So it turns out that the Freestyle Horse video that Iraved about the other day is actually a Nike viral marketing video.
I remember the first time I got taken by a scammer on the street for $5 because he was “out of gas.” That was in the 80’s in Chicago. He got me talking, he affiliated, he got the five bucks. I didn’t find out until weeks later that this kind of thing was starting to happen a lot. I actually got red-faced when I heard about it, because I felt so stupid. I felt like a rube.
The nice thing is, it takes more than that to make me feel stupid these days. I like this video. I think it’s way cool that someone made it. I like what it says about the power and strength and ability of young women. In other words, I like the story it tells. And I really do always want to stay open to story, even if it puts me at a disadvantage sometimes (that $5…).
Does this mean we should always accept “the validity” of other’s stories? Always be willing to embrace the story as a good thing, on its own terms? Oh my goodness, no. Every one of us should have her bullshit detector turned way, way up on the human interaction level. The guy who insists on helping you take your groceries upstairs to your apartment because he’s on his way up to see his buddy down the hall — and who calls you paranoid when you say no — that guy is maybe not a nice guy. That guy is maybe testing you. Every human has firsthand experience of the harm of being open to a story.
As a culture we teach other to be nice, defuse conflict, avoid giving offense. And then we turn around and teach each other that being credulous or gullible in any way is basically a failing and a fault, and you get what you deserve for being an idiot. Pretty mixed message — be open, be supportive and accessible, and then take the blame when those choices lead you to a bad scene. And so we make each other feel stupid for falling for anything, in order to teach each other not to fall for the wrong things.
I think it would be better to teach each other to better recognize the wrong things when they come along, you know?
Critical thinking skills can help with that. Books like The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker or Always by Nicola Griffith can help. And it would be cool if we stopped assuming that violence was an appropriate consequence for inexperience or poor judgment.
Hmm… I seem to have traveled far from Nike. Let me wander back again. I now know the greater truth of the video, which is that it’s a deliberate story someone is telling me to make me like their brand a little better. And you know, it’s a good story. I’m still open to it.
I still think it’s a good story too. It makes me feel good to watch it. If all advertising put out this kind of message, I’d like advertising a lot better. I liked it more when I thought it was mostly real, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still appreciate it.
One thing I’ve been noticing though is how If feel about advertising that is not readily identified as such. I suppose it’s not much different than product placement in a movie or tv show, as long as I am aware that these things are out there. I think that there was a time when photography or documentary recorded factual history. Now with the advent of digital and different marketing techniques those days are gone, and I kind of miss some of that.
I like your point about “under-the-radar” advertising. I definitely grew up in a time when photos and footage were assumed to be “real.” Even though I’m guessing much of it was prettified, cleaned up, modified, erased, altered, etc., the default cultural perception was that it was probably true until proven otherwise. I think that’s not the default these days.
Which is kind of ironic, given that today anyone with a video camera can record something live and real (police brutality, politicians saying stupid things, drunken celebrities leaving the scenes of accidents… or that lovely man Matt who does the dancing videos). We have so much more access to reality, but we perhaps believe the reality less…
*Blink*. Sometimes the world seems so complex.
Yes, even when it is real, people don’t trust it. Think it’s faked. I have often heard people say that about landscape photographs — thinking a sunset looks too colorful, a rainbow was placed in, etc. I have mixed feelings about manipulating such things. It loses something for me knowing that it is not fully representative of reality.
Anyway, I think we have lost something precious there. Of course the gains are tremendous as well.
Even with that great footage of Matt — I loved it, but it lost a little something for me when I saw he had a corporate sponsor sending him to most of those countries. Even though it was his idea and he did it on his own in the beginning, it just took a tiny bit away for me.