand on on the the run… run… Brand The year was 1966 and I was 15 years old. I was fresh out of Glasgow. New into London. And I had about as much idea of heritage as a trod-on chip has about a deep-fried Highland Burgundy Red spud. It was the year I heard The Kinks singing their new single ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’ for the first time. I liked it then… and I still like it now, over half a century later. My idea of culture or brand involved the whisky that my father drank, the tartan cap that my uncle wore, and the expensive scent that my mother received every birthday and Christmas. I was a bit of a blank slate. Possibly a lot of one. I knew I liked music. But I also knew I was eclectic. I was a dedicated follower of nobody. Kinks, Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Ella, Sinatra, Dusty, Nina, Bach, Ludwig Van, Van Morrison, Dvorak, that Wolfgang guy… they all went in the pot. They all got stirred around. I liked mooching around Carnaby Street when it was Carnaby Street. But it didn’t make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end with all the sound and colour of a changing world. I didn’t consider myself a Scot… a Brit… or a European. The fact that my heritage played second fiddle to my world view didn’t really come into the equation. I was a global citizen. It was what it was. When it came to music, I loved Brand Britain only slightly more than I did Brand America. When it came to style (in early adulthood), I loved whatever looked good and I could afford. Blue jeans. White t-shirts. Black cowboy boots. When it came to literature…good words were good words were good words. Still are. The length of the hair on my head followed no style or pattern. My preference for no

preference would constantly piss off my peers. When it came to computers, one fruit has always fed my appetite. And when it came to religion, one God (excluding Clapton, of course, as spray painted on a wall in Islington underground station in the mid-60s) has always been preferable to a few. Or a lot. Or no God at all. That was then. This is now. Between my existence as a blank slate and my life as a brand gypsy, one thing has stayed constant. One thing has endured. My love of black, hot, roasted, Arabica coffee. My mother would turn in her grave. I come from a long line of tea drinkers. Which probably makes me a bit of a family rebel. Even when I was being raised with a cup of PG tips in one hand and a chocolate digestive in the other, my mind and my taste buds were elsewhere. Sneaking a sly gulp of delicious bean juice when nobody was looking. Many years later, when I could drink coffee without feeling like a traitor to my Glasgow heritage (the non-alcoholic one), I even wrote a book about the fictional goings on in a city centre coffee shop. The fact that I named the book Love & Coffee speaks volumes. In my callow youth I spent quite a few summer holidays in Spain, at least part of the time sitting in coffee bars, watching the world go by. Drinking copious amounts of the dark stuff. As well as a fair bit of what they called back then ‘Cuba Libre’. Rum and Coke to the uninitiated. Spain was, and still is, a coffee drinking nation. It doesn’t have a great tradition of tannin sipping. But tea is a determined bugger… and doesn’t give up any fight easily. In February 2018, the Madrid office of ad agency Lola MullenLowe beat off strong UK competition from adam&eve DDB, Ogilvy,

I won Ray D drink

nder if Davies ks coffee…

delicious bean juice

and Mother (who pulled out in December 2017) to win Unilever’s PG Tips business. The biggest selling tea brand in the UK. The significance here isn’t so much that little guys of Lola Madrid beat the shit out of the big guys of everywhere else. Although that is bloody significant. It’s not so much that the little guys in question were multi-cultural all the way up the wazoo. And it’s not so much that between them, DDB and Mother have handled the PG Tips account for the past half a century. Here in the UK. The real significance is that this is the first time in its long history that the brand has worked with any agency outside of the UK. The first time it has ditched its nation of cuppa drinkers in favour of a coffee loving nation living somewhere warmer on the other side of the English Channel. It really is true what they say. No matter how long you stay with your parents, there comes a time when you simply have to sever the umbilical cord. And move away from home. The day I heard LML won the account, I smiled quietly and thought of my mother and the loose PG tea leaves she used to infuse. Peter Pan McCartney came to mind singing Brand On The Run. Then I made myself a strong black Arabica espresso and wished Lola well. Lo lo lo lo Lola MullenLowe. For me, brands are exciting but ephemeral. Impressively memorable one minute, and entirely forgettable the next. There is no loyalty. They come and go like so much foam on a seashore. Like a beautiful sunset over Waterloo station. But what lies behind the brands lives on. And on. And on. Dammit. Now I can’t get the bloody Kinks out of my head. I wonder if Ray Davies drinks coffee… © Bryce Main. 2018.

TEEN FANDOM Any choice they ISmake in pop culture SO forces the rest POTENT. of the world to TAKE NOTICE Alycia Debnam-Carey

TATTOO CULTURE I’ve been giving this subject a lot of thought. The more I think about it, the less I believe there actually is a Tattoo Culture anymore. Well, sort of – it’s changed, a lot. Nobody knows exactly how far back tattooing actually goes, but we do know that the few tattoo parlours we once had have gone. They’ve been replaced by a plethora of tattoo studios. In fact, just 10 years ago Newport Pagnell, the home of Aston Martin, the motorway services and my tattoo studio, had none. Then it had five. Now it has four. I think it’ll be three by this time next year, as two seem to struggle for business. Rightly so, as the market is saturated. Once it was one in ten people, but now it’s one in three getting tattooed. That’s right. A third of our country. We’re the most heavily tattooed nation in Europe, for now. Not sure how the Brexit thing actually works. A bit like the government really. Anyway, my dilemma is, are we now part of a tattooed culture, or is the actual art of tattooing and getting a tattoo a cultural thing? I suppose it’s actually both. I must admit feeling a little bit smug when I reflect on all of the conversations I’ve had with people regarding tattoos. They’re usually pretentious and think that they’re well read, but they’re actually just tossers. Anyway, they’d say “we don’t employ people with tattoos.” Ironically, this means

" TA A

that they’d never have employed Winston Churchill, Prince Albert, George Washington, William Shakespeare – and if they don’t like ear stretchers then they’d have binned off Queen Victoria as well. As with most things in life, it’s really daft commenting on a subject you know little or nothing about. Yes, we’re all entitled to an opinion, but that doesn't necessarily mean others want to hear yours. But, as a massive hypocritical yarn puller, I’ll continue to give my advice to all and always end with the same statement, which is - the best advice I have ever given anyone is to never take my advice. So, if you do, it serves you right. I’m not particularly well educated; you won’t be surprised to learn that if it wasn’t for art and my love of it in every form, I’d have left school with nothing.

I could draw scaled down technical drawings of cars when I was 9. They were millimetre perfect and inspected by my grandfather, a very well-respected oil painter and the designer of the nose on Concorde, followed by my uncle, the chief architect at Herts Council and my father, who did sign writing at college. So, I can draw. I can paint, I can tattoo. The latter bringing us nicely back to where we began.

"GOOD ATTOOS AREN'T CHEAP...

... CHEAP TATTOOS AREN'T GOOD."

Yes, I think we ar that’s a culture I than this, people and refer to it as face it, they’re ev

Most people I ta walk of life these be irrelevant too We have client in their very first ta grandchild gettin

My clients couldn business ratio of seem to apply an solely for breakin some are outdat though, like by-la PCSOs really.

That’s one of the or rapid growth decides to get th The issue here is tattooing are byAs a basic human allowed to tattoo adult. What busin who permanentl

Let’s make real la not just the hygie professionalism o Suppliers of tatto stop selling their can buy a kit. It s regulated, becaus to climb some p

re a tattooed society, so suppose. Perhaps more e will look back at this time s a tattoo period, as let’s verywhere.

Blood infections and hepatitis are now an all too common tattoo side effect in this country, caused by poor hygiene.

attoo smoke weed. Every e days. Their age seems to o, just like getting tattooed. n their 90s coming in for attoo, along with their great ng their first too.

I often wonder when the tattoo bubble will burst. Sometimes I wonder if it ever will? So many people you wouldn’t expect have them, they’re no longer viewed in the old-fashioned way. I watched David Dimbleby get tatted a few years ago. A scorpion on his right shoulder blade. Samantha Cameron even has a few.

n’t be put into the typical the 80:20 rule, as no rules nymore. And rules are made ng. Not laws, well most, ted Dickensian bollocks aws. They’re a bit like

Personally, I think the music industry and British football brought tattooing into the 21st century. Everyone loves Beckham, even me, so don’t tell me your companies tattoo policy would prevent him from working for you! You’d bite his tattooed arm off.

e problems with a boom industry, in that everyone heir nose in the trough. s that the laws surrounding -laws and seldom enforced. n right, you should be o or be tattooed as an ness is it of the councils ly marks your skin?

aws. Laws governing ene, but the quality and of the actual studio. oo equipment should wares on eBay, so anyone should be controlled and se if this trend continues people are gonna get hurt.

Tattoos, like them or not, are here to stay. Before the last ice age, they had a meaning and almost every adult had them. This is still the case for many tribes, whereby the tattoos tell other tribes where that person is from, what they do, and who they are. Today, westerners have wooden block print tattoos from Japan and tribal tattoos from the South Pacific islands. Once they meant you belonged, but now they mean you just fit in. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m just saying, tattoos still have a far deeper meaning to me. But then I do love art. I’ve been collecting it from some of my favourite artists for years, but it’s on my skin, where I can see it. Where's yours?

Guy Anderson Tattoo Guy

ALIGNING

brand

& ORGANISATION CULTURE

Who you are as an organisation on the inside should resemble who you are on the outside. How your organisation is viewed by your customers and society should be the way your organisation is viewed by your employees. Your brand image should reflect your culture, and your culture should reflect your brand image. Many companies have core values, but they rarely commit to them. They look impressive as a framed poster on the wall or as a mouse-mat, but more often than not these values, ethics and beliefs remain nothing more than empty platitudes. Trendwatching authored a report identifying the trend of ‘Glass Box Brands’. The premise of this trend is that in this age of radical transparency, your internal culture is your brand, whether you like it or not. It’s important to note that an organisation’s culture cannot actually be good or bad. It is either appropriate or inappropriate. It is appropriate if it reflects the behaviours that customers, or clients, expect, whilst it is inappropriate if it is misaligned and negatively impacts the customer experience. I’ve worked for and with a number of organisations which fall into the latter category and a fair proportion of them are no longer around. One organisation I worked for had Customer Service Excellence as their central strategic priority. They put the customer at the centre of everything they did and ensured that the internal culture was reflective of this vision. This organisation understood that you can’t have exceptional customer experiences if you don’t have exceptional employee experiences. We moved to modern offices and brought in local artists to decorate and graffiti the company values on the walls. There were fruit baskets placed on every desk and in Summer the company paid for an ice cream van to take up residence in the car park and provide free iced confections. Top performers who volunteered to pull a late shift were rewarded with pizza and a free hug. From me. Everyone felt valued, and the extra effort expended by the organisation in making the employees feel nothing but love was absorbed by them and then aimed in the direction of the customer. The Net Promoter Score and Trustpilot review

aggregate were industry leading because there was a single cardinal behaviour driving the internal culture which leaked into the external culture. Culture, in this context, is a complex web of interrelated factors: communication, decision-making, and processes which are in place to help implement the company’s vision, values, ethics and beliefs. After all, whilst it is a truism that the Employee Experience and the Customer Experience run parallel, the internal culture requires more than just happy and engaged employees. The social infrastructure and processes have to be robust so that the employees feel empowered to give the very best of themselves. Back in the late 17th century I was actively seeking to become a rock star. King Louis XIV of France had revoked the Edict of Nantes, Russia's Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards, and I was in a band called Wireless signed to EMI. Good times.

"TOP PERFORMERS WHO VOLUNTEERED TO PULL A LATE SHIFT WERE REWARDED WITH PIZZA AND A FREE HUG." As musicians signed to a major label, our profile on the periphery of the pop zeitgeist meant that swag and freebies were always knocking around. As obscure as we were, brands wanted to be associated with us. For example, when we shot our third video for the feelgood summer anthem ‘Banana Tea’ in Northern Tenerife, the producer was able to secure an array of sumptuous designer threads and sunglasses which appealed to me as an avid observer of sartorial correctitude. Our first single ‘I Need You’ had picked up a good deal of Radio 1 airplay and, as a result, dented the Top 75. Buoyed by the success of this minor hit we were booked to play the V Festival on a New Band

stage sponsored an esteemed British shoe company. This company contacted the band and very kindly invited us to their flagship store in Covent Garden. We were given a tour of the premises and then generously allowed to pick any footwear we wanted as a gift. The employees we encountered were genuine ambassadors and advocates for the brand. They were friendly and remarkably accommodating. Nothing was too much trouble and for the afternoon we were there we were made to feel very important. However, my massive, barge-like size 13 feet presented something of a challenge. The store didn’t actually have anything in my size. Instead it was suggested that an unreleased prototype might be suitable. “Can you do it in purple?” I asked, and sure enough a couple of weeks later an incredibly rare, exclusive pair of distressed purple and black leather boots landed on my doorstep. Then, as now, they looked amazing and still draw compliments whenever I dust them off for special occasions. Stephen Cannon, a former Mercedes Benz CEO suggested, “Customer Experience is the new marketing,” and I tend to agree. As a result of my very personal experience with this British shoe company I became something of a devotee and an advocate for the brand. I have an armada of their footwear in Basil Mansions and I’ll tell anyone I bump into how awesome they are as a product and a company, simply because I can trace a definite thread of consistency from the brand and its positioning to the culture within the organisation itself. My experience as a customer perfectly matched my expectations because of this very visible, singular alignment.

These days consumers want transparency. According to the 2016 Havas survey of 10,000 global consumers 78% say it is “somewhat or very important for a company to be transparent”, whilst 70% say “these days I make it a point to know more about the companies I buy from”. The amount of information available to us, at any time, has given rise to a far more conscious consumption. The “caveat emptor” rule-of-thumb has now been superseded by “caveat venditor”. Seller beware. If organisations mistreat their customers, or avoid meeting their needs, we find out about via social media. Toto has pulled aside the green silk curtain and, as a result, brands can no longer hide behind their logos or their stated values. If those values are authentic they have to be displayed and enacted.

"IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT AN ORGANISATION’S CULTURE CANNOT ACTUALLY BE GOOD OR BAD. IT IS EITHER APPROPRIATE OR INAPPROPRIATE." As you sit there reading these words, ask yourself, is your culture a perfect reflection of your brand? Is your culture appropriately supporting your organisation’s vision and values whilst smoothing the path to attaining your goals? Your internal culture determines your organisation’s collective capabilities and strengths, and helps shape how your brand is perceived. Are you who you say you are? Aligning your brand and your culture makes you more authentic as an organisation, and in an increasingly fake world this distinguishes you and gives you a definite competitive advantage.

BASIL CREESE TSA Europe

Customer Experience is the new marketing

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s p o h S 52

This can only mean one thing: grab your bag we’re off to pound the streets, browse the stores and shop ‘til we drop. It does not mean “let’s curl up on the sofa to scroll through a load of websites”. Therefore, is it fair to say we all see shopping as a as a social pastime to be enjoyed in our towns and cities, buying up the goods displayed in our local stores? So, is the high street dead? Not yet. But as we all know from witnessing high street retailers close down at an alarming rate, it is in trouble. Why are so many retail giants struggling to make the necessary profits? When I said, “let’s shop”, that’s exactly what I meant. Over the last week I visited stores and shopped online, knowing the results of this experience would bring some problems to light. I was right. John Lewis is one of the great retail brands, hailed as the model all should follow, but currently reporting a massive sales slump in the media half way through the year. What better place for me to go shopping? My mission: to buy a Bluetooth speaker. I have absolutely no idea what features make one speaker better than another, so I started my journey researching online. Having visited a few techy websites it came to light that John Lewis was the exclusive retailer of an Ultimate Ears BOOM 3. The John Lewis website was functional and had a wide choice of products, but the shopper experience was flat, non-interactive, and didn’t even feature a video to demo the product. To top it off the BOOM 2 and BOOM 3 were retailing at the same price?

Was this an error? Obviously, I would buy the BOOM 3, but what is the difference and why continue to sell the BOOM 2? Intrigued, I then searched other sites for a BOOM 2 and found one retailing at £63.64 – that’s £66 cheaper than John Lewis. But having checked the price guarantee, "never knowingly undersold", they won’t match it as it’s an online-only retailer. Next step in the journey was to go instore and compare the BOOM 2 with a BOOM 3 speaker. Entering the opulent and gorgeous smelling John Lewis store, my hopes were high to be wowed with innovation and excitement – after all, this is one of the poshest department stores on the high street. However, the in-store navigation was poor and trying to find the Bluetooth speakers took a while. All the speakers were out on display with the ability to turn them on, listen to a description of the product, or hear the speaker at full volume. But wait, what do I see… NO BOOM 3! Why has the website not stated that this is an online-only exclusive? And why hasn’t the in-store display got a reference to the new BOOM 3 available exclusively online with a demo BOOM 3 to look at? The product descriptions are nothing more than typed up features and I am no further forward with my decision. I leave the store without buying any Bluetooth speaker, and yes, I will go back online and buy the discounted BOOM 2 from the other online retailer.

e n i nl Online shopping is convenient – with next day delivery and easy price comparisons it’s the growing retail channel. The opportunity to buy begins the moment we open our eyes in a morning and lasts until they close again at night. When has there ever been more flexibility in when and where we can shop?

Take Amazon, my one stop shop for everything outside of clothing and groceries. My latest purchase included weighing scales, a book and a Disney musical Frozen doll (currently the most annoying toy in our household)! Where else could I go late in the evening to browse for the random items I need to complete my life, and then choose from a wide selection whilst checking the price and purchasing with delivery in one click? So, will all shopping eventually be online? Have physical stores still got a role to play in the future of shopping? This horrendous move by Tesco [pictured left], spotted by a colleague of mine on the 10th September, is evidence of yet another retailer not bringing inspiration to the shopper. It’s ridiculous to see Christmas cards at this time of year.

Retailers are provided with numerous category led initiatives exploding with ideas by their suppliers on a regular basis. These are born in agencies where they’re specifically briefed by brands in an attempt to increase footfall, engage with shoppers and excite them into buying. Why not have crafting projects on shelf that encourage some upcycling and give shoppers ideas to help them

save money at Christmas? A quick look on pinterest and yes, here you go "Craft your Christmas". Get brands involved, find a new craze and use some of those ideas. There are some retail spaces which get it right, and these are usually found in flagship stores; the L’Occitane store is one to visit and of course, who can forget their first visit to M&M world?

However, these are not within striking distance for all shoppers. Apple is a great example of a retailer who has delivered a consistent shopping experience across its entire estate. The shop assistants are well trained to help you, and every new iPhone launch has eager shoppers queuing at the door. Despite the growth of e-commerce and subscription models enabling shoppers to save time and money, the physical store will remain, with the very best retailers continuing to drive footfall. Any developments in retail will need to make shopping more convenient and help retailers to be more relevant and profitable. Brands and retailers need to collaborate to make sure that content and information about products is given in an effective, compelling and consistent way. I can’t wait to see a brave and bold retailer with the support from suppliers who puts the shopper at the heart of their evolution.

Emma Sutcliffe

FPP Geneva

#BEYOUR OWN

Below the surface of Shantell Martin’s characteristic black and white compositions is an inquiry into the role of artist and viewer. In Martin’s world, a work of art is inseparable from its creator and its audience, and art is more than an object of admiration disconnected from the process of its inception. Rather, she sees her work as a vehicle to forge new connections between education, design, philosophy, and technology — the glue in an increasingly interdisciplinary world. Her methodical practice of bringing the audience and surroundings into her drawings is a reflection of ever-changing time and space. Martin’s work with institutions such as the MIT Media Lab, Autodesk and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts denote her ongoing inquiry into new models and

technologies that are transforming the way art is made and consumed. Eschewing traditional art world norms, Martin’s work purposefully bridges fine art, performance art, technology, and commercial work. Her artwork has appeared in the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of the Contemporary African Diaspora, Bata Shoe Museum and at the prestigious Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York. Like most, all high-profile artists these days have to endure a whirlwind of struggles and fight constant criticism, and Shantell isn't an exception. We briefly discuss her career and she dishes some advice on how to "Do what YOU love because YOU deserve it".

Do bec

what YOU love cause YOU deserve it_ Shantell can you tell us a little bit about yourself for those that are not too familiar? I’m a person that has been finding their way through life by drawing and using words, lines, and characters to create connections and experiences. I’m also a little obsessed with the idea that we can all easily say where we are from and what we do in life, yet we stumble on describing who we are at the core. In a few words, can you describe your journey so far? Imagine an outside on the inside on the outside, I think that about sums it up. I’m an artist that also doesn’t believe in putting the artist into boxes. My career is a wide range of my interest. I’ve been a Fellow at Brown/Columbia, a Visiting Scholar at MIT Media Lab, an adjunct professor for a few years at NYU. I’ve had a couple of solo museum shows, been on the cover of the New York Times (Home and Garden), collaborated with musicians such as Kendrick Lamar. I also have my work collected by places like the Cooper Hewitt and to add to that I have a line of Sunglasses out with Max Mara this year. Oh, and I have collaborated with Scientist! I’ve gotten here by caring about what I do when no one else did, by imagining a future for myself in a space that no one else showed or imagined for me, I’ve gotten here by never stopping and never ever giving up. What’s a typical day like for you? It’s different every day. For the most part, I wake up, workout for 15 minutes then go out into the world for meetings or head to the studio to draw and answer emails. I’m a morning person, so I don’t really do much after 5pm.

Congratulations on your stateside transition, as you relocated to the US from London, initially did you find it difficult getting your voice heard and foot in the door in the beginning? I moved here after five years in Japan. So, I experienced a bit of reverse culture shock. You have some real hardcore avid fans, what is the most important thing your supporters must know about you That I do what I love and that they can too because we all deserve it. What is next for Shantell? Lots of fun stuff! I’m hoping to play more live music shows and expose that side of me more. So, if you know of a good fit, venue, show etc. then let me know. I’m also moving more towards on-camera projects. To help with this I’ll be going to acting school. Lastly, we love the way you empower other artists to go out there and be who they really want to be. What would be your advice to other young artists starting out? The advice I seem to give time after time is to go and create your own opportunities and do that by using what you have instant access too. Don’t play the if game, like if I had the money, if I had a studio, if I had a mentor. Just get out they and make it happen! By the way, there is no rush. Samanah Duran BEYOUROWN

_Just get out there 57

Street A Art surrounds us every minute of every day; it’s not just framed pictures against gallery walls, it’s the billboards you see on the way to work, the layout of the magazine page you read each week, and the label on your favourite drinks carton. 58

As a counter to the inaccessible and elitist culture of modern day art, street art became increasingly popular in the 1980s. New artists wanted their art to communicate directly to the public at large, free from the confines of the formal art world. In particular, many street artists used their new-found freedom to critique social and ethical issues in modern culture, attracting attention and forcing consideration of their cause.

Witz has been creating art on the streets of New York since the 1970s. He was the first artist to make his audiences question their perception and mistake fiction for reality. Relishing the way that art in the street encourages people to pay more attention to their surroundings, Witz considers his work a method of stimulating people’s curiosity. He chooses his locations based on high traffic areas, where cars stuck in traffic crawl past at two miles per hour, giving drivers time to catch a passing glimpse. Witz describes his life before the advent of internet culture; he states that “I was pretty much out in the desert by myself. There were other people who did it and occasionally I’d meet them, but there’s no Internet so you don’t really know.” By the early 90s, the Lower East Side – where Witz lived – was hitting bottom. Drugs, HIV and crime forced people out of their homes, and Witz decided to create something in response to this dark time. This is how ‘The Hoodies’ were introduced to the streets of New

Art

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” – Banksy

on Modern Culture York, wheat pasted in the corners and doorways that drug dealers would reside doing business. By pasting these around the major dealer hotspots, Witz’s art encouraged them to stop, drawing attention to the drug culture taking over the city. The purpose of Witz’s work was to spark a sinister tone into the streets, and to make a statement in a minimal way, striking an ominous warning for members of the public who chose to ignore the underlying problems in their city. The 21st century has seen internet dating become an instigator for millions of people around the world to form relationships with people they’ve met online. This trend has been directly affected by the growing popularity of the smart phone, opening up a completely new world to people who can now talk, tweet and browse the Internet everywhere and anywhere. When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, smartphone culture became instantly popular. By 2014, one person in every five owned a smart telephone – this led to a growing overdependence on communicating by mobile, creating a breakdown of face-to-face relationships. Banksy’s piece ‘Mobile Lovers’ was painted in Bristol in 2014, depicting two lovers basking in the light of the mobile devices. Another of Banky’s murals that made an appearance in 2014 is ‘Spy Booth’. Depicting a trio of shady government officials eavesdropping on a phone

booth, analog recording devices reveal the piece’s focus the growing controversy surrounding privacy and monitoring. This was located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire – home of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Here, Banky’s comment on the culture of governmental control has been seen as a critique of the Global surveillance disclosures of 2013. Banksy himself stated that “the point of the piece is GCHQ and my contempt for their attempts to listen in on all aspects of our daily lives.”

Street artists don’t just paint murals and paste stickers across cities for the fun of it. Artists such as Banksy and Dan Witz explore the social and ethical issues present in our modern culture, commenting upon the constantly evolving modern world, as well as the people it leaves behind. And with the focus on Banksy recently renewed due to his controversial self-shredding piece – described as a “rebuke of empty consumerism” – it seems that not even the dealers are safe from street art’s antics. Emily Forrester

SponsoredP

hough a buzzword of recent times, influencer marketing is not a new concept. For decades, brands have recruited musicians, athletes and models alike to demonstrate their affiliation and passion for their product. Perhaps one of the most memorable cases of all time was Michael Jackson’s role in the 1980’s Pepsi Generation commercials. It is said that Pepsi paid him in excess of five billion dollars for his feature; however, the campaign was indisputably successful as it allowed Pepsi to reinvent itself as the drink for the ‘new generation’, ensuring that Pepsi, like Jackson, was crowned the king of ‘pop’.

Yet, following the rise of social media, and most notably the ever-growing monster that is Instagram, influencer marketing has entered a new dimension, achieving unrivalled levels of global reach as a single post can trigger a universal response. Kylie Jenner takes the crown as 2018’s highest-valued influencer on social media as she earns 1 million dollars per sponsored post. But when that post can be broadcasted to 117 million followers with a simple click of a button, it is easy to see why. This heightened access to influencers through social media makes influencer marketing more investible than ever before; a notion that has not gone unnoticed by industry experts. According to Mediakix, it is projected to become a 5 to 10 billion dollar industry by 2020, and thus it should be regarded as a business in its own right. So, it’s no surprise to see influencer marketing agencies, whose sole purpose it is to create and execute influencer marketing campaigns, popping up left, right and centre; a sure sign of a changing culture. However, due to the fast-moving reality TV culture that we live in, brands are killing their credibility as they adopt an ‘anyone and anything’ approach to influencer marketing. By this I mean that they are targeting people who have been thrust into the limelight without a well-established personal brand. Companies are quick to snap them up as they are the ‘trending’ celebrities of the time, but the only benefit that they bring to the brand is their follower count. ITV’s Love Island is a prime example of this, as the contestants walk out of the show and instantly secure brand ambassador deals with fashion labels, despite our only prior knowledge of their individual style being the clothing they were dressed in by the show’s stylists, as dictated by the

programme’s contract with Missguided. Our feeds are flooded with #sponsoredposts from Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo, Missguided, In The Style, (and the list goes on), only for this season’s golden girls to be replaced months later once the hype is over and everyone’s attention has shifted to the newer, shinier models. Brands are simply and unashamedly cashing in on a quick win. And what message does that send out about the brand? As a marketing technique, the main problem with this form of influencer marketing is that these celebrities have not earned the trust of their followers through merit or knowledge; they too are merely capitalising on short-term fame. And it’s blatantly obvious. So how can one authentically pledge for something that they have no knowledge of? These celebrities are not content creators; they are ordinary people who got lucky and shot to fame. Brands recognise this, and in an attempt to guide the celebrities, or rather control the message and tone of voice, they dictate the post’s content, sprinkling it with familiar slang and emojis to forge sincerity. And yet somehow, it just doesn’t feel sincere. Perhaps it’s the randomness with which celebrities who have never expressed an interest in fitness can suddenly be seen promoting protein shakes and slimming teas? Or perhaps it’s the repetitiveness of the posts across

Post

multiple accounts almost looking as though they have been copied and pasted. Or perhaps, similarly, it is the repetitive ‘takeover’ approach applied to some individual’s accounts over a short period of time, as can be seen in the montage of Lee Stafford ads within Love Island’s Zara Mcdermott’s Instagram posts over the past two months. Or perhaps more simply, it is the #sp or #ad that follows these posts due to the FTC’s strict regulations on disclosure. As Alex Culbertson, associate director of engagement planning for Arnold Worldwide in Boston, points out: “Adding #sponsored at the end of a post mimicking unsponsored content ruins its authenticity, while

having the influencer describe the partnership or endorsement as something they’re proud of keeps the content strong.” It is exactly this sentiment that has led to the rise of the micro-influencer. Engagement is one of the essential KPIs when it comes to assessing an influencer’s commercial viability, and the data analysis around this is showing that the simple formula of ‘Size of Following = Impressions = Influence’ is no longer as seamless. Nowadays, anyone can mimic influencer status as it has become all too easy for fraudsters to purchase fake followers; a trap that many brands have fallen victim to in the past. So, micro-influencers who have built a specific, niche audience tailored to their content are the perfect solution. The influencers’ mutual interest with their followers creates a genuine, trusting and sustainable relationship, blurring the lines between celebrity and friend. If brands are prepared to spend the time researching these more niche influencer markets, then they will reap the benefits of contextual targeting. Japanese influencer Hisatsumi describes how “influencer marketing is not just for PR and show, it is deeper than that. It exposes the globe to new cultures on a personal level. You feel connected to someone you have never met and that creates more commonality across nations.” It is this personal element that brands need to engage with to achieve organic and effective content. What’s more, as Culbertson also points out: “influencers don’t love the image of ‘selling out,’ and audiences don’t appreciate unwanted ads in their feeds, so it’s up to the brand, the agency and the influencer to find a creative way to disclose the partnership’. Sending influencers products for them to sample across their social channels depicts organic content: it’s within a surrounding that the audience is familiar with, and the understated setting and video production makes the product feel more attainable and legit. But once again, this is only effective if the influencer portrays authenticity, and this becomes a lot easier if the influencer believes in the brand as the call to action will come more naturally. Thus, they appear more genuine to the consumer, allowing both the influencer and the brand to thrive. Evidence of this can be seen through a study conducted by Defy, which showed how “younger consumers accept advertising in online video” and that “87% [of the respondents] approve product placements in videos e.g. when an influencer demonstrates a product or shouts out to a sponsor.” But this will only be the case if the consumer admires, respects and trusts the influencer. When it comes to influencer marketing there has been a clear shift in approach, reflective of the evergrowing dominance of social media. While all forms of influencer marketing can be successful as the

c o Cloco

coo

ultimate result is higher impressions, the most effective method in winning over loyal and repetitive customers is to engage with micro-influencers who are highly respected and trusted within their specific field and have built up a good rapport with their followers. Yet in order to get the most out of this marketing strategy, it is important that brands allow the influencers to post organically, without dictating the voice or message, as inauthenticity breaks down the trust between influencer and consumer. Ultimately, retargeting micro-influencersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; engaged audiences will be more cost-effective than a one-off post from a celebrity whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only sincere love for the brand is for their pay cheque.

Emily Perryment Editor

SOCIALGRAM.CO.UK

We focus on consumer attention. Helping brands reach their customers in efficient, meaningful and emerging ways.

LONDON OFFICE 72-82 Rosebery Avenue London EC1R 4RW

PLYMOUTH OFFICE 11 Whimple Street Plymouth PL1 2DH

hello@socialgram.co.uk

SUBCULTURE

Photographer: Danny North

FOR SALE.

ALWAY LOOK AHEAD BU NEVER LOOK BACK

MILES DAV

YS K D, UT R K K

Subcultures – movements of likeminded people, simultaneously dependent and rebellious –are, by their very nature, particularly hard to identify. At what exact moment a subculture loses its precious prefix is, of course, up for debate. In music, genres such as Jazz or Hip Hop would unlikely nowadays be referred to as subcultures, despite the forward-looking values that existed at their origins. Familiar examples of subculture can be found everywhere in music. Here, subversive genres are adopted and capitalised upon for commercial gain; the rebellious and innately genuine nature of subculture in music makes it a prime target – a target to be nicely packaged and placed in front of the mass population as the ‘future of music’. During this appropriation into mainstream tastes, the genuine nature of the movement is removed, as what was once distinctive or defiant becomes commodified and defunct. Current examples of this are easy to recognise, as even Goth culture is grossly paraded across the airwaves of Radio 1, ventriloquised by vapid artists and management teams that desperately cling to any USP they can find. However, in what seems like a purely condemnatory opening to an article, the brands that support independent rising artists have been overlooked; those brands that use subculture to forward themselves, but also to celebrate those in the movement that supply this wealth of business opportunity. One example of this is Fred Perry, who declare: “ Fred Perry has always had a unique place at the heart of British subcultures and music, this heritage still informs the brand

today. Since 2005 Subculture has been the platform to both work with true icons of British music and introduce some of the very best new artists from the UK onto the global stage.” A sceptic would, quite rightly, flag up Fred Perry’s eagerness to place themselves in the "heart" of all British music, taking credit for new artists and nailing their heritage as a clothing brand into the history of British music. However, Fred Perry aren’t lying when they claim to support new and independent artists; their Subculture shows take place at London’s 100 Club, give small artists the opportunity to support some of the UK's most iconic bands, and pay very, very well. Of course, no brand’s intentions are entirely altruistic, but for examples such as Fred Perry it's win-win for both band and brand. And it’s not just musicians that benefit from Fred Perry’s use of subculture: venues, DJs, photographers, journalists and models are all supported by the brand’s "platform" for subculture. Whilst it’s true that corporate appropriation effectively kills the defiant nature of subculture, it is with this ‘sell out’ that artists can afford to continue their career. This is what allows underground culture to turn into successful popular culture, creating a new norm for future movements to rebel against, and producing a never-ending cycle of reaction and revitalisation. James Dutton Editor

VIS

69 Photographer: Matt Shearer

I'm a recove people please

ering e er.

Den

Through an

nim

nd Through

In 1873, Jewish Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss (& co) invented blue jeans, a hard-wearing riveted trouser for male labourers, miners and horse wranglers. We should probably thank the great Gold Rush for bringing the beloved fabric into the world of work, or even the woman who commissioned Levi and Davis to make a pair of custom pants for her oversized husband. Talking of Davis, he always seems second to Levi. But we shouldn't ever forget the man who jumped started the whole riveted pant sensation; he really is the undercover hero of our story. If it weren’t for him partnering Levi and patenting the riveted trouser, then I don’t think Levi’s would be what it is today. The reason for jeans' success has much to do with their cultural meaning and robust construction. A strong cotton twill made to last, reinforced with rivets or bartacks, indigo ring-dyed and crafted with functionality first in mind. When you think of cool, there are a staple few gents that spring to mind: McQueen, Brando, Dean, Newman, Eastwood, Cobain. Now, this is culture in a nutshell – these dudes influenced a large proportion of men today. Blue jeans were, and still is are, a symbolic representation of the first bunch of gents that wore them bloody well.

There’s also the branding side to denim culture, which kickstarted specific subcultures who would identify with the brands they were purchasing (Levis, Wrangler, and Lee). The big three moulded their brands around workwear in the USA. This was way before blue jeans were seen as a sign of rebellion. The king of cool and other familiar faces were the ones that really did the selling. It’s almost as if subconscious influencer marketing hit peak performance many years ago. When it comes to brands such as Levi's, it’s safe to say their foundations have set them up for who they are today. We can’t forget the one women who wore blue best; Monroe changed hearts and minds when she wore a pair of Levi’s in Clash by Night (1952) and later in The Misfits (1961). Levi’s blue jeans became a symbol of power and strength for women in that day and age. In 1934, Levi’s constructed their first denim jeans for women, The Lady Levi's – they didn't arrive until an astonishing 61 years after the men’s. Let’s cut to the chase here: denim is a symbol for many reasons and has played a part in human history since the beginning of its production. ‘Miners to McQueen’ is how I like to put it, yet there’s a whole lot more history and heritage to delve into. There are some awesome books that cover pretty much everything from the start to finish, namely Denim Hunters: Blue Blooded. 73

One of my favourite brands to date, BDD (Benzak Denim Developers) have a slogan that resonates with me through to the core – "the modernday cowboy". So, why the modern-day cowboy? Back in the day, cowboys were seen as real-life heroes (I’m talking Old Westerns here). When you think cowboy, you think rebellious, cool, gives no fu*ks, and lives by their own rules. BDD carry this ethos through their brand values and products. That’s how denim, or should I say jeans, kinda makes me feel. Not necessarily like a cowboy, but it definitely adds a layer of comfort to the way I look and feel. It’s amazing to think that denim dates back even further than the blue jean. It just goes to show that culture is a main driver in sometimes the simplest of things, especially when we’re talking about the long-lasting brands. It’s almost as if denim has incepted itself into everyone’s lives, starting off as a simple working man’s garment, and continuously being promoted through the ranks of the social-sphere into what it is today. To be honest, we could sit here all day and go through the ins-n-outs of who wore it best back in the day. Jumping ahead to the last 30 to 40 years we’ve seen a lot change in the denim world. We’ve gone from the days of only raw selvedge denim, to commercialised weaker forms of denim. I’m not going to delve too deep into what I personally believe denim is and

isn’t, but what I can tell you is that the majority of ‘denim’ wearers today are not buying the long-lasting kind of jeans, jackets, shirts and accessories. The fast fashion industry might be winning as we speak, but in the long run, things will have to rapidly change. “DENIM IS A LIFESTYLE…WELL, HIGH QUALITY DENIM IS A LIFESTYLE” As we’re talking culture of culture, it’s only right we quickly explore the Japanese side of the denim world. You can read endless amounts of articles about Japan’s relationship with denim, and you’ll probably end up with the same conclusion: when it comes to weaving the beloved fabric, constructing a jean, jacket, or pretty much anything from denim, the Japanese absolutely nail it. The history of Japan and denim isn’t as nearly as long as America, yet they are known for premium construction and artisanal craftsmanship. After the Second World War, denim made its way to Japan due to the American occupation. Although denim in the form of the blue jean was a phenomenon in the States, the Japanese had a different plan when they got hold of the fabric. From a style perspective, the Japanese youth welcomed the American culture with open arms. Jeans became a symbol of rebellion, exotic culture and next-gen cool, once again due to the influence of the American stars mentioned earlier. Japanese retailers began importing new pairs of Levi's and Lee jeans, almost backfiring as it was seen as

black-market culture, and wearing denim became associated with being an ‘outlaw’. This all happened during the time of pre-washed soft denim taking primary position in the hearts and minds of denim wearers. There is so much history with a million ins-n-outs of how denim came about in Japan. It’s mind-blowing even when scratching the surface, yet a bit of a pity that I can’t delve into more detail around the subject matter – it would almost become a magazine in itself. Kojima in Okayama, Japan, is famous for textile weaving and dyeing traditions. Kurabo Mills, one of the world’s longest operating mills (116 years) produced one of Japan's first ever pair of jeans. The fabric was produced on Toyoda Shuttle Looms and constructed from Americanmade denim under the Canton Brand by Maruo Clothing. In 67, BIG JOHN jeans were finally produced; these were made from Cone Mills Denim. Yup that’s right, if you know the history of Levi’s then you’ll know that is the same denim used to produce original Levi’s.

I could ramble on for hours about denim and I’m not even near one of the most educated in the field, but I sure am on my way to soaking up more information as my indigo journey goes on. For me the most important aspect of researching, wearing, discovering, styling and creating content around denim/ menswear is that I just bloody enjoy it. Finding that one thing that fascinates you and allows you to integrate life, work and hobby in one, really does bring joy to each step of one’s personal journey. To wrap it all up I’d like to leave you with one last thought: can you remember the last time you didn’t see a denim product throughout the course of a regular day in your life?

M The Brute Supply Co.

In 1972, after about 8 attempts, Kurabo finally managed to produce Japan’s first ever selvedge denim, aptly titled the KD-8 for Kurabo Denim 8. To this very day, the Japanese have completely out-done the Americans when it comes to the production of denim. Some of my favourite brands that I am yet to own are made from Japanese selvedge denim.

"FASHION IS A REF OF 76

FLECTION THE TIME." Anna Wintour

FCK YOU KFC Tell me what you eat and i will tell you what you are Food is culture. “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are” someone smart said many years ago. The Dutch smear Sambal Olek over their peanut butter on toast – a concoction of chillis, salt and vinegar that adds a furious piquancy to their snack as a constant reminder of their connection to Indonesia. In the holiday sunspots of Spanish, Turkish or Greek resorts, it’s very clear that the British love affair with the 'full English' is alive and kicking. The richness of a culture has a lot to do with the history of its food. Wave after wave of immigration introduces new dishes to the food scene. Even people who arrive with nothing carry the memories of their food culture with them. Using familiar and unfamiliar ingredients, they modify and recreate the taste of home with the ingredients of their new country. Marketers, ever-ready to jump on a band wagon, pounce like magpies on shiny new flavours and repackage them for the Instagram generation. But, for brands, ‘borrowing’ from another culture can be a recipe for disaster. 78

Earlier this year, Jamie Oliver, the brand, came under fire for its new microwaveable rice product. Labour MP Dawn Butler took to Twitter, of course, to share her outrage with Jamie Oliver, the human. “I’m just wondering do you know what Jamaican jerk actually is? It's not just a word you put before stuff to sell products. Your jerk rice is not okay. This appropriation from Jamaica needs to stop,” she tweeted. Boasting an "awesome spice mix" and "jerk marinade" of garlic, ginger and jalapenos, critics were appalled by Oliver’s use of the word "jerk" to promote his ready rice. As the action moved off Twitter and into the hands of the PR crisis managers, a statement was released by the multi-millionaire TV chef who said that, by using the term "jerk", his intention was to show the source of inspiration for the rice. Broadcasters turned to Rustie Lee and Levi Roots for their take on this faux pas. Lee didn’t like the flavour and said there’s “no such thing in the Caribbean as jerk rice. Jerk means barbecue. If you tried to barbecue rice on a barbecue it would fall through. It’s ridiculous.” Roots, rather more bizarrely, challenged Jamie to a “jerk-off ”. The issue of food and cultural mis-appropriation is one of many talking points raised in Netflix’s Ugly Delicious. Chef David Chang explores food culture as a gateway

to discussion of deeper questi such as racism and authenticit episode devoted to fried chick uncovers the loaded history o food. Almost every nation has fried bird but, for black Americ it has become emblematic of pernicious racism that began w DW Griffith’s silent movie Bir a Nation. The film celebrates t founding of the Ku Klux Klan a portrays black people in a neg light, with one scene focussed black official eating fried chicke

Historically, chickens were the livestock slaves were allowed t keep. Easy to breed and cheap feed, they were a good source protein and potential addition income for slaves. Claire Schm a professor of race and folklor the University of Missouri, sug that, like watermelon, chicken a good vehicle for racism beca of the way people eat it. "It's a food you eat with your hands, therefore it's dirty." Many blac Americans in the past did not want to be associated with fri chicken and the stereotypes u promote it within popular cult Even today, referring to fried c can be seen as a shorthand fo racial contempt.

Here in the UK, adland has no concerns. A recent “immersive experience” for Adidas Glitch targeted 14 – 19 year olds by

ions ty. An ken of soul sa cans, a with th of the and gative on a en.

transforming a Hackney fried chicken store into a pop up to launch the curiously-named “Prep Pack” boots. A rap performance by Headie One completed the experience in which a crowd of mostly black men were gifted boots in Glitch-branded, fried chicken boxes. Maybe they were piggybacking off an Australian trend that has seen a rise in hip hop themed eateries selling fried chicken and burgers with large, very Instagram-able murals of hip hop artists and themed menus.

e only to p to e of nal midt, re at ggests was ause a , and ck t ied used to ture. chicken or

One Melbourne restaurant F.A.T Fried and Tasty came under fire for opening a Biggie Smalls themed fried chicken restaurant which featured a photoshopped mural of the late Biggie holding a fried chicken drumstick. The restaurant also recycled the much-criticised Aunt Jemima poster and shared pictures of white families with guns that many found distasteful. Another Ozthemed eatery, Butter, is a “hybrid, sneaker, fried chicken and champagne bar in Sydney” – perhaps this was the source of inspiration for the Adidas stunt.

o such e

Putting concerns about racial stereotyping to one side, the decision to associate a sports brand with mass-produced, fast food is another that could perhaps do with some unpicking. A 20-year study by Kings College revealed that 1 in 4 teens was clinically obese by the time they

FAT FRI TAS 79

reached the age of 15. Junk food, lack of exercise and too much time on computer games and screens are cited as the cause. Advertising publications, nonetheless repeated almost verbatim the agency’s press release without raising any questions about how inappropriate this promotion might appear.

T IED STY Ironically, street food vendors in the Philippines sell marinated, grilled chicken feet under the name Adidas because the 3 toes of the bird echo the footwear giant’s 3 stripes. Serving those up at the event might have raised a few more eyebrows and produced some memorable footage for the promotional film. Jamie Oliver has promoted his brand by appropriating the stuff of other cultures for years. The Naked Chef-to-be was working in Italian restaurant The River Café when he was spotted by TV producer

Pat Llewelyn. Shortly after, he was fronting a Channel 4 show, in which he cooked up pukka meals for fantastically cool mates in a trendy apartment that was actually a TV studio set. Last time anybody checked, he was not an Italian immigrant but the son of an Essex pub landlord. Jamie’s association with iconic Italian cultural artefacts is a conscious business strategy that seems prompted by a genuine awe of all things made in Italy. Britain’s own introduction to Italian food on the high street followed a mass migration of people fleeing the poverty of post-war Italy. Modified originals soon became Britalian classics. Staples such as spaghetti bolognaise and baked avocado are considered abominations in the motherland. Pizza is ubiquitous and inconsistent here. New brands such as Franco Manca challenge the status quo whilst Chinese-owned Pizza Express has become as familiar in the supermarket chilled section as on the high street. Another wave of economic migration has seen a rise over 10 years of 49.3% more Italians living abroad. The move is bringing regional Italian cooking to the street food markets of London, Berlin and Paris. Brand strategists in Shoreditch greedily chow down on Sicilian rice balls and Calabrian Nduja, eager to harness emerging trends for commercial gain. The rising popularity of street food, with its low barrier to entry, has provided a market place for foodie entrepreneurs to sell their wares. At the same time, it has left high street chains reeling as casual dining in identikit high street eateries, such as Jamie’s Italian, falls out of fashion.

Jamie’s jerk rice was not Jamie’s only problem in the past year. In December 2017 he pumped £3 million of his own money into his eponymous Italian restaurant chain. In January, 12 of the 37 remaining sites were closed as part of a rescue deal to keep trading. Court papers revealed the chain had debts of £71.5 million. He is on record claiming to have fucked up 40% of his business. The Jamie Oliver brand is a clever and prolific creator of content that uses cross-promotion across multiple platforms to great effect. The magazine has gone after nearly 10 years of publishing. It was a repository of artfully photographed food in salvaged, mismatched crockery and Falcon enamel that simultaneously plundered and promoted his TV shows, books and Foodtube channel to sell everything from antipasti planks to wood-fired pizza ovens. His latest venture, Jamie Cooks Italy, could be viewed as an inspired attempt to shore up his Italian restaurant business by giving it the smack of authenticity that is the holy grail for modern brands. ‘Borrowing’ from the success of Youtube channels featuring Italian grandmas cooking and sharing their traditional recipes, Jamie meets a variety of sprightly old ladies on his travels. It seems that the young people who remain in Italy prefer to eat doners than cook with nonnas. The traditional, regional recipes are dying out with the elderly women. The TV format is simple. Jamie, and his sidekick Gennaro Contaldo visit grandmas all over the country to learn their secrets. When one nonna praises him as a “bravo chef ” the look of pride and delight he displays

Ironically, street food vendors in the Philippines sell marinated, grilled chicken feet under the name Adidas because the 3 toes of the bird echo the footwear giant’s 3 stripes.

is impossible to disguise. Jamie Oliver, the human, is in thrall to Italy and Italian cooking, and his passion for both is very real. The recipe then receives a Jamie Oliver makeover in the Italian countryside. A jaw-droppingly beautiful landscape provides the backdrop as Jamie scrunches, chops and drizzles with Genarro’s assistance. Thus, Jamie saves the nonnas’ recipes from extinction by preserving them in his new cookbook. He also adds lots of extra, shortform content to his Foodtube channel featuring a horde of nonnas and Gennaro in a series of comic set pieces. “Jamie’s business is a brand built around his personality with a restaurant operation running alongside,” says Paolo Aversa, associate professor of strategy at Cass Business School in London. “You can argue that a company that sells an idea of better eating habits, healthy food and so on should have some kind of flagship business that reminds the customer where this all comes from,” Aversa says. “I think Jamie’s Italian reinforced the image and it still does to a certain extent.” As Jamie’s new streamlined business seeks to reinvent itself, the authenticity of the nonnas is bequeathed to Jamie’s Italian business via the TV series and the book. As a business strategy there is genius in its ambition – time will tell if it’s effective in the execution. TV food programming also evolves. Another thought-provoking Netflix show Chef ’s Table focuses on Cristina Martinez, an undocumented Mexican whose lamb barbacoa is made with love and a yearning for family and tradition. Separated from her daughter in Mexico, Cristina is an 82

openly illegal immigrant who could be deported from Philadelphia at any point. She lovingly prepares the complex dish that saw her iconic taqueria, South Philly Barbacoa, named as one of the ten best new restaurants in America. Cristina’s pride and identity are inextricably linked with the food she produces. Cultural appropriation seems inevitable in a world in which food and people cross borders. Jamie’s jerk rice was probably not the smartest idea they ever had at head office, but I guess it’s still selling in Sainsbury’s. Is the Jamie Oliver brand bastardising Jamaican food culture more exploitative than its championing of Italian cooking for a profit? Italy is Jamie’s spiritual home so a product ‘inspired by’ Jamaican food seems off-brand and ill-advised. Ditto the Adidas fried chicken shop. In Ugly Delicious, David Chang concludes, “I think the best you can do, maybe, is by using it as inspiration, as a homage and to give credit where credit is due. And by doing your best to execute the best thing you can possibly do.” Whether processed ‘punchy rice’ or trainers in chicken boxes go down in history as the best of the best remains down to the consumer. Most of the time, food is a reinvention of itself. Nostalgia plays a huge part in the development of a food culture. The familiar aroma of a dish long-forgotten, the love that goes into home-cooked food and the memories of people who feasted with us, these are all extra ingredients not easily replicated in a high-street chain. Food travels and evolves. Food made with love will always taste better than food made without. As Cristina Martinez observes, “Through food, you find your way home.”

FCK YOU KFC CLAIRE WALSH Hungry Chefs- Private Chef Services 83

Yolcan Environmental sustainability and social responsibility have been hot topics of conversation in the world of gastronomy during recent years. Nowadays, the story behind the ingredients and how they got to the table is more important than ever before. Looking back at cultural heritage and roots is one of the ways to tell this story and repair what's been lost in recent times. In 2011, two young entrepreneurs from Mexico City, Lucio Usobiaga and Antonio Murad, founded Yolcan, an inspiring initiative which revives traditional farming practices established in Aztec times centred around Chinampas. Chinampas archaeological vestiges are small, rectangular areas of fertile land harnessed to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in Mexico City's Xochimilco borough. This allows local farmers to grow and sell their unique mixed produce to the best restaurants in Mexico City, such as Pujol or Maximo Bistrot, under a fair trade model.

Back to the roots of Mexican cultural heritage

But this is about more than delicious seasonal productbased cuisine; Yolcan works on soil remediation and water cleaning, actions that facilitate the regeneration of communities and positively impact the quality of life for farming families. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The process of preservation is not achieved by converting the current landscape into scenarios from the past, but reformulating the tradition and adapting it to the present. We have come together with the most important personalities of the Mexican gastronomic realm, personalities who already act as agents of change and who have helped us to enhance the congruence of the chinampas role as an agricultural area within the city.â&#x20AC;? A simply beautiful mix of sustainable agriculture, Aztec community tradition, and Mexican gastronomy. Aiste Miseviciute Luxeat

" Culture is not the frosting on the cake: the culture is the plate the cake sits on" - Morgan Neville 88

The cultura

Being born in 1975, I was an 80s and 90s kidult. Being more arty than sporty, my Chesney Hawkes centre parting and I were never all that comfortable on a pitch or court. In fact, I was never encouraged, and thus never really gravitated towards sports in a meaningful way. I invested my pot-washing earnings on cassette tapes, trainers, fast food, hair gel and five quid crumbs of cannabis resin as and when budget allowed. I was a skater, a tagger, a band member, and a raver – with a fashion timeline including shell suits, Converse, army surplus, oversized flared jeans, Gio-Goi rave gear, Troop, British Knights and Nike trainers – plus a shitload of other ‘looks’ I dare not mention. The Air Jordan was the Holy Grail of kicks back then, and tracksuits and illfitting clothes were my wardrobe for what seemed like a lifetime. Back then, we didn’t have mobile phones or the Internet, and you could only advertise on two telly channels. I suspect it was rather easier being a brand or advertising creative in those years.

Perhaps, therefore, brands also found it easier to be part of their customers’ culture. Or was it less complicated? Fucked if I know. But one thing’s for sure: they got some ace briefs.

1988 Nike issued this brief. The agency’s response to it became one of the most famous advertising lines in brand history and has since grown into something far more powerful. The words? "JUST DO IT". The author? Dan Wieden. Stating the obvious, every creative would give a limb for regular briefs like this. Why? Because this brief has a genuine ‘why’! I think the latest buzzword for this is ‘purpose’. Same shit, different wrapper. Even back in 1988, Nike genuinely wanted to be integral to sports culture - and not because someone in their marketing

al context

Even back in 1988, Nike genuinely wanted to be integral to sports culture 91

What does gre department said, “let’s make cultural authenticity a core part of our brand.” They were just way ahead of the curve and therefore proactively empowered their agencies to do great work. Nike had a simple set of rules because they knew their brand had intrinsic value to offer its customers and the wider cultural and subcultural groups to which they belonged. What may have started out as an advertising slogan, ‘JUST DO IT’ is now a whole lot more. Back then, it was just advertising; now it’s a culturally fused brand mantra that goes way beyond words. It’s an attitude. Nowadays, Nike literally enables communities and subcultures to passionately enjoy sports – as a group and as individuals. Encouraging people at all levels to push themselves – to do – and at the very least, to try. Just so you know, my writing isn’t intended as some predictable and sycophantic drivel about Nike – please do bear with me. It would be easy for me to criticise the brands that get cultural authenticity wrong, but there are of course, plenty that are getting it right – Nike, Vans, Red Bull, Adidas – the list is endless. The main thing is that there’s a fine line where brand creative work of this nature either sits comfortably with consumers’ cultural drivers, or looks like that Terry-Topper twat we all steer clear of at parties. 92

Lest we forget: whilst many brands are getting it wrong and coming across as disingenuous, at least they are trying – which is better than nothing.

Culture and authenticity: the new brand brief Surely brands trying to be connected to cultures are actually part of the problem? Gen Z and the Millennial mindsets are both openly demanding authenticity as standard, and this will undoubtedly help put an end to a great deal of disingenuous brand activity. But in the meantime, there’s a long way to go, as traditional creative marketers and agencies struggle to get beyond making superficial creative that attempts (yet fails) to be real and authentic to their audience. Want loyal customers? Act like a brand that deserves it. Give your customers a believable reason to care. Make meaningful content, or make nothing at all. What does great look like? Brands who build an audience by truly learning to understand them (and I don’t mean a Keynote with some pigeon-holing demographics) and constantly, proactively seek to give their audience what they love and ask for. Brands that listen; that give, give, give – and then ask – once they’ve earned permission. If done right, these brands become a real, positive addition to culture

eat look like? and can amplify it far beyond traditional reach. These brands have the potential to become institutions and/or patrons of people’s subcultures, brands linked to passion and empowerment – a genuine understanding of how people feel and live. Selling a deeply felt attitude and mindset, rather than a tagline and a hamfisted exercise in brand association. These brands have no need to think about being cool; they just are cool. And when I say “cool”, I mean relevant to whichever audience they’re trying to connect with. Big, small, B2B, B2C, local, regional, international – it doesn’t matter – the rules still apply.

marketers to survive and evolve, we have to constantly challenge ourselves to ensure our messaging is aligned to what people really need and are genuinely passionate about. And that’s what brands and agencies need to point towards. Not in some cynical and superficial way, but in a real and believable way, because the brand really believes it. This passion needs to come from within though - from the absolute centre of your brand. THAT’S where the great work will come. When everyone believes it. And I look forward to seeing that unwavering belief in more brand briefs in the near future.

The Future I’m no guru or futurologist and in case you haven’t noticed, at no point have I used the word “digital”. Mainly because every time I hear the words “digital marketing” I let out a slightly tearful yawn. Digital is integral, digital is tactics, but I’m talking about strategy. Most importantly, there’s no business without

Martin O’Toole FIST OF FURY

relevance. For brands and

hello@TheMediaPeople.london 94

The

Online. Offline. We are your people.

Media People London

@TheMediaPeople 95

WHAT WE ARE

READING... Satin Island Tom McCarthy

" We don’t want plot, depth or content. We want angles, arcs and intervals; we want pattern." This rallying line from contemporary novelist, artist and cultural critic Tom McCarthy permeates each of his four novels; however, it is in his most recent 2015 novel Satin Island that this demand for pattern is fully realised. It’s a novel that insists on mapping and documenting the underlying schematic of society, an attempt to identify the one, singular overarching system by which every aspect of life and culture is dictated. For the novel’s narrator, this anthropological obsession is not purely academic. Instead, of course, he is hired by a corporation to work on a worldwide ‘Project’ so allencompassing, pervasive and deeply

rooted that it goes unnoticed by billions. The purpose of this project remains unclear as McCarthy’s narrator produces dossier after dossier on seemingly random topics, from oil spills to sky diving accidents. McCarthy’s writing compels his readers to mirror this search for meaning, desperately fumbling to link and associate fleeting moments and impressions. By the novel’s close, readers are left piecing together a narrative that walks the line between comedy, tragedy, and philosophy as it explores the appropriation and misappropriation of culture within the modern world.

Sapiens

Yuval Noah Harari

Translated into over 45 languages and firmly planted on The New York Times best-seller list, Dr Yuval Noah Harari's 2011 book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind sets itself the amicably ambitious task of exploring the entirety of human history. From "the very first humans", which he places as the emergence of Homo sapiens, Harari explores the biological, anthropological and scientific history of our species, covering culture, society, economics, and ending with a prediction for the future - all within 400 pages. Much of Harari's statements on the overarching history of homo sapiens stands uncontested; however, for scholars such as anthropologist Christopher Robert Hallpike, this is because the book constrains no "serious contribution to knowledge". In other words, it's nothing new. Instead, Sapiens is full of sensational buzz phrases, vividly written, but perhaps lacking nuance, e.g. the "Faustian bargain between humans and grains".

.... Many parts of Harari's work seem unsourced and speculative; however, as he writes - "consistency is the playground of dull minds." As a piece of infotainment, Sapiens does its job well, becoming a bestseller around the world. But when it comes to tackling "the biggest questions of history and of the modern world", we're reserving judgement.

"Biology enables, culture forbids."â&#x20AC;?

James Dutton Editor 97

WE ARE ARE NOT NOT WE MAKERS OF OF MAKERS HISTORY. HISTORY. WE ARE ARE MADE MADE WE BY HISTORY. HISTORY. BY Martin Luther King Jr. 99

nfortunately, the word authenticity is to product and branding what the word boutique is to retail, artisan is to product experience, or audacious is to football commentary. You know “audacious”… someone said it about a lob or sly pass in the nineties and it has been applied to every slightly out of the norm replay for three decades now. Each word, along with authenticity, are overly and incorrectly used. At its core, authenticity relates to meaningfulness: why, where, and how something was made. Who used it, where and when? Did it win trophies or create moments in time? How does that authenticity relate to the product that is put in front of you today? Does it still make you tingle? There are some great examples of truly authentic brands out there. I spent a few years working for New Era Cap, and they have it all. A rich history of physical product and stories that have lived for nearly one hundred years. Their core product, the on-field Major League Baseball cap, is the same as it was in the 1950s. But is it, and should it be, the same product? No, of course not. The demands of today’s sport and the innovation surrounding it mean that it’s an entirely different product that fits today’s purpose. Wool has been

100

replaced with moisture wicking, cooling fabric – it’s lighter, niftier, sharper in colour and produced with modern manufacturing methods. Is it still authentic? Yes, of course. Imagine if Ferrari wheeled out Alberto Ascari in the 1952 Ferrari 500 for the 2018 F1 season, how would he have fared? Play out Premiership, NBA or NFL matches with equipment from the 1950s, and imagine how different the spectacle would look. The innovation of authenticity is absolutely key to sport, and to many other areas as well. The future belongs to the innovator. There’s a constant battle going on between heritage and innovation, both of which can make a brand authentic. Take the phone out of your pocket and consider what you would have pulled out fifteen years ago. Nokia, Blackberry or Sony Eriksson, I’m guessing? Authenticity in tech is about providing the right experience for the now. It’s already happening in tech and the mobile phone market and is now extending to cars. Innovation will override heritage as we move away from petrol and diesel vehicles. Already, Tesla can’t keep up with demand, but what will happen when Apple carries out its plan to launch cars? Put this question in your diary for October 2033….“What car did you have fifteen years ago?”

WH AU MEA TO ME, EVE

HAT DOES UTHENTICITY AN YOU, , ERYBODY?

I suggest that, just like your phone, innovation will beat heritage in deciding what is authentic and meaningful in 2033. While we are on cars, this leads me to the subject of ‘diluted authenticity’. Having grown up drooling over the Aston Martin DB4 (devastatingly destroyed in The Italian Job), and the DB5 used in many a Bond Movie, I was confused to start seeing the iconic grille featured on Ford Focus and Mondeo models throughout the past eight years. There is much speculation on how this happened, including that Ford retained ‘Grille Rights’ when it sold most of its share in Aston Martin in 2007. I’m not an Aston Martin owner, but, as a fan, this always left me cold. Diluted authenticity is also alive and well in sport. The 1981 Wimbledon final between Borg and McEnroe (some say the greatest tennis match of all time) featured a Donnay racket in Borg’s hand and a Dunlop one in McEnroe’s. If I want to buy into either of those brands these days, my best option is a six pack of socks for £3.99. Authenticity diluted beyond repair. These are examples of the balance between authenticity and revenue in business; I’m guessing that the 1981 Wimbledon final is more important to me than those running these brands in 2018.

101

The rackets are gone, along with much of the fuzzy feeling their brands gave to me, and there’s no coming back from that. The last couple of years have brought about the rise of the term “fake news,” but this existed in brand and product for much longer. Take Superdry, the incredibly successful and globally relevant fashion brand, Japanese and high contrast in all of its identity…and from Gloucestershire. It’s designed to provide authentic feel and messaging, whether or not you buy into it is based on how much you value authenticity. Or, as long as the imagery, year and place names feel authentic, is that enough for you? The same exists with fast food retail; take any type of fast food, add a building type, and Google it. Pizza Ranch, Kebab Villa, Chicken Mansion… they’ll all exist, thanks to Pizza Hut. At the mainstream level, pure authenticity isn’t fundamental to the consumer. As long as they look and feel authentic, that’s often good enough! Fauxthenticity is the toolbox of the plagiarist. A level below this, you have the (often hilarious) high street retail graphic tee business. The creator will usually take an iconic location and date (say… Brooklyn 1978), and plaster that to the front of a tee. Now, I can only assume that what comes up on top of a

102

Google search for Brooklyn 1978 was the designer’s inspiration. In this case, there was a blizzard, a giant snow storm, is that the message here? This also comes back to how highly you value authenticity. Personally, I won’t be wearing an Ipanema Beach Surf Club 1968 tee unless A. I was a surfer / had a major interest in surf and B. I knew it existed and had meaning. Does it exist? I don’t know, it sounds authentic though… Heritage, innovation, genuine, performance, authenticity are often best left in the eyes and hearts of the beholder. Artisan sandwiches will always be my favourite…. handmade, using skill and high quality ingredients, you’d be foolish to claim otherwise. Anyone ever had a sandwich that wasn’t somewhat artisan? So, authenticity can mean many things to many different people, and is entirely dependent on your objectives. Do you want to give or have authentic experiences? Is revenue or low cost a driver for you as either provider or consumer? The most important thing is to know how important it is to you and what you do. If your messaging is true and you’re true to your message, you’re authentic. And don’t forget that, or you’ll be diluting your own authenticity! Danny Clare

I’m a firm believer that it’s the fans that make the brand, and not just the people behind it. This thinking, I believe, applies to brand culture as well. The craft beer movement has become a by-product of British alternative culture. It has largely been driven by the rise of the little man in business, as well as the anti-conformist attitudes within British society, particularly within the millennial generation (sorry – I hate to use labels like that). The baby boomer generation were fond of drinks such as Babycham, and any consumption today of a drink like that (yes, you can actually buy Babycham in stores today) evokes a nostalgic feeling of the wealth and prosperity experienced during the height of the 80s. Craft beer seems more, or at least started more, as a rebellion against corporate power. Young people wanted something they could identify with, tapping into their antiestablishment spark. Although the big beer brands had great advertising campaigns behind them (Carlsberg – Ice Cold in Alex, as an example), there was no feeling of affinity towards them; these felt like drinks that didn’t belong to their generation. Craft beer had the power to tell a deeper story that was laced in heritage and focused on the making of the product – what went on behind the scenes, rather than a focus on the associations of being seen drinking it.

104

The Cu of Cra

ulture aft

If you look at the story of the craft movement in general, it was gin that made the big step. When Sipsmith gin defeated legislation and paved the way for distillers to produce alcohol in smaller batches, this helped give the little guy a fighting chance. This David vs. Goliath battle can be seen as a culturally significant moment in the craft drink movement, echoing the cultural association we feel for craft beer brands – “I’m supporting the underdog!” There are, of course, excellent examples of beer brands changing cultural associations for the better, removing the negative and unwanted ones they had become linked to. Stella Artois’ sponsorship of Wimbledon a few years ago, followed by their quirky heritage focused advertising campaigns is just one example. Stella Artois transformed themselves into a premium beer that could be enjoyed eloquently from a sophisticated chalice, playing upon how the beer was regarded in countries such as France and Belgium. Culture is something that will, without my explicitly knowing it, be important to me when it comes to craft beer. I may not be the hipster that everyone might associate craft beer with, but part of me likes to root for the little guy and play a part, somehow, in a story that speaks to me. Chris Henry The Crafty Chris Instagram: @thecraftychris 105

IF IT'S STUPID THEN IT ISN'T

106

D BUT WORKS, STUPID.

107

CULTURE

STOP

108

STOP

P O ST

109

110

LETâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BE

ONE MESSAGE AT A TIME Falling into that clean sheet feeling

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR TODAY? #IAMTHANKFULFOR 111 thankful.org

A NATION'S CULTURE RESI IN THE HEARTS AND IN TH OF ITS PEOPLE.

112

IDES HE SOUL

113

___NEXT ISSUE: #4 People are Awsome The next issue of Human Magazine will take a look at Humans. They say "People are Awesome", and we all know the rallying cry "Power to the People", but in the aftermath of Brexit and Trump has democracy failed? Our sports stars are becoming heroes off the field and our sports heroes are losing their shit on the court should sport and politics mix? Which humans will save the planet and why are some humans so keen to move to another? Are women finally winning the fight for power and equality, or are the men still failing to celebrate and back the girls? A look at the great, the good and the bad that people can do. Exposing and highlighting outstanding endeavours and moments of brilliance and madness. Serena, Trump, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and the unsung heroes of business and culture.

DECEMBER 2018

114

human. Brought to you by Kemosabe. 72-82 Roseberry Avenue London EC1R 4RW __FOR ALL ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT: Ian Irving - ian@wearekemosabe.com Emily Perryment - emily@wearekemosabe.com

115