The nutty way to healthy growth

 

Being a little long in the tooth, and an Internot person, I’ve come quite late to the KoRo party. I only spotted the brand this year, on the shelves of REWE, as I embarked on my heathy eating kick in Spring. 

The branding and design interested me as much as the selection of products. It’s reminiscent of Cranks (a UK vegeatarian chain of restaurants back in the last century) - a little ironic, almost taking the piss out of itself as a “knit your own joghurt” sort of brand. As for the products, I think the common factor is non-perishable health food. Oh, and large pack sizes.

I’ve since noticed KoRo on the train, Deutsche Bahn, no less. Respect, as they say around here.

For the current KoRo range, have a look here . Dried fruit, nuts, seeds and grains, peanut and other nut butters and spreads, tinned pulses, crips, snacks, biscuits, even chocolate bars. And they’ve gone into storage jars and kitchen utensils, too.

KoRo was founded in Berlin back in 2012. And what’s interesting is that health food wasn’t part of the original concept. The idea at the beginning was more about the bulk packs, sustainability and more transparence in the supply chain. The initial website sold detergents and cleaning products “rescued” from damaged packaging.

The more KoRo’s founders worked in the area of packaging and e-commerce, the more they learned. For example, that many vegan and vegetarian non-perishable food were sold in tiny packs, and contained loads of additives. Idea!

And the marketing strategy has contributed to the brand’s growth - not just in sales terms but in people’s attachment to the brand. KoRo has been using influencer marketing via YouTube before it was called influencer marketing. Around 90% of the budget goes here and on Instagram 

Partnering with creators, influencers, call them what you like feels right for KoRo - it’s a natural fit, like date and walnut. 

KoRo is one of Germany’s fastest growing brands, with plans to scale-up further, into cafes and ice-cream parlours. 

Not bad for a fruit and nut case.

I dream of data dumps!

 

                                                                        Image: Ideogram

There must be an unwritten rule that, one day, you’ll look back fondly on things that annoyed you when they were ubiquitous. BoneyM, Wimpy, Pixie Boots, Poodle Perms, Malibu, Wham! 

And so it is with the world of work. I used to dread those Zip-folders containing 20 or more 100-page pdfs at the start of a strategy project. The ones that landed with a virtual thud in your in-box and a chirpy message from a junior: “you might find these interesting as background to our project.” Sub-text: I haven’t read them, neither has my boss, but we’re expecting you to read, understand, digest and come back to us asap with a brilliant inisghtful Analysis and Way Forward.

I never thought I’d say “those were the days” when it came to the delightfully-named Data Dump. But, today, the Dump is as dead as a Dodo. Because you receive the whole lot (and more) pre-chewed, semi-digested and regurgitated as Workslop. As the HBR article says, Workslop transfers the effort from creator to receiver. I can vouch for this. In the last year, it’s happened a few times. And I’ve had the rather frustrating task of swilling through the Workslop, trying to make sense of it, going back in many cases to original sources (if available), checking and reading afresh to bring my experience and perspective to the case.

It’s a waste of my time, quite frankly, and worse still, it makes me feel resentful. That my modus switches from exploratory, making connections and leaps of insight/creativity to critical and nit-picking apart, like the Head Teacher marking work. 

This website would be funny if it wasn’t so painfully close to the bone. 

The mantra today (which I’m sick of hearing as so many don’t seem to practice what they preach) is “human-first, humans empowered/turbo-charged by AI”. Substack and LinkedIn are riddled with various proclaimations in various degrees of pomposity. “The Great UnPlug!” “Being human is an act of rebellion!” General whingeing about loss of “voice.”

Well, no shit, Sherlock. As they say. Are you surprised? From politicians upwards, people are lazy and don’t want to take responsibility. Tick things off rather than do them well. Get it done not get it right. (As in “Get Brexit Done.”)

As for me, I’m not joining in. What started with models and templates and frameworks to find out what’s at the heart of a brand now continues with AI. I use it here and there, of course. But, by and large, I stick with my internot methods. The best test of any brand work I do is this: 

    - is the brand identity (in whatever format) original and unique to that brand?

    - is they way I’m expressing it to my client something only I could have created? Like this, but with         my own stamp on it?

But, in the future, will I be dreaming of Workslop? I wouldn’t count it out.    

IAQs

 

British Airways doesn’t deserve any medals from me.

Now, I’ve been cheered up by the new ad campaign from the last couple of years, it’s true. But unfortunately the idea hasn’t filtered down to one-to-one communication with the airline. I’m still getting the annoyingly twee emails that assume I’m a spoilt 12-year-old - written in the same grating tone-of-voice as the ghastly High Life (which I used to read cover-to-cover with pleasure in days gone by). 

But when it comes to one-to-one communication that’s initiated by the customer, things deteriorate even further. 

I had a question for British Airways last week. Would I be allowed to take my dad’s precious medals in my hand luggage flying from Frankfurt to London? I’d assumed yes, but a couple of days before my flight thought - ah, but there’s that huge pin (all 11cm) of it. See above. 

My dilemma can be illustrated by memories of two unpleasant British Airways experiences.

1. My luggage not turning up at Heathrow with my flight and having to wait “up to two days” before it arrived. 

2. Staff at Heathrow confiscating my son’s round-ended child scissors as a “dangerous item”. This was on his 8th birthday. 

I started with the website and read carefully about what’s classified as dangerous and what not. Knitting needles and crochet hooks are OK, but scissors with blades more than 6cm aren't. Nothing about medals and pins.

OK, I’d have to contact them. I tried the “Chat” first - grudgingly, but you never know, AI is coming on in leaps and bounds. 

Not at BA, it isn’t. The bot had been trained exclusively on the airline’s website, it seems, and was only capable of regurgitating content from that. I asked it for a contact number.

All was going swimmingly until the lady I spoke to got my booking number. Oh no, sorry, I can’t help you. You booked through “British Airways Holidays” and have to talk to them.

Eh? But this isn’t a holiday. And anyway, it’s a general question abut what you can carry in hand luggage - or not.

I can’t help you with that because you booked through “British Airways Holidays” - would you like their number. 

Yes, please ...

Number was unobtainable. Rang back. Just been talking to you, or a colleague, number unobtainable etc.

Got a different number. Also unobtainable.

I gave up. Decided to put the medals in my hold baggage and just pray. In the event, the bag did turn up and I was able to do my father proud on Remembrance Sunday.

But it did make me think. If British Airways are going to position themselves around “A British Original”, shouldn’t they have communication channels in place to be able to deal with the human, original, Infrequently Asked Questions, too?

RETROWURST: Rauchen verboten November 2007

 

For this year’s birthday party, I decided to make it non-smoking, at least indoors. A first for me. And it all went pretty well. The smokers were OK with standing outside when they wanted a ciggie and my clothes and our cellar bar didn’t stink to high heaven the next day. 

I’ve definitely become less tolerant of smoke, and perhaps it's no wonder - the ban on smoking in public has been in force for 18 years now. Here are my thoughts on lighting up and liberty in general from back then.

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We have now had just over a month of smoke-free Hessen. The smoking ban in public places came in here on 1^stOctober 2007 and, now that the cold weather is upon us, it’s worth taking a look at how this is going so far and at the topic of personal liberty generally in Germany.

 

Around 25% of Germans claim to be regular smokers, with an additional 4% as “occasionals”. I haven’t any up-to-date figures, but I believe this is slightly higher than the UK. Smoking is more prevalent amongst men (35%) than women (22%) and amongst manual workers, lorry and bus drivers (52%!) than amongst professionals such as doctors, pharmacists and teachers (a mere 18%). Again, similar to the UK, the percentage of smokers is falling but this seems due to more people in their 30s, 40s and 50s giving up rather than less young people starting. Teenage smoking, especially among girls, is still a social issue here.

 

The smoking ban, due to the governmental structure here, was carried out in a piecemeal fashion, in contrast to the UK. Each of the Länder had its own date and policy for the smoking ban and even now, there are different rules and regulations should I drive 15 km southwards to Bayern.

 

The other huge difference to the UK was the “low key” way that the ban was brought in and enforced. There was no expensive multi-media campaign heralding the ban and you would be pushed to find one beermat, sticker or sign in a Hessich pub or restaurant with Rauchen Verboten, or similar. Indeed, you may even find that the restaurant still has a room for smokers which seems to be allowable under the rules. And even if there is no place in the restaurant for a quick smoke, you are likely to find a pavilion and benches outside, complete with giant electric heaters. The result of this is that smokers have accepted the ruling rather better than they have in the UK. There is a feeling that they have been treated like adults and are responding like adults. The ban was announced matter-of-factly in the media, without a huge build-up or constant niggling to make smokers feel put-upon or militant. Of course, there have been mutterings and grumblings by the electric heaters but overall, one feels that people have accepted that this is now the way of the world.

 

Overall, there seems to be a less hysterical attitude to smoking in Germany than in the UK. Children can still buy “sweet cigarettes” here and cigarette vending machines are a more frequent sight than post boxes. It was only at the beginning of this year that these were fitted with a credit-card identity check; last year, anyone who was tall enough or resourceful enough could buy cigarettes at any time of the day or night. And smokers are rarely vilified as they are in the UK. The ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt frequently appears on television, pooh-poohing global warming while chain-smoking for Germany, although I must admit that I haven’t seen him since the ban!

 

I am not particularly pro or anti-smoking: after all, some of my best friends smoke! But it does occur to me that in Germany, there seems rather less hysterical telling us what we can and can’t do than in the UK. Or, rather, perhaps this is a more recent development in the UK which one simply doesn’t notice here as it has always been the case. If we take something like food labeling, I am freshly amazed each time I buy something in a UK supermarket as to how many warnings, stamps and “dos and don’ts” can fit onto a small label, from “may contain traces of nuts” to “part of your 5-a-day.” We have very, very little of this in Germany. This is partly because there is less packaging. If I buy apples, I’ll probably buy them loose and decide for myself whether they are “perfect for lunchboxes”. Or I’m pretty sure that the cheese that I buy from the cheese counter will contain milk, so I won’t be force-feeding it to anyone who has a dairy allergy. Most of my friends who are vegetarian are clever enough to work out what fits in their diet without those little green symbols everywhere.

 

The other reason is that people are treated as responsible adults here. There are no speed limits on the Autobahnsoutside built-up areas as people are expected to drive responsibly and there don’t seem to be more accidents here than anywhere else. In general, on the roads, there are less signs and road-markings and certainly nothing of the jokey “don’t be dirty, stick to thirty” variety. Although Germany has more than its fair share of petty rules and regulations, these tend not to be screamed at you from every roof top. Once you know what the rules are, you know who is responsible. End of story. So, if you slip on the ice in front of my house because I couldn’t be bothered to grit it, my insurance has to pay your medical bill. I am responsible and that’s clear. It probably won’t go through the courts.

 

Of course, the main reason that the nanny state hasn’t taken over in Germany is that they’ve been there and done that, as we all know. Being told what to do, how to behave and what to think by the state is something that Germans have had more than enough of. Perhaps the government in the UK should pause to think where it might all end.

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It’s difficult to get hold of comparable stats, but my best estimate is that the % of smokers in Germany (regular or occasional) has fallen from 29% to 22.7% in the last eighteen years. The decrease is more marked amongst men (35% to 25.7%) than women (22% to 19.6%).

Of course, during this time we’ve seen the rise of cigarette/tobacco alternatives from vapes and shishas to legalised cannabis. And cigarette vending machines still grace many a pavement. 

But there are clear signs of the Nanny State stomping into adults’ lives with food labelling and packaging, media and manufacturer band-waggoning on Veganuary, Sober October and whatever all those virtue-signalling months are called. I have even tried alcohol-free wine. It was nasty.

I think Covid has a lot to answer for.

At least it hasn’t got quite to the absurd stage that the UK has reached. In almost every restaurant we went to on our last visit, we were “greeted” with “any allergies?” before the waiter had even said hello to us. 

Safety last!

While reading the recent System1/Effie paper The Creative Dividend , I was reminded of the marvellous words of aviator and writer Cecil Lewis in his autobiography, Sagittarius Rising:

You should live gloriously, generously, dangerously. Safety last!

OK, making adverts is hardly comparable to flying high above the trenches on the Western Front, eyes peeled for a Flying Circus or two to bag. But nevertheless, can I be the only person in advertising who finds charts like these rather disconsoling?

Creativity is “seen as a risk”. Whether that’s the marketers themselves that see it as a risk, which is a very cheerless thought, or, more likely, the powers that be, is immaterial.  What’s more concerning is the implied attitude to risk. It’s seen as a “barrier” to creative effectiveness. Gone are the days of no risk, no fun it seems.

Timandra Harkness’s Letter on Liberty Risk and Responsibility shines some light on this. Whether it’s down to the meddling nanny state, a tendency to infantalise adults or the obsession with measuring everything and “proof”, risk today is associated with harm rather than with opportunity. In many areas of work and life. Taking a risk is seen as irresponsible. But Harkness argues to the contrary:

Far from being irresponsible, taking risks is the only way to be a truly responsible adult. To live a life devoted to constraining uncertainty, minimising bad possibilities and maximising predictability, is to live as a child. It’s not only permissible to take risks - in fact, it’s intrinsic to being a moral agent.

Surely it’s a pessimistic mindset to use uncertainty about how things could to turn out as a reason not to take a risk?

But luckily, back in the world of advertising, those clever chaps and chapesses at System1 and Effie have actually put some numbers on how creativity can boost effectiveness and build brands and profits. 

As I think we had on the wall or in the company handbook at Saatchi:

 

The cult of authenticity

 

                                                    Screenshot from HBR Seminar, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

A couple of days ago, I listened in to a webinar introducing a new book: Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (And what To Do Instead). It’s by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of business psychology.

“Authenticity” is one of these words - like “diversity” or “inclusivity” or even “sustainability” - which is horribly over-used without much thought, whether for brands or personal development in business. So much so, that the author speaks of “The cult of authenticity”, which he dismantles in his book.

But let me take a step back. I suspect most of us growing up in the Western world have had this notion drummed into us from an early age. It may not have been labelled “authenticity” or have appeared on coffee cups and T-shirts, but the idea of expressing your individuality has long been with us as something innately Good. I still remember a song (Danny Kaye, I think?) from Tubby the Tuba. “Be yourself, you can’t be anybody else ... or you’ll always be a nobody ... be yourself - or else.” 

But what has happened with the rise of this cult is a simplification. One of those ghastly binaries. You’re either authentic or fake. And you’re only “allowed” to be authentic by the powers that be if your values and beliefs are on the approved list. As Dr Tomas said, your “whole authentic self” is not going to be welcome at work if you’re a misogynist Nazi in your spare time.

The most blindingly obvious thing to me, having studied psychology and Jung in particular is that most of us don’t actually know who we are. I have an inkling, but also know that it’s a work in progress. There are some who’d argue that there is no such thing as the self, and that we go through life wearing a series of masks or personas. Depending on context.

And that’s probably the main thing I took out of the seminar. Dr Tomas called for "less focus on expressing your authentic self and more on understanding others” and mentioned that the Authenticity Cult “typifies the egotisitcal self-absorbtion that characterises our times.” 

I scribbled this down - I’m not sure whether it’s from the book or someone else: “Maturity requires you to understand where the right to be you ends and your obligation to others begins ...”

Finally, I asked a question, which didn’t really get answered. What is the difference in emphasis between “authenticity” and “genuineness”? I’m still not sure - both can apply to objects and people. But genuine has more connotations of sincerity, integrity, human values, while authenticity feels more about provenance, lack of fakery and factual accuracy.

If you harshly light every last corner of a house, the house will be uninhabitable. It’s like that with your soul; if you light it up, shadows and darkness and all, people will become ‘uninhabitable.’ Werner Herzog

The woman in white

 

I’ve laid off blogging about every generative AI development in creating and producing ads because, frankly, it’s all moving at a speed that I can’t keep up with. But it’s interesting to stick my nose in from time to time to see the state of play. 

I last did that in Dec 2024 when everyone was falling over themselves to get AI-ads out for Christmas. I commented on Vodafone and Coca Cola. I was distinctly underwhelmed by it all and hoped for more originality in 2025.

So far, so bad. 

The example I’ve got for you is typical of what’s being churned out (note the language) this year. You can just imagine the conversation between the brand people and the agency on this one:

- We’ve got this great ad icon but she’s over 100 years old. How can we make her culturally relevant for GenZee?

- Well, the perfect combination of Zeitlos and Zeitgeist would be to bring your analogue icon alive with AI!

So, here we go. The icon in question is for Persil - “Die Weiße Dame” (“The white lady”) who first appeared on posters back in 1922. So, in this 100% AI-generated film we see the white lady stepping out of a poster and onto a German street where she takes a flanier through time up to the present day. 

Persil have achieved plenty of firsts with their advertising - in 1932 they were the first brand to advertise in German cinemas and, in 1956, the first on German commercial TV.

But I don’t think this is going to join those triumphs. 

There’s an idea, of sorts. But hardly original. Great ads work through charm, emotion, storytelling - all absent here. Characters with agency? Humour? Surprise? It’s all a bit flat and inhuman.

Some ads work because they’re well-crafted. You can’t even say that here. Yes, it’s OK - but you don’t admire someone’s ability to press a few buttons. 

Unless there’s a healthy dose of human creativity and originality in the way it’s used, AI ads all end up feeling a bit washed-out.