Your brand should offend someone

What The Doctor of Thuganomics can teach us about the power of being disliked

The film currently front and centre of Amazon Prime is called Heads of State. A tongue in cheek action film which falls into the ‘don’t think too hard about it’ sub-genre of films about muscles and guns. The film follows the President of the USA and the British Prime Minister, played by John Cena and Idris Elba, as they try and stop NATO from disbanding or something. There are lots of explosions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most interesting thing in the film isn’t the plot or the explosions, but John Cena himself. Not only because watching anyone that muscular try and look normal in a suit is always funny, but because of what he can teach us about the power of being disliked.

His career trajectory has largely followed in the footsteps of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson as he makes the journey from pro-wrestler to blockbuster movie star. But the key difference is that when John Cena made his wrestling debut, he was so spectacularly uninteresting that he was nearly fired.

He was young, athletic and about as attractive as a man with a body that looks like a bag of footballs can be. The problem was that he was boring. He had no personality, so no one cared about him. The fans couldn’t get behind him because there was nothing to get behind. Wrestling in the early 2000s was all about character and attitude, with larger than life events, characters and storylines. And in that world, Mr Beige John Cena just didn’t stand out.

Shortly before he was going to be canned, one of the executives heard him rapping on a tour bus, and everything clicked. It turned out he could do something interesting, and his on stage persona changed overnight to ‘The Doctor of Thuganomics’. He started to rap before his matches, and was suddenly dressed in sports jerseys and hats. He was controversial and disrespectful, whats known in wrestling as a heel – a bad guy. Suddenly, the crowd cared about him. He was interesting enough to like, and interesting enough to hate. His popularity soared, and now he is doing big budget action movies.

John Cena doesn't care what you think.

The polarising nature of character is what makes it so powerful. By expressing a strong character, you’re putting something out there. Something which some people might like, and some might not. And herein lies the problem with most brands; they’re too scared to be interesting.

The truth is that your brand should probably be disliked by someone. Not everyone, and not necessarily many people, but someone should probably disagree with you. If no one hates it, then chances are that no one loves it. And if thats the case, it just isn’t interesting enough to care about. It is ignorable, just like our old friend John Cena.

If no one hates it, then chances are that no one loves it. And if thats the case, it just isn’t interesting enough to care about.

Most brands, like a lot of people, try hard to be liked by everyone. That’s human nature, especially in the world of commerce where you want to attract as many customers as possible, but this is why they’re forgettable. The best brands plant a flag, built on their beliefs and philosophies, and display them publicly. Beliefs which they know not everyone will believe.

Some people’s response will be to cringe, or publicly decry you. But others will rally to you. By aligning yourself to similar beliefs, showing you understand them, you become ‘their people’ and they become your champions. This is how brands build communities.

Because if you don’t repel some people, you won’t attract anyone.