David Wethey, founder AAI, wishes everyone a Happy Christmas.
You don’t have to be a regular churchgoer to deliver or receive Christmas greetings. Everyone living in Britain can enjoy the build up to Christmas, the day itself and the family time away from work that follows. It is the one time of year when everyone is encouraged to be happy, cheerful and friendly, as well as caring for those whose life is not going well.
In passing I must say that I think Happy Holidays is a poor greeting by comparison. It’s political correctness defeating its own purpose. Holiday doesn’t mean holy day any more; it means not going to work. Christians don’t say Happy Holidays to Chinese friends at Chinese New Year, Jews at Passover or Rosh Hashanah, Muslims at Eid, or Hindus at Diwali. We wish others well on their special days, as we try to recognise the high points in their calendars and get the names right. It is one of the rewarding aspects of living in a multi-ethnic, multi-faith society. I loved living in Malaysia in the 70s. From the end of Ramadan to Chinese New Year, everyone had a day or two off work to celebrate everybody else’s festivals!
But good news doesn’t only come from holy days. This year has seen the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which was unexpectedly joyous. The Olympics and Paralympics were hugely successful.
On Friday we celebrated my daughter’s wedding with well over 100 family and friends who were with us, and many more who were with Bella and Ben in spirit. It was a gloriously happy occasion. A marriage is a culmination. It is also a way in which we can all celebrate a new beginning.
I believe that we crave happiness, as we desire health, wealth and success. Happiness is like freedom – both are to be pursued if they have gone missing, and to be defended and celebrated, once achieved.
Yet observers of marketing and the media might wonder if that is right. The ad agency Johnny Fearless has just published a research study called Angry Britain. The research conducted among 2077 adults by YouGov shows that 18-24s are particularly angry. 20% of them are angry all the time – twice as many, for instance, as the over 55s. But even the over 55s are quite capable of being provoked into anger.
Says Johnny Fearless founder Neil Hughston: “The Angry Britain research maps out the frustration people feel towards a perceived deterioration in their economic and social wellbeing – and the nuances between generations and regions. Crucially, for organisations and brands, it shows us that people’s aims, ambitions, likes and limits are varied and constantly shifting, and that communicating effectively with them depends on new understandings rather than traditional assumptions.”
But don’t imagine this thinking is based on just one isolated survey, try Googling ‘Angry Britain’. There are sites, blogs and tweets chronicling anger. It seems to be everywhere. It is a phenomenon. You can taste anger in news and current affairs programmes on TV and radio. You can smell it in newspapers. You can observe it everywhere people gather. It is easy to understand why Hughston feels that marketers and agencies need to factor in anger when planning ads and other marketing communication campaigns.
But what about the majority of people – even of 18-24s – who are not that angry? What about the people who smile, and who seem to be enjoying themselves?
Why has Strictly Come Dancing trounced The X Factor this season? While X Factor tends to be fractious, Strictly is a model of good humour, generosity of spirit, and fun. Both programmes celebrate achievement, but the cultural difference is extraordinary.
Why is Facebook so amazingly successful with millions of people? It seems to me that the overwhelming majority of members, and those who post regularly on countless other social networking sites, are essentially striving to show how connected, content and successful they are. The aspects of their lives they want to share are the good bits.
At ‘executive level’, an unbelievable 187m people worldwide belong to Linkedin. Do they use it to convey anger and frustration? On the contrary, Linkedin is a testament to confidence and calm.
As we contemplate 2013 (and we all wish each other Happy New Year), I think the marketing community should remember the potency of good news, and the multiplier effect of happiness and positive thinking. Humankind has only survived by being optimistic and upbeat. Of course there is plenty of bad news around. It fuels the news media. But that doesn’t mean marketing and advertising has to join in.
I am not advocating that brand owners should go back to promoting a saccharine or rose-tinted view of the world. Just that it wouldn’t harm to adopt a default setting of bright eyes and good humour.
Let’s celebrate the sunny days, not moan all the time about the many wet ones.
Read more from David Wethey in our Clubhouse