Purpose and Art. A Way To See Business From Activism.

“Art is work that matters.” Seth Godin

Paraphrasing Seth, art is about how can you do more of. You don’t see artists counting how many hours they’re working on their masterpiece. They keep at it till it is ready to create change. This is how I see branding, marketing and business. How can we do more of AND help society be more equal.

Philip Kotler and Christian Sarkar call it brand activism.

Make society thrive

My take on this is that brands that thrive enable their people to thrive. Not only they serve their customers and shareholders, but their employees and communities. We’re all connected.

Taking a stand

How do they help regenerate systems in a world that is fucked up and take a stand (not a position) for it?

Can we say we’re contributing to our communities when…

• we pay shit wages? [But, hey! We pay taxes]
• we look the other way to avoid conflict or alienating some people? [what if we lose business for what we believe?]
• we keep doing business as usual, as long as we keep profitable? [keep investing in Russian assets, although that’s financing blood profits. who’s gonna notice?]
• we say we care — but we only care about how we look and do PR stunts, green washing, purpose washing and so on?

Seeing the bigger picture

The Russian invasion in Ukraine has shown us that things can change IF we care. We’re far far far away still from fixing things, but we can change them. And that’s a first step.

That’s taking a stand. It involves business, the planet, politics, equity and equality. Do you want to help the world move forward or backwards?

Take a stand. Own your responsibility. And fucking lead.

It’s your call.

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