When I first joined Deutsch, I wanted to understand what the hell was really going on with American youth so I sent 3 of my team – Maya, Armando and Leigh [along with Sarah, a photographer and co-supported back at HQ by the wonderful Kelsey] – backpacking across the US to spend about a month in some of America’s most opposite cities.
Specifically the richest/poorest … fastest growing/shrinking … most/least diverse.
No nice hotel rooms.
No fancy travel.
Just a month hearing and learning from America in The Raw.
As you can see from this little text exchange below, it left a mark on the guys …
In all seriousness, while they loved it, there were some things they saw and went through that challenged them deeply on a personal level. So deeply, that I honestly believe they have all come back changed for the experience.
And yet overall, what they found was a nation full of young people who wanted their country to be the one they had been brought up to believe in.
A country that lets anyone succeed.
A country that cared for their own equally.
A country where it led by taking on the big challenges and issues and crushing them.
Now of course, you could argue America was never really any of these things – just a master of PR – but that aside, the country they have found is not the country they want and so the way they are approaching their life is basically one of survival.
And what do I mean by survival?
Well in essence, it’s how they can cope with what’s going on until it stops.
Their overall view is “I can’t control the future, but I can control the present”.
And while their behaviour is expressed in multiple ways, we believe they fall into 4 distinct territories …
Protect: Keep safe what you have and don’t risk anything to get what you want.
Disguise: Define your relevance by the topical things you want to associate with.
Escape: Physically create a [momentary] world you want to live in.
Fight: Push against the unfairness you face.
Of course it’s way more complex and complicated than that – and we have spent a lot of time exploring and uncovering the influences, attitudes and behaviours that drive it and define it – but it does seem those 4 lenses are consciously and subconsciously influencing how people are starting to behave.
In all honesty, this adventure has been fascinating – not just in terms of understanding what is starting to happen, but how the issues of race or equality are reaching points where you can feel major change is on the way. Whether that change is instigated by government or the people is still anyones guess, but what we know is that it won’t be able to be swept under the carpet as easily as it has in previous years.
They won’t let it, especially with the current administration doing all it can to prod and provoke them.
The implications for society and business are huge – both in terms of positive change and negative potential – which is why we have created a [coffee-table] book and a presentation and – when we get some breathing space – a short film to truly define and explain what we heard and discovered. But as much as all those things are exciting, the bit I love the most is my team have given a voice to those who are rarely heard in the purest and most unfiltered way you can get.
There’s a lot of things I’ve done in my career that has made me proud.
This is most definitely one of them.
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If you’re interested in seeing/having a copy of the ‘America In The Raw’ book, let me know. I can’t guarantee we can accommodate everyone, but we’ll try.