Ad Bro$
The Ad Bro$ Podcast is a thought-provoking series exploring the intersection of advertising, culture, and contemporary events. Known for its dynamic discussions and cultural insights, the podcast appeals to professionals in marketing, creatives, and anyone intrigued by the evolving impact of advertising in society.
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- Diverse Topics: Ad Bro$ covers a wide array of subjects, from the historical significance of events like the Million Man March to the cultural and economic shifts brought on by global challenges
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Ad Bro$
Ad Bros Episode 64 // Brands: From Cattle to Culture
We explore the evolution of branding from its historical origins as physical marks on livestock to its modern incarnation as a multi-sensory identity system that shapes our choices and perceptions.
• Branding began as physical marks farmers used to identify livestock and show quality to potential buyers
• Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's nephew, transformed branding by applying propaganda techniques to consumer psychology
• Childhood brand experiences with companies like Nintendo, Nike, and McDonald's created lasting emotional connections
• Hip-hop culture dramatically influenced brand marketing by incorporating brands into music, videos, and fashion
• The sensory aspects of branding include not just logos but sounds, feelings, and associations
• Communities and peer influence remain powerful drivers of brand awareness and adoption
• Brands function as storytelling vehicles that help consumers make quick decisions without overthinking
• Artists recognized their marketing power and began creating their own brands like Sean John and Rocawear
This episode is part of a three-part series on branding, so tune in for our next episodes where we'll dive deeper into rebranding and other aspects of brand evolution.
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Theme Music by Yirayah Garcia
I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time, I'm out of time.
Speaker 2:I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time. I'm out of time.
Speaker 1:I'm out of time.
Speaker 2:I'm out of time. I'm out of time so I just want to let the audience know this. This pod, and probably the next two, is going to be a series of uh, three episodes, so please make sure to check out the next episode and the one to follow. But yeah, it's all about branding. We're going to, you know, like RIP Kobe Bean Bryant, but we're going to go back to the basics. We're going to explain branding, what a brand is, as my brother AD said. We're going to explain what marketing is and we're going to talk about the history of it. We're also going to talk about some good rebranding moments in advertising, some bad ones. I have a few.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I just wanted to set everybody up to make sure they check out the next few episodes, you know. So there's going to be more information, as you know, as we go on we here, right? We just kind of you know we're doing our thing.
Speaker 3:Is is the new recording of the day. We're here to talk about brands before. I think we get into that. Let's you know. Let's just briefly introduce ourselves again just to the audience. Who's first time listening and, um, I think how we can start this off. Man, let's just talk, just who you are, you know, give me your name and maybe just say something around like a person or brand that kind of represents you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it could be a brand, it could be a product, it could be whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to start.
Speaker 3:It's your boy.
Speaker 2:Tony Stallion, you want the backstory to that name? Listen to ad bros, episode one, starting at 30 seconds. It's fully explained there. I think a brand that I I kind of closely align with, I'll say apple. Um, and the reason I'll say apple is because I feel like they have for me I know there's android people out there, but for me apple has like a nice ecosystem and I like how a lot of their um designs are beautiful but a little bit minimal.
Speaker 1:Love their stores so yeah, I'm gonna go with apple I'm sure that people will say that's elitist, but that's cool.
Speaker 3:This your boy ad representing atl by way of decatur all the way from Brooklyn.
Speaker 3:I would say that my brand or I guess more or less product I would say that would be is probably a screwdriver. I'm going to say a reason why A screwdriver is a tool. Any screwdriver can be a Sears screwdriver, it can be Craftman, it can be for home people, it doesn't matter, it works. You can use it for multiple things. You can use it to build something. You can use it to build something. You can probably use it for some crime. I don't think you should use it for that, but nonetheless, a screwdriver is like a multi-purpose tool that more or less kind of feels like a Swiss knife without being a knife, but kind of has jagged edges too. But yeah, I would be that I'm not going to really just say the brand you should have went first, because now I want to change mine it's cool stand
Speaker 4:on it. Are you done? Yeah, I'm done. It's your boy. Easy Rose, brownsville's finest, I think. A brand that represents me, I would say, is BMW. It's just performance, luxury, simple as that, that's one of my brands later on in the pot.
Speaker 2:I'm going to talk about BMW. It's just performance, luxury, simple as that, straight to the point.
Speaker 3:That's one of my brands later on in the pot I'm going to talk about. I like that man At Rose. I was going to be smooth with it, you got the performance, the overall aesthetic of the brand.
Speaker 2:The ultimate driving machine.
Speaker 4:There you go, have it in my way.
Speaker 3:Start out as airplanes engines and turn into a car. I dig that. You're all about performance. It makes sense to you as a media guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, even from a media perspective, we have to make sure we're aligned to whether it's KPIs, and then we are measured. Our performance through media is measured against those KPIs. So whenever we're going back and having conversations with clients, they are looking to see if we are who we say we are and we're doing what we say we're doing. Are we optimizing, are we reaching out to partners and getting things done? But we do it in a very elegant and having conversations in an eloquent way. So for this luxury, there you go.
Speaker 3:Well, I want to take the time to actually kind of set this conversation, I know for the next couple of conversations and pause. We want to really bring this idea of the brand to the forefront, right, because you know, we've got everybody nowadays saying that I'm a brand, or brands are reinventing themselves, or brands are either actually being phased out like they're disappearing right, we can't even talk about that. Brands are reinventing themselves or brands are either actually being phased out like disappearing Right, we can even talk about that. But I do think the idea of what a brand is, I think we should kind of like take a step back, maybe talk about the historical aspect of what brand is, how it changed over a period of time and what does it really represent today.
Speaker 3:Maybe, after we should also revisit. Once you kind of go through branding, maybe we should revisit the thing and see are you still a screwdriver? Are you still bmw? Oh no, I'm still a christian. Okay, I can. I can believe that brands are only representative of people in terms of how they identify, and you can always you know, identify with multiple brands, right, and that's the beauty of branding.
Speaker 3:And, um, if you think about what a brand really started from, well, I think a lot of people really don't know. Right, like you know, let's just, let's just take a step back. A lot of people think brands are, just, you know, companies with nice, beautiful logos and jingles and you know some kind of look and feel and great kind of commercials, and, yes, brands are all of that, of that.
Speaker 3:Right, but the term branding started like physical branding, the actual physical nature of putting a mark on something to identify it as something that started from farming, farm animals, right? So it's funny, like you know, you take like computing, that started from somebody quilting, essentially, right. So this idea of taking threads in and out of a loop and creating, like, some kind of like garment, that created binary code. That code turned into what we now know as computing. So that literally started from a craftsperson kind of quilting or creating a garment. Branding, as we know, like again started from farmers. You know, these guys would have a ton of livestock and they would want to identify the livestock from being either stolen by them or, if it was stolen, like hey, that's my cow or sheep or whatever. It also allowed the farmer to show potential buyers the quality of what they were selling, right, so that literally again started from farming.
Speaker 3:Right, this idea of like early civilization I think you mentioned 2000 BC or something like that and that's like the historical start of it. It evolves to this guy by the name of Edward Bernays. That's the nephew of Sigmund Freud and he took branding and made it a little bit more modern by inventing what we call propaganda. Propaganda was more or less used to get people to sign up for the army during World War I and a lot of other conflicts back then. But his uses of it too allowed this idea of taking a brand and using it to empower people's thinking. Specifically at the time he used it to empower women to smoke, because it was illegal for women to smoke back in the early 1900s.
Speaker 3:Yes, so he came up with this kind of cool campaign that really spoke to like this thing in women, like hey, by you, you smoking. It says that you're this and if you think about that approach to a brand, that literally begat modern day advertising. So that's that's kind of like the historical, like you know. You know like a quick second or so, of how branding actually got started and where, how it evolved and it goes right into modern day times. But what is a brand today?
Speaker 2:to be fair all this can be found on google but, you hear, you hear listening
Speaker 3:to us, so we're gonna.
Speaker 2:So we're gonna, we're gonna take you through the motion. I had to go back to university time and think and do some some research and looking up online. But just in a simple way, a, a brand, is just, you know, a company's identity. It's kind of like their story, the story of that company, their identity, who they are. They kind of use it as a way to differentiate from competitors. Nowadays, as you mentioned, ad is used to sell products, but I think you know, if you look at it in a broad spectrum, brand could kind of be anything. It could be you, it could be a country, it could be a team, sports team. I think the goal really of a brand is really just to kind of company or your thing just kind of stick in the minds of the people and, and you know, when you do that, you want to be easily identified. You feel me and we'll get into the weeds of things. But that's where you kind of get into logos, brand logos, colors, like you said, jingles, mnemonics, mnemonics, ooh, damn, that's going deep.
Speaker 1:That's a good one.
Speaker 2:That's a good one Big work, but yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:And then Tone, that's a good one big work, um, but yeah that's, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:And then a tone too, it's copy tone music, yeah it's a lot um. Psychodemographics, there's a, there's a lot um. I mean, that's when you get into copyright because you can't just steal. Well, you can steal another brand's brand, but you know that leads to legal issues or and or just the audience not feeling you, which which I'll get into later on. A couple of brands. But yeah, I think I don't know if you have any. I was going to jump into branding Cause I know like people kind of mix and match by.
Speaker 4:You know, if you want to speak, I mean, I think, just to touch on brands and appreciate that you know to, before springboarded into brandings. I feel like brands are an expectation that comes with a company or an entity's uniqueness and set values, right, like I think for a brand to work, like there must be a covenant and a set of a belief system within between, whether if it's the product or the brand and its audience and its consumers. Brands give people choices and possibilities across categories. I'm just kind of taking it outside of what we do, but let's say, if it's a dating market, right, we might have a woman who might be in the market for a man, right, but from that perspective she could be looking for a man. But she can narrow it down from a personality type, right.
Speaker 4:Does she want an alpha man? Does she want a beta man? Does she want a omega? Omega, uh, you know, I mean, like, does she want a delta? Right, these are different category types that the same concept. Brands like kind of tapping into, um, those options and those choices, right, but from I'll just, you know, I'll continue to, you know you know I was listening to another interview where someone said the alpha beta shit is not real.
Speaker 2:Might be brand, it might be marketing, it's not real in the wild the way, the way. Well, there's not that type of podcast but the way other podcasts talk about that shit. But anyway, um, no, I think. I think what you said is it um, kind of leads to my next point of, like you know, branding. Branding is super important just because that's kind of what gets your, your target audience, interested in you. It's like what sells you know you to them and it's, like I said earlier, it kind of makes you memorable.
Speaker 3:But is it selling or is it more about top of mind? Because what sellers do is they're always selling. Well, you're always selling.
Speaker 4:It's essentially campaigning, you're campaigning yourself.
Speaker 4:You're campaigning a product and you know, just to jump back to your point, right and I think that's a lot of is how we think, right, because you know you brought up a really good point as it relates like Alpha, delta, Sigma, like is that even a real thing? And at the end of the day you're just a man, right, but you know they call it, it's identified as like a social sexual hierarchy, right, so now it's different categories, it's different layers, Right. So now you can kind of sell that and it's a way for people to kind of categorize you and put you into a specific box and people can say, oh, I like that, I don't like that. And I feel like that's a that kind of builds on from a brand's perspective. Like you know, you have choices I want a soft drink, I could go Coca-Cola, I could go Pepsi, you know, and so on and so forth. So I think it all kind of ties back to each other.
Speaker 2:You actually just brought something. I'm not going to get super deep on it, but you, Paul.
Speaker 3:You know how to do Paul's bro, we're growing as fuck.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to get too much into it. But you brought up a good point about being top of mind, because I think you know we make so many decisions in a day that, like the importance of branding and kind of having a brand helps us every day, because it helps us make a quick decision without overthinking it. Like I mean, I'm not going to shout them out cause they're not sponsoring but we all have the same water bottle here but we all came from different houses and and places, but we all had the same water brand.
Speaker 2:You know, um, we all like brands like um. I'll shout them out because I love polo, ralph lauren, and it's just like. You know, you could have picked up any sweater, but but for you to, for you to easily identify like yo, this is what I want to hear. I mean I, even though tremremaine left, but I have a bunch of hats at home, but I decided to pick my Supreme hat on. So it's just like brands help you ease. Like when I was getting dressed this morning. It helped me easily. I mean that in colors, but it helped me easily identify like yo. I want to wear that, I want to look like that, I want to feel like that.
Speaker 4:And that's because I believe brands is storytelling in the form of turnkey signals, right? So the goal is to drive a connection and evoke an emotion, and that's the, you know, that's the foundation of a brand. To draw a connection, drive an emotion we were talking about earlier is to be a part of the conversation as well, as you know, remain top of mind to eventually deliver a call to action.
Speaker 3:Right, I mean it's funny because you just brought up something about the water bottle, right, I mean, water is water, but is it Because water from a bodega is one thing it calls one thing? Water from from, I guess an airport is going to cause something different. Water at a, I guess a social club or some kind of you know cool event is going to cause premium right. So as you look at brand, brand also can be broken down to like location, access and even just ideal of premium, even though it all tastes the same. What is water? Right? Depending on how it's filtered, depending depending on who's selling it, but at the end of the day, it's still H2O.
Speaker 3:Yo quick question how long you been in New York. I've been in New York 17.
Speaker 2:17 years Mm-hmm. Okay, because the way you said water sounded very New York. Oh really I was just going to say about water. Like New Yorkers say, we say want some water, some coffee.
Speaker 4:But anyway, you got your New York accent. That's because I feel like people from New York. We drop the R.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of things Ada. Anyway, that's the New York segment for this pod.
Speaker 3:We can move on Credentialing people. But yeah man, I do think you know this idea that brand is not just one thing or another, but it does plays out depending on where you're consuming that brand. Too right, but let's move on to like the next thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, real quick before we move into the next thing. Just because I know it's the word marketing is used interchangeably with branding, but just wanted to say marketing is really just the tactics you use, like once you have your brand, once you know what your strategy is in terms of what you want to do, once you know who your audience is, then marketing is just the tactics Like all right, how am I going to get these people to listen to me? Or how am I going to get these people to come to my site? The list is podcast, et cetera.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean marketing is, like you said is, the means of getting things out. Pr is the conversation around it. Right, right, right, you know branding is basically the principles and the storytelling.
Speaker 1:And all three of those things.
Speaker 3:You know more or less work, well, as like a system that basically engages the audience. And hey, it's funny, we're talking about this and you know I'm like a design historical nerd, motherfucker. Right, I'm one of the first individuals who actually took all three of those different things we just talked about and wrote it into like a consumer engagement was pt barnum, the circus dude? Hey, right, pt barnum would come to town. He'd have some pr to say, hey, the circus coming. And he had pr talking about the circus is coming.
Speaker 3:Marketing would actually get the word out and the advertising of all the different things that you can check out at the circus, whereas the you know 400-pound man or the bearded woman and these weird people was the storytelling. So PT Barnum which is funny, we talked a lot about that in school was one of the first masters of like all three of those things at one time. He took branding, marketing and pr and used that to promote the circus. I think today's world maybe he'll be um advertised genius, or may he get me too for all these weird things he had in the circus. Who?
Speaker 2:knows right, but that's a lot. He might be running a political campaign he might be running the country right now. Who knows circus? Who?
Speaker 3:knows. But I think the next thing we can talk about right, we're saying brands that are kind of close to our heart, but what are some brands that you guys can remember from your childhood that invokes a sense of nostalgia and that kind of engaged you a little bit? I know, for me personally, some of the things I remember from my childhood was like Nintendo, it was Sega, it was McDonald's, it was definitely adidas, because nike didn't really get really big until jordan brand, and I think my first iteration of nike really getting like super big in the neighborhood was like we call them the dope man nikes. You know, more and more people call them court, they really call the cortez nikes. In the south we call the dope man. The dope man right los angeles.
Speaker 2:I know it's big after cortez, yeah, but we call them the Dope man Nikes. You know, the Dope man right Los Angeles. I know it's big after Cortez, yeah but we call them Dope man Nikes.
Speaker 3:But they got big in like the late 80s but prior to that it was mostly Adidas. I mean even Run DMC had my Adidas right. So those are some of the brands I can remember. Can remember that kind of define your whole childhood.
Speaker 4:I'll say for myself as a kid I played a lot of sports, so I was trying to tap in with whatever sports that I was into, mostly basketball at the time and football. I tried to tap into watching games, going to games if I could, but around the games, surrounding the games, there was marketing and advertising. So I would say more so like Pepsi, what they used to do with Shaq, shaq Attack. And then I would also say like Nike, like Deion Sanders was like a huge in you know, for my childhood. So it's like early 90s, yeah, right, you know, for, for my childhood, it's like we're early 90s, yeah, so, um, I would say that as well as um, you know, jordan was always around.
Speaker 2:He was always like, yeah, I was gonna say, like I don't really have a lot of um.
Speaker 2:Well, I can't think of a lot of brands when I was a kid, but, I was gonna say nike, jordan, I think, is probably like the biggest brand that I can remember. I know you said like I didn't grow up in the era where Adidas was popping Like. When I grew up it was only Nike, yeah, and I wore Nike. I don't think I wore. I maybe wore a Fila once or twice, but like I wore Nike, probably until I let me think I don't think I got a got a different shoe brand until college.
Speaker 2:Let me think I don't think I got a different shoe brand until college. So I wore Nike from a kid till at least 18 before I stepped out the box and tried a new shoe. And it wasn't even about brand loyalty, it was just like I, just like Nike. I just like the design Thought it was simple. No shade to Adidas.
Speaker 3:I know that's how they used to be, but I will sayike, in new york I feel like it got really popular with the uptowns, right, and this is like you know. I mean I was about, but going into the 90s.
Speaker 2:But in the 90s I think there was um boom and just color vibrancy and you know we was rocking the bo jacksons. I mean the bo jacksons, I mean I remember when up well, I know Uptown's were probably always Air Force Ones were always. I remember, I remember for me when, when, when I started seeing it more I want to say like eighth grade, and I was like, oh, these are, these are nice, simple, nice blah blah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, for me uh, I would say it just kind of started with just the vibrant sneakers. Like there's a bunch that I probably don't know the actual names for, but if I saw them I could be like yo. I remember that when I was a kid.
Speaker 4:But yeah, and then you know, and I feel like we're still kind of building on sports right, Like with a lot of those brands.
Speaker 3:And that's how I come in to like what am I full what?
Speaker 2:are some Damn. This is going to sound like a New York pod, but I would say Nike and the Yankees Look at this guy, the New York Yankees, you Jay-Z or some shit, but New York Yankees was a brand. I remember going to my first baseball game. It was a Mets game. Then I went to the.
Speaker 3:Yankee game and you just felt a different energy.
Speaker 2:But Jay said he didn't want me to have popular.
Speaker 3:He can say what he want. I think he can back that up. But what you?
Speaker 4:were saying no, I was saying kind of diving back into sports, right, like still going on that journey. As a kid I'm watching sports. Like it kind of branched off into um drinks like gatorade was was big back then it's like, you know, like mike, right, I want to be. I want to be like mike, like that's a gatorade commercial. Yeah um, also still too uh with. Uh, you know, bo knows bo, uh, bo jackson right.
Speaker 3:Um, I think you didn't mention bo jackson yeah, that's what it's like bo was in a commercial.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah um, also too, I think, larry johnson, grandmama, oh yeah, converse and it's funny how you say that because, like, just just because I feel like the 90s there was a lot of sports and entertainment was all intertwined, because all, like I wasn't I didn't really get into sports until I got older, but all, but I still remember all that because a lot of that was infused in shows like family matters, um, fresh prince wayne's brothers, and that's what I was watching.
Speaker 2:So like, even in what, even though I wasn't, I mean like I knew about, like jordan and the bulls, but like, even though I wasn't always watching sports, like I knew about a lot of that because what was in family matters, um, and some of the stuff they talked about, especially, you know, show taking place in chicago, um, and then, yeah, like wayne brothers, jane fox show, that was probably a little bit more early 2000s, but all that was infused in it. So like the fashion and all that, and I was like, oh snap, so so, like I'm just saying that to say like same page, same vibe yeah, I mean, it had a footprint right and it was like this character that kept reoccurring.
Speaker 4:So you had anthony hardaway. With the penny hardaway, you had little penny chris rock um the doll. I don't know if you remember that it was just it was like one of those things. It was like you know it's popular. I guess they did market research and saying like, oh, this thing is working, so let's bring it back and let's try to reinvent it every time how would you guys guys introduced to those brands?
Speaker 3:Because you know commercials did one thing, friends obviously was another thing. You know magazines were a big thing back then, right, and obviously there was no social, no internet as we know it in terms of the public domain, but how were you guys introduced to it? I know for me, like even the Maxell tapes as an example for me, they get introduced to that because everybody was recording things off the radio, on a, on a boom box back in the day.
Speaker 2:So that was a big brand with my youth and my growing up, I think, in New York, rose, you could, you could, you could check me on this if I'm wrong. But to me, I think the funnel of being exposed to brands comes from two environments. I would say what you're engaging in TV where, where you hang out, like for me, um, I would see a lot of stuff on Coliseum block, queens, and then when I went to high school downtown Brooklyn, I'll be square. Yeah, yeah, I'll be square. That's how I learned about red monkey jeans. You heard like if you know you know I'll be square.
Speaker 3:That's how I learned about red monkey jeans.
Speaker 1:You heard Like if you know, you know, red monkey jeans, red monkey yeah.
Speaker 3:It was like the first it was.
Speaker 2:It was uh, it was the, not I want to say the first, but it was the. The first jeans I remember being like $300, $500 jeans, I think they were. Avizel was probably first Japan, that I can remember, yeah. And then, yeah, red Monkey Was crazy. But yeah, I want to say it comes from that Because, like I'll see, you know you, You're a little young, sometimes you don't have, you may or may not be working and you see Cats Downtown Brooklyn or Coliseum Blocking like Damn, that's fly. And then you, you know, they got all the stores, you got Moe's. Shouts to Moe's.
Speaker 3:Moe's is gone.
Speaker 2:I know, no, not Moe.
Speaker 3:Dale's, oh, not Moe Dale's, right.
Speaker 2:It's a sneaker store called Moe's, Is that right? I think there's still one on Queens Boulevard, but I know there used to be one in Coliseum, but Coliseum closed down. I repeated them. Yeah, it's just like you like. To me, downtown Brooklyn was like the Mecca because you got the sneaker stores. You know, that's why I first learned about Prada's, the American Cup sneaker. That's when you see people, you see the, you know the gold shop, see people with the fronts, you see chains. It's like all that is just like soaking in your mind.
Speaker 3:And then you like, most of the brands you're talking about are things that are more like give like a public visual persona of a person, like how you style yourself, right. Yeah, that was pretty important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think, to answer it, just to bring it full circle, to answer your question, that's when you say, that's where I'm first introduced. Ok, being outside Right, well being in the home and seeing it on TV, and then, I guess, being able to touch it in a sneaker store or in a jewelry store and see it in person, you're like, oh, I can get this what's some of your early electronic brands?
Speaker 3:I mean because you know the brand that became Sonata Electronics was like that.
Speaker 2:No shout out to Super Nintendo. First of all, shout out to Nintendo. That was the first one. No, but which? Because you know electronic brands yeah, like.
Speaker 3:But you're saying nintendo. But which nintendo? It was nes for me, but I'm sure when you was a kid it was like a certain nintendo, like the 64, nah it was the first nintendo.
Speaker 2:You had an nes. I got an older brother he's your age, so so well, he ain't want to give us the nintendo, but he gave. He gave it to me, and me and my in my middle brother, and then we got the super Nintendo.
Speaker 3:So you guys were blowing in the cars to make sure they were okay.
Speaker 2:And then and then yeah, I'm from the old school Then PlayStation. I remember yo speaking of Brandon that that's music that sound, yeah, m never did sega.
Speaker 1:Sega didn't last that long it lasted it was cool, but it was good in the 80s it was good.
Speaker 3:In the 80s dreamcast it was good in the 80s, kind of went into the 90s, a little bit into the 2000s, but it got acquired. You know like the whole catalog now is owned by nintendo now yeah and then the last one.
Speaker 2:I'll say you know, rosé, I'll let you jump in um game boy. I think that was big, like it was bulky, and yeah, that was under nintendo was bulky, that was under Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Color. But now that I think about it, game Boys are probably prepping us kids for being on phones.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying? They like a phone, right yeah?
Speaker 2:I mean basically, it's damn near the size of an Android or a tablet.
Speaker 4:I think for me it was the To go back to the original question, my introduction, a lot of it very similar to Tony being in the house and commercials, but then also just being outside on my block Back then just seeing those reoccurring logos, reoccurring brands, worn by whether, if it's older people like Fila, fila was a huge. It was a huge brand back in the day, especially the Fila headbands. If you had a Fila headband, I wanted one so bad I couldn't get. I couldn't get my mom to get me one. She didn't know where to get one. But like the older dudes on my block, they will be, you know, on a 10 speed and wearing Fila headbands.
Speaker 3:So it's like that you know I was very, very fly back in the 80s.
Speaker 1:Very fly. Yeah, you know what I mean. I think it was a certain kind of cat world.
Speaker 3:Feel like going into the 90s, right yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it was that. Then it was also to still on my block. I think it was like the infusion of everyone, that sense of a community where everyone knew each other. We traded, so we talked about games.
Speaker 4:Right, I remember trading video games with people Like all right, you know, you hold it for a week, then give it back, I'll hold your game. We just swap games, right. And I think it was just that sense of community. I'm from Brownsville, right, so polo was heavy in Brownsville, right. I mean not as much anymore. I think with the newer generation I mean not as much anymore.
Speaker 2:I think with the newer generation?
Speaker 4:they don't really, I think they call them polo unk wear.
Speaker 3:No, they call it unk wear, that's disrespectful.
Speaker 4:It's cool because I would rather have polo and unk wear versus wearing Crocs, bonnets and hoodies outside. So I mean if we want to Talk to them. But yeah, in closing I would just say, like the infusion infusion is like on my block. Going to school and just seeing these reoccurring whether if it's products or brands and hearing kids talk about it and you know, it kind of gave me an interest, like all right, what's going on with that? What's that about?
Speaker 3:so essentially you're saying that brands even then and now this idea of uh it kind of getting circulated still word of mouth, right, right, a couple of influences kind of checked it out or we call them influences now, but it was like dudes in the back Back then was the most popular ones on your block or your neighborhood. They don't want to start rocking the brands first and then everybody's kind of follow still word of mouth, almost kind of like some would say guerrilla Right, like hey, you know, this is not like us directly target this group, but a few people on the block started rocking it, then everybody started rocking it, then everybody started rocking it. Now whole nother demographics wearing a brand or rocking whatever brand.
Speaker 4:That was never really targeted in the first place, right, and then, and then now I'm that I'm older, I'm thinking like, was this on purpose? Like did they get it from another block or did these older cats get it from their school? And like how did this thing become? How did it start? I mean, I think a lot of part, a lot of it too, is like music videos. Um, I was in, I was very, very young, but my dad used to watch video music box because we didn't have cable, right, and that introduction with ralph mcdaniel's and, um, these, these music videos, these rappers, nice and smooth. Um, gangstar, I'm like, I'm real, I'm a little kid knowing Big Daddy Kane songs, and you spoke about the gold, tony, I'm seeing the gold. So that kind of cultivated me and also, too, trying to be original too, because back then, although we could wear the same brands, we couldn't do it the same way. We had to come a little bit different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to freak it a little bit. Yeah, you know what I mean. Your own I don't want to say swag, but your own spin on it.
Speaker 3:I mean, just like you know, obviously New York is synonymous with wearing Timbs, right, but I saw my brothers and they're like 10 years older than me wearing Timberlands not the work boot in the 80s. They was wearing Timberlands, not the work boot. In the 80s. They were wearing Timberland moccasins, right, like the Tobagos and the other, like you know, moccasin style of Timberlands. I don't think we did that, no, no, new York never did that. But Timberlands was something that was a little bit more middle America, right, and a lot of people wore not the work boots, they wore the other Timberlands, again, like the moccasins or the camping shoes or something like that.
Speaker 3:And that's the shit my brother wore. It was kind of preppy dudes, right. That was like wearing the prep style back then was huge in the 80s and I saw it as a young dude wearing it then wearing it, and I think obviously New York made Timberlands actually more popular because it wasn't a known brand in the hood anywhere, right. And then you know, you guys wearing the work boots, the butters or whatever, um, that really made the brand super strong in a non-intentional way. Again, right, here's again a lot of these brands getting our wave. We're making it popular by making it cool in the hood. And then that turns into like things you see in videos and things you're seeing on film right, with certain movies, and then now you're starting to see it where everybody around the globe is wearing that type of gear. Right, because of what we did, actually.
Speaker 2:I was going to take one step back. I actually skipped something. I think for me the branding started because actually I'm going back to Green Acres Mall.
Speaker 1:Back to.
Speaker 2:Queens yeah, back to Queens Now I'm reminiscing Toys, toys r us. I want to say the brand had actually started probably with um, you know, saturday morning cartoons and seeing the toys right, and like I, I want to say it, probably it. It kind of starts, I think, brands and stuff and your early introduction to brand starts with your parents like, like this stuff that my parents did or gave to me when you were a kid. Because you don't have any buying power, you're probably not shopping like you're not. Like kids today are on tablets and they know how to uh go online and shop and search. I didn't, I didn't have, you know, I didn't have that. It's only when, when my, when my pops would take me and my brother to toys russ and then I got to browse and see what's out there, right, but uh, or like I knew, or you see the commercial and you'd be like, oh shit, like um, this toy is coming out. So that that, just to add to what I said earlier, is kind of like my first, first introduction so it's probably family.
Speaker 2:So it start with family and then you go out and you like, oh, like. Then then you get to the age where you start to develop your own sense of self, really, and then you start figuring out like who am I and like what brand? Like you said in the beginning of the pod, what brands align with who I? How do I want to present myself, what brands align with who I am? What all, what all when people see me Because, like we said earlier in the pod, you, you only have, we only have so much time to think about stuff in a day you want to be able to see somebody and be like oh, I know what their brand is because I could see how they dress or how they're carrying themselves, or what drink they order, what food they order, and it's like you just need these things. I forget what it is. I know it's like a psychological thing that helps us. Uh, so we're not overthinking everything. But yeah, it started with, with, with family, then evolved, then, like I said, I had an older brother.
Speaker 2:He's 13 years older. Similar what you were saying, rose. You know he started putting me on oh yeah, I go in his room when he not home and then he has, like you know, a johnny blaze like a fantastic four poster I'll never forget. It's like he had it and that kind of introduced me into marvel and comics and I started getting into that. Then, like he he was, he was heavy into james brown, so he had the record, so I would. I started listening like james brown. I was like who's this guy? And he was big and he's why and this is why red man's always one of my top rappers, cause he was in the Redman's I was like what is he talking about? So I go listen to Redman and he put me on tribe, you know. So it starts with parents and then if you have an older sibling or older cousin or uncle was like yo, let me, let me put you on to this, and then that's, and so it starts, yeah, kind of guerrilla, it's like you know.
Speaker 4:I want to. I just want to circle back a little bit. I don't think you give yourself enough credit, because you said that when you were a kid you didn't have any buying power, but you still had influence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's bigger, that's better than buying power sometimes.
Speaker 4:You had the influence because it was your request. You had the influence to have your parents actually make that um call to action and buy something all right.
Speaker 2:So so don't, don't, don't get, don't take away your influence, tony well, I guess what I was trying to say is I didn't have no bread. Well, I had the cake, you know. I mean I look at money.
Speaker 3:I look at the idea of my older siblings right like, yeah, I got my parents. But I do think the influence part of roseanne saying is is very valid, because while my parents had the buying power, the real influence came from my siblings right, especially my oldest brother, who I would have to credit as like the guy could dress very well, him and my sister, anthony, and they're the ones who basically will allow me to go buy the gear I want because they were dressing me like them Right, but he was the oldest and I feel like he was kind of influential in terms of like the latest music, sometimes the latest gear Right. Then the twins came along and I was into like the things that they was into is from like you know style and like.
Speaker 2:I like what you said Right, because you know we're all talking about it positively. I like what you said because you know we're all talking about it positively, but, like, when I think about it, it's like it's such a blessing to have an older sibling or cousin who has style, who you could be, like yo, let me take this from his closet and that's how you start building your own. So, like I feel bad, no offense.
Speaker 3:I feel bad for people who don't have that person in their life who's like yo let me put you on this but it don't necessarily have to come from your family. Don't feel bad for me, bro, but it don't have to come from family, Because sometimes youth influence a lot.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that was you, my bad dog. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:But the youth will influence a lot of times hands down.
Speaker 2:I'm the best dressed person out of my close circle growing up because of having older, no, just because I am. I'm just that guy, I just know I do I just know how to put stuff together like like that's it, I'm for sure in that category, like amongst uh growing up and like my friends exactly I was always best dressed junior high school, high school like it's it's. I wasn't. I'll say I wasn't always best dressed, but I always learn and build and but it's a matter of like taste.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, because there's people who just want to fall in line and just saying like, okay, I don't really have an identity, but I want to. I'm not brave enough to think outside of the box and think creatively and put shit together, right, right, I think that's a talent. We can just take a step back and say you know what? I'm going to take a little risk. Yeah, I'm going to try something.
Speaker 4:I'm going to take a little risk but at the same time I'm going to whether if I'm coordinating colors or whether if I'm going to, you know, make sure I'm adapting to the seasons, make sure I'm adapting to the seasons. I'm going to come out with this fit and this is going to be a representation of me. So I just want to circle back a little bit, because I know AD had called out the Timberland Moccasins and I feel like what we had in New York at the time was the 40 Below Timbs, yeah, and then Wu-Tang with the Clarks, right. So those are like big movements as it relates to fashion. But I will say, to kind of land my plane a little bit with this topic, hip hop.
Speaker 4:Seeing the popularity in hip hop, I think a lot of brands started to see like, okay, how do we get involved in this? How do we sign up? How do we get involved in this? How do we sign up? How do we sign up, how do we get involved in this and promote our brands? Because I remember one of the first rappers to promote Tommy Hilfiger for me was Grand Puba, grand Puba, right, grand Puba. And I remember he had a rhyme about. You know, if Tommy, don't send me my check like it's over, it's out. And he was one of the first ones. I wouldn't say he wasn't the first with Polo, but he kind of popularized a lot of brands, cool brands I actually have two questions off of that.
Speaker 2:One do you think hip hop nowadays still has that same influence? And two, wanted to point out, see, that that was also kind of the problem in the 90s, which is kind of what we do now with social media right is, we'll just, we'll just put, we'll promote some shit, put it on, then it blows up, and then we like yo, and then we'll go back and say yo, they owe it, owe me a check well, I mean, I think it's a good question.
Speaker 4:Um wait, what was your first question? Uh?
Speaker 2:do you think hip hop still has that influence? Yeah I think hip hop still has the influence, absolutely like.
Speaker 4:It's the most influential genre of music.
Speaker 3:Like I do think the artists are a little bit more intentional now, like they're gonna talk about some of the song, some kind of way they're gonna leverage that right.
Speaker 4:But and I was just about to get to the point in which the second question that you had I feel like a lot of artists saw that. And then that's when you saw the pivot to Sean John Rockaware Like a lot of artists and entertainers started to say, like you know what, let me put my own brand out at a even what is it? 50 Cent G-Unit, g-unit, yeah, fat Farm, right. So I think that, to your point point, it kind of got stale and it's like you know, these checks ain't adding up as it relates to my influence. You know I could just do this shit myself. I disagree.
Speaker 2:Your first point I don't think. I don't think, uh, I think the the marketing nowadays I'm 50, 50 in the sense of I think the marketing nowadays is so obvious that I think and I could be speaking from a privileged point because I work in advertising, so like I see it but to me it's just so obvious that I don't. When I see Shaq and Akia, I'm like no, you're not driving Akia, but that wasn't my first point.
Speaker 2:No, no, I was. Oh, I was just saying my hip-hop, no, no, oh well, I was just saying entertainment, hip-hop.
Speaker 4:But I'm saying like I don't think you asked me, if hip-hop has the influence, still has the influence. I'm saying it absolutely does. I don't think so.
Speaker 3:I actually think it's 50-50.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what I was trying to say, I and say I feel like I'm biased because when I see it, I kind of see, because you know, you saw the, because I grew up. Well, we all grew up. We grew up in a time when the hypnotic was bam. I didn't mean to hit the table. But bam, right in the video, the nouveau. So I'm saying like you kind of see, like oh it's obvious, the Kavassier like talking about liquor brands, the Ace.
Speaker 3:Shout out to mean well, look at the recent superbowl. I mean you can't. That was undeniable hip-hop superbowl, yeah.
Speaker 2:But what did he? What did he um you?
Speaker 3:don't have to sell anything, but apple sponsored. That okay. Okay, apple sponsor used to be pelsy, maybe maybe uh, wide leg jeans.
Speaker 4:I was gonna say like, was it flare jeans like he um, yeah, I think it's flare.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's flare or bell bottom yeah I don't like his shoes.
Speaker 3:I could write but.
Speaker 4:But but now, people, when I understand, you didn't see him, but people saw all right, from what I understand, like those same jeans, like people went out and bought them.
Speaker 2:They did okay, yeah so it's like I think, don't get me wrong, the jacket was fine if I could find it's a black designer.
Speaker 3:I gotta go back and research, but it was a black designer, a black lady, who designed that jacket. Jacket was fine. But I think our last segment, to just kind of close out the episode, I want to play a little game here, right? So we talked about, like, influence, we talked about branding, talked about historical aspect of it. Rose brought up this idea of the mnemonic, right, and I want to play a game with you guys. So I'm going to play some jingles. I want to see if you guys can name that brand Because, again, brand is not just what you see, it's also what you hear, it's also what you feel, can we play them legally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you can do that.
Speaker 3:Oh, are we just going to say fuck it? I'm going to say fuck it, we want Alright ready. Okay, sounds familiar. Coca-cola Got one. What you think? I have no idea and the answer is Coca-Cola, alright, cool. Alright, let's move on to the next one, hbo.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know. We was trying to rush to do it it's a game, but you know you're not going to win a fair
Speaker 3:there's no perimeter sounds familiar HP, okay, intel, oh, intel okay, that's a hard one mmm, I'm not quite sure.
Speaker 2:Windows MasterCard okay, mcdonald's damn Okay McDonald's.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it sounds like McDonald's, it's McDonald's.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Oh wait.
Speaker 2:Before we move on.
Speaker 3:I got.
Speaker 2:Not pneumonics. Well, actually the name of the brand is in the song.
Speaker 3:I got a couple jingles Maybe New York.
Speaker 2:These might be a little too New York.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, I mean, yeah, the name is in that. I think it's just Barnes now and then Salino. Yeah, he died in an accident.
Speaker 2:RIP Salino man, I got two more.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not going to play this whole, thing.
Speaker 4:But JG Wetwood.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, now, alright, this one, this one I think Rosé would probably, I don't know if you know this one oh, it's that time of year.
Speaker 4:All Hook ShopRite, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:The Ken man.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:So speaking of before we wrap up, speaking of when you were talking about back in the day, I remember this commercial when I was a kid ShopRite commercial. It was probably local. I think ShopRite is more of a local supermarket.
Speaker 4:I think it's very specific.
Speaker 2:I remember hearing it in my grandparents' crib in Harlem in Queens. I know in it in my grandparents' crib in Harlem in Queens. So yeah, those are my three.
Speaker 3:I know in Atlanta we had this thing. You Got it All at South DeKalb Mall, like, you know, that was a jingle, right, Like it was. Like the inherent nature of the brand was in the song itself, right, and you know, you got the songs, that was jingles. Then you got like these audio logos, right, but again brands actually had tone, that sound, that song. You gotta bring jingles back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, and it's funny, since everybody now saying that they're a brand, it's kind of interesting because those aspect of branding is almost kind of like have disappeared. Right, you don't hear jingles as much because more and more people listen to podcasts. They don't really listen to radio, right, you don't hear jingles as much because more and more people listen to podcasts. They don't really listen to radio. Right, you don't hear that the sound of a brand as much because a lot of people just don't look at tv. Yeah, right, so if you're not talking about brands being like that and it has sound like, what does that mean today? I don't know. Um, this segment don't have to be that long, but I will say that I think if people really want to get into branding, they should be thinking about branding a little bit more holistic. It's not just a look, it's not just a tone, but what does it sound like, what does it feel like, what does it taste like, what is it?
Speaker 4:yeah, the five senses yeah, yeah, I mean just talking about like mnemonics again. I mean I'm thinking about espn, espn, like it's they just keep. I think they've kind of simplified it right. They've kind of removed the idea of jingles and, you know, paying someone to actually sing it, and like all those legal yeah, I think it, I think it, I think it's come to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, like the legal jingles guys got paid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man who did all the stuff for mario?
Speaker 4:got paid all the legal entities, that's like, involved in it. They said, like you know, let's just remove it and let's just have a sound that probably lasts for three seconds, yeah because it's usually in perpetuity until they change their brand.
Speaker 2:But we will get into changing your brand rebranding in the next episode.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that ends this pretty well, man, I think this is a great time to have Rosé sign us off.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir, yes sir, Ad Bros another great episode. As we all know, there's no soft talk when it comes to telling the truth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's our brand. Thank you very much, people Peace.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to the Ad Bros podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to like, subscribe and share with your crew. Catch us next time for more insights and creativity, only on the Ad Bros Podcast, powered by Caffeine Media Network.