Thanks for the meme-ories
About this time of year, one of my favourite ads starts appearing on TV. It’s very simple, it’s not flashy or gimmicky like some of the more traditional Xmas ads. A ‘mindreader’ tell us he’s going to show us an object, and he wants us to say the first thing that comes into our heads. Up comes a photo of a roll of sticky tape. ‘I know what you’re thinking’, he says – and that’s it. The ad is, of course, for Sellotape. It’s a powerful demonstration of how some brands can become part of our culture – like the ‘Google’ phenomenon discussed in an earlier post, everyone knows that the tape we use to wrap presents is Sellotape, whether we bought a generic version at the pound shop or parted with significantly more cash for the real thing.
This cultural acceptance of something as ‘true’ simply because everyone believes it to be is an example of what Richard Dawkins and a number of other proponents (among them former Microsoft executive Richard Brodie) call ‘memes’. Described as a ‘virus of the mind’, memes were originally defined as ‘units of culture’ (opinions, ideas, beliefs, behaviours etc) which live in the minds of ‘hosts’ and reproduce themselves from individual to individual.
Over the years, the internet has provided the ideal petri dish for growing and spreading memes of all kinds (many of them involving cats, Chuck Norris and, more recently, owls). Ideas and opinions can spread instantaneously across the world, reaching millions of people and gaining a hold on at least a few thousand of them. And, if the meme is robust enough, that’s all it takes – it becomes part of the fabric of the internet, where it thrives and evolves as the audience adapts it and makes it their own.
For brands hoping to make an impact online, establishing themselves as memes in their own right or as part of a bigger meme can be a dream come true – or a living nightmare. Because memes can’t be forced – their nature is spontaneous, they happen without conscious effort and, unlike viral campaigns where especially interesting or skilful ads are shared between and appreciated by a largely positive audience, they can sometimes be ‘evolved’ to say things that aren’t particularly complimentary to your brand.
Some examples
- The Mastercard ‘priceless’ campaign started out as a skilful combination of emotion, aspiration and hard cash, running through an itemised bill for various goods and services, ending with an item which money can’t buy. ‘For everything else, there’s Mastercard’ is the strapline, and it has given rise to several thousand adapted ads, including political, celebrity and current affairs versions. There’s no doubt that it spreads the word effectively, but it can backfire - a recent Wikileaks parody subverted the campaign and criticised the credit card provider using its own message.
- Should’ve gone to SpecSavers – this memorable campaign, featuring a number of unfortunate people in a variety of spectacularly challenging situations, spawned a whole raft of parodies and spoofs. Some of them are gentle and harmless (Jensen Button’s Chinese Grand Prix faux pas), and some portray the brand in a slightly more worrying way (a version of the much-adapted ‘Downfall’ film meme exists with less than complimentary Specsavers-related subtitles).
- The hugely successful Old Spice ‘The man your man could smell like’ campaign, designed to appeal to the YouTube generation, demonstrates very effectively that, while you can’t force a meme into existence, if you provide just the right blend of ideas in just the right environment, you might get lucky.
Of course, following one basic rule of thumb when it comes to online promotion will help to make sure that, in the event that your campaign does become a meme and you effectively lose control of your original message, it will have a largely benevolent effect on your brand. Simply ‘practising what you preach’ - being honest, keeping promises and staying true to brand values - will go a long way towards preventing the creative guerrillas inhabiting the internet from exploiting any perceived gaps in your armour.
This blog post was written by Steph
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