This episode was originally published as an essay on my blog on January 26, 2022. Read the full text transcript of “How To Lose Friends & Alienate People” here.

Brand culture, as we know it today, owes its existence to World War I propaganda. What if “brand loyalty” is authoritarianism in StoryBrand clothing?

Join me, your host, Rachael Kay Albers, marketing muckraker and brand strategist gone wild, in a deep dive into advertising history and how branding legitimized itself.

Before WWI, the advertising industry was on shaky ground, synonymous with snake oil salesmen and outrageous patent medicine claims that promised a product could cure all ails, while ultimately making its customer’s problems worse.

The war rescued advertising’s reputation, proving to business and world leaders just how effective mass media and propaganda could be to shape public opinion. The world has never been the same.

The goal of propaganda is to subvert an individual’s reason and logic to promote a biased agenda. In the case of wartime propaganda, that agenda is national loyalty above all else. In the case of advertising propaganda, that agenda is brand loyalty above all else. But should it be?

Mentioned on the show:

• The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu
• The Human Brand by Chris Malone and Susan T. Fiske
• How We Advertised America, George Creel
• Expert Secrets, Russell Brunson
• Building a StoryBrand, Donald MIller