
Once upon a time companies ran BIG budget TV ads that made BIG promises; we sat at home and watched them on our TV screens in our living rooms during peak viewing hours; we took their messages on face value and (pretty much) believed everything they said to us; and the next day we would go out and buy the shoes … or the cereal … or the beer … or whatever it was being sold … without a whole lot of questions being asked.
Nowadays we are WAY more circumspect. The world has changed, people’s expectations have changed, and branding has changed. The consumer of your brand message is now also the producer of your brand message. Which means, if you don’t walk your talk you will be called out. And one of the first and finest examples of this was the Nike “sweatshop” case study – circa 1994, when emails just started becoming a thing.
Here’s me telling the story in an interview …