American capitalism conceptual illustration
What follows is the brief and Request-For-Proposal (RFP) that Forbes sent to creative agencies in September. This is where the conversation and work started.
Introduction: The Case For Action
It is not lost on us here at The Capitalist Tool …
…that despite creating prosperity, driving innovation and lifting billions around the world out of poverty, not everyone loves capitalism as we do.
Not everyone understands that despite its imperfections capitalism is as perfect a system for creating individual and collective prosperity as exists and remains our best hope for addressing many of the problems we must confront.
So too do we understand that the challenge of creating a more equitable and inclusive system of economic participation and opportunity requires more than simply the narrative intervention here considered. There are real problems of “product “not simply “brand.”
But we think people are less likely to try and fix the product if they reject the brand, and that the fewer who understand and believe in the system’s ability to evolve and adapt, the less likely it will be to do so. We think that by provoking a cultural conversation, understanding, and reconsideration that—together—we’ll help encourage more people to participate in the continued evolution of the system towards a still better and more perfect version of itself.
While the eternal beauty of the free market is its ability to evolve, the cultural conversation surrounding “capitalism” suffers from and reflects a lack of understanding.
Today, among millennials and Gen Z, free market skepticism is the majority view. A growing number who love money, value success, and celebrate entrepreneurialism, reject “capitalism” as if it were a barrier to those things and not their catalyst, seeing it as working against not for them, and as the source of more problems than it solves.
We respectfully disagree.
Indeed, what system would we replace capitalism with?
The rise in calls for a post-capitalist society could soon become their own crisis. Left unaddressed they could destabilize the best aspects of America and the best hopes for a more equitable and just one. Left unaddressed they make the possibility of America becoming more like Venezuela something about as far-fetched as a group of Americans scaling the walls of the Capitol might once have seemed.
“The natural function of a more specialized market economy is to divert more and more of the rewards to the top. That's something I don't think we've fully addressed in this country.” – Warren Buffett
Of course, and like democracy itself, the events of the last 3 years have shined a bright light on the system’s imperfections.
But, also like democracy, the fact remains capitalism is America’s—and the world’s—best hope for a better and more inclusive future.
Along with those of you receiving this RFP, and as entrepreneurs, businesses, marketers, (“consumers”), and the absolutely privileged, we are engines and beneficiaries of the capitalist system, making this crisis of perception our shared problem—and responsibility—because as capitalism goes so goes America.
This is the moment to change the conversation and perception in service of continuing to improve the “product” and its efficacy.
We hope you’ll join us.
Some Data
In a 2019 Gallup poll, 51% of those 18 to 29 had a positive view of socialism—albeit the largely fuzzy Scandinavian/Bernie Sanders version rather than the Soviet/Berlin Wall hard stuff—compared with 45% for capitalism.
That finding was echoed by a Harvard survey of young adults in which 51% said they did not support capitalism and only 19% said they “identify as a capitalist.”
And this data reflects the pre-Pandemic, pre-George Floyd, pre-recession, and pre-inflation sentiment.
Interestingly, and what we think suggests this campaign can work, is that while “capitalism” is challenged, its progeny—entrepreneurs, entrepreneurialism, and monetary success—are still celebrated and valued, as if they were not ”capitalism” in and of themselves.
.96% of Americans approve of small business, and 87% approve of entrepreneurs. Amongst our hypothesis is that media coverage of individual wealth—of which Forbes has been the prime-mover—has led many to see the wealthiest of individual capitalists and the vast disparity between their wealth and ours with the capitalist system itself.
•78% of Americans surveyed believe the rich are getting richer while everyone else struggles. Not surprising given that the top 1% of the US population holds more wealth than the bottom 50% combined.
•56% of Americans believe capitalism does more harm than good.
•43% of Gen Z and Millennials have a negative view of capitalism.
•42% of Americans do not think “the way capitalism works in the U.S. these days gives them a fair shot.”
•36% of Americans Over a third of Americans (36%) say “the American Dream is not attainable”, and (32%) say “it’s because the American Dream is dead.”
•Fewer than one in 13 children born into poverty in the U.S. will hold a high-income job in adulthood. For Black boys, only one in 40 will.
(Sources: Gallup, Forbes, Edelman Trust Barometer, Pew Research, The Harris Poll, The New York Times.)
The Process
Admittedly, this is not really a “re-branding.” Rather, it’s an effort to drive a cultural conversation among those 18-34 who reject capitalism, perhaps without understanding it, or that it remains the best engine for democracy, and inclusive, distributed, economic participation and well-being.
All work created in response to this RFP will remain yours.
This is not a “Forbes campaign” and we have no interest in owning your work. To the contrary, because we are each and all vested in this work, we will use our relationships across and beyond the media landscape to encourage others to share it, as well. We will, however, have the first rights to share and promote it across the digital and physical platforms that make us the largest business media network in the world.
The Deliverables
The road to The Forbes 400 has never looked longer or narrower. - Paul Tudor Jones
GET: Americans 18-34, who reject “capitalism,” perhaps without understanding it, and see it as the principal cause of exacerbating individual and systemic inequities rather than one creating opportunities to address them..
TO: Understand that despite its imperfections, capitalism remains the best system for ensuring prosperity and a more equitable and sustainable future.
BY: While we imagine this as kick-starting a cultural conversation, the “by” is the work of the RFP and we leave it to you and your thinking.
While we know “advertising” is not necessarily the best—and is certainly not the only—medium with which to address this cultural imperative, it is the one Forbes is most readily able to distribute across our network.
So too can it be a catalyst for earned-attention, the driving of which will be key to extending the reach and ultimate impact of this work.
While we put no limits on what can be submitted, at a minimum creative deliverables should include:
•Your articulation of the problem to be solved
•Your strategy for beginning to address it
•Your core communication/message
•Topline PR Plan
•Print, Digital, Social and OOH campaign and assets
We recognize…
…this can seem a task and ask of such epic proportions that, well, where would you even start? What “box” would you put this in to give structure to thinking and ideas?
It’s important to remember the intent of this campaign isn’t to “fix” capitalism, it’s to engage those who reject it out of hand, getting them to reconsider it and their understanding of it.
To borrow vernacular from ad campaigns past, it’s to get them to “Think Different,” to “Try (It) Again For the Very First Time,” and to believe they have a role in ensuring the capitalism of tomorrow is “Not (Their) Father’s Oldsmobile.”
The case and cause for action are clear and urgent. We appreciate your considering being part of the response.
