You've seen Sydney Sweeney's pitch for yet another betting brand. Let’s call it Syd-Slop.
Let’s think of the children. Let’s think of the dads hiding in the toilet betting. Let’s think of the mums doomscrolling. Let’s think of the little girls, little boys, the little people who get hurt by ‘Gamblor’ brands.
Then let’s ‘thought lead’ about the social corrosion that’s ushered in by those type of brands, you know the ones, that trumpet bread and circuses a time of genocide, famine, climate etc. etc.
Let’s talk about desire as the ever-green strategy. Let’s talk about female empowerment and agency. Let’s talk about the agency who made this thing.
Let’s call it the death of all things good. Let’s call it what’s left when taste finally leaves the conference room. Let’s call it soft core porn. Let’s bemoan the rebooting of the male gaze for post-social era. Let’s celebrate the balls it took (no pun intended) to make this thing.
Let’s call it peak-something.
Let’s say “I thought we were better than this”.
Let’s talk about breaking the internet.
But let’s not call this a brand idea.
Because Sydney Sweeney isn’t a brand strategy. Not a sustainable one.
No doubt a hit. A cultural sugar high.
America Eagle’s metrics did spiked, then the brand dropped back to whence it was, a heavily discounted, borderline irrelevancy for the audience of non-Sydney’s for whom the schtick worn decidedly thin on second viewing.
Re-wilding means thinking beyond such vainglorious metrics, the shallow ‘sex sells’ thinking that’s plagued brands since the first beer/car/aftershave commercial.
Re-wilding means going back to some core structural realities facing a business, why it exists in the first place, in an age where anyone, anywhere can hack culture, hack attention, but only a few can leverage something more powerful: intention.
Re-wilding is about expressing conviction, not courting controversy.