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“Who are the kings?”
My six year old asked me this a few weeks ago amidst ICE protests in LA. I wasn’t sure where to start. How do I tell my kid that people are being stolen out of their daily lives? That our civil liberties and interpretations of the American Constitution are up for grabs?
Today, truths that once felt unquestionable seem to wave in the wind. From presidential jurisdiction to deep fakes, more and more often I find myself asking, what is real? What is true?
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Without truth, we feel unstable at best, volatile at worst.
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No one thinks of the truth as unimportant, but we rarely think about how vital it really is to our mental wellbeing. Without certainty about the world around us, our brains remain in a sort of survival mode. Social psychologists have even created a term to describe the distress that’s relieved with definitive truths: cognitive closure.
Beyond the individual level, truth plays a foundational role in our progress as a society. Without the shared truth of the importance of education in the 1830s, we couldn’t have developed global public school systems. The decolonization of several nations in the 1900s was anchored in the self-determination of nations as a shared truth. And more recently, the legalization of gay marriage was achieved only after people rallied around a shared truth that we all deserve love. These shared truths have united us, powered us to work together, and pushed us forward.
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But today it’s harder to decipher the truth.
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Social media accelerates the erosion of truth by distracting us with a firehose of information, much of which is brainrot or AI slop that is manufactured for virality. We’re also up against the fact that misinformation is proven to spread faster than truth, and that we’re psychologically pre-disposed to believe things we see more frequently, whether they’re true or not.
This cocktail of forces explains how explicit imagery of Taylor Swift on X, or a video of an explosion near the Pentagon, can make national news or crash markets. And it’s also why we’re seeing so much political division and stagnation: How can we agree on priorities when our lizard brains are still deciphering what’s real?
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The upside? Nuance is having its moment.
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As a collective culture, we’re moving away from black-and-white certainty and embracing interpretations, ambiguity, and evolution. The DC Universe is creating multidimensional characters that blur the lines between hero and villain. Millions are applying the TikTok-viral “Let Them Theory,” which says that we’ll find peace when we stop trying to control others’ truths. Around the world, we’re rethinking our relationships with work and ambition. And motherhood, once steeped in religious and societal expectation, is being reclaimed by women charting their own paths.
Truth may be eroding but new truths are rising in their place—ones that are less absolute, more personal, and informed by varied sources.
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This leaves brands at a complicated crossroads.
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When the truth is in question, authority is in question, and brands have long taken on the role of ‘authority.’
But people have stopped believing that brands can tell us what to think, do, or buy. When Bumble launched their campaign admonishing women for turning to celibacy, women labeled it the ‘Bumble Fumble.’ Why was Bumble deciding celibacy was not the right action? And when Elon made questionable changes to the laws of X, millions left the platform. Why does he get to govern social conversations?
In a world where 61% of people globally believe government and business make their lives harder and serve narrow interests, how do brands maintain credibility? What are the new rules for engaging with truth?
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The solution: skepticism.
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Rather than continuing to fight for authority, it’s time for brands to aid in the skepticism that will help people find new truths. It’s not a statement I’d expected to make. But when you look at the principles of deep skepticism—like asking questions, considering varying perspectives, and maintaining dissatisfaction with answers that are too simple or easy—you see how inherent skepticism is to driving meaningful societal progress.
Looking back through history, new truth has emerged from skeptics who questioned authority and united others around their discoveries. Copernicus broke from religious authority to prove Earth wasn’t the center of the universe, and was followed by Galileo, Kepler, and Isaac Newton. John Snow questioned medical authority during the Broad Street cholera outbreak of 1854, establishing modern germ theory. Susan B Anthony was arrested and tried before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.
I’m not saying anyone needs to get themselves arrested, but being brave, making inquiries, and rallying people are actions many brands already understand well.
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What else can brands learn from skeptics?
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Instigate. When there is a rightful truth in need of challenging within your field, consumers appreciate brands questioning the status quo. Thorne supplements recently partnered with singer Ciara to rewrite the narrative about creatine. It’s not just for beefy muscle men—creatine is proven to help with preserving muscle and bone mass, which can be particularly beneficial for perimenopausal and menopausal women. What needs questioning within your world?
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Reimagine. A willingness to envision a new way of living can help brands establish real value for consumers. Live Near Friends is an app that reimagines home buying—because who says we can’t live near our friends after our 20s? How can you change our realities by radically reconsidering what’s possible?
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Give Voice. Brands have the power to use their platforms to represent and unite people around rising truths. Frida Mom created a platform for parents to better understand and share experiences around taboo topics like post-partum recovery and at-home fertility treatments, to help more new parents push past these tough moments. How can you give voice to consumers, and help new truths blossom into movements?
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In a time where truths are shifting and authority is under question, brands can thrive as skeptics. Instigate, reimagine, and give voice. You may create the next shared truths that push us all forward.
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Chris Konya the Chief Strategy Officer at SYLVAIN. She has helped companies envision their futures through innovation, brand, and consumer-led strategy for twenty years. She leads teams with strong ambition, deep empathy, and insightful perspective in order to unearth strategically rigorous and delightfully unexpected solutions. Her work includes core product and brand strategies for The New York Times, Diageo, MoMA, PepsiCo, Amazon, Chanel, Olaplex, Marriott, Viacom, and BlackRock.
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Progress Report is a bi-weekly newsletter of business considerations, cultural conversations, and fun recommendations from around the world and web.
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