I suspect a big challenge for the Occupy movement is the perception by their “opponents” that these occupiers are a bunch of lazy, dirty hippies. Take a shower! Get a job! Hard to disagree with the “opponents” when the occupiers are hanging out in tents, unshowered, and not showing up to their day jobs (which they may or may not have).
What’s an Occupy-er to do? How to build support for your movement?
I see a tension in the marketing plan from the get go, in that, in filling out the marketing brief for Occupy, there is no “single most important thing” (as far as I can tell). What’s your primary goal? What are you looking to accomplish? I don’t, as someone more sympathetic to this movement than not, understand what the primary goal is.
Let’s assume, however, that the goal is “tax the rich at a percentage concomitant with the benefits that America accords the rich” — i.e. progressively.
If that were the case, there then seems to be an additional tension between
- Wanting to be taken seriously
- Wanting to be heard
Depending on your target audience, being taken seriously is no longer possible if your statements are made while fall leaves are deeply embedded into your trustafarian dreadlocks and you smell a little funny. It may have worked for Butterfly, sort of, but it doesn’t work so well for 99% of us (R D RR).
However, being reasonable (” “) in your manner of speech and dress does not necessarily result in television cameras.
So, what’s a movement to do?
What would you recommend?
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Updated: a 11/28/2011 article in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/business/media/the-branding-of-the-occupy-movement.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
explores the origins of Occupy, including the fact that there was no original “here is the goal” creative brief.
Though, in my discussions with one person active in New York City, the primary goal is to reduce income inequality (which is the yellow canary of gross social injustice in other areas).