Strands of Genius: Free Won't, Why Advertisers Are Doubling Down on Nostalgia, Pseudo-Events
plus: more thoughts on nostalgia, the golden age fallacy, and a few thoughts on February
WRITING FROM | Nashville, TN
WORKING ON | the School of Stolen Genius
LOOKING AHEAD
Feb 3-17: Nashville, TN
Feb 17-28: Beersheba Springs, TN
Feb 29-March 15: Nashville, TN (Rosie)
March 1-15: London, UK (Faris)
March 4-6: London, UK | Big TV Festival
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
February is the Tuesday of months - just as tough as Monday/January but without any of the emotional benefits or solidarity or renewed sense of motivation that can come from resolutions or other punctuation points in life. Attendance at gyms drops and fast food purchase increase at around the same point a week into February according to data from Foursquare [remember Foursquare? It’s a data company now]. We’re working a number of elements of the School of Stolen Genius and booking gigs for the summer already. Summer is always our busiest speaking season - if you have events then, please be in touch sooner rather than later as we hate having to tell you we’re already booked up!
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Yoga mats that have good grip, Judy’s trip to Cuba which means we have a house to sit for a couple of weeks, the AAF Super Bowl panel we did at OBP in Nashville, Fable foods, wedding invitations, road trip podcasts, slippers, Substack, Peri-Peri sauce, tea with milk, nice calls with new clients, and YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
IS FREE WILL AN ILLUSION?
Experiments done since the 1980s cast doubt on the idea that consciousness is the prime mover of behavior and some researchers believe it to be an epiphenomenon, which means the sense of deciding something may be other parts of your brain report a decision, rather than making it. This very short animation explains the idea that while you may not have free will, you seem to have free won’t. (BBC 4)
HINDSIGHT IS SO 2020 - WHY ADVERTISERS ARE DOUBLING DOWN ON NOSTALGIA
Faris’ column looks at the wave of nostalgia in advertising as part of much broader cultural trend that is pulling our attention away from the future, towards the past. Why is it happening, and what are the implications for brand communication? (Warc)
THE IOWA CAUCUS AS PSEUDO-EVENT
We still don’t know who won the first Democratic caucus, and we may never know, which should concern anyone who believes in democracy, since the mechanisms of voting seem to be in question now. This analysis suggests knowing who won is irrelevant since the caucus and such political theatre are ‘pseudo-events’. A pseudo‑event, then is a happening that possesses the following characteristics:
(1) It is not spontaneous, but comes about because someone has planned, planted, or incited it.
(2) It is planted primarily (not always exclusively) for the immediate purpose of being reported or reproduced.
(3) Its relation to the underlying reality of the situation is ambiguous.
(4) Usually it is intended to be a self‑fulfilling prophecy. (The Convivial Society)
:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: NOSTALGIA ::
Nostalgia, originally defined by the Greeks as the pain or suffering of longing to return home, was considered a psychological disorder that required treatment until the mid 20th century and can still be considered a symptom or subset of depression. It is no longer considered a harmful pathology but its impact on culture has rarely been so pronounced. When confronted with a complex present, we can imagine ourselves in two ways, through an imagined future or an imagined past. Across movies, music, television and politics it seems we are looking to the past, which supports the ‘future fatigue’ that William Gibson diagnosed (and Faris wrote about in his above column about the trend in advertising), but it is of course much broader.
Nostalgia has been weaponized as a vector for reactionary and oppressive politics. The problem with nostalgia in general is that human memories aren’t reliable, and prone to the golden age fallacy. The feeling and fragments from our past are inevitably as much creation as recollection. The problem with it in broad socio-cultural terms is that any golden age thinking is inevitably enmeshed with the social conditions that applied at the time, be it a women’s right to vote or have a bank account, or widely accepted discrimination in general.
Further, nostalgia is a powerful persuasion tool. In a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Bas Verplanken, a professor of social psychology at the University of Bath, discovered that, after being exposed to nostalgic stimuli, participants who exhibited a “strong worry habit” showed “enhanced symptoms of anxiety and depression” compared to those with the same predisposition in the control group. So nostalgia causes those who worry “habitually” to become more depressed and anxious, which is key at moments when an electorate are being asked to choose between fear and hope…
“There is no greater sorrow/Than to recall a happy time/When miserable.” Dante
The Golden Age Fallacy | aka “Good Old Days Fallacy” | “Good old days” is a term that is often used in when engaging in nostalgia, remembering only the positive aspects of times past while sweeping concomitant negatives under the rug. It has also been called the Golden Age Fallacy.
It is important to note a distinction between this fallacy and legitimate comparisons: not every positive appraisal of the past is wrongheaded, because the world really has changed. It’s just that it’s also always been complex and uneven, and no period or people have ever had a monopoly on virtue. via RationalWiki
:: AND NOW… DON’T SEEK IT, BE IT ::
From the lovely yoga studio in Greenville.
Valentine’s shopping? Here’s a 10% discount at Wolf And Badger.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Getting to meet like-minded folks is one of the best parts of living nomadically, so please let us know if you see if we'll be in a city near you :)
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)
SPEAKING
We're currently booking speaking gigs for the year.
Check out full descriptions and key learnings from our talks on here:
http://bit.ly/TalkDescriptions2019