We're certain we've already entered a Lefteous phase. A time where care concern and reaching out to others becomes paramount to all other issues. Think Cultural Creatives goes mainstream.
Al Gore's massive social acceptance this past year is a great example. The robot that had no personality, the man that we don't even remember speaking as Vice President is suddenly a superstar, a hero. We love him because he stealthily pursued a cause for the last 14 years, authoring a book in 1992 (Earth in the Balance), lobbying on the hill, starring in the documentary An Inconvenient Truth that opened to limited theatres. Gore's message was not new, so what happened?
A perfect lefteous storm - as a society we were ready to hear about the issues, talk about them, educate ourselves at our own pace and embrace this champion for our environment.
The big take away here is that we need to be diligent as marketers to a concerted education and commitment to the long haul with the issues. We need to reach out to people in a way that allows them to choose the pace at which they learn and thus continues the conversation between company and consumer. |
An example of misused lefteousness is the recent "green week" on NBC that ran from Nov 4-11, where our favorite celebrities told us how we could do stuff to be more environmentally or socially responsible. The Biggest Loser talked to us about recycling, Josh Duhamel from Las Vegas touted the virtues of saving fuel or electricity. It just came off as a lecture, there was no venue for dialogue there, it just left us wondering…what is in this for NBC? How your message is delivered is critical, Lefteous ideas are not simple. The intentions are true and great, but people will need to commit to a conversation and a deep learning curve on all sides of the argument. |
The most recent and timely example of lefteousness is the holiday gift. There is a trend towards giving green or giving something with more meaning for the holidays. An example is the “do stuff” campaign from Radio Shack (which has actually been a campaign since April 2007). Radio Shack shows us that doing something for someone gives you a much better feeling that just giving them something. Another example is the site Green Gift Guide brought to you by the California Department of Conservation that gives us a wealth of information about not only buying green but decorating green and living green. |
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