In 1968, I went from Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes, then said to be America's largest housing project, to Chicago's North Michigan Avenue (I've since dubbed it "The Mad Mile"), where many of the world's biggest advertising agencies had their offices.
I became one of the first AfrAmericans hired to become creative ad folks. I worked at legendary agencies, starting at Foote, Cone & Belding (now just FCB), McCann-Erickson, Young & Rubicam (Y&R), Needham, Harper & Steers, (now DDB), J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett and Burrell (then the largest "black" agency in the world).
I was 20 years old when I started. Now I'm 70.
So I spent 35 of the last 50 years creating ads and commercials for the biggest ad agencies and brands in the world.
But it was only about 8 years ago that it dawned on me that everything I'd learned in the ad game applied to solving America's oldest and most potentially devastating problem - racism and white supremacy. One word explained it all: Brand.
How do we move past consumerism?
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DeleteHuh? What do you think that has to do with this subject? I'm serious. Please 'splain.
Please excuse my delayed response--I wasn't notified of your reply.
ReplyDeleteAh hem, now, to my point. It seems to me that brands are able to enlist the top creatives to produce snazzy advertisements to sell, poor, unsuspecting humans products that they don't need because people are addicted to seeking external goods (and validation) to fill their internal voids. They truly think they will be made complete by that next "thing" and are willing to sacrifice money, dignity, better judgment...superior human intellect to get it. So, how do you convince people that they're already whole? I'd like to see a global campaign that's not selling anything, just the truth of who we are. What about you?
Thanks Weanee. I just saw this while posting the final version of the cover. Whadya think?
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting points. And you hit at the heart of the matter...and of my book. Although I'll argue some of your assertions, I agree with lots of it. I can hardly wait to see what I say.
So you enriched yourself off the backs off the hardworking black community by creating ads to dupe them of their money? And then have the balls of a tyrant to hawk a book on social media that tries (and fails) to stoke racial animosity? Sit the fuck down Pirate -niqqa! SMGDH. Old people suck.
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DeleteDo you think it’s possible for “old people” to reach a point in their careers/lives where their priorities change? Where the reasons they began no longer align with who they are? Wouldn’t it be lovely and incredibly human and inspiring if this happened AND they acted on the shift? Couldn’t us young learn something from that?
DeleteMy Review: A Brand New Way to Make America Great Again. Period!
ReplyDeleteThe RaceMan does it again! The idea, that the way we've got to where we are, as a society, is through the process of branding, at first thought, is ludicrous, but as I thought more about how the word brand is being used today, a light bulb lit up the corners of my mind and I said, the RaceMan, Lowell Thompson, is on to something!
When the term brand was used back in the day, it referenced something new, like a pair of brand new sneakers. Or, branding humans, alluded to what some Black fraternities do to their members, or what farmers do to their cattle or horses, claiming ownership.
Branding Humans today has a whole new meaning. Actors, athletes, entertainers, are now doing what corporations have been doing for years, You often hear celebrities say, "I have to protect my brand", as opposed to my reputation or simply myself. America had to protect their image to control how Americans, in particular and the world at large, perceives them. TheRaceMan, breaks this down in Branding Humans: Selling White Supremacy.
As Gil Scott Heron stated in The Revolution Will not be Televised, "when the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance!" Well the producers, also known as the 1%, has got the consumers, the 98%, dancing all the way to the stores while singing their song, on the way home, "Give the people what they want", the only thing is the branding of the products is what makes you want to have it! Lowell Thompson has a theory, the TTHB and without giving it away, let me just say that it is all inclusive and race sensitive. Both Blacks and Whites, can receive the information in peace, love and understanding for how we got to where we are which should allow us, the people of the USA, to come together like the stars in the sky, Making America Great, (MAG), just not again, (MAGA), which the POTUS, is promoting!
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