Authenti+fiction

— One World Is Not Enough

Second Life now sounds prehistoric. We all have a third, fourth, fifth life in which it takes nothing to become a premier league footballer, a Viking, a warrior, an animal, a woman, a man, a transgender. The need to visit other worlds belongs to the human  being since the ancient times, it’s part of evolution. Cinema has been there and so have novels and the Greek theatre.

These are all ways to multiply oneself, becoming another person. Such need to escape from ourselves is not a cultural novelty, then. However, this wish is totally fulfilled through technology, continuously offering more attractive and accessible escape ways.

To reach all the possible worlds all you need is a smartphone. A place that for marketing and evil geniuses like Fortnight has meant 125 million users with a billion dollars income per year.

— Anti-advertising by Ricky Gervais

Cynical, bold and direct with anything coming out of his mouth. Those who know Ricky Gervais, the star from After Life and many other American standing comedies, could struggle with the idea of him being a testimonial for an advertising campaign.

When the second Australian telecom company, Optus, offered him to shoot a commercial (and not for a bunch of peanuts) he sat on a sofa with a cup of tea and said this was all he could do for the brand and that he wouldn’t have done anything else to promote the company. Optus chose that very statement as its campaign and in a few days it received 4 million visualisation on fb, articles on the most popular newspapers and some awards at Cannes. What better advertising is there than this authentic anti advertising? Of course being Ricky Gervais helps.

— Faking for Learning

It is very common to hear about “emotional awareness”, through breathing techniques, mindfulness, BNL. At Harvard, they even dedicated a business course to this, because we know our emotional response has great impact on the success of any project. When emotions take over often we miss the objective. And this is true from family to business.

If our reactions don’t bring us anywhere, no matter if it’s right or not, we need to change them. How? Faking! According to Harvard psychologists. Our minds need training, as any other part of the body. A good boss mustn’t humiliate his/her employees to get results, just as a good teacher shouldn’t raise the voice in class. It might seem a bit of a stretch, at first, and we surely didn’t learn it from previous generations. Be actors, pretend you believe in it and one day it will happen naturally.