"Dehumaning" we humans.

This morning I read Tiffany Hsu and Sapna Maheshwari's New York Times article: "Thumb-Stopping, Humaning, BRH: The Strange Language of Modern Marketing." Wow. It's a very insightful flashlight commentary on the puffed up, ridiculous jargon that marketing and advertising agencies use in their everyday process these days. They took an inside joke and made it a much bigger one, and I get it. Some of the terms outlined in the piece are just too irresistible to let slide without some more commentary, so here goes.

Aside from "humaning," one of my favorites (I say favorite loosely) is "Purpose-driven lifestyle brand." While that may sound like an altruistic, meaningful tome, it's pretty ironic considering that today's marketing folks are desperately trying to assign so much meaning to the acts of buying and eating a burrito. Sure, I get hungry. As do most humans. Call me crazy, but I don't consider the "eating experience" as some sort of angst-ridden, over-wrought "purpose-built journey." Just tell me something about the thing and the brand that would actually make me want to eat it over the myriad other choices out there. Better yet, tell the brand to make a better burrito. Your story will be so much easier because you won't have to make it all up.

Then we have "solutioning," yet another made up word that's hilarious. Hsu and Maheshwari characterize it as "making one part of speech into another." I don't know about you, but turning nouns into verbs is kind of like putting toothpaste back in the tube. Just add "ing" to the back and do the rest; "Impossibling. Incredibling. Beautifuling." If it weren't so stupid it would be even funnier. It's just a desperate attempt to "carve out new space" while serving up "snackable content" to the "phygital" world. Again....wow.

The jargon and "branded services" might sound new, but the basis is as old as the ad world is. The tools are more sophisticated, but the logic apparently isn't. Anytime I see a "TM" on a "proprietary service," I know it's a load of self-important hooey. Marketing like this remains a blunt-force instrument dedicated to selling shit. Don't get me wrong, "selling" isn't necessarily a dirty word. But there's a big difference between a true evangelist and a snake oil sales hump. And all the slickly gleaned data in the world doesn't mean jack unless a thinking person teases out what it all means. And all too often, data miners will tell you what they want the data to mean because it is intended to validate their ideas, as opposed to informing a solution forward that has a meaningful impact.

My career has been rooted in marketing through the brand design discipline. When people ask me what the hell that is, I reply; "Telling good stories." When they press further, I add; "I ask questions and share some answers." Then they ask what kinds of questions, and I reply; "What difference does this thing make? Is it any better than the next one? Why should I care? Why would anyone care?" People in this business generally go right to what the thing is first, not who or what it was made for, and why.

It's a privilege to be a designer, and I'm grateful to have worked with so many talented people in so many disciplines. Over time, it's become clear that the best design fills us with surprise, beauty, inspiration and value. The worst of it fills our landfills, and keeps our thumbs from stopping because it's just another shade of noise in the ocean of white. It's exhausting, but not hopeless. I like to think that it's still a noble pursuit to care about sharing stories of quality, usefulness and genuine emotion. And "storytelling?" It's become an overused word that has been highjacked as an accomplice to serving up a bunch of bullshit in fancy clothes. This "agency-speak" also reveals a palpable level of contempt for the very people they claim "to serve" with its not-so-subtle arrogance...like they know something we don't, and we won't feel a thing.

So, go nuts agency folks!! Have at it, and us. But in the meantime, we naive, "asleep consumers" will keep plugging away at trying to cipher through your witchcraft, all the while searching for the essence of what matters most. Honesty, authenticity, character, and charisma are the pieces of the puzzle that matter to me. And by the way, as a "user," I tend to gravitate toward the brands, products and companies that believably behave differently. Larry Keeley used that term in a brilliant comparative essay for the American Center for Design about "image positioning" versus "character dramatization." Character is revealed. Image is projected. Contrary to industry belief, it's not rocket science, and it's certainly not about "humaning." It's about understanding humanity. You know...before the "top of the funnel?" Let's hope so.