When will brands learn to appreciate culture properly?

Puma & JD have recently partnered up for an event where the theme was “Trap”. For those who may not be familiar with the meaning of “trap”, it means working and it can be applied in any manor.

Nothing wrong with the term but its the theme which they based the trap, a f**king crack house. I mean I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, I already have an idea in my head on the type of character who approved this event. A middle-class privileged, thinking Shoreditch is edgy but now too mainstream, so I pop over to Dalston as its more up and coming prat. There’s a term for people like this, culture vultures. Only want the best part of cultures and don’t like to focus on the rest.

Brands need to understand that in order to talk about certain topics you need to speak to people who REALLY come from that background and can give you first hand insights, if there was any level headed person that was consulted on this project, they would tell you not to do an event around a crack house.

You can’t place branded content on topics such as this because it comes with baggage, in this instance violence, addiction and homelessness to name a few. An event such as this should not be one for those who have never been in a real crack house to now feel safe and start glamorising it at a brand event across their social media.

With all this being said, it goes back to my previous blog, lack of knowledge for different diversities. The solution, hire and consult with people from backgrounds you want to talk about.

Here’s the selling part, if you are a brand and you’re having troubles connecting with different cultures, let’s have a chat ;