Brand and Butter
Always straight-talking (occasionally in-your-face), Brand and Butter is the no-BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners. Packed with clear-cut advice on the influence and power of branding - and how pairing associations, consumer behaviour, and design thinking can impact how we see, think, feel, and even taste.
Brand and Butter serves up refreshingly honest and never-dull conversations with some of today’s boldest brand strategists and architects. Sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable (and often unapologetically blunt), this is the podcast that you wish you’d listened to before launch.
Tara Ladd is the Founder and Brand Strategist at Your One and Only, a brand and design studio here for brands who refuse to settle. Evolving brand identities to stay relevant fusing psychology, strategy, and design.
Brand and Butter
Symbolism in Action: Kendrick Lamar's Halftime Show
Let's talk semiotics. In this episode, we're discussing how symbols and signs shape meaning and association through the lens of Kendrick Lamar's standout storytelling in his Super Bowl halftime show. I draw parallels to the crucial role of cultural messaging, colour psychology, and how brands can authentically connect with their audiences by understanding and being aware of the role these elements play.
Mentions in the episode:
Further to the 'Crip Walk' mentioned in the episode, I can't find a hard source. However, the meaning of the walk in the show was referencing Serena at Wimbledon in her early days (overriding the origin of gang association in this case).
Samuel L. Jackson was an activist and part of The Black Panthers in his early days. He was also suspended from college after being found guilty of unlawful confinement (reference here).
Visit https://youroneandonly.com.au/
Follow YO&O on IG https://www.instagram.com/youroneandonly_au/
Follow Tara on IG https://www.instagram.com/iamtaraladd/
Connect with Tara on https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarajoyladd/
Sign up for the Design Mind Theory Email – See how other Brands use psychology to nail their strategies.
you're listening to Brandon butter a straight-talking occasionally in your face no BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners. Here for those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and how pairing associations, consumer behavior and design thinking can impact what people see, think and feel. I'm your host, tara Ladd, the sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable and often unapologetically blunt founder and creative director of Brandon Design Agency. Your one and only hey, hey, welcome to this week's episode of Brand and Butter, so a little bit delayed. I wanted to do one last week, but you're going to get a double episode this week, so boom, boom in there in the with the goods. What I want to talk about today.
Speaker 1:Obviously, there's been some big hype over the Superbowl, but what I want to talk about is the Kendrick Lamar halftime show and the importance of this is all about semiotics. Now, if you don't know what semiotics are, it is the universal language of symbols and signs and, in case you didn't see any kind of summary, that performance was riddled with them, and so this is what I actually want to talk about, because when we're communicating our brands from a much wider narrative, visuals are part of that, but so is language, so is, I guess the tone and all of the things that you use and combine together create the overarching narrative and the overarching vibes of a brand and how you communicate. And so the way that I always like to put it is think about it as being a I guess, a language where that you can use without having to understand the same. You know language essentially, so if you're going overseas and you need to cross the road, you know that the red man that stands still at a traffic sign means stop, don't walk, and the walking symbol that's green means go. So that is what we would call semiotics. It is a universal symbolism that we all understand and what it means, and it's a way that we can make sense of things. It's almost like a heuristic as well. So, you know, different cultures have different symbolic meaning and all of those things are portrayed in everyday communication, and so we use this every day, throughout all of our communication, and it can be the types of people that you use in your imagery. It can be the type of language that you use, the slang, all of those ins and outs of the tone that you would use, the shapes, the curvatures of a letter or the sharpness of a letter has a huge psychological benefit in terms of you know, the sharp pointed edges kind of symbolize sharp sounds Like.
Speaker 1:There is a I think I spoke about this a couple of episodes back of the Kiki and Boboa or Bobo sound and sign like visual correlation and that Kiki made people think of sharp pointed shapes like triangles, whereas Bobo or Boboa, whatever it was made people think of sharp pointed shapes like triangles, whereas Bobo or Boboa, whatever it was made, people think of like blob kind of shapes, like rounded kind of cloud-like shapes. And there is a huge tie-in with when we say things that we expect it to look a certain way. So it's really interesting If you ever had a conversation with someone and you meet them in person, you're like, wow, you're not what I thought you would look like. Conversation with someone and you meet them in person, you're like, wow, you're not what I thought you would look like. And that is exactly what happens in your brain. You have formulated a visual of what that person should look like, based on the way that they sound or what they do, and when you see them in person it can actually jolt. You go, oh okay, that's not what I thought about. Our brains do that every day, every day, and without you even realizing it, the wrong type of tone or the wrong type of messaging or the wrong type of imagery can actually portray a message that you're not even sure you're sending out, and so that's why it's really important to kind of understand all of your guidelines, what it is that you do as a brand, what it is that you're saying as a brand and how you're communicating as a brand, and have these guidelines in place so that there is consistency in what you do and how you portray your message.
Speaker 1:But anyway, coming back to Kendrick's halftime show, first off, obviously I'm a massive fan. I thought it was freaking awesome and I was like getting really hyped up. As soon as it came out, I was like, oh my God, has everyone noticed this? And I thought it was just pure artistic genius, to be completely honest and there will be a lot of people that go I don't get it, I didn't get it. And, to be fair, that's like any form of art where you have to say, well, you can go and have a look and read into it, and then, of course, it's subjective. So whether you like it or not, it's totally up to you.
Speaker 1:However, this was for the large majority of black culture and it was sending out a message right in front of well, in front of all of America, I should say, and it was a real statement piece. And the words that he used, the segue into the songs that he was using or that he was singing into the stage display, and the color appropriation and all of these little gestures like the head nods when they were doing the humble act and he was talking about basically conforming to what they're being told to do. There were so many symbolic references throughout that whole act that you could watch it four, five, six times over and it would say something different. So each of us had. I think if you speak to a lot of African-American mates, they would be able to really spell out a lot of things for you. But if you're across this stuff and you're really aware and understand what's happening in that narrative, you would have picked it up pretty easily.
Speaker 1:I thought it was awesome. I thought it was a statement piece. I thought it was a very clever use of symbols and signs and the way that we interpret meaning and those that say I didn't even get it, it was a really shit performance. It's like, well, did you actually read the message or were you looking into it? You're also allowed to hate it, right, but in my eyes I thought it was a very cool display of solidarity. It was also a very good call to action and it was just something that I thought was, yeah, it was pretty awesome. I can't even begin to describe like, if you go through and realize, from the way that people were positioned on stage to the songs that they moved into, to even having Samuel L Jackson be Uncle Sam. And in case you didn't realize, and what I read online which I thought was pretty interesting, is that well, I need to fact check this, I'll confirm, but it was that Samuel L Jackson was on a FBI hit list for activism for, you know, black culture, and I think that that's pretty freaking cool. That's an awesome tie-in.
Speaker 1:We see at the moment Serena Williams getting actually dragged through the, through the mud, by a whole bunch of people just criticizing her for her crip walk, and you know that is a whole narrative in itself and people are like, oh, now that you know your sister is like being killed or murdered by that group of people and you want to go and display that and it's like, yeah, but also that's not where the original dance came from and that is also going around at the moment of a disabled man who had one leg and he was doing this dance and that's where, and he's I think his name had Crip in it or something. Um, again, we'll confirm, but that's where that originated from, and so that just shows that the original has then transformed and changed meaning based on who has used that throughout history. And this is an important thing to understand is that things can change meaning, symbols can change meaning and, in case we haven't seen recently is Elon Musk portraying a certain sign that has had the world in a state of disarray, and again, that is a symbolic reference. So, however you take that is, you would probably know exactly where I would stand on that matter. But that is a symbolic reference, that is a form of semiotics and it is a display that not all symbols and signs are positive. We know this with the swastika swastika, I can't even say it properly, but we know that that is a horrible symbol. We know what that means. On its own, without any kind of association, it's nothing. But when you understand everything that is aligned to that, you know that that is positive, horrible sign and you don't want to use it and it is banned in many countries and you know what that symbolizes. And so this is the same thing when you start thinking about branding not obviously tying that in but when you use certain symbols, certain signs, it is portraying meaning and I often have people come wanting designs done that and I have educate a lot of clients that come to us on on the symbolic reference of a logo.
Speaker 1:Now, a logo is important. A logo is hugely aligned to how people identify you. However, it is also not the overarching. You know reference right. So if we see the McDonald's M, for instance, we know that that's McDonald's. However, all of those associations of McDonald's have come in from years and years and years of association. Just like and I use this again as an example is the Chanel double C's is that we know that that is years and years and years and years of building up that brand reputation and showing what they stand for and their high luxury status and where they've positioned and placed themselves and the language that they use and the people they collaborate with and the pricing and all of your marketing mix and you know your five P's of your people place. You know all of those things price, product all of those things come into play when you're representing association.
Speaker 1:So association is deeply tied into psychology, it's tied into language and it's tied into symbolic reference in terms of semiotics and how we portray meaning. So if and I use this as an example all the time if we see a dentist and they are black and yellow and I did this recently well, it wasn't recently, it was last year, but I did this on a panel that I was having a discussion with and I watched everyone's face scrunch up the minute that I said a dentist, and then I aligned it with yellow and black and they were like and it's like, yeah, interesting, because in your head you've aligned dentists with the color yellow and black and when you put those two things together, they create a whole different range of you know associations and connotations that symbolize a different meaning in your head. So you would think of decay and you would think of mold and you would think of all those things you know yellow teeth and that's not really great. However, if you were to think of, say, I don't know a craft beer brand and you used black and yellow, it would have a completely different you know message. You could use that very, very, very differently.
Speaker 1:And so this is where color theory and color psychology come into the way that you present your brand and the way that you present your campaign material, if you have, you know, a creative collateral, and the same as if you choose a specific type of font. You know rounded fonts versus sharp fonts, versus fat fonts versus skinny fonts, and you know tall fonts and all the, all the different dynamics that you have there. They all portray meaning script fonts more flowy. You know what is it that it means? You know we saw an oversaturation of script fonts not that long ago and they called it millennial pink, because everyone was using pink. We saw that kind of reference where, you know, women were stepping into the market and owning their business, so we saw an oversaturation of bloody, pink and black everywhere and so, yeah, and then you see that change.
Speaker 1:So it's like all of these things take on meaning, all of these things take on reference and in our own heads, based on what we've been exposed to and what we see in here, this creates something that you know allows us to kind of go into our. These are called heur. They allow us to quickly grab a reference of what that color means and what that image means. When you pair these two things together, so you know. You would say you know blue and mint, and then you go teeth and you go great, like toothpaste and clean and fresh, and that's why they have green rooms. It's like calm, it's like what? What are these colors mean? And when you understand what the colors mean, then you're able to kind of portray that message. But without knowing all these like hidden meanings, there are things that you need to kind of really be aware of before you're putting them out.
Speaker 1:And so if you go back to the halftime show because I love to do that it's like a nice little parallel. We saw the red, blue and white and black color scheme throughout that whole show and obviously that was symbolizing America. We saw that they could have wore completely different colors but it wouldn't have had a cut through. But the songs that we used, the way that they created the American flag, the way that Kendrick stood in the middle of a divided flag representing the cultural divide. He even specified that in the call out. He used not like us as a very you know it's a statement piece. Essentially he used that as to say you don't understand us, you will. You know it was.
Speaker 1:It was very, very cool and I think that sometimes I shouldn't even have the right to speak to this conversation, but it is very important to kind of have these conversations, especially when you need to understand the minority and, in my personal opinion, when they've and I'm getting political. Yes, I think that it's important because brands are political. If you don't think that brands should be political, I mean, it's up to you to control your narrative and what you talk about. But people buy with emotion, people buy with their values and we're seeing this more than ever. We saw recently and I think I discussed this last week Target say that they were scrapping DEI initiatives and then we saw Costco double down on their DEI initiatives and we saw a whole bunch of people. We saw Costco shares blow up. We're seeing people sell Teslas. So if you don't think that people buy with their money, yeah, it's gonna be very, very interesting how policy and culture really lead the charge on how people spend. So we're watching consumers really shift where they put their money. We've seen this happen over the years.
Speaker 1:Brands really putting social activism within Ben and Jerry's are a perfect example of someone that's been doing this forever. Patagonia have been doing this forever. Tom's Shoes one for one, thank you. Water who Gives a Crap, even Liquid Death, have been as much as they're all about irreverent brand identity and humor. They actually have a sustainability approach in putting it in an aluminum can and then creating sustainable approaches for the future. So you will definitely have that divide of some people will spend over here and some people will spend over there. But these are the symbolic references that you see throughout communication, throughout the way that they lead, throughout policy. All of these things are navigating and dictating to their audience what it is that they stand for and what it is that they believe in, and people will put their money with those who align with their personal value. So it's a really interesting time.
Speaker 1:I actually have been talking about this for a long time and I'm I think now it's really evident what's happening. I keep saying things are changing, things are changing, but it's really now. It's quite evident how things are changing. It's evident how people are putting their money where their mouth is, or putting their money where their heart is. More specifically, you're seeing people become really loud, very aligned with what it is that they believe in, and people are getting well, not there. I mean, everyone has the right to feel that the way they want to.
Speaker 1:In this, in this, you know, I guess climate we could call it, because it's very iffy but there will be ups and downs. It's just basic human behavior. We've seen this. This is history repeating itself. It's happened notoriously in the past that ups and downs, it's just basic human behavior. We've seen this. This is history repeating itself. It's happened notoriously in the past. The ups and downs of timing and placement and all of these. If you can keep track of culture and keep track of conversation, you will be able to keep your finger on the pulse. But it's Moving quite quickly now in the fact that we're seeing technology changing and conversations and societal narrative changing and what you can say and what you can't say, and people are getting really overwhelmed with it.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, it always, always comes down to authenticity. It always comes down to listening and reading and just understanding what's going on around you and just being really, I guess, proactive in the way that you consume and doing that in a way where you're listening to different people and understanding different perspectives and not getting too caught up in one way of thinking, because then it can become very, I guess, narrow-minded or very single-minded. And you know what? That's totally fine if that's your approach and that's the way you want to be, because that could be a niche for you. And it's just very all over the shop at the moment.
Speaker 1:So you're seeing people saying you need to do this and you need to do that, but at the moment it's really just coming down to the fact that the world's bloody changing and we need to just be very aware of how it's changing. But, more importantly, we need to be very aware of how people are feeling, because and that's called empathy mapping right you can empathy map your audience on, on what it is that they're doing, how they're feeling, and then just being someone that or being a brand that is there to be there for their people and showing how they they belong or how they fit and just and just providing that safe spot. So this is why communities are blowing up, because people want to be part of something and at the moment it's feeling very divisive. So it's like if you could create a sense of safety with your brand. We've seen LSKD do this brilliantly. They have created a really great community. We've seen Nike go back to doing this as well. They've just released their first Super Bowl ad and I think it was they said 27 years, very much in line with the women market. So how they're building that strength and doing things and it was very activism led.
Speaker 1:So we're seeing this coming from brands and people will be like brands need to not be political disagree. People will buy with their intentions, with their values. It is just the world that we live in now and I think that that's kind of where we're at. It's uncomfortable for a lot of people, but change is uncomfortable, but I think that we're going to see some things move through. And this isn't me saying go out there and wave an activism flag. I'm not saying that at all. But I'm saying just be very true to who it is, that you are as a brand, and be very cautious of who you are as a brand, as a founder if you are a founder of a business and who you are as a brand, as a business and as a culture, because personal brands are different to business brands. Whereas as a business brand, you are representing a group of people and a culture. They're in alignment to the bigger goal as a team, whereas as a personal brand, it is you and we've seen this happen with you know when a founder will go out and do something and that can have ramifications for the staff that work for that business.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it is a time, but it is really important to understand the symbolic references. It is very important to understand the undertones and the I guess, the hidden meaning behind what it is that you put out. It's not just about, and obviously from just a very surface level. Cool, I'm not making you go and completely rip things apart, but I am just making you become aware of how these tiny details can play a big part in shaping perception and what people think of you. So this is something that I am extremely passionate about. I am all about digging into those nuances of how people see, hear, feel all of those things. That's why I've studied behavior. It's why I really love behavior. It's being able to identify biases and the way people gravitate towards some brands and really steer away from others, and usually we find that the ones that people gravitate towards. There is something there that is beyond just a commodity. You're beyond a commodity, right. You're beyond just what it is that you do. It's who you are, it's what you stand for, it's what you're about, it's who you're here for. So that is today.
Speaker 1:I hope you liked that one. I will completely dive into this as we go on, but yeah, I just found that if you haven't seen it, definitely go and have a look at Kendrick's performance. It's become the most watched Superbowl halftime event ever and I assume that's because people just keep watching it to find all these little hidden gems and yeah, it is really amazing. So that's it for this week Well, for the first half of the week, and I will talk to you later. Did you like that episode? I hope so, because if you did, why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about. If you want to follow us, you can find us at yourwannanonly underscore au on Instagram or head to wwwyouwantanonlycomau.
