maclarity

Happiness Is Contagious

A recent study written up in the Globe and Mail supports what we probably intuitively knew all along: happiness is contagious.

“... they found that when an individual becomes happy, a friend who lives nearby experiences a 25-per-cent increased chance of becoming happy. And the more centrally located you are in your social cluster of happy people, the more likely you are to become happy.”  Further, researchers found that “happiness is a collective phenomenon that spreads like a virus through social networks – affecting even strangers three times removed from each other.”

Fortunately, misery does not, contrary to popular belief, love company. Negative emotions do not seem to spread as intensely as giddiness.

The research, published last week in the British Medical Journal, relied on pretty solid methodology – tracking data among 4, 739 individuals over time since 1948, accounting for 50,000 social and family ties.

A couple of questions arise from this.

1.       Could it be that social networks supported by social platforms like Facebook, twitter, and flickr, can support the spread of happiness? Aren’t we drawn to wall postings that are light-hearted, fun, and positive? Personally, when I read Negative Nelly postings, I quickly empathize and then move right along, eyes peeled for lighter, happier fare. Boing Boing seems to be aware of this too –  when they have a post that is disturbing or disgusting, they offer up a Unicorn Moment, a link to pictures and poems of “unicorns, rainbows, happy flowers forever.” Sort of an antidote to whatever grossness that they had just foisted on their readers.

 

2.       How can brands participate, if at all, in this propagation of happiness? When I first saw the Free Hugs campaign, I thought wouldn’t it have been so awesome if a brand had thought of this. (Or maybe not – that might be another post/conversation altogether). Suffice to say, it was a movement which started small, turned global, got on Oprah (now name me a brand that DOESN’T want to be on Oprah), incited controversy, but generally, did well by others. In the same vein, I wish more brands thought about sparking movements. I wish more brands obsessed about their world view, rather than their shelf space. I wish more brands thought about connecting with folks, rather than interrogating respondents behind a one-way glass.

INSIGHT? Like a virus, happiness can spread. Like a virus, it can be created, propagated, supported, facilitated. The tools are there. On the fringes, proponents act. There exists this wide gaping void for brands to play in. Now more than ever, brands can step up and kickstart a much-needed joy-fest.

Posted by Lee C.

Free-Range Kids

One of the more remarkable takes on parenting in communications would be the successful Sunlight's campaign from 1999 - let kids be kids. Subtext: You're not a bad, neglectful mom even if your kids get dirty. In fact, you're being progressive in your child-rearing values.

Cut to April 2008.

Carl Honore, Canadian writer (and perplexed parent) publishes his latest book, Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-parenting. His thesis: Children around the world are being warped by the fears and pressures of their parents - it’s time to back off.

The same week of Honore's latest book launch, a mother in New York let her 9-year old son take the subway alone and wrote about it in her columnfor The New York Sun. A flurry of media coverage later, she starts a blog, Free Range kids, with a stirring call to action:

Do you ever... ..let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk alone to school? Take a bus, solo? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free Range Kid! At Free Range, we believe in safe kids. We believe in helmets, car seats and safety belts. We do NOT believe that every time school age children go outside, they need a security detail. Most of us grew up Free Range and lived to tell the tale. Our kids deserve no less. This site dedicated to sane parenting. Share your stories, tell your tips and maybe one day I will try to collect them in a book. Meantime, let's try to help our kids embrace life! (And maybe even clear the table.)

Hyper-parenting has always been a rife territory for branding and communications. What kind of parent you are largely depends on what brand of laundry detergent*convenience food*vacation get-away*stationery... (pick your category) you choose, if you go by the depictions of parents in some campaigns.

So which side of the fence does your brand sit on? Do you tout safety and cautiousness (and play on fears and anxieties of parents today)? Or do  you celebrate kids' independence, exhuberance, self-reliance?

Going by the poll on the NY Sun column, 51% of parents thought that the mother-who-let-her 9-year-old-son-loose-in-the-NY-subway was nuts. 25% were ambivalent; a little more than a third were on her side. Those stats don't bode well for progressive, empowering parenting styles.

Fine, there is a world of difference between letting your kids run dirty in the playground and letting them run loose in New York. Woe to the brand (or columnist) who takes the laissez faire impulse too far.