Can a billboard change a culture? What about a fitness brand?
More on multitasking and marketing
Today’s post is a short footnote1 to last week’s remarks on multitasking and time confetti:
Over the past week I have come across two interesting, yet conflicting data points, as it pertains to multitasking and marketing.
Exhibit A. An ad campaign encouraging passers-by to “stop multitasking”:
And Exhibit B. A series of instructive guides on how marketers can embrace the multi-screen, split-attention era:
It seems some advertisers give up on changing a culture, and instead focus on how to best benefit… even from the most sour part of it.
A lot has been said as to whether marketing can actually change a culture or not. Some say yes — and that marketers should use the power of the marketplace to shape culture. Others say no — that marketers merely ride on the coattails of cultures to generate revenue and positive brand affect. Personally, I see both sides and lean into the camp of the former.
Pondering this dichotomy, I pressed play on a 30-minute barre video. Having a wobbly knee, I’ve always appreciated good low-impact exercise. The following clip reminded me how, even a branded workout — barre3 does a fair share of selling merch and high-priced boutique studio memberships — could do a lot to promote single-mindedness, an opposite of multi-tasking. A fitness brand that could change a culture, perhaps?
I’d like to believe in marketing’s positive power. At the same time, I’m skeptical that a billboard telling me to “stop multitasking” could actually do anything. Sure, I might think about it a couple times. But would it impact behavior?
Maybe it would start a cultural conversation. Maybe someone would take a picture and post to twitter — or, ahem — threads. Perhaps it goes viral, and more people think, “ya know, we really ought not to multitask” before charging ahead with the hyper-fast, hyper-fragmented demands of the day.
Most importantly, I wonder how impactful messages telling me not to multitask can be, when there are also entire marketing strategies built around winning my attention even though I am (undoubtedly) multitasking.
A footnote for this footnote of a post: this is the part of summer where childcare completely dissipates, and long days are spent at splash pads and parks and creeks and riding bikes and eating packed lunches. Writing this post over a recent nap time was self care, shaking the cobwebs from my brain, and I am always so appreciative of anyone who invites these little thoughts into a part of their day.
Thank you, again