Illustration by Tyler Watson
DRUGS, DESIRE + BRANDS, What Brands Can Learn From Drug Culture
To know what a culture desires requires constant observation. Music, art, food, fashion and countless other sources serve as informants for brands to investigate and comprehend what people are responding to and seeking. While observing any marker of culture holds the potential for valuable insights, the most compelling source for brands to uncover cultural desire is drug culture.
Over the past century the drug of choice has changed from generation to generation, from cocaine in the 20s and 30s, LSD in the 60s to ecstasy in the 90s. A recent essay by Aeontitled “Drugs Du Jour” argues that each of these decadal drugs serves as a manifestation of a deep cultural need and act as a window into our desires and fears.
Coca-Cola’s 1968 Real Thing commercial is an excellent example of a brand tapping into cultural desire that was manifested in the generational drug of the late 60s and early 70s. In a time of racial division, deception and capitalist malaise a generation turned to LSD both to escape from the hypocrisies of the world and as a way of finding something true. In an answer to this search, Coca-Cola gave the world the Real Thing commercial that included over 200 singers aligned on a green hillside, singing “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony” while holding up a bottle of Coke in their right hand. In a time of disenfranchisement and search for authenticity, both LSD and Coke were able to satisfy the quest for the “real thing.”
Fast forward 20 years into the 90s: people were searching for something different. While LSD was still a popular drug, the drug that captured the sentiment of the time was ecstasy. As corporations expanded across the globe, fueled by mass economic growth and a race towards globalization there was a growing desire for locality, connection and belonging. These needs were evidenced by a proliferation of youth driven sub-cultures in the 90s including a rave scene powered by ecstasy. More than just giving users the ability to party and dance all night, ecstasy enabled the youth of the 90s to feel connected and bonded.
Stüssy, a private clothing brand that started in the early 1980s, was able to accurately respond to the need for belonging and connection that youth culture was craving. The brand’s astute amalgam of anti-establishment subculture influences captured a worldwide youth market through the development of their International Stüssy Tribe. By integrating aspects of urban hip hop, surf, skateboarding and nightclub style into their clothing Stüssy was able to speak to a diverse youth audience searching for something to call their own. More than custom varsity jackets, graphic tees and baseball caps, the Stüssy tribe was the embodiment an all-encompassing lifestyle that transcended genres and gave all that wore the products a sense of belonging.
Today we are living in a climate filled with both political and cultural upheaval. While there are a number of drugs responding to a growing undercurrent of anxiety including Kava, a tea that has a similar effect to Xanax made from a South Pacific root, marijuana in all forms, micro-dosing LSD, and Provigil, a narcolepsy drug that helps with concentration, there is one drug whose popularity provides meaningful insight into our cultural need.
Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew used for centuries in South American jungles is now booming in the U.S. People are drawn to its ancient lineage, organic nature, ritualistic use and promise to provide personal growth and healing. The popularity of ayahuasca, that devotees call medicine rather than a drug, suggests that people are looking for something beyond temporary relief or escape but rather for something much deeper.
In a time defined by neo-mania, on-demand technology and synthetic products, ayahuasca acts as a salve, giving users access to an ancient, slow and natural world steeped in rituals that have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Moreover, the communal nature of ayahuasca ceremonies, which have at least one shaman for every four to five people drinking the hallucinogen, is both a counter and reprieve from our individualist society plagued by chronic loneliness.
The characteristics of ayahuasca coupled with the medicinal and therapeutic outcomes that people are seeking suggest an overall interest and desire for transformation. Moving past temporal experience which most drugs provide, our culture is now looking for experiences that help us grow, heal and discover new parts of ourselves.
Brands can respond to this nuanced and challenging desire, even though it is complicated. Spotify, the music, podcast and video streaming service has already been able to tap into the desire with their Discover Weekly playlist. The playlist deliver users customized music based on their listening habits that strikes a perfect balance of fresh and familiar giving listeners a potentially transformative experience on a weekly basis.
While having Spotify’s sophisticated algorithms to address this current need helps it isn’t the only way for brands to respond. A brand’s knowledge of their audience along with the ability to deliver experiences that are enduring rather than fleeting have the potential to both inspire and catalyze meaningful personal development.
As the world continues to change we will, of course, continue to change along with it. The words we use, the food we eat, the music we listen to along with countless other markers of culture will shift in both subtle and drastic ways, acting as a mirror, reflecting back to us both who we are and who we wish to be. Drug culture because of its visceral and raw nature will always be one of the most honest sources for brands to dig into to understand the needs and insecurities we all try desperately to fill.