WAS THE EASTER BUNNY A REAL CREATIVE BUSINESS SOLUTION?

There is a lot of mystery when it comes to the #easterbunny. One must wonder:

Why in the world would there be presents for children on the day that Jesus resurrected, while it should be a day, we celebrate that joy continues in our everyday life?

If the #easterbunny is targeting children, then why do we think of the eggs and the hare as a symbol of fertility?

And why is it a hare and not a chicken?

As a #strategist it is usually my job to lay the foundation for creatives to make informed decisions about which #creative-story will resonate the best with its audience. Sometimes however it is said, that #strategy kills #creativity and there are creative ideas so new and monumental, that we have to re-engineer a strategy post-partum to make it work.

When it comes to the story of the easter bunny, this is a great example for great #storytelling beating strategic insight. If we would have approached it from a purely strategic view, one of the most successful stories in humankind would have never happened. While at the same time, without post-partum strategy it would have never become a “best seller” for more than 500 years.

The first strategists largely failed, trying to justify a #creativeidea with truth: So, the idea that the symbol of the rabbit stems from pagan tradition, specifically the festival of Eostre—a goddess of fertility whose animal symbol was a bunny – stayed, although the most logical explanation, nothing but a myth.

It were the German?Lutherans?that than successfully reengineered the story into the winning strategy:?The "Easter Hare"?playing?the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide,?similar to the "naughty or nice" list made by Santa Claus. As part of the legend, the creature carries colored eggs in its basket, as well as candy, and sometimes toys, to the homes of children.?

The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhase" (sometimes spelled "Oschter Haws").?InNorthwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" is a hare. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter.

So, with means of #strategicinsight the creative business solution of the “easter bunny” became wildly successful as a sales and educational #strategy to discipline children and being largely disconnected from the original meaning of the day -??the resurrection of Christ.

When a #creativebusinesssolution is that vastly successful, both financially and emotional, we tend not to question what makes sense or not for many years to come. – Unless there is a shift in #culture .

With that said, I hope that your easter holidays were filled with imagination and inspiration, lots of love and not forced consumerism or disciplinary actions towards your loved once.

Maybe its time for a good #newstrategy to reinvent the story of the easter bunny, while still keeping it one of the best #creativebusinesssolutions of all times next to Santa Claus??