Nine took on the theme of identity and branding yesterday during its “I Am What I Am, Identities And Brands” panel at Nine’s Big Ideas Store.
The panelists included MAF’s Sandy Jawanda, Miss Universe contestant and activist Maria Thatill, Loren Watling, from research company Fiftyfive5 and Stewart Gurney, chief strategy officer at Kaimera.
Jessica Parry, head of Powered Studios, moderated the panel.
Thatill, who is of Indian heritage and grew up in Australia, spoke candidly about the sad realities of growing up as an ethnic minority teenager.
“So growing up, I talked about wanting to wash away the brown because it was easier for me to find skin-bleaching creams than it was for me to find makeup in my shade in Australian supermarkets”.
“When I was in my 20s I used to work in beauty marketing as an intern. And when I was doing the marketing for a luxury beauty brands I asked them when my colour would come and they said ‘Australia is not the market for darker shades’”.
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Jawanda, also spoke honestly about the significant struggles she faced as an Indian-Australian woman appearing on the reality dating show MAFS.
“So growing up, I had to, you know, hide who I really was, and conform to what my parents wanted for me. But then to go on the show, I had to go against all of that and push against the values and things that have been taught to me. To push against that is difficult, it’s not easy to do.”
When asked what was the most surprising thing to come from the Fiftyfive5 research on identity, Watling said that people are still figuring out their identity in later life.
“You can easily hypothesize that people in certain phases or stages or stages of life might be feeling more at one and a bit more aligned with their identity. What we saw was that no matter who you are, there are elements of the identity feel you are moving towards, that is evolving, they are still being figured out. When we look at the generational theory, we’ve talked about how in your teens, you’re working out who you are and really getting to grips with, experimenting, and exploring. That’s still happening into your 50s or 60s or 70s”.
For Gurney, advertising has generally shifted away from “polished” images to more emotional connections.
“So that’s a really free thing for advertising. I think now we’ve got the opportunity to connect with consumers on a very different emotional and emotional level”.
