TOGETHERNESS-19

We’re all in this together.

Come together to Clap For Our Carers.

Stand together to beat coronavirus.

It’s the tone, isn’t it? Like a tetchy head teacher.

But it’s also that word. Together.

Brands are up to it too.

The BBC is ‘bringing us closer’ because ‘together we’ll get through’.

McCain uses the same words in a different order, ‘here’s to getting through this together’.

And Toyota in the US, like so many brands, is ‘here for you now’ because ‘we are stronger together’.

It’s the situation, of course. We are physically apart, so we want to be together. But as Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman, “that’s just geography”.

What we really want is togetherness. A sense of it.

Because you can make the family sit at the same table but they’ll still argue about who got the most chips.

Or you can drag your brand over to the Togetherzone, only to discover you can’t find your tent after you’ve pitched it.

You can even instruct a whole country to act as one - ‘Stay at home / Protect the NHS / Save lives’. But what do you expect people to do when they run out of money?

So whether you’re a parent, a brand or a government, the answer is to dig deeper. Find the insight.

Like remembering that, as in the line from The Otherhood on Netflix, “being a mother of a son is like someone breaking up with you really slowly”. So true moments of togetherness are priceless.

Or that if now is the time to reposition your brand, which it might be, you still have to follow the rules - be distinctive, be remembered.

And even, as Emily Maitliss said on Newsnight, that coronavirus isn’t a great leveller. It’s much, much harder if you’re poor.

So maybe it’s not so much togetherness we need at the moment, it’s empathy.

As always.