WEBVTT

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Thirteen point eight billion years ago,

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the universe as we know it
began with a big bang,

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and everything that we know and are
and are made of was created.

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Fifty thousand years ago,

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our brains underwent
a major genetic mutation,

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which resulted in the biological
reorganization of the brain.

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Some scientists call this
"The Big Brain Bang."

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Others call it "The Great Leap Forward,"

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which I prefer.

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It's so much more poetic.

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This is when Homo sapiens began to evolve
into the modern species that we are today.

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The Great Leap Forward activated
most of our modern abilities:

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abstract thought, planning,

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cooking, competitive labor,

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language, art, music

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and self-decoration.

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After the Great Leap Forward,

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there was an explosion
of stone toolmaking,

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more sophisticated weaponry

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and, 32,000 years ago,

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the creation of our first sophisticated
mark-making on the cave walls of Lascaux.

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It's not a coincidence that we've gone
from documenting our reality

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on the cave walls of Lascaux

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to the walls of Facebook.

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And, in a very meta experience,

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you can now a book a trip
to see the walls of Lascaux

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on the walls of Facebook.

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There is no culture

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in recorded human history

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that has not practiced
some form of organized worship,

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which we now call "religion."

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Six thousand years ago,
in an effort to unite people,

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our ancestors began to design
telegraphic symbols to represent beliefs

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and to identify affiliations.

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These symbols connected
like-minded people,

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and they are all extraordinary.

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These affiliations allowed us
to feel safer and more secure in groups,

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and the sharing created consensus
around what the symbols represented.

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With these marks,
you knew where you fit in,

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both for the people
that were in the in crowd

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and those, as importantly,
that were excluded.

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These symbols were created in what
I consider to be a very bottom-up manner:

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they were made by people for people

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and then shared for free among people

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to honor the higher power
that they ascribed to.

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What's ironic is that the higher power
actually had nothing to do with this.

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These early affiliations,

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they often shared
identical characteristics,

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which is rather baffling

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given how scattered we were
all over the planet.

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We constructed similar rituals,
practices and behaviors

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no matter where we were
anywhere on the globe.

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We constructed rituals
to create symbolic logos.

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We built environments for worship.

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We developed strict rules
on how to engage with each other

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with food, with hair,

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with birth, with death,

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with marriage and procreation.

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Some of the symbols
have eerie commonalities.

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The hand of God shows up
over and over and over again.

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It shows up as the hamsa hand
in Mesopotamia.

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It shows us as the hand
of Fatima in Islam.

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It shows up as the hand
of Miriam in Judaism.

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Now, when we didn't agree
on what our beliefs and behaviors were

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in regards to others,

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if we felt that somebody
else's were incorrect,

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we began to fight,

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and many of our first wars were religious.

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Our flags were used on the battlefield

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to signify which side
of the battlefield we belonged to,

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because that was the only way
to be able to tell friend from foe.

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We all looked alike.

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And now our flags are on
mass-manufactured uniforms

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that we are making.

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Logos on products
to identify a maker came next,

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and brands were given
legal recognition on January 1, 1876,

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with the advent of the Trademarks
Registration Act.

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The first trademarked brand was Bass Ale,

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and I kind of wonder what that says
about our humanity

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that first trademarked brand
was an alcoholic beverage.

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Now, here is what I consider to be

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the first case of branded
product placement.

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There are bottles of Bass Ale behind me

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with the logo accurately presented here

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in this very famous painting
in 1882 by Édouard Manet.

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One of the most widely recognized
logos in the world today

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is the Nike swoosh,

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which was introduced in 1971.

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Carolyn Davidson,
a graphic design student,

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originally created the logo
for 35 dollars.

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Upon seeing it,
Nike CEO Phil Knight stated,

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"I don't love it

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but maybe it will grow on me."

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Maybe it will grow on me.

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But why is the swoosh so popular?

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Why is the swoosh so popular?

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Is it the mark?

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Or is the marketing?

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And what can we make of the fact

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that the Nike swoosh seems to be

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the Newport logo upside down

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or the Capital One logo on its side?

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That is not the only logo
with a shared identity.

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This next logo is a logo
that has a shared identity

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with wholly different meanings.

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As a Jewish person,

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I believe that this logo,

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this swastika,

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is the most heinous logo of all time.

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But it actually has
a rather surprising trajectory.

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The word "swastika" originally comes from

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the ancient Sanskrit word "svastika,"

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which actually means "good fortune,"

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"luck" and "well-being."

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In the early 1900s,
before it was appropriated by Hitler,

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it was used by Coca-Cola

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on a good luck bottle opener.

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The American Biscuit Company
prominently registered the mark

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and put it on boxes of cookies.

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The US Playing Card Company
registered the mark in 1921

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for Fortune Playing Cards.

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The Boy Scouts used
the mark on shoes in 1910,

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and the symbol was also featured
on cigar labels, boxtops, road signs

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and even poker chips.

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Even the Jain made use of the logo
along with a hand of God

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many millennia ago.

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These marks were identical,

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but with use as a Nazi symbol,

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the impact became very, very different.

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The hand of God,

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the Nike swoosh

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and the swastika:

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they all demonstrate how we've been
manufacturing meaning with visual language

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over millennia.

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It's a behavior that's
almost as old as we are.

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Today, in the United States,

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there are over 116,000 malls,

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and they all look pretty much the same.

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There are more than 40,000 supermarkets,

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and they each have over 40,000 items.

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If you went shopping for bottled water,

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you'd have over 80 options to choose from.

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Since their launch in 1912,

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you could choose from over 100
flavors and variants of Oreo cookies.

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Now, is this a good thing

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or is it a bad thing?

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Is a plethora of choice
necessary in a free market?

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I believe it is both a good and bad thing,

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as humans are both good and bad,

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and we're the ones creating
and using and buying these brands.

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However, I think that the question

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of whether this behavior is good or bad
is actually secondary

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to understanding why --

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why we behave this way in the first place.

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Here's the thing:

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every one of our mass-marketed products

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are what I consider to be top-down brands.

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They're still created by people,

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but they are owned, operated,
manufactured, advertised,

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designed, promoted
and distributed by the corporation

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and pushed down and sold
to the consumer for financial gain.

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These corporations have
a responsibility to a P and L

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with an expectation of an ROI

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and have names like P and G
and AT and T and J and J.

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And that's pretty much the way it's been
for the last couple of hundred years:

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a top-down model
controlled by the corporation.

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Until 2011.

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That's when we began to see evidence

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of real, significant, far-reaching change.

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The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street

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proved how the internet
could amplify messages

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and connect like-minded people

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with powerful beliefs to inspire change.

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We witnessed a cultural shift
via social media

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with hashtags like #MeToo
and #BlackLivesMatter.

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In its wake, the discipline of branding

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has transformed more in the last 10 years

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than it has in the last 10,000,

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and for the first time in modern history,

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the most popular, influential brands

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are not brands being pushed
down by the corporation.

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They are brands being pushed up
by the people, for the people,

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for the sole purpose of changing the world
and making it a better place.

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Our greatest innovations aren't brands
providing a different form

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or a different flavor
of our favorite snack.

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Our greatest innovations
are the creation of brands

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that can make a difference in our lives

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and reflect the kind of world
that we want to live in.

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In November of 2016,

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Krista Suh, Jayna Zweiman and Kat Coyle

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created a hat to be worn
at the Women's March in Washington, DC.

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(Applause)

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This was the day after
the presidential inauguration.

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Two months later,
on January 21, 2017,

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millions of people all over the world
wore handmade pink pussyhats

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in support of the Women's March
all over the world.

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The hat was not created
for any financial benefit.

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Like our religious symbols
created thousands of years ago,

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the hat was created
by the people, for the people

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to serve what I believe
is the highest benefit of branding:

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to unite people in the communication

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of shared ideals.

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The pink pussyhat became
a mark for a movement.

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In a very short time,
two months,

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it became universally recognizable.

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It connected an audience
in an unprecedented way.

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It is a brand,

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but it is more than that.

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Today, the pink pussyhat is proof positive

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that branding is not just
a tool of capitalism.

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Branding is the profound
manifestation of the human spirit.

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The condition of branding has always
reflected the condition of our culture.

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It is our responsibility

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to continue to leverage
the democratic power branding provides,

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and it is our responsibility

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to design a culture that reflects

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and honors

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the kind of world we want to live in.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)