Every crisis is, by definition, a crisis of meaning, a deep transformation of the meanings through which we see the world. The challenge for those who work with brands: How can we identify these new meanings to create a more powerful and timely discourse for our brands?
Several years ago, JWT met that challenge for Aerolíneas Argentinas, which went bankrupt in 2001, a few months before the country fell into political, financial and social crisis. The company, Argentina’s only national airline, began to recover in 2003. Communication would focus on its main brand value: “Argentine-ness.” However, the concept of “Argentine-ness” itself had lost relevance and meaning in the crisis.
The answer: hope. The only way to build new meaning for the concept of “Argentine-ness” was to focus on hope as a powerful social connector. The message was not a banal and obvious one; rather, it was about hope as the cohesive factor that helped avoid social disintegration during the national crisis. The spot asked, “What if this time, those who believe are more right than those who don’t?”
It’s this social and cohesive role of hope that the philosopher Walter Benjamin cited during World War II: “It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.”
Hope and belief is never higher than at the end of the boom, just before the onset of a crisis. When more people start to “believe” than disbelieve, this would suggest the turning point in the crisis is happening. Brands can help stimulate recovery by nudging consumers towards hope and belief, but only when the underlying circumstances permit. It´s hard to imagine broader based “believe” messages resonating when unemployment rates are accelerating.