MAKING IDEAS WHOLE - The Power of Language

June 30, 2008 | One Response to “MAKING IDEAS WHOLE - The Power of Language

Make no mistake, the discussion of language – even in the context of mere promotion - is about how language works to maintain and change power relations. And a common thread in ad agencies and boardrooms today is the mainstreaming of GREEN – and how to craft a message that can tie them down.

From the perspective of language, this begs an important question: Are GREEN principles being adapted by a larger demographic, or is it the GREEN aesthetic that is being co-opted by the mainstream?

Historically, being Green has existed as a fringe marketplace. It has survived in part defining itself as NOT being in the mainstream - somehow counter-culture. In fact, when we look at the very word “Green” we can see that we have been labeled by the old mainstream using an outsider’s pejorative. “Greenies.” Today’s consumers don’t even identify with it personally. They may Go Green, but they are no Green, personally.

But, thanks in part to smart companies, blogs like this, a failed U.S. energy policy, a few well-timed storms, a rockstar “Almost President,” and the initiatives and campaigns of Fortune 50 companies scrambling to establish some green street credit - we’re suddenly not so fringe anymore.

Just like any fringe group that talks only to itself, Dr. Paul Ray’s - one of the first to identify the fringe segmentation - prompting of “Authenticity.” when communicating with the GREEN consumer is dead on. But consider this - if mainstreaming America is chasing an aesthetic framing – a brand experience – rather than principles, I argue that “authenticity” may mean very little in the very near future.

So, what happens when this authentic language of the fringe is borrowed by the mainstream?

Think in terms of modern America adopting military language - like BlockBuster, a popular video store and a bomb dropped during World War II. Today, the military couldn’t use that word and still maintain any credibility as a big, bad monster. It adapts its language.

Or, look at urban street slang co-opted by white suburbia. When the skinny white kid steals your language, you don’t want it back. It is no longer subversive if it’s common.

What happens is that the language creator – the fringe – must push it further.

A language war is being staged between GREEN and the Mainstream. When language or expression is stolen, the language will evolve to distance itself from the mainstream. Things move fast today and so does language and it will change faster and faster. It is this way that the fringe has power. Mainstream only ever moves because of the fringe. It shifts.

Posted by John Rooks | Filed Under Blog, Communicating, Livelihood, Whole Language 

Comments

One Response to “MAKING IDEAS WHOLE - The Power of Language”

  1. Owen Marcus on June 30th, 2008 11:54 am

    I couldn’t agree more – we push the edges and the edges shape the whole. In the 30+ years in the holistic movement, I have seen many words cooped by the mainstream. The word holistic is one example; everyone is attempting to be holistic in his or her approach. Maybe the most ubiquitous “over used word” is organic. Today most organic is not organic.

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