Real Is What Connects
When brands are too perfect it affects me. Watching squeaky clean buff celebs and influencers standing in their squeaky clean kitchens and homes just rubs me the wrong way.
Like Dorothy’s mantra in the Wizard of OZ… ‘There’s no place like home.’ ‘There’s no place like home.’ I keep shutting my eyes and repeating ‘It’s not real Christy.’ ‘It’s not real Christy.’
I’d love to sit here and tell you I’m not affected by the lure of pretty people and pretty kitchens and pretty houses.
The truth is I am.
Because deep down it would be nice to have a pretty decluttered kitchen and clean designer spaces where everything has been thoughtfully purchased and fits perfectly into its perfect little spot.
Alas this is not my life. I do, thankfully, have a neighbor that actually organized my kitchen cupboards for fun, because she’s crazy like that. But I don’t have that brain. I have the brain that looks at a pile of clutter and tosses a towel over it hoping it will disappear on its own.
It’s just with 4 kids, a dog, a job and well… life happening… that level of standard is anything but attainable.
But dang if it ain’t pretty on the interwebs.
Lucky for all of us…there is something happening right now in marketing. I’m watching companies and founders double down on being “real”.
The Shift to Realness
In my last article I wrote about the company Aerie and their new campaign called ‘100% Aerie Real’. In case you missed it Aerie is a brand owned by American Eagle known for body positivity and inclusivity. They are running a new ad campaign committed to no retouching of its models and no AI generated images. Pamela Anderson herself stars in the ads.
Other companies are reacting for the demand to be real.
For example, have you seen the new bags of Lays Potato Chips? Their new bags sport new ‘Made from REAL potatoes’ ‘No artificial flavors’ ‘No colors from artificial sources’
Potato chips made from potatoes. How novel.
Don’t get me wrong… it is encouraging that big companies are taking note of our desire for ‘real ingredients’ and I’ll give them that… It is a step in the right direction.
But every time a company like this morphs its messaging to the latest trend it gives my marketing brain pause. Because it is saying the brand is reacting and I am programmed to take note. And I know that staying on trend is important for the brand but my ‘mom buying brain’ hurts.
It wasn’t so long ago that all packaging had the words ‘Gluten Free’ and ‘Low Fat’. Remember that?
But to all those marketing big brains sitting in those corporate offices designing pretty new bags you’ll have to forgive me; but I find it hard to decipher the word salad on your packaging.
I’m no farmer but how exactly do you grow ‘corn maltodextrin’ or get ‘sodium caseinate’ in the wild? And how is that considered ‘natural’?
There are regulatory definitions companies follow, but as the ‘buyer of all the things’ in this household, it’s hard to understand what those claims really mean.
The package itself becomes troublesome.
The point is if big brands are acting on this sentiment of carving out ‘realness’ in their messaging… we should all be paying attention.
Because ultimately it will fall to us, the consumer, to figure out what they are actually saying.
Don’t Mess With My Reese’s Cups
Take the reaction from Reese’s after Brad Reese, the grandson of the inventor of the Reese’s Cup, bought a bag of Valentine’s Reese’s Hearts, took a bite, spit them out and called them ‘inedible’.
His reason? The taste was way off.
According to his viral post, he flipped the bag over and realized Reese’s had quietly switched out chocolate and peanut butter to ‘compound candy coating’ and ‘peanut butter creme’.
Listen, there are things you as a brand can do and I probably don’t have the bandwidth to care that much but Hershey’s swapping peanut butter and chocolate out for processed ingredients and tossing the same brand name on it is a huge deal.
Much to the delight of my peanut butter loving heart… Brad Reese didn’t stop at the trash can. He took to LinkedIn and crafted an open letter to the corporate Brand Manager for Reese’s. He not only complained about the ingredient swap, he also pointed out that brand loyalty is anchored in truth.
Preach Brad.
I think all of us Reese’s lovers agree that we trust our precious Reese’s cups have two simple ‘REAL’ ingredients… peanut butter and chocolate. Not some ‘chocolate candy’ compound made in a lab.
His letter went viral. Every news outlet imaginable covered the story. It showed up on the late night circuit and even Mr. Beast himself pounced on having Brad eat a Feastables peanut butter cup on his show to reinforce the idea that “chocolate should be… chocolate.”
Again, how novel. Chocolate should be… chocolate.
Hershey’s responded by issuing a statement saying that next year they will commit to going back to the ‘classic recipe’.
I think I speak for all Reese’s fans when I say… Thank you Brad.
The heart of this ‘real’ revolution
What was most interesting to me was the comment sections of a lot of the articles surrounding the Reese’s controversy.
Holy cow… They are FULL of frustrated and fatigued customers tired of being outright lied to or over ‘AI’d’ to the point where they don’t trust anyone these days. This sentiment was echoed in every article posted on every platform I found.
“My grandfather, H. B. REESE (Who Invented REESE’S), built REESE’S on a simple, enduring architecture: Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter.
Not a flavor idea.
Not a marketing construct.
A real, tangible product identity that consumers have trusted for a century.”
- Brad Reese
“A REAL tangible product identity that consumers have trusted for a century.”
Let that sink all the way in.
Because that’s it. That’s the core of this ‘real’ revolution and reckoning that is coming.
We want real.
Notable 2nd Acts
Since reading all the Reese’s articles, more stories of companies embracing this real train of thought have come across my feed. (I blame the algorithms lol)
First, you should know, I adore a good founder 2nd act story. You know the one where someone ‘has it all’ and then it burns to the ground and they birth something entirely different.
The proverbial Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Gives me goosebumps everytime.
That’s essentially what we are seeing with companies and founders at this moment. Aerie is American Eagle’s 2nd act adaptation to the idea that authenticity equates to relevance and connection.
Perfection is Messy
Alas the founder of Drybar, Alli Webb. She was a stay at home mom who originally started her company as a mobile side hustle business. She began by posting on a Yahoo moms group saying she was a long time stylist and she could come to their homes and style their hair ‘while their babies were sleeping.’
The idea soon took off and she had a hard time keeping up with demand. That’s when she had the idea to open a brick and mortar store. She went to her brother, a former marketing director for Yahoo, (oh how I love a good universe whisper… she posts on Yahoo… he works for Yahoo…) and shared her idea.
At first her brother was like ‘why can’t women blow out their own hair?’. (SMH. moving on…)
But to his credit he ended up investing into the idea and together they estimated 30-40 blowouts a day would keep them afloat. Not long after opening, 30-40 blowouts a day became 60-80 and they were turning people away.
It became a phenomenon and expanded to 150 stores within a decade.
At the time Allie described it as ‘catching lightning in a bottle.’
In 2020 they sold the company for $225 million.
But that’s not where the story ends.
Not even close.
Because this is the moment her world nearly fell apart.
Alli and her husband, who is also a founder of Drybar, divorced, and her son was dealing with addiction and sought help.
It was also 2020 which meant she wasn’t doing her hair… wasn’t having it colored and definitely wasn’t blowdrying it.
Here is that point where Allie made a quiet discovery. Her hair was growing and getting healthier.
This is the part that gets me… the inventor of Drybar and the ‘perfect smooth hairstyle’... this woman who built an entire empire on the idea and illusion of perfect hair…decided to stop smoothing her hair with heat and chemicals and embrace her messy waves instead.
And just like that a new hair company called Messy was born.
Messy is a company who prides itself on celebrating imperfection and hair just as it is.
Can I get an AMEN?!??!?! Welcome fellow sister to the dark side!
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish failure or hardship on anyone. Quite the opposite… but I do love to see the walls of the illusion of perfection crumble and beautiful real-ness emerge.
Allie shed perfect and embraced real. It makes her brand more relatable and trustworthy.
Sparking Mediocrity
Another one of these 2nd act stories that I find ironic is the Marie Kondo story.
Remember her?
She is the Japanese professional organizer who hypnotized the world right before covid with her ‘KonMari’ method of organizing. She convinced us to touch every single piece of clothing and clutter we owned and ask ourselves if it ‘sparked joy’.
Remember that? My husband was obsessed. To this day you can still open a few of our dresser drawers and find the remnants of old ripped shoeboxes that used to contain perfectly folded T-Shirts and socks.
Marie Kondo truly is a bright and beautiful soul and when she is on screen you can feel her good energy beaming from the TV. I can remember thinking how simple her life looked and how nice it must be to only be surrounded by things that spark joy in your life.
But let’s be real. Order and chaos is NOT part of the reality I was living at the time. Having four kids in the house pretty much ensures there is a visible mess somewhere at all times. If I committed to her principles I’d probably have ended up in a mental institution.
It’s just not possible with kids to dedicate that kind of time and energy to keeping things to that high of a standard. I guess technically it’s possible but it’s certainly not how I want to spend time with my kids.
Watching the show I can recall thinking about how I was a failure at organizing. It made me feel like there was a right way to do things and I was failing miserably.
I’m not blaming Marie Kondo for having lovely ideas about organizing. No, I know I’m the only one who can make myself feel bad about anything.
But what I recall was thinking… easy for you to say… you don’t have kids yet.
And then. The most amazing thing ever happened. This siren of organizing went off and had a pile of kids.
GUESS WHAT? Marie had an AHA! moment.
After having her 3rd child she admitted she had “kind of given up” keeping her home perfectly tidy. She has since transitioned to Kurashi which focuses on inner calm and what matters most rather than just physical tidying.
How about that for a plot twist.
Turns out the idea of being perfectly organized is unattainable.
Ain’t that something. It’s not real.
Personally, I can’t wait to see what Marie Kondo comes up with next after this realization in her life. I hope she continues to inspire people all over the world with her gift of joy.
This Is the Part That Matters
When brands and founders and celebs and influencers hide behind their walls of perfection I can feel their irrelevance and untruths.
To me it makes me think of Will Farrell in the movie Elf yelling at the fake Santa… ‘You sit on a throne of lies!’
But when real-ness shows through and I can see your authenticity come to light… I feel connected to you.
If it’s not real, it’s not worth it and I’m not buying it.
Christy
0 comments