Greeks are pissed - the mocking begins

Way back during the BP oil spill crisis I wrote a short blog entry called - That's a Wrap - and in it I made the point that the process of 'mocking' is one that has a tremendously powerful affect on a brand. 

When the public begins to mock you, that is their way of robbing you of all power and authority your brand may carry. The whole point of mocking is to redefine the characteristics associated with your brand, to associate everything you say and do with being 'laughable'.

You essentially lose the ability to communicate, because no matter what you say it is twisted to look absurd so that no one takes it seriously.

Mocking is also different than being provocative (I'll show the difference below in a second).

Over in Greece, things have now entered the mocking stage. As the Chicago Sun reports - Nazi jokes, wrath at Germans highlight Greek despair. It may be hard to believe, given Germany is leading the charge to save Greece via the EFSF, but those in Greece are furious at Germany (viewing them as their German overlords). As such they are evoking past Nazi imagery.

A poster of Angela Merkle in a Nazi uniform was created and apparently posted in the streets of Greece.

While mocking often takes a humorous approach, it sometimes can be quite jarring such as what is happening in Greece with the use of Nazi imagery. There's nothing funny about the image to me, but you can nonetheless recognize the juxtaposition of Merkle on the one hand smelling a rose while on the other hand wearing a uniform associated with death and evil - the intent is clearly to encourage people to 'laugh' at any notion that Germany is actually 'saving' Greece.

While not humorous, the mocking effects are the same. They erode Merkle's ability to be taken seriously by the general public. The image doesn't necessarily make people think anything about her per se, but that's not what mocking's goal is, in fact quite the opposite. It's designed to get people to simply stop taking someone seriously, to stop thinking about anything they say, to in essence look upon them as a joke.

It's no surprise that mocking is used so readily in the process of bullying. One of the most salient traits of a bully is that they are very quick to mock others, especially in front of other people. They recognize that the act of mocking is highly damaging to the person who is being mocked.

As I mentioned above, there's a difference between mocking and being provocative. Mocking is designed to get people to no longer take someone seriously. Being provocative generally attempts to do the opposite, to heighten the seriousness with which people see a situation or person.

An artist in Miami decided to go after Wall Street by being provocative. He depicted a banker being hung with the phrase 'Give a Wall St banker enough rope and he will hang himself'. The display was done at a major Florida highway.

As you can clearly see, being provocative is different than mocking. When you see the provocative images the first thing that comes to mind (at least for me) is - Is this going to far? Which then makes you really think about the issue of anger towards Wall Street. So provocation makes you think about something, whereas mockery makes you take something or someone less seriously. 

Now, both tactics can backfire. When Obama was elected a ton of images designed, I think, to mock him (versus simply be provocative), sprung up everywhere. From Obama as the Joker to Obama as Hitler.

They had little to no effect. In part because mocking the president before he even had a chance to govern only made said mockers look like fools / bullies.

Mockery, to an extent, is an art form. There is a thin line between engaging the audience and offending the audience. Personally I'm not a fan of Obama, but I find the images on the left to be offensive and my personal view is that I suspect those who were so anti-Obama back in 2008 were most likely racist (given he hadn't even had a chance to govern).  

When mockery backfires, it can often empower the subject being mocked as they quickly appear to others as someone who is under unfair attack and as such this elicits sympathy from the general public.

Now in Merkle's case, while the image of her in a Nazi uniform is as extreme as you can get, the situation in Greece is also as extreme as you can get. I won't go in to it, but what is currently going on with the EFSF bailout attempt is a joke in my opinion, once again kicking the can down the road at the expense of citizens of the European Union.

The more extreme the situation, the more extreme the mockery becomes and is accepted by the population. 

We'll see where things go in Greece, but my two-cents says that once the mocking starts, while it may seem not that important at the outset, it's actually the signal that you have serious and significant issues boiling up to the surface and shifts in public attitudes. 

Italy will be the country next to watch. If mockery of the European Union starts to emerge there as well, then I think you are witnessing the beginning phases of the eventually break-up of the EU. 

On a final note, mockery can be done in a humorous manner. A good example of this is the endless 'Hitler Rants' videos on YouTube where people take a scene from a movie about Hitler and add captions that mock some company or subject. These make you laugh while also accomplishing their goal of mocking. 

Apple understood the power of mockery. Their "I'm a mac' commercials lampooned Microsoft and were very effective.



Or check out this Google Android ad, which mocks Mac (it's obviously not done by Google, just someone on the internet). I found it funny.