Lululemon’s ‘Who is John Galt?’ Ayn Rand bags: a not-so-hidden capitalist manifesto?
Posted: November 18th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail | Tags: Ayn Rand, Benetton, John Galt, Lululemon, Moleskine, Parlour Coffee, values | 3 Comments »Lululemon is a premium price point yoga supply company. They’re catching some public relations heat right now for decorating their retail bags with a catchphrase from Ayn Rand—a self described “radical for capitalism”—and her 1957 book Atlas Shrugged. Customers used to the brand’s “friends are more important than money” message are put off by the Rand reference.
Lulu’s blog offers an explanation for co-opting a capitalist slogan that the Globe and Mail counters.
“A Rand expert says the blog post displays a misreading of the author’s philosophy, known as objectivism.”
We can make the debate over the compatibility of Ayn Rand’s philosophy and Lululemon’s corporate values quite simple.
Lululemon’s stated values are in direct opposition to the philosophy of Objectivism and the symbolism of the John Galt bag.
No doubt founder Chip Wilson was influenced by Rand’s novel, which he read as a young man. He’s the 651st richest man in the world, valued at $1.9 billion by Forbes in March 2011. You don’t make that list without a profound commitment to capitalism.
While the John Galt bag certainly espouses Wilson’s personal ethos, it’s at odds with the one his company manifesto projects. The Lululemon blog can be read as a disingenuous attempt to explain away this misbranding, and they’ve alienated the chunk of their core consumer perceptive enough to note the discord.
If the bag’s purpose is just to “make people think”, it’s making people think about the wrong thing. When you’re hawking $100 yoga pants, it isn’t tasteful to call attention to capitalism.
Brand communications—whether advertising, social media or printed collateral—have to demonstrate at their core the values with which their customer wants to be associated.
That’s called branding.
Moleskine missed the mark with their recent spec design logo contest by failing to promote their customer’s values. Benetton stays on brand with its latest campaign, reinforcing a decades-old discussion about diversity.
And local coffee shop Parlour Coffee spoke their values in yesterday’s rebuff of Winnipeg’s transit hike, gaining them a top spot on local Twitter trends and firmly establishing their brand’s voice.
[A nice followup would be offering 25¢ off their next coffee for the supporters who demonstrated their resonance with Parlour's values by retweeting the message for them.]
