What Comes After Cool? (Article for Mediacat)

Last night at dinner my son – in the middle of a “why? why? why…?” line of enquiry a TV detective could have been proud of for its persistence – asked: “Why do I ask so many questions?” The answer may simply be that he is seven years old. And that curiosity at 7 years of age is a drive experienced as a kind of physical hunger. To quote a scene from the US comedy film “Uncle Buck” (where Macauley Culkin reveals to his uncle John Candy that his record for consecutive questions is 39) – “I’m a kid that’s my job”.

Fast forward ten years and the main psychological work of a young adult is to establish an identity – their place in the social world. Hence the drive, also experienced as an almost physical craving, to be cool. We use phrases like “achingly cool” to connote this longing. It’s not just an outward cultural thing of appearances. It is desire. A genie from the inner world that plays havoc with other plans and better intentions. Psychologist Erik Eriksson coined the phrase Identity Crisis to capture some of the turmoil of these teenage years. It is a human equivalent of the insect chrysalis phase – a withdrawal, emotionally turbulent inward reconfiguration and re-emergence as a butterfly; tragic, beautiful, wonderful to behold. In traditional societies teenagers went through initiation ceremonies to hasten and consolidate this transition from child to adult – even using terrifying rituals such as being buried alive. One unique feature that’s particular to this phase is individualism. In some societies young adults (for instance, girls at puberty) are sent away to live in the wilds outside the tribe. It’s a phase of social and sometimes mystical retreat – a quest to find yourself. But the point is that you are supposed to do so – not get lost in some lifelong quest – in order to consolidate a new social role as an adult.

The sensible thing for society as a whole being to get this over with. Whether accelerated through initiation, this stage is supposed to be fleeting. Many significant events could happen in that transition and establishment phase, such as finding a wife or husband, taking up a trade, setting up home. But it’s supposed to be a transition, not a destination. What seems to have happened with modern societies is we got stuck at this phase. In the 1990s American poet and men’s movement founder Robert Bly wrote a seminal book called “The Sibling Society” lamenting the failure of most American men to achieve the maturity that society needs from fathers, managers, citizens – something he described as characterised by resilience; a steadiness of gaze and underlying resolve (a quality of “true grit” so familiar only a generation earlier from cowboy movies). In a society where parents act like children, who is going to take responsibility for the many issues we face?

The drive to be cool – to establish, fashion, remake your identity – is the epitome of modern consumer marketing. “Buy this and be this” is the promise of most brands. Most obviously in the case of image products such as cars, perfumes, mobile phones, trainers and drinks. But also pervasively in the desire to be up to the minute, to be in the in-crowd. The aim of the “cool” phase transition in social terms is a fitting in. What today’s rapid cultural obsolescence has done is akin to the trick teenagers play on each other when a car door is opened, but just as you are about to get in, the car moves away, you catch up and then it moves again. This always just out of reachness – and the resulting frustration and fascination – could be said reach into the very fabric of consumer culture, for instance in the fast cut commercial which keeps us disorientated and yearning for closure? It’s this rapid cycling – from “in” to out in only a few years – that has driven one social media trend after the next. Much to the chagrin of those like the owners of Bebo who discovered the downside of cool marketing is the inevitable rapid redundancy of what is always already becoming “so last year”.

All of this is natural for 17 years olds. But it is troubling when the entire edifice of Western society – from 11 to 71 – is caught in the relentless pursuit of the cool. It’s at best a distraction (we really had more important things to focus on this year than the iPad). And at worst it’s a block on any real progress. Of course not everyone is caught up with this. We have children, companies, crises in life that can pull us past all of this into a more mature and balanced perspective. What comes naturally after cool – according to psychologist Erik Eriksson – is something called generativity. Again an almost physical drive or urge, this one concerns the longing to leave something of lasting value, to add something to the stock of human culture. It could be writing a book, making a short film about your community, passing life lessons on to grandchildren, volunteering, starting a business, building a house or school. Literally it means to act for future generations – or as Eriksson put it “for the good of the species”. But Eriksson saw this as a vital stage to reach not just for others but for your own mental health. The alternative to generativity is stagnation – getting stuck telling the old stories and every year becoming a slightly smaller, shriller, more stereotyped version of our former cool selves. Getting smaller as a person every year, like a Russian Doll. Conversely studies show that there is a strong positive correlation between wellbeing and involvement in generative activities (such as volunteering in the community).

I’ve couched all this in individual psychological terms because it’s something we can all relate to. But for our work – if we want to be generative and yet stay working in creative marketing – the challenge is to find ways that our companies, campaigns and clients can become generative. The built in obsolescence of cool and the addiction to buying stuff on some always futile quest for a new identity (futile because there is no destination) is the essence of what’s wrong with consumerism from a sustainability point of view. And the generative alternative holds the keys to more enduring, models of financial and cultural stability; building our brands around lifetime loyalty, shared values, a higher sense of purpose. Around the ideas for instance expressed by Linux (that a community were engaged in building something monumental) rather than Apple (the iCool brand).

Smart companies, ever attuned to the way the world is going, have already found their way to this realisation. For instance Unilever whose new vision statement is all about generativity: “We work to create a better future every day. We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.” (Even if you would rather just make “cool ads” there is still the inconvenient fact that leading clients like this have moved on – and you need to keep up!) How do you put generativity into action, in marketing? Regular readers will know that I believe one of the keys is co-operation; defined in games theory as behaviour where individuals act for a group goal (rather than individual interests firsts). Co-operation and generativity runs through many of the latest marketing campaigns I have been covering recently; for brands like Nike, Pepsi, Nokia or Obama’s election campaign…. This is the “how”. But the bigger challenge for the marketing sector is probably the “why?” – embracing. Beyond the branding and marketing of identity (cool brand images) to building a better world together. And it’s also a challenge to the prevailing culture of creative agencies; ultra cool, competitive-individualist and so very far from “grown up”?

Posted by John in Blog