What Satire Can Show You About Your Brand...If YOU Let it

The power of humor isn't just for stress reduction, compelling communication and presentations, funny marketing and lead generation by humanizing brands. Sure, all of that is true.

One of my favorite 'higher purpose' uses for humor is satire for holding brands up to scrutiny. It's great when it's a self-own as we saw with Barbie and Mattel. I wrote about that and how brands can do the same thing here.

The BIGGEST opportunity for satire - as we have seen with Barbie - is to address the public gap in the brand.

Mattel was willing to own its past AND where it could go in the future and being willing to tell that story with satire showed that it understood the complicated history of its brand AND underscored its willingness to be part of the solution moving forward.

If the brand didn't get on board, that conversation was going to happen either way.

McKinsey, John Oliver and Why We Hate Management Consulting

The best-case is for companies to own themselves and be part of conversation - it means awareness and acknowledgment - and that convo is happening with or without you. It only works IF...you are willing to change, and that your brand GETS the challenges and wants to work on them.

Sometimes that satire isn't self-owned. And when you are a big brand, you are a big satirical target.

Satire is still valuable...IF brands are willing to listen, because what it highlights is the gap in a company's stated mission and public perception.

Sometimes that gap is a Grand Canyon-sized chasm. As it is with McKinsey and before it, Google...who's stated tagline and mission was "do no harm." Ok, then, with a mission like that, buckle up and be taken to task.

In the last week, John Oliver and Last Week Tonight satirized McKinsey by exposing the gap between McKinsey's mission of 'purpose' and the harm it's actually causing - case in point, it's work with Purdue while also "working with the FDA." You read this right.

McKinsey also drew up a list of vocal dissidents for Saudi Arabia's government claiming it thought the chances of a list like this being misused "remote" (ex: in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the slain journalist).

I worked for a time in tech consulting for a large company and McKinsey was a client. Yup - lots of this stuff is true and exactly why it's hilarious and problematic.

McKinsey has spent so much money denying it's perception and doing things that FEED into the gap - a hilarious flushing sound of money and credibility down the drain.

Instead...it could have listened to YEARS of satire AND done something about it.

Your brand may likely get satirized and it can be a GOOD thing if you are willing to face the truth and own the perception - then do something about it.

Self-owns are pre-emptive and only work WHEN companies acknowledge it and are working to fix it actively when they satirize themselves. AND it's always powerful to show you don't take yourself seriously, though you take what you do seriously. Again - that only works when you are NOT harming people. Acknowledge the problem, tell HOW you are working on it (be specific) and people will get it.

When your gap between your mission as expressed by leaders is X and your perception is Y, PR won't help you, marketing won't help you....

Satire MIGHT. If you listen, own it, and do something about it.

So brands, listen to the satirists. They are the truthtellers you need. And many of them, folks, should be internal. Satire can be a powerful tool IF self-awareness is high.

Would you satirize your own brand? Would others? What do you think you'd learn?