Dr. Marcus Collins’ Post

These are the vibes for the rest of 2024. Things can turn around in 24 hours, but you have to know that you’re a winner. Preach, my sister. Preach 🙌🏽

TL;DR Don’t waste your time/resources/energy trying to convince the nonbelievers. Rarely does it produce fruit relative to the effort. Instead: 1️⃣ Find your collective of the willing 2️⃣ Preach the gospel 3️⃣ And they’ll convert the others “Now you know; and knowing is half of the battle” - G.I. Joe

Have you heard of travel cats? Yeah, neither me. That is, of course, until we talked with someone from the subculture, and they brought Alexis and I into their world—and what a fascinating world it is. That’s what I love most about doing this podcast with Intuit Mailchimp, we get to explore parts of the world that exist all around us, every day. What I’ve found over the course of recording the pod, like I’ve realized in my practice and my scholarship, is that the closer we get to these communities the more we understand ourselves. That super powerful stuff. Check out our latest episode of Subcultural wherever you get your podcasts, or here 👇 https://lnkd.in/gCxr3byb

Indeed, Richard Dawkins coined the term meme to denote the cultural information that is embedded into communicative nodes much like biological information is embedded in our genes. I wrote about this in great detail in my book, FOR THE CULTURE—due out in paperback on 9/10, btw. In fact, meme is French for “same.” In a contemporary sense, we use memes and their cultural replication to communicate the nuanced characteristics of people like us, and people share them as a way to project their identity. The act of recontextualization in this manner happens repeatedly in communities—often through the social web—as referential coded language to collectively make meaning. Super power stuff. 💪💪💪

Kamala’s social media strategy is exactly what social is meant to do: leverage the credence of the people to help people make meaning—especially in socially ambitious situations. Are we happy Biden stepped down? Should we be nervous? Do people think Kamala can do it? Instead of leaving these social negotiations up to chance, it seems as though Kamala and her team are protectively using the voices of others to help guide the discourse and rally support. In doing so, she is helping shape the narrative by inviting others to propagate the story through their own networks through the use of memes as cultural communication which is retold (shared) by other people’s content in their newsfeed. If the collective consensus is positive then it will influence subsequent people to perceive the news positively as well. Biden's communication strategy lacked this kind of dialogue with cultural discourse, and I think that likely hurt him. Kamala’s approach seems to focus on galvanizing the people by the people. That’s a winning proposition because there is nothing more influential to people than people—especially “our people.” Trump has benefited from social effects, and now, hopefully, Kamala will also. Thanks for the look, Business Insider 🙌🏽

I've been waiting so long to share the news, and now it's finally happening 🤗 I am beyond thrilled to announce that I'll be launching a new e-learning course with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity called Unlocking the Influence of Culture: A Marketer's Greatest Cheatcode. We intuitively know that culture is powerful, but how can we effectively engage in it to augment the effectiveness of our work? Well, that's exactly what this course is designed to do, and we welcome you to join us for it. If you're curious to learn more, we'll be hosting a webinar on August 13th to unpack the relationship between culture and consumption--and its influence on our behaviors--as a sneak peek into what the six-week course will explore and how we'll bring these elements to life during our time together. You won’t want to miss this. Register for the live event on 8/13 here 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/gREnJNZh See you soon!!!

The function of belief is to commit us to action. Why? Because what we believe ultimately informs what we do. So, the question is…what do you believe? And what are you going to do about it?

“Social media” is the media of people, and there is no media more influential to us than us. Therefore, the impact of our discourse on the outcome of the upcoming presidential election cannot be overstated. S/o to Brad Smith, Alexandra Canal, and Yahoo Finance for the look. 🙌🏽

Our emotions drive our behavior most. Therefore, if we want to get people to move, we should appeal the emotional brain and satisfy the rational brain. Start with the soul and end with the sale. 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

It’s clear that Kendrick Lamar is playing chess, not checkers—and he is undoubtedly a chessmaster. Even if he didn’t create the game, the fact that he inspired it speaks volumes about his understanding of cultural production and derivative works. It’s a masterclass. Bravo. S/o to KevOnStage Studios