Hands off the Corporate Rat
By Ivan Morgan / June 23, 2023
It has always fascinated me how people can become so loyal to a brand.
Case in point. Long ago I was a Cub Leader in my community. One glorious June evening (not like this June), cool with not a cloud in the sky, the other leaders and I decided to ditch our usual Wednesday night meeting in the school gym and take the kids out on the soccer field outside.
We had a blast, my mood lifted by the fact that I was nearly done with Cubs for the summer. At dusk the kids, all pink cheeked and puffing, sat with us on the grass as we talked about the upcoming Cub camp and waited for parents to come and collect them.
I looked up to see an older woman steaming across the field. She looked angry. She stormed up to us and angrily demanded to know which one of us was Ivan Morgan. A little taken aback, I meekly owned up.
Trembling with rage, she began to yell at me.
Several weeks before at a regular Cub meeting her grandson had been wearing a T-shirt with Mickey Mouse on it, which I referred to in passing as the Corporate Rat (which is how it was always referred to in my family.) Laughing, the kids jumped on that, arguing with me it was Mickey Mouse. I agreed but allowed that I always referred to him as the Corporate Rat.
Apparently, her grandson, all of nine, had mentioned this at a family gathering, enraging his Nan.
She was deeply angry. I was shaken by her rage. If I had dissed her religious beliefs she could not have been more offended. She tore many strips off me in front of everyone. I was told.
I apologized, saying I meant no harm, but that just made her angrier. Disrespecting a beloved Disney character! How could I be allowed to be in charge of children, she asked? Poisoning young minds! Who did I think I was? She was going to report me to Scouts Canada. The other leaders, and the kids, thought it was funny, but sat still and quiet. I didn’t think it was funny.
Eventually she stormed off with a stream of threats over her shoulder as she marched away.
I was truly sorry I offended her, but I was fascinated at how deep into her mind this company had got its hooks. Mickey Mouse is a corporate logo, like those for Pepsi, CNN, Toyota, or for that matter, Progressive Conservative or Liberal. It’s a symbol of the Disney corporation, who wants your business. Your money. That’s it. Somehow this logo had come to mean a lot more to her.
Which is what companies want. They want your brand loyalty and work hard to achieve it. Political parties too. A great deal of work is done – and a lot of money spent – trying to find out what you like and what you will pay (or vote) for.
And it is precarious. Take the Bud Lite situation in the US. Sure, there is all manner of big issues at stake, but not for them. They just want to sell beer. That’s it. The last thing they wanted was (excuse the play on words) a brouhaha.
Ideally a company wants brand loyalty like the type I was a victim of: true devotion. Getting back to the whole Disney thing again, when I was a Cub leader, I was astonished how many parents mortgaged themselves to the hilt to take the kids on vacation to Disney World in Florida. Privately I thought it was a few hundred acres in the middle of a swamp, but clearly to others it was a magical place. Why? Because the Disney corporation told them so.
I am not raining on someone else’s parade. Those I knew who went to Disney World had a fabulous time. It just interests me how companies (and political parties) can influence human behaviour.
When I worked in politics, I always felt guilty when some well-meaning, decent person told me they had always been a whatever, and would always vote whatever, that they were a true whatever. It would make me sad, as they didn’t know what I knew and hadn’t seen what I’d seen.
I have products I like and brands I choose. We all do. But fanatical brand loyalty, deep identification with a logo, has always weirded me out. Whether it’s a type of ketchup, beer, hockey team or a political party, it’s a great idea to always be paying attention to what you are supporting, and why.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com