Solutions and the Free World Branding Campaign 2023

On April 12, 2023, Forbes reported that UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management (ICU) has incubated a method which removes carbon dioxide from the ocean and in the process produces hydrogen as a carbon-free power source. That method, invented by a team led by UCLA professor Gaurav Sant, has led to the formation of a startup named Equatic, funded by multinational investors including the U.S. Department of Energy.

This inspiring event once again proves that the human race has what it takes to invent itself out of any corner into which we have painted ourselves. All we have to do is to accentuate the positive, focus on solutions, and get the job done. This will create new successful businesses, jobs and wealth, as well.

Logically the existing energy companies ought to read the handwriting on the wall and take leading positions in the new technologies, and invent more of them, rather than fighting change. However, it’s easy to say such things, but inertia has a way of stalemating even the most obvious of prescriptions.

And it’s not just inertia. It’s also mental health. With no one setting out to do this, show biz in evolving into the media business has apparently made a large negative contribution to the mental health of the entire human species. This is more obvious in the case of certain media types that were mostly nonexistent (at least in the U.S.) before the 21st century, such as politically slanted channels presenting a version of news, social media and advanced violent videogames.

These media types are only the most obvious contributors to the present negative culture; the tendency toward cynicism and nihilism sits on a root foundation of pandemic atheism, especially in science. Put it all together and it’s understandable that a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman and gamer would share sensitive secrets with Internet buddies. "Nothing is real" is a line in the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields," which seems to have infected everyone everywhere. We can’t believe the real events that are happening; they are too bizarre, too unreal, and then when certain media allow untrue information to flow freely, it just blurs the lines between reality and unreality even further.

It has driven all of us a bit nuts, and at the long tail has made a great many of us certifiably insane. Now a person with a pulpit can call for the harm of another person, and it’s likely the targeted person or someone close to that person might actually be attacked.

We have all been programmed. We have to change the programming and the brand content to re-establish the inspirational value of good ideas, like freedom, equality, justice, kindness and compassion. We can’t live with a society where there is zero respect for everything. There needs to be some positive northstar we share. For hundreds of years Americans have believed in the American ideals, and we have already seen how even a few short years of lowering the flag vitiates morale and our standing in the world, encouraging a return to the bad old ways globally. We must make the best effort of which we are capable, working together to restore the sense of camaraderie and loyalty to the perennial values in deeds, and genuineness, as well as in cheap talk.

How can brands, agencies and media effectively contribute to walking back this negative culture? The most inspiring ideas most of us shared until the madness began are the ones that motivated the creation of the United States of America. We propose a branding campaign to remind us all of why the USA is here, and why free nations in general are worth saving, and why the whole world will be better off when all of us live in freedom, and power concentrations are reduced from their present levels.

In the U.S. the best way to go about this starts with the Ad Council, which is set up to scale projects of any size and to receive support from dozens if not hundreds of brands. The project scope would be to assemble inspiring content about the goals of the U.S. Experiment, and about the individuals who made it all happen, who they were and what they strongly believed in. There could be a three-pronged approach:

• Amass existing video content and use it in all media, with each brand choosing the video pieces that most reflect the brand’s values that align with the brand and with the USA, including running brand-specific-sponsored public service announcement spots in ad pods on all forms of television and digital
• Create new video content and distribute it similarly
• Create brand-sponsored contests with prizes for schoolchildren and any other patriots to create user-generated content on the same subjects

We all know how stirring it can be to experience the bravery and conviction of true heroism stories, well-presented and well-aligned with media context. If we tell the true story of America again, in shortforms across all media, from July 4 through the end of 2023 and beyond, it will be a major first step toward erasing the corruption in our minds and hearts of the most important things in life. Hopefully other free nations would pitch in and follow our lead, telling the true stories of how people in many places have pushed back the bully system of governing nations, and reminding us what it is worth to live in a truly free society.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.