After the Bonfire

Neil Boorman's planning a bonfire for August 26. The fuel? Every branded product he owns. Oh, and some petrol to help the fire along.

Extreme Spring cleaning? No, Boorman's beginning a quest, albeit in a flashy kind of way, to lead a brand free life. Which will be chronicled in a book titled Bonfire of the Brands, to be released August '07.

Look beyond the bonfire for a moment - in my opinion it's the least interesting part of this exercise. Boorman is interested in what he calls a third way for brands, in which they fuel commerce and competition while providing more than emotional manipulation. It's an important area for marketers, and one seems to attract mostly this kind of thinking:

'For great brands to survive, they must create loyalty beyond reason. The secret is the use of mystery, sensuality and intimacy… the power to create long-term emotional connections with consumers'
Kevin Roberts, CEO Saatchi & Saatchi

This suggests that any utilitarian purpose for brands and their underlying products is secondary to a reflexive emotional reaction on the part of consumers. I don't deny the emotional component, but there is a strong utilitarian element to brands and it's one that I'm curious to see if Boorman addresses. We're working in an era when what brands mean and how we communicate about them is shifting, and I suspect that ad agencies aren't going to lead the way in figuring this out. Maybe Boorman has something to contribute. And maybe this bonfire will spark some new thinking.

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