Series E
Archetypes
Everyman
Ready to debunk the myth of luxury? We promise to take you on a fascinating exploration of the Everyman archetype and its impact on brands and pop culture. We'll be breaking down the core values of honesty, integrity, and fairness that make the Everyman resonate with tradition, hard work, and equality. You'll discover how this archetype is embodied by household names like Rocky Balboa, Forrest Gump, and brands such as Volkswagen and Heinz.
Transcript
Bob Sheard: The Everyman is a wonderful meaning system because it responds to that single human characteristic which is humanity, bends towards truth. Everyman, the emotional effect of Every man as a brand, is truth. It's instilled with honesty, integrity and a sense of fairness and a belief in fairness. It's working on behalf of the common good, it's speaking up for what's right, especially on behalf of others, and it's instilled with a sense of pride and purpose. The core ritual of Everyman is seeing through pretence. It's the time of honesty, it's the place of universality. What they stand for is reality, what they stand against is fantasy. Their core values rationally are tradition, toil, there's an ability in labour and equality. Core values emotionally are humility, honesty and integrity. They all add up to this effect of truth. In culture, this would be Rocky Balboa, would be Everyman. It's Fleabag, it's Forrest Gump, it's Dai Donovan in Pride, it's Mare in Mare of Easttown. They all share the same narratives of authenticity, being human, realism, value, belonging to and supporting a collective and being exceptional. In brands that's Volkswagen, it's Heinz, it's Carhartt, it's Yorkshire Tea. They all share this sense of authenticity, human realism, value the collective and being exceptional.
Michael Campion: I imagine there's certain products and services where you would just never want to use the Everyman archetype. Luxury fashion screams one to me, because luxury is exclusionary by definition. The Everyman archetype is obviously off the table for you if you're a luxury fashion brand, if you're in that kind of vertical.
Bob Sheard: I think the reason luxury exists is to confer a status on the consumer. I don't think that's necessarily compatible with Everyman, which is conferring a truth. You'll see Everyman evident in things like household products such as Ronseal. It says what it does on the tin. Those are the attributes of truth, straightforwardness. It'd be interesting to see someone try and do luxury in this, but I wouldn't start there.
