What can we learn from absent-minded and alike.

All right, so I'm walking down the street in Tartu, just in case, that's a small town in Estonia. It's a nice spring early afternoon, everything is pleasant and maybe little sleepy. I just got out of my car, after a two hour ride from Tallinn and I'm on a way to a business meeting.

My very good friend and a business parter, whom I know since we were five years old, is walking beside me. We are talking about how we're going present our case to the person we are meeting, but at the same time we're are just joking around. I haven't been to this town for almost twenty years and it's been eleven years for my friend. Oh yeah good times...

While walking down the hill towards the old town I barely notice the kid walking right in front of me and when I say a kid I mean somebody in his later teens. His wearing a black wind-breaker type of jacket with a big white logo on his back. But I don't really see him, sure I am aware of his existence, but I don't see him the very usual way we don't see other people way too often.

Then suddenly it hits me- like a wake- up slap in a face. The big white logo on his back actually bears words on it and guess what it says --- WHITE RACE WORLDWIDE.

OK, sure I know there's skinheads everywhere, but somehow at this very moment in this sleepy small town in Northern Europe it surprised the shit out of me. For some reason in my head I place them on some private compound somewhere in Michigan woods holding assault rifles at the gate to the compound. Same time the whole situation seems somewhat comical, since he's not particularly scary. Yes he has a crew cut and combat boots, but he appears to be too young to do any harm.

So then I start to think about the marketing aspect of this. It's obvious that nobody is born a neo-nazi, that means somebody had to sell this kid an idea. And boy did they do a good job. I don't personally care about the psychological side of it, I know somebody somewhere didn't love him enough or loved him too much and so on...

What interest me, is the fact how he was not only turned into a fanatical member, but also into a perfect evangelist for his brand. Here he is with his jacket, yes it is a quite a primitive form of outside advertising, but when you take it into account when and where he's doing it, it counts for more. I'm sure for unsure eyes with low self-esteem it could almost qualify as courage. Also lets not forget that he's probably a well trained recruiting agent.

So what can we learn from this incredibly well oiled branding machine in combat boots? Is it the message? Is it the timing?

I personally think that it must be the sense of belonging and a sense of ownership. Now if we could only create an environment that allows people to be themselves and share their thoughts, be it online or offline, we could gain incredible insights from that. Let's just hope that it will be something less stomach turning than white supremacy.

Let me know what anybody thinks.

PS. "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above" by Cansei de Ser Sexy is not only a cool song title, but also an excellent song in itself.