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The theme(s) of the decade.

Posted 09.19.08 by Adrian Ho

It’s a well known phenomenon that the theme that defines the decade only becomes clearly apparent in the last few years of that decade. In the 90s the theme was Self-Reliance. Rocked by scandals in the Government, Big Business and the Church, Americans decided that they could only count on themselves. They shopped in bulk to prepare for the end of the World, drove large SUVs driving over rubble and put down root in even larger homes guarded by rapid response alarm systems.

For me, the iconic ad from that period was Fallon’s work for Prudential, turning the Rock of Prudential – an idea about the stability and trustworthiness of the company into a self-reliance message around the idea: Be your own rock.

In the 90s it was pretty easy to figure out what the defining theme was; in the 00s it’s been harder. However, I think we’re starting to see the seeds of the theme that will dominate mass culture for the next few years.

As usual, it’s the car companies who are attempting to capitalise upon it first:

Here’s Audi with its “Progress is beautiful” campaign

And then, Acura with it’s very similar “Advance” theme

While the explicit theme here is progress, I think the underlying idea they’re both trying to capture is one I’ve talked a bit about. The demographic changing of the guard and the resulting shift in values that is bringing. You can see people trying to get to grips with this everywhere – most visibly in the campaign themes of both political parties here – Change.

However, I think they’re missing the mark.

While Change and Progress describe what’s happening, they don’t (in the way that self-reliance did) describe a core belief that a lot of people share. One problem is that the people on the side of progress define themselves in large part by a multitude of different beliefs. The larger problem is that many of the people creating the campaigns are on the wrong side of those values and are trying to connect with customers who are nothing like them. Change and Progress feel very much (to me) like the attempts of old guys trying to connect with younger people, without really understanding them.

This problem isn’t going to last forever, as a new guard of marketers and agency people come to power, I think we’ll see a lot of brands sieze upon emerging values and beliefs in less clumsy ways. That’s when we’ll really see the themes of the decade become apparent.

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  • dave

    Could the real theme that’s emerging be a mainstream questioning of progress? So much of our supposed progress is now being weighed down with the guilt of environmental, social and health impacts.

    Could it be that the theme of this decade is almost impossible to co-opt by advertisers because it so directly attacks the consumption they’ve helped to create?

    Are advertisers really just fighting the theme of the decade?

  • http://zeusjones.com adrian

    Good point, I do think you’re onto something there. A lot of the new values have to do with limiting consumption in one form or another. However, most data I’ve seen says the majority of people aren’t in favour of returning to the past, but rather progressing in a smart, sustainable way. Progress per se isn’t necessarily good or bad it’s how we progress that’s important.

  • rafael

    Hey, I hate this Audi ad too! And I felt the same way when I saw it! Thanks for sharing this thought. Great observation. I’m tired of brands with empty or wrong messages.

  • susan

    I think you’re both right–the emerging theme, especially clear in the past two weeks of financial crises, is the idea that Excess is Evil. Or maybe not “Evil.” But Excess is Out. So yes, it’s questioning progress, and it’s about limiting consumption in a smart sustainable way. There’s still plenty of room for advertisers to compete here–it requires integrity–relevance and differentiation–a wheat and chaff thing

  • http://zeusjones.com Adrian Ho

    I remember being in meetings after 9/11. I worked on United Airlines and everyone was convinced that travel would never be the same again. They were right but not in the ways we thought.

    I feel that the same is true for the recovery from this financial crisis. Things will change, but I’m not sure if it will lead to people stopping their consumption for good. I think we may start to consume fewer things but more services. I wrote about this a while ago.

    http://tinyurl.com/4ups6s

  • Mark Nelson

    I think the theme is emerging. The 90′s and early 00s, with attendent increases in wealth and technology, generated a massive expansion in the amount of personal autonomy available to the average Joe (you call it “self-reliance”, but that implies it was reactive when it was really emancipative). We were given more choice, we were allowed to be more individualistic, we got to put our hands on the controls, we had more power to be ourselves and we liked it. A lot. A number of political scientists and behaviourists have identified autonomy as a fundamental human motivational force. With that new-found power, came increased expectations of accountability, not just towards business, but our core societal institutions. These institutions are collapsing as I write this because they are top-down beauracracies not designed for responsiveness. They simply cannot change as rapidly as people want them to. What we are witnessing is creative destruction. What emerges will undoubtedly be more responsive, people-driven institutions. Or at least that is what people want. Though it challenges my “small government” instincts to the core, we are seeing a massive shift in public opinion towards government-based solutions not seen since the 1930s. This despite current institutional approval ratings near negative territory.

    I don’t have a clever handle yet for the emerging theme but it’s that people are finally coming to grips with our inter-connectedness. There is something of a paradox here in that we are far more individualistic than ever before but spend much or our time building cooperative networks. Cooperative individualism? Sound like an oxymoron but there you are. I do not think for a minute that this movement towards cooperation is idealogically driven. It’s really pragmatic. We now realize that we are more likely to get more of what we want as individuals if we cooperate and help others do the same. Or as the saying goes,”what goes around comes around”, especially in a networked world.

  • http://zeusjones.com Adrian Ho

    Mark you really are a closet liberal. Just come out and you’ll feel much better not having to hate people who aren’t like you. It may be awkward around the parents for a bit, but they’ll understand in time and won’t stop loving you.

    Think you’re right about cooperation, but is that the underlying fundamental driver that’s pushing everything else forwards – not sure. Will have to think about it.

  • susan

    An interesting note: volunteerism is at an all time high; and US charitable giving topped $300B for the first time in 2007, and at least before the past two weeks was tracking at the same rate this year. Definitely a recognition of inter-connectedness, and symbolic of the perceived failure of institutions. We may quickly forget, and return to our pre-financial-crisis overly-indulgent American consumerism. But, if you ladder on the global environmental crisis, obesity, macroeconomic right-sizing, and the rise of China and India, we may enter an era where spending fits our pocketbooks again. One can hope.

  • http://zeusjones.com Adrian Ho

    Hi Susan, you raise an interesting thought for me which is that the thing that links both communal and eco-consciousness is simply an expanded consciousness beyond oneself and one’s local surroundings.

    Information about what happens on the other side of the planet is often more visible than information about what happens in your own backyard, this makes our borders and communities less clearly defined and forces us to expand our definition of neighbour and backyard.

    I think this also leads to an inevitable increase in liberal values (sorry Mark). Because if people anywhere are just as likely to be our friends as our physical neighbours and if your land is just as important as my land then I don’t need to build big fences around my stuff anymore.

    BTW related to that Joan Baez in Moore’s new film, Slacker Uprising (Pretty sure you’ve already seen that Mark) sings Finland’s national anthem. She says it’s the only anthem that expresses pride about its own country while also admitting that other countries are pretty cool too.

  • Mark Nelson

    I used to be the family liberal, but I got tired of being beaten up. Now I feel the same about my conservative leanings. I just can’t win.

    Adrian, depends on what you mean by “liberal values”.

    Not being evil? Well, I never thought that was a part of conservative philosophy (at least my corner of it), though some Republicans clearly tested the boundaries of that premise.

    Tolerance, yes. Tolerance is required in a connected/cooperative world. It just makes sense. I may not agree with your politics, but we may share a passion for Pinot Noir. That is how we increasingly organize our relationships and in establishing these connections, however superficial, is the seed of a system that can bind us back together again. The beauty of a networked world is that there are built-in feedback mechanisms. Maintaining your relationships requires reciprocity. Fail and you lose your connections.

    Sheesh, I do sound like a liberal.

    I would agree that many conservatives will become more “liberal” just as many Liberals are becoming more “conservative” (Europe is not becoming more liberal).

  • nigel carr

    hi–expected to find some thought provocation here and certainly not disappointed.

    i do agree with the original contention that promising “change” sounds like old out of touch politicians (and brands) trying to lather up the young voter with all the fading power that the pandering condescension of “shared values” can muster.

    also agree that emerging rampant distrust of every large institution is a given–from corporations, to government, to markets, to the failure of essential public services like schools, social security and healthcare (oops sorry i forgot healthcare’s not a social service, it’s a business category ;)

    i like where you’re all going with the idea that’s bubbling up in this thread that “interconnectedness” is the new self reliance.

    this is than the old “think global act local” call to action, because the “grass roots” can now be a global movement or start one.

    the impact of sustainability issues on the planet IS focusing some of this–hence the huge and growing interest in green markets, local produce, organic and micro everything. and this isn’t just about politics and science–it’s also about flavour and experience–about the personal pleasure of exercising your individuality and actually tasting things.

    so even when what you want is not available locally there’s desire (and opportunity) to find and build relationships with small batch producers, to buy direct from smaller entities with larger personalities, to bypass big corporations and even to barter services instead of buying them (eg home exchange or just staying with friends as a much more fulfilling basis for a vacation than a big impersonal hotel chain).

    as people start to develop their own human networks as alternate infrastructures and marketplaces to the vulnerable status quo of big business, big government, mass entertainment etc, those institutions will have to listen and evolve to avoid making their constituents angry and disenfranchised.

    and do it fast.

    look at walmart. this can work.

    and as those large institutions start to realise how important it is to listen and act on what they’re hearing, some of that brainpower that’s just been planning advertising campaigns all these years may start to become available to plan the unleashing of a new social fabric.

    gosh this could be fun.
    how do we get started?

    cheers,
    nigel
    ps: say hi to rob from me

  • http://www.zeusjones.com/blog/2008/more-on-the-theme-of-the-decade-interconnectedness/ From The Head Of Zeus Jones » Blog Archive » More on the theme of the decade – interconnectedness?

    [...] post on the theme of the decade generated a bunch of really great comments from Mark, Susan and Nigel (Thanks!) and more [...]

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