I am who I am because of everyone

Photo by bobster1985

He is who he is because of everyone!

I've been intrigued by the press adverts for the new Orange campaign created by Fallon for a few weeks now, and it went in slow stages, mostly while on the tube. First quickly noticing Orange seemed to have a whole new vibe going on, saw the long copy, my mind moved on. In the last few weeks, read the ads, not really getting it, was still kinda curious, and finally checked the website and looked into the campaign a bit more yesterday.

On one hand, I think it's a very bold and interesting proposition. "I am who I am because of everyone". We're getting straight into ontology, and existential philosophy there. Orange exists because everyone is connected and everyone is connected thanks to Orange. Orange becomes a brand at the core of what it means to be a human being and represents the sense of connectedness between all of us. I may be wrong - and perhaps exaggerating - but I'm guessing that's the idea. Leveraging people such as Rose Tremain is a good, and to promote Jont's Unlit on the website is pretty cool (Though Unlit was already a great idea without Orange).

Now the other hand, I think a brand needs a seriously rare case of hubris to think they can position themselves at the heart of being. Reading the slogan, my first thought was "Well yeah, I am who I am because of everyone! doh! And..?" That's the case for every single person on this planet and the notion is pretty well known and understood these days (At least, I think so, I could be wrong). Every company is nothing without the people in it, its customers, clients, etc. It's not rocket science. I think everyone intrinsically knows that.

So is Orange saying it's very special, we're all very special and Orange allows people to connected together, or is it saying that it's the same as everything and everyone else, that we're only one small part of a huge of web of connections; a cog in the machine, no more, no less..? It's the latter that came straight up to mind for me.

To finish, I thought the TV ad was pretty slow, boring, heavy of significance and the whole campaign takes itself too seriously. I then checked a couple of articles and apparently they spent nearly £100M on the campaign, their largest budget yet. They won Turkey of the week by Campaign and pretty mixed reviews elsewhere. I also liked the Voxpop video on Brand Republic, check it out.