We live in an increasingly divided world and should seek to create narratives that can unify and pull people back into middle ground territory. Given that our personal intuitions and experiences are widely biased, maybe we can find inspiration and value in the connecting tissue that once held the opposing sides together: religion.

1. ADVERTISING
NEEDS A RELIGIOUS
REAWAKENING
The case for rebuilding a unifying narrative

2. VERSE 0
PROLOGUE

3. TLDR
WE LIVE IN AN INCREASINGLY DIVIDED WORLD AND
SHOULD SEEK TO CREATE NARRATIVES THAT CAN UNIFY
AND PULL PEOPLE BACK INTO MIDDLE GROUND TERRITORY
GIVEN THAT OUR PERSONAL INTUITIONS AND EXPERIENCES ARE WIDELY BIASED,
MAYBE WE CAN FIND INSPIRATION AND VALUE IN THE CONNECTING
TISSUE THAT ONCE HELD THE OPPOSING SIDES TOGETHER:
RELIGION

4. “… you have been touched.by the hand.accept your fate. now lead the way.ascend.to
rise.above the whole.this is a calling.on you.I will beat you without anger and I will draw
from your eyelid a tear. I bare.my arms.now drive your nails through my palms.when we
meet.drive those.nails right through my feet.I have given you something real.you thought
that you’d never feel.I have given you something so real.a wound.that will never heal.”
– CHVE/Amenra

5. VERSE I
INFERNO

6. NEGATIVE FEELINGS
TOWARDS MEMBERS OF
AN OPPOSING POLITICAL PARTY
HAVE GROWN
70%
SINCE 1978
Source: Stanford + Brown University, 2019

7. OVER TWO THIRDS
OF AMERICANS THINK
OTHER PEOPLE CAN’T BE TRUSTED
Source: General Social Survey & American National Election Survey, 2020

8. ONLY
40%
OF AMERICANS
DEMONSTRATE TRUST
IN THEIR INSTITUTIONS
Source: 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer

9. THE U.S. IS THE ONLY
ESTABLISHED DEMOCRACY
WHERE THE LEVEL OF SOCIAL TRUST
IS FALLING INSTEAD OF RISING
Source: General Social Survey & American National Election Survey, 2020

10. 62%
OF AMERICANS
FEEL MORE
ANXIOUS THAN
THE YEAR BEFORE
Source: APA, 2020

11. WE ARE REACHING A DANGEROUS TIPPING POINT IN SOCIETY

12. AND ARE IN DESPERATE NEED
TO DECOMPRESS CURRENT TENSIONS
AND CREATE NARRATIVES THAT CAN
BRING PEOPLE CLOSER TOGETHER

13. BY IDENTIFYING AND FOCUSING ON
MIDDLE GROUND TERRITORY

14. VERSE II
JUDGEMENT

15. AD PEOPLE ARE IN NO POSITION
TO UNDERSTAND AND PREACH
A UNIFYING MIDDLE GROUND

16. ‘THE GROUP COHESION SCORE’
THE RELATIVE LIKEMINDEDNESS OF A GROUP OF PEOPLE
BY MEASURING THE SIZE OF THE AVERAGE MAJORITY VIEWPOINT
ACROSS +400 LIFESTYLE STATEMENTS
Source: Harry Guild, BBH Labs, UK Data, 2020

17. PEOPLE WORKING IN MARKETING
DEMONSTRATE THE STRONGEST
IN-GROUP COHESION SCORE
THAN ANY OTHER PROFESSION
Source: Harry Guild, BBH Labs, UK Data, 2020

18. PEOPLE WORKING IN MARKETING
DEMONSTRATE THE STRONGEST
IN-GROUP COHESION SCORE
THAN ANY OTHER PROFESSION
MORE THAN PEOPLE WORKING IN THE MILITARY
Source: Harry Guild, BBH Labs, UK Data, 2020

19. “This is advertising’s biggest problem. This is the monoculture. How can we
possibly understand, represent and sell to an entire country when we exist in
such a bubble? We like to style ourselves as free thinkers, mavericks and
crazies, but the grim truth is that we’re a more insular profession than farming
and boast more conformists than the military. We have become the followers of
[Monty Python’s] Brian, shouting “we are all individuals” in mindless unison.
No wonder we’re so out of touch.”
- Harry Guild, BBH
Source: Harry Guild, BBH Labs, UK Data, 2020

20. WE OPERATE ON DIFFERENT MORAL AND CULTURAL CODES
COMPARED TO THE MAINSTREAM POPULATION
Source: Reach Solutions + Haidt. J The Empathy Delusion, 2020

21. MAINSTREAM
POPULATION
MARKETING &
ADVERTISING
PEOPLE
Source: Reach Solutions + Haidt. J The Empathy Delusion, 2020
IN-GROUP LOYALTY
MOST PEOPLE PUT MUST HIGHER EMPHASIS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF
THE GROUP THEY BELONG TO IN THEIR MORAL DECISION MAKING
42%
29%

22. MAINSTREAM
POPULATION
MARKETING &
ADVERTISING
PEOPLE
Source: Reach Solutions + Haidt. J The Empathy Delusion, 2020
AUTHORITY / RESPECT
THEY VALUE THE IMPORTANCE OF AUTHORITY
AND RESPECT IN THAT PROCESS MUCH MORE
48%
34%

23. ABOVE ALL, THEY PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF
PURITY AND SANCTITY WHEN MAKING MORAL DECISIONS
MAINSTREAM
POPULATION
MARKETING &
ADVERTISING
PEOPLE
52%
32%
Source: Reach Solutions + Haidt. J The Empathy Delusion, 2020
PURITY / SANCTITY

24. Source: Reach Solutions, 2020
AD PEOPLE SIGNIFICANTLY
UNDERESTIMATE THE MAINSTREAMS’ FOCUS ON
SELF-DIRECTION, UNIVERSALISM AND BENEVOLENCE
AND VASTLY OVERESTIMATE THEIR FOCUS ON
HEDONISM, ACHIEVEMENT AND POWER

25. Source: Reach Solutions, 2020
‘To have my name known
by lots of people’
‘To be unique and stand
out from the crowd’
‘To have a high-status job
and earn lots of money’
‘To have many expensive
possessions’
‘To keep up with the latest
trends and fashions’
11%
14%
25%
47%
28% 28%
47%
18% 17%
30%
AD PEOPLE PUT MUCH MORE IMPORTANCE ON EXTRINSIC AND MATERIAL
ASPIRATIONS COMPARED TO THE MAINSTREAM POPULATION
MAINSTREAM
POPULATION
MARKETING & ADVERTISING
PEOPLE

26. Source: Reach Solutions, 2020
MAINSTREAM
POPULATION
MARKETING & ADVERTISING
PEOPLE
‘To have my name known
by lots of people’
‘To be unique and stand
out from the crowd’
‘To have a high-status job
and earn lots of money’
‘To have many expensive
possessions’
‘To keep up with the latest
trends and fashions’
ADVERTISING & MARKETING
ESTIMATION OF MAINSTREAM
82%
11%
14%
25%
63%
57%
47%
28% 28%
47%
18%
68%
17%
30%
75%
AND OUR INTUITION FAILS US IMMENSELY
WHEN ESTIMATING NORMAL’S PEOPLE ASPIRATIONS

27. WE ARE PART OF AN ELITIST AND MONOTONOUS BUBBLE
WHO SEES THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY
HAS A VASTLY DIVERGENT MORAL COMPASS
PUTS MUCH MORE EMPHASIS ON SELF-REALIZATION
AND ABOVE ALL FAILS TO RECOGNIZE AND EMPATHIZE WITH
THE REAL ASPIRATIONS AND DESIRES OF NORMAL PEOPLE

28. VERSE III
SIN

29. “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society.
We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it.
Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”
- Bill Bernbach

30. HOWEVER…

31. “The bobos [creative class] have coalesced into an insular, intermarrying
brahmin elite that dominates culture, media, education, and tech”
- David Brooks, ‘How the Bobos Broke America’, The Atlantic, Sept 2021

32. “We believe in human dignity and classical liberalism—free speech, open inquiry,
tolerance of different viewpoints, personal autonomy, and pluralism —
but our class has not delivered for the people outside it…”
- David Brooks, ‘How the Bobos Broke America’, The Atlantic, Sept 2021

33. “… we never accepted the fact that we were a leadership class, never took on
the institutional responsibilities that go with that acceptance, never got to know
or work with people not in our class, and so never earned the legitimacy and
trust that is required if any group is going to effectively lead.”
- David Brooks, ‘How the Bobos Broke America’, The Atlantic, Sept 2021

34. OUR INDUSTRY’S GREATEST SIN
IS FAILING TO TAKE UP OUR RESPONSIBILITY
TO ENGAGE AND UNDERSTAND THE MAINSTREAM

35. WE ARE BLINDED BY OUR MORAL VANITY AND SELF-OBSESSION

36. RELIVING A VICTORIAN ERA
WHERE WE BELIEVE WE KNOW WHAT’S BEST FOR PEOPLE
ON HOW THEY SHOULD LIVE THEIR LIVES
RATHER THEN SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND THEM

37. VERSE IV
REVELATION

38. IF WE WANT TO TAKE UP OUR RESPONSIBILITY,
WE NEED TO START CREATING NARRATIVES
THAT CAN HEAL AND UNIFY

39. Source: Orlando Wood, System1/IPA - Lemon, 2019 // Iain McGilchrist, 2012
RIGHT BRAIN
STORYTELLING THAT TAKES IN
CONTEXT, NUANCE, AND DEPTH,
AND THAT USES EMPATHY, IMPLICITLY
AND HUMAN CONNECTIONS TO
DEFINE THE WORLD
LEFT BRAIN
STORYTELLING THAT IS STATIC,
FRAGMENTED, EXPLICIT, ONE-DIRECTIONAL,
AND THAT USES CATEGORIES,
REPETITION AND LITERAL WAYS TO
DEFINE THE WORLD
OUR BRAIN PROCESSES NARRATIVES DIFFERENTLY

40. Source: Orlando Wood, System1/IPA - Lemon, 2019 // Iain McGilchrist, 2012
OUR BRAIN PROCESSES NARRATIVES DIFFERENTLY

41. Source: Orlando Wood, System1/IPA - Lemon, 2019 // Iain McGilchrist, 2012
RIGHT BRAIN
SIGNS OF A SOCIETY THAT IS
MORE COMMUNITY AND
CONNECTION-ORIENTED
LEFT BRAIN
SIGN OF A SOCIETY THAT IS
DOGMATIC BY NATURE AND
SEEKS POWER AND CONTROL

42. Source: Orlando Wood, System1/IPA - Lemon, 2019 // Iain McGilchrist, 2012
WE ARE CURRENTLY LIVING THROUGH
AN INCREASINGLY LEFT-BRAIN CULTURE

43. Source: Orlando Wood, System1 & IPA, Lemon, 2019
MISSING OUT ON CRUCIAL ELEMENTS OF
DEPTH, CONTEXT, IMPLICIT METAPHORS, AND CONNECTIONS
ELEMENTS IN STORYTELLING THAT
YIELD MUCH BETTER COMMERCIAL RESULTS

44. WE NEED TO BUILD A NEW MODERN SENSORY EXPERIENCE

45. “Interpretation takes the sensory experience of the work of art for granted,
and proceeds from there. This cannot be taken for granted, now.
Think of the sheer manipulation of works of art available to every one of us,
superadded to the conflicting tastes and odors and sights of the urban
environment that bombard our senses.”
- Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation, 1966

46. “Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss
of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life –
its material plentitude, its sheer crowdedness – conjoin to dull our sensory
faculties […] What is important now is to recover our senses.
We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.”
- Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation, 1966

47. “… in place of a hermeneutics,
we need an erotics of art.”
- Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation, 1966

48. THUS OUR HEALING NARRATIVES NEED TO

49. THUS OUR HEALING NARRATIVES NEED TO
APPEAL TO PEOPLE ACROSS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CLASS SPECTRUMS

50. THUS OUR HEALING NARRATIVES NEED TO
APPEAL TO PEOPLE ACROSS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CLASS SPECTRUMS
FOCUS ON INTRINSIC VALUES SUCH AS SELF-DIRECTION AND BENEVOLENCE

51. THUS OUR HEALING NARRATIVES NEED TO
APPEAL TO PEOPLE ACROSS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CLASS SPECTRUMS
FOCUS ON INTRINSIC VALUES SUCH AS SELF-DIRECTION AND BENEVOLENCE
PUT EMPHASIS ON IN-GROUP BELONGING WITH ELEMENTS OF PURITY AND SANCTITY

52. THUS OUR HEALING NARRATIVES NEED TO
APPEAL TO PEOPLE ACROSS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CLASS SPECTRUMS
FOCUS ON INTRINSIC VALUES SUCH AS SELF-DIRECTION AND BENEVOLENCE
PUT EMPHASIS ON IN-GROUP BELONGING WITH ELEMENTS OF PURITY AND SANCTITY
EMBODY DEPTH, CONTEXT, IMPLICITNESS, AND CONNECTION

53. VERSE V
SALVATION

54. IN THE PROCESS OF DISMANTLING RELIGION IN THE WEST
WE DESTROYED THE BALANCING BRIDGE THAT ONCE
HELD THE TWO OPPOSING SIDES TIGHTLY TOGETHER

55. SO THAT THOSE SIDES GREW LARGER
AND FURTHER AWAY FROM EACH OTHER

56. THE DEATH OF GOD WILL ONLY RESULT IN AUTHORITARIANISM AND NIHILISM
- Friedrich Nietzsche

57. “The basis of religion is the awareness of men of their finiteness and the
inexorable limits to their powers, and the consequent effort to find a coherent
answer to reconcile them to that human condition […] the world has become too
scientific and drab. Humans want a sense of wonder and mystery”
- Daniel Bell

58. THIS IS NOT TO BRING BACK AN IDEOLOGY AS WE’VE KNOWN BEFORE

59. RATHER EXTRACT THE VALUES THAT MAKE SENSE FOR TODAY

60. VALUES SUCH AS:

61. COMMUNITY

62. FAMILY

63. HUMILITY

64. ANGST

65. SERENITY

66. MODESTY

67. THESE CAN BE THE BUILDING BLOCKS
FOR POTENT NARRATIVES SUCH AS:

68. CAPTURING OUR COLLECTIVE
ALIENATION IN SOCIETY

69. OUR INHERENT DENIAL OF
GROWING OLD

70. CELEBRATING THE COMMITMENT TO
WORK AND FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES

71. EXPLORING OUR PRIMAL
SEXUAL DESIRES

72. TAPPING INTO AN
INNATE SERENITY

73. ACKNOWLEDGING OUR SHARED
FRAGILITY AND LIMITATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGING OUR
SHARED FRAGILITY

74. THESE ARE TIMELESS THEMES
THAT HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR CENTURIES
AND ARE PART OF HUMAN AND SOCIETAL FABRIC

75. AND THEY JUST MIGHT BE
A TINY PART OF THE SOLUTION
OF SOCIETY’S HEALING AND UNIFICATION
AND THEY JUST MIGHT BE
A TINY PART TO THE SOLUTION
OF RECREATING MIDDLE GROUND TERRITORY
AND BRINGING PEOPLE
A LITTLE CLOSER TOGETHER AGAIN

76. AND THEY JUST MIGHT BE
A TINY PART OF THE SOLUTION
OF SOCIETY’S HEALING AND UNIFICATION
PHILIP DE MEULEMEESTER
STRATEGY DIRECTOR
FIG