Loving the brands you work on

Lately I've found myself becoming somewhat evangelical about brands that 6 months ago I didn't give a shit about. I find myself almost getting into fights to defend brands that a year ago I'd never heard of. I find myself buying extra products from a brand to help them make it through the credit crunch, when before I wouldn't have used their products if they were free.

What is wrong with me?! I'm sorry to say that I'm starting to come down with a case of something that it's all too easy to catch in this industry (though most consumers seem to be immune to it). No, it's not Hepatitis C...I'm starting to become infatuated with the brands I'm working on. 

Just as a student falls madly in love with the MILFy P.E teacher who doesn't wear a bra, or like housemates who drunkenly pass out of the "Friend Zone", familiarity can lead to love. As a planner you become intimately acquainted with the brands you work on (unlike the AMs who become intimately acquainted with the clients). You see their strengths, their weaknesses (stop me before I say "opportunities" and "threats") and you see their inner beauty. 

Advertising can be a persona that hides the real nature of the brand. Much like Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons puts on a tough guy act, when deep down he's just a nice kid who likes watching soap operas with his mum and misses his dad. As a planner you see behind the persona, in fact you help to create the persona, but often clients force you to hide the brand's true nature, its true beauty, because they want you to talk about their new initiative, how they're better value than brand X because although they're twice the price they last 3 times as long, and so on and so forth.

The sad thing is that for some brands this means they've lost control of their own reputation. There are many great things to be said about them, things that would make the public love them, but years of indifference, silence, or talking about the wrong thing entirely, has signed away their reputation for consumers and competitors to do with as they see fit. 

If consumers knew my brands how I know them, they'd love and trust them as much as I do. For all that the brands and advertising gurus talk about "transparency" in advertising, we've got a hell of a long way to go before some brands step into the light and shine because of what they really are.

(And then there are brands that are 100% turds rolled in glitter, but that's another story...)