When Thomas More coined âutopiaâ he chose the name carefully. Derived from Greek, it translates as ânowhereâ to emphasize it was impossible to achieve. Imperfect humans cannot create a perfect place. Itâs a confusing work, often interpreted as satire. In âUtopiaâ, there is a welfare state, free hospitals, women can be priests, no private property but they have slaves. See, confusing. It would be 300 years before John Stuart Mill coined its opposite, dystopia, meaning âbad placeâ. Humanity is suppressed by Orwellâs Big Brother and propagandistic Newspeak, whereas Huxleyâs Brave New World kept people passive with drugs and immersive entertainments called âfeeliesâ. These briefest highlights surely clarify why such ideas have become common again, as elements from fiction appear in the present.
Advertising dramatizes extreme situations from mundane problems and makes glorious promises of extreme consequences from everyday consumer products
It bounces from dystopian depictions to utopian promises. We accept these as âpufferyâ – exaggerated claims that are so obvious consumers couldnât literally believe them and hence arenât âfalse advertisingâ. Brand communication naturally tends towards self aggrandizement. Gillette called itself âThe Best a Man Can Getâ for decades. Coors Light calls itself âThe Worldâs Most Refreshing Beerâ. BMW was the âUltimate Driving Machineâ and Disneyland is the âHappiest Place on Earthâ. However, we should always consider other options, especially if we want to stand out when so many brands claim to be THE best.
Utopias are impossible and dystopias unlikely. Techno-utopians over sold technology as the solution to every problem whilst ignoring the negative externalities. In Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work, the philosopher John Danaher takes up the Keynesian observation that increased automation will cut down the working week. That hasnât happened as yet, for various structural and sociological reasons, as people either work two jobs to make ends meet or long hours and weekends in highly paid âwhite collarâ jobs. The Great Resignation continues across all industries. Advertising, famous for long hours and last minute requests on a Friday night, is experiencing its own talent crisis. Danaher suggests automation will inevitably make human work obsolete, which could be good because we could spend our time in leisure and intellectual pursuits in a virtual utopia, a vision that Meta seems to endorse.
But Metaverses donât exist yet and we all still have to work, so what about now?
The founder of Wired Magazine Kevin Kelly offers an alternative: âI think our destination is neither utopia nor dystopia nor status quo, but protopia. Protopia is a state that is better than today than yesterday, although it might be only a little better.â
Instead of pessimism or optimism, he counsels meliorism, that belief that things can get better. Things arenât the best but they can improve. Advertisers have also seen great success with this humble approach. DDBâs classic Avis campaign proudly announced they were number two with the slogan âWe Try Harderâ. A much loved British Rail advert from the 1980âs promised âWeâre getting thereâ. Maybe instead of grand social purposes brands could just try to make things a little better for their customers? Maybe answer the phone a bit faster?
A paper in the Journal of Consumer Research helps explain why. In âWeâll Be Honest, This Wonât Be the Best Article Youâll Ever Read: The Use of Dispreferred Markers in Word-of-Mouth Communicationâ, the authors explain that consumers âfrequently seek refuge from the carefully crafted messages of professional marketers by seeking out unvarnished opinions of other consumersâ. Negative information is more likely to be diagnostic but we find it socially awkward to be too negative. Thus people soften pronouncements with phrases like âIâll be honest,â âDonât get me wrong,â or âI donât want to be mean, but . . . .â The paper concludes that âconsumers evaluate communicators who use dispreferred markers as both more credible and more likeable than communicators who assert the same information without.â
Being more credible and likeable seems like a good thing for brands, especially brands in the UK where the braggadocious mode of US advertising can come across a bit strong. Donât get me wrong, thereâs some great ads over there, but you know what I mean. So perhaps consider a protopian approach to advertising and communicate that your brand is trying to get a little better every day. Iâll be honest, I donât know if thatâs a great idea, but hopefully you like me and find me more credible now anyway.
Featured image: Disneyland / Disney parks blog
