Mad, sad, glad

If brands are going to tell interesting, dramatic stories, we're going to have to learn to work with negative emotion. So many briefs and brand manuals mandate a tone that's UPBEAT! POSITIVE! HAPPY!, it's no wonder that the everyday face of advertising is the smiley-faced rictus of a serial Botox abuser. It somehow manages to make you uncomfortable and bored at the same time.

Any screenwriter can tell you that without negative emotion, you don't have a story at all. Problem-solution ads do have a sort of proto-story ("I was unhappy that my teeth weren't white, but now they are!") but the negative emotion is briskly swept away and we're left with an obvious pseudo conflict, too simplistic and incredible to be interesting.

Before it can become more culturally competitive, advertising needs to undergo a quick regimen of emotional therapy:
1. Negative emotions are not something to fear. They're a vital part of being human.
2. It is just as important (engaging, interesting) to express negative emotions as positive emotions.
3. Negative emotionality, in the right context, does not equal gloominess or pessimism.
4. Rigidly repressing negative emotions doesn't make you look happy. It makes you look insane.

Comments

[Faris]

Absolutely agree - prozac brands that only project happy are one dimensional and impossible to empathise with.

There is an emerging desire for brands to be authentic. Authenticity means expressing your dark side, your psychological shadow, as well as your light side - this makes the brand more substantial, more rounded.

By tapping into the full gamut of emotions the brand can help normalise emotions and thus better engage with real people.

[Rusty-Chubb]

Very interesting.

It strikes me that many people live a good portion of their lives in a negative emotional state. They even revel in it. They subconciously enjoy the feeling of being wronged or slighted. They don't know how to live without it.

We as human's have been blessed with sadness as being as part of our being and it should be engaged and tactfully exlpored if we hope to further our connection with someone.

[fernanda]

I wonder if anyone remember examples of brands that accepted and recognize negative feelings into "their lifes". Can't remember of any.
Now I have goods examples of the opposite attitude. Here in Brazil after we lost for France and got out of the World Cup )major sad event for the country) every brand that was communicating or relating itself the World Cup simply desapeared. No brand wants to be related to anything sad (or knows how they could).

[Jeffre Jackson]

The same thing happened here in Holland when we went out. After weeks of overwhelming, World Cup-themed advertising, it was suddenly a ghost town. They all just disappeared, leaving an almost visible blue afterimage from all the orange that had suddenly vanished. What a wasted opportunity to do something interesting.

[Camiel]

Well, there was Nationale Nederlanden, the insurance company with the slogan 'Whatever Happens'. They stuck around for a while after the defeat, just like they did during the entire World Cup four years ago, in which Holland didn't participate.

Unfortunately, because they had been airing the same commercial three times per match for two weeks, most people didn't really appreciate the commitment.