The brighter the picture, the darker the negative. Everyone has a dark side, and often it’s the smiley, determinedly happy people who are the ones you have to watch. Carl Jung, an old-school psychologist, devoted his life to understanding the shadow.
He believed that in order to be truly fulfilled, we need to accept and incorporate our shadow into our self-identity. The same goes for our culture—to develop, we need to accept our cultural shadow, accept our dark side and move forward.
Only by facing our demons can we be free of them. To take the conversation down a level, this is the entire premise for the character Batman, and is beautifully dramatised in Batman Begins (a must see). Batman has incorporated his shadow, his fear, his hatred of bats, and his quest for revenge into his psyche and that’s what makes him so powerful.
All of us have a shadow, and we are very good at ignoring it. We project it onto others (i.e. when we don’t like something in them it’s often a projection of our shadow), we suppress it, or we let it out when we are not conscious—with alcohol and drugs. Like Batman, if we want to be strong we need to stop running from our shadow and embrace it.
Now if you’re still reading this is where it gets interesting as this is the role brands are playing in our lives.
We are starting to see brands express our shadow. Brands with evil, mischievous, naughty, rebellious and dark forms of expression are becoming more prevalent. As society becomes more sanitised and controlled—the ability to express our shadow through the brands we buy will become increasingly important.
Take the following example: Coopersbeer has a ghoulish campaign that welcomes us ‘To the dark side of the family’.
Now before you tune out, I feel obliged to give the customary FMCG example and it’s a brilliant one—OMO. The best campaign I’ve seen from Unileverin years is the ‘Dirt is good’ campaign. Here, OMO is acknowledging that without dirt there would be no need for detergent. Therefore the more dirt there is, the more sales of OMO there will be. This is a beautiful example of OMO, a whitening product, embracing its shadow, dirt. Expect more of this expression of the shadow as society develops, and here’s why.
In the 1980s brands promised a thin veneer of success. They were aspirational, promising everything you could be. But in the 1990s brands became a lot more reality focused and moved from being about your dreams and aspirations to a signpost of who you are.
The quest for authenticity and credibility will lead us to more and more reality. This will include brand messages tapping into thoughts and feelings that we all have, but are too afraid to express. It will mean more of our unmet desires will be expressed through advertising and will represent an interesting time for the regulators of our industry. Let’s hope they don’t miss the point.
Adam Ferrier is a consumer psychologist and Partner of Naked Communications. E: Adam@nakedcomms.com.au
