Curated by Choque cultural the famous street art gallery in Sao Paulo, Scion Installation L.A. presents Brazilian street art artists, Calma, Carlos Dias, Ramon Martins, MZK, Silvano Mello, Speto, Titi Freak & Zezao.

Opening on February 28, 2009 till March 28, this show celebrates the energy of an emergent artistic movement in Sao Paulo. A film by self taught artist Calma on painting a small village in Bahia re-enforce the idea that Art’s new museums might be the streets, our houses, our place of worship or even the cemetery.

Carlos Dias pure power paintings bring the decorative, the absurd and his musical inspiration to the fore in a explosion of colors and graphics that challenge your reality. Silvana Mello’s work communicates powerfully through our feelings and Zezao, a calligraphic painter famous for his activities in sewers reveals that beauty can exist in the most challenging places.

Scion Installation L.A. 3521 Helms Avenue. Culver City.

Unlike some countries, the American flag is not just an untouchable symbol of state power but rather represents people's love of their country. Although the treatment of a "real" flag is strongly guided by custom (flag burning remains controversial, for example) creative interpretation of the flag's design in commerce, social events or political functions is not just accepted but welcomed. The more the better, it seems.

During Barack Obama's inaugural celebration, we looked for Americana and found some truly interesting interpretations that used the flag in a fresh and positive manner. Showing those colors seemed to make everyone feel hope again.

And what a crowd it was. In freezing cold temperatures, I felt like a part of a growing mass of people in a state of grace, even though most spectators had waited shivering for hours before the event began. Amazingly, no arrests of any consequence were made, and everyone I encountered was courteous and helpful. Even in the worst moments of waiting, and despite the inevitable logistical failings brought on by the tsunami of visitors, everyone showed a patience that would have been unimaginable anywhere else...including New York.

At no time did I see people who were fearful, frustrated or angry. A few attendees had to be treated for hypothermia and others just could not stand the cold, but overall, there was not a sense of frustration, despite not always knowing where to go or having room to move. Instead, the human river took on a life of its own, becoming its own intelligence, moving as a unit to what seemed to be right thing to do, driven with a common purpose. It was the strangest experience I ever had, a well-behaved crowd of people who knew instinctively where to go with practically no guidance.

Some in the crowd were children - not just those who came to DC but also those children around the world who perhaps slipped into a neighbor's house to cluster around a lone TV. These children have now seen for themselves what unites us, and some will be inspired to lead. More still will come to believe that hard work, education, a strong will and hope can get them somewhere. But after sharing this experience, surely none of these children will ever see the world in black and white.

We all came together for a day, and we will come together again, one powerful and emotional idea at a time. Hopefully, we will become that best kind of crowd: moving together peacefully with a common purpose, a sure sign that we are progressing as a human race.

On that historic day, what they all had in common was the need to express what they believed and felt. Curiously, pins seemed to be a common answer. No wonder, since pins are fun and easy to wear - some wore them with a passion, given the quantities that adorned their clothing. T-shirts can also make strong statements, and tattoos even more so, but in such cold weather a pin is it! On the Mall, you could see pins in all languages and colors - some as elaborately crafted as jewelry and others designed in different sizes from very large to truly tiny. Pepsi - a visible participant in the event, as I noted before - had the smallest pins, simply sporting its new logo.

As I looked over the crowd of hundreds of thousands who had been patiently waiting since the earliest morning hours to claim a part in what they believed would be the political event of their lifetimes, I could feel their collective emotions.

But the pins, silent in the noisy celebration, were the best expression of people's individual emotions wanting to be differentiated and shared. Everyone needs a little love and craves having their voice recognized. Love was plentiful here in Washington, and the pins were here for each one of everyone's thoughts.

People went for the emotions, for the hope and the change that are built into America's DNA. Compared to other nations, Americans just feel different about their country's mission as the main guardian of freedom in the world. And for many people across the globe, the USA is still the ultimate guarantor of a world that can give an equal chance to all. Now, millions of children from South America to Africa, from France to Japan, have seen an American election that has given them a new spark and a new reason to believe that we are progressing as a human race.

As a hint of things to come, let's look at the Obama campaign as applied to the 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding. You'll see that, unlike many brands, the Obama campaign hits on all the right emotional connections.

1- From consumers (voters) to people.
Not special interests, but people. In the second quarter of 2008: 258,000 people, with as many as 110,000 on the Internet, bring $32 million into Obama's coffers. Starting in February, $1 million a day was donated to the campaign [ Obama by Marc kravetz. Dalloz ]

2- From product to experience.
Two books, two compelling stories. The Obama brand had a tone of gravitas and intellect, as opposed to the McCain camp's appropriation of Joe the Plumber.

3- From honesty to trust.
Obama had made a tough call: "Don’t go to war." Obama stood up for sincerity at a time when most stand for nothing outside of focus group-approved strategies.

4- From quality to preference.
McCain was a respected hero from the past, but Obama was seen as the future.

5- From notoriety to aspiration.
"Yes we can." Obama shifted the message from fear to hope, a message ultimately about being loved.

6- From identity to personality.
"We are the United States of America." Obama took pains to define a greater public call, not just the agenda of the Democratic party.

7- From function to feel.
The "Yes We Can" acceptance speech was viewed on YouTube by 15,283,062 people; McCain's concession speech had 300,000 viewers. [As of January 2009 ]

8- From ubiquity to presence.
Total transparency. Sarah Palin was ubiquitous but disingenuous, while Barack Obama connected with authenticity. The choice of street artist Shepard Fairey to design Obama’s official campaign portrait also connected with youth. Watch our video about Fairey here.

9- From communication to dialogue.
The campaign talked to us on a personal level (a community of influencers estimated as close to 2 million people), with the Web as the rallying point and a channel for participation.

10- From service to relationship.
With the idea that we are all in it together, Obama created Organizing for America, a new group that will continue the campaign's grassroots momentum and give ordinary citizens a role in the changes ahead.

One thing is for sure: this campaign will change forever how brands communicate. It starkly revealed the limits of old (one-way) media and the power of the Internet as a way to reach out to communities. Successful brands of the future will be inspired by the novel, grassroots ways the Obama campaign created awareness, belief, compassion and purchase intent (sorry, voting intent) in millions of people in a very short time. Obama has proved that this is now the age of Emotional Branding, finally coming to life through bandwidth and technology in the most powerful way.

How do you see the Obama campaign through the 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding?

Yes, they will be the most visible items on the Mall, one for every 300 people, according to the New York Times Take Patience and Good Shoes are already set up, and for some reason have left branding aficionados cold. No markings, no visible ownership. Except maybe the Pepsi van that’s inconspicuously present. Hmm! Those toilets are mostly blue…any underlying subconscious approach there?

The idea of brands associating themselves with celebrities is not new, and connecting with living or dead legends has been a marketing tool used by many, including Apple most famously. In America, President’s Day promotions leverage patriotism to try to sell cars, but is there a difference there? Should the Obama Story be out of bounds? Looking at the Pepsi and Ikea advertising, their direct approach felt odd to me and I thought, “Why couldn’t they create their own ‘Obama-ness’ for themselves?”

I dismissed it, thinking, “What do I know? I might be the only one in that camp.” That was, until I got this message on my blog from a Pepsi consumer:

“I was in Target a few weeks ago and noticed the change in the logo and my daughter and I both agreed it looked a little too much like the campaign logo. I told her I would never buy Pepsi again even in a restaurant. I think it is cheap and really arrogant of a long time brand to ‘change’ like that. They should have stayed out of politics. I have been buying Pepsi products since the 60s. Never again. Nothing will change my mind. I do not want a constant reminder in my house.”

What do you guys think?

If you are not the Vuitton or the Wallmart of the world you will suffer and see your customers walk away from your brand in mass. My first book emotional branding was published in 2001 in the midst of an another yet more limited crash the end of the technology bubble.

My logic at the time was that there is nothing to fear for those who invent and I claimed that ideas are the fuel for success and that ideas are actually the new currency when real currency has lost it’s value and meaning.

With this website I am going out with confidence and hope for the future at a time where new leadership can stimulate again those creators that change the  reality. Of our lives. We will see again value coming from invention in new products not arcane schemes bent to bring about new financial disasters, when working for a brand will again become a source of pride instead of just oiling a machine for greed.

Emotionalbranding.com is the start yet modest of a thinktank where the best brains will meet and express themselves, where the best ideas will shine and the spirit of innovation will reign.

We will be there to stimulate you with material that will push your limits and comfort such as the decision by the mayor of Sao Paulo to ban all form of outdoor media or the power of the graffiti world as a movement that will define art in the future.

Our medium will be videos , they will bring a vivid take at the world of branding as it is experienced by people and lived by marketers. It will also bring forward those who are giving brands a bad name and spot the absurd downward spiral by some brands to lie effectively when in fact they hurt all of us.

We will bet on ideas as the new currency. Please join me in making this world a better brand.

New generations need art and the creative process to propel the artistic rebellion that feeds their appetite for affirmation, or simply tests the elasticity of their minds. Shepard Fairey, the world-renowned graffiti artist turned communications entrepreneur for some of the best global brands, told me in an interview, “Young people are looking always towards a rebellious spirit they can make their own.” If you paint on a wall you can go to jail, he says, which gives you “cred” and legitimacy. “My reputation is based on the fact that I do take risks - young people appreciate that.”

Graffiti might be the voice of a generation that wants to welcome change. That has not escaped Barack Obama’s campaign strategists (brand managers, if you will), who commissioned Fairey to do a portrait of the candidate. Tapping into the rebellious style graffiti evokes to connect emotionally with a younger generation might only be symbolic at this point, but it shows the importance of mastering the visual vocabularies that can win the respect of a generation. “Art is not peace, it is war,” says a sign in Fairey’s gallery, and other graffiti artists will tell you that their mission is to forcefully reclaim the city’s visual landscape from what they consider the ugliest form of visual pollution, commercial advertising.

An idea not lost on the art world is that the most exciting artists and the most promising artistic cultures are no longer to be found at the Whitney Biennial, but in the unexplored street corners of Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Amsterdam or Athens, where artists are reclaiming the cityscape as their canvas. Brands, for their part, should take note of this evolution.

Looking back at all those brands that have failed to reach younger consumers, I am wondering if by working with artists like Shepard Fairey, Blek le Rat, Banksy or Os Gemeos, they would have found visual narratives that strike the right chord. In so many cases, it is not the art itself that inspires but rather the spirit behind the art. The true challenge for brand managers is to creatively harness their rebellious impulses to be in sync with their audience.

Nobody will deny Yves Saint Laurent’s impact on women in the 60’s, but we may not recall that without him, women might not be wearing pants in such large numbers today. In the 60’s women were not even allowed to wear pants in some restaurants in New York City, of all places. Legend has it that when famous socialite Nan Kempner was refused entry to a restaurant for wearing pants, she retorted, “Fine, I will take them off,” and did so on the spot.

Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent’s lover and business partner, remarked in the Women’s Wear Daily tribute issue (June 3, 2008) that, “He transcended the merely aesthetic in fashion and penetrated social territory.” This is actually a very timely idea, as marketers today try harder to re-connect emotionally with their consumers.

Putting women into pants was not Yves Saint Laurent’s idea alone - Coco Chanel had an extraordinary role in changing a woman’s silhouette, and women during the Second World War wore pants to work in the factories deserted by men at war. What Saint Laurent did was to legitimize and promote the trend once and for all through his gender-bending fashion shows at a time when women wanted to change the world around them.

This fashion “detail” escapes most but I noted it wryly in watching the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nominee. Not only did we have two formidable women like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama making history in the world spotlight, but they were comfortably doing so in pants!

The fascinating branding lesson here is that Yves Saint Laurent’s influence led millions of women around the world to make pants a part of their wardrobe, creating a market for that product that did not exist before. His inspiration and vision gave women the outward symbols of what they were feeling, to express their newfound freedom. By emboldening women with a new look, Yves Saint Laurent gave them another tool to change perceptions, and in doing so, connected them to his brand emotionally. In his own words, Saint Laurent wanted to “make women aware that they are women and give them supremacy,” and in this statement one can see how much of his success was based on his intuitive ability to tap into the emotions of the women for whom he designed.

In an indirect way, he might have created billions in revenue for the fashion industry with one single and powerful consumer insight. By tapping into an important transformative social drama, he challenged the status quo and invented a lasting product with a lasting market. Fortunes were made not only because somebody wanted to make money for money’s sake, but because a new product idea had crystallized a movement.

By challenging convention, Saint Laurent fostered change and progress. In a world where everything needs a financial justification, where monetary drivers are the primary motivating factor, he showed another side of business that was just as profitable but certainly more imaginative and insightful. In the above-mentioned WWD issue, Donna Karan summed it up well, saying, “he marked an era in fashion that was untapped before...he was not afraid to experiment, to show his creative passion…he took risks.”

For Yves Saint Laurent, making the planet a better brand meant inventing a new offering that helped women define themselves, bringing legitimacy to an article of clothing we now take for granted. We see this kind of thinking in other industries as well. Toyota’s hybrid car defied all logic to become a symbol of environmental responsibility and created a new class of consumers who are buying cars strictly for emotional and moral reasons. The Prius has forever changed how we see cars and has improved the brand cachet for Toyota’s other models. Small wonder that Toyota’s market capitalization is now equal to that of Ford, Chrysler and GM combined.

There are more examples: Apple’s foray into delivering songs online has revolutionized that market, and Unilever’s new vision of the beauty business with their Dove brand has expanded their customer base by helping women feel good about what they buy – and themselves. Deborah Adler, the young designer who invented a new container for prescription medication (now carried by Target), solved an information problem through a packaging solution that could save the lives of thousands by helping them avoid taking the wrong medication.

There are many more products and brands that have not yet been invented and therefore will not show up on the charts of traditional marketing research. We can’t predict when they will emerge or what impact they will have but, not unlike the contribution of a lone fashion designer, they are begging to be invented. Or discovered.

Making an impact on the world sometimes starts with such a simple idea as a pair of pants, a car that uses less fossil fuel or new drug packaging that saves lives. Brands make the greatest mark when they have conviction, audacity and a long-term vision of their impact on the world. Inspired concepts are the results of a deep knowledge of our society and an understanding of the trends that influence our purchasing behavior. The mission for brands should be to make their products reflect the reality of people’s inner challenges, and understand the universal desire to experience life to the fullest.

Besides, making the planet a better brand might also help you knock the pants off your competitors.

In the middle was the International Olympic Committee, which loudly proclaimed its commitment to peace while being seen by many as a passive supporter of China's ills. Before the games kicked off, I visited the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland and observed the kind of peace that the IOC passionately supports. On the lawn of their Olympic Museum, you can admire a sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reutersward called "Non-violence," depicting a gun with its barrel twisted into a knot. A plaque in three languages in front of the sculpture states, "In honor of the Olympic movement's unceasing efforts to create peace and non-violence through sport." Inside the museum itself, a special exhibit on the Beijing games is also quite an affair, repeating variations on its stated mission to promote peace and stimulate people's imagination through sports.

Still, in the middle of this brouhaha, the quaint Swiss town that headquarters the IOC and the Olympic Museum seemed not to be in sync with the rest of the world and was quite absent from the public debate over China. On the contrary, people in Lausanne seemed more interested by news of a local nature: a potential rise in capital gains taxes, the recent arrival of a Nescafe store, or the launch of a new Red Bull "cola" drink. Residents might prefer to browse a collection of European Cup products designed around the Swiss flag, or stop into The Outsiders, a boutique specializing in graffiti supplies.

However, a photography exhibit I saw at Elysee Lausanne (Le musee de l'elysee, un musee pour la photography) led me to wonder if the Swiss might have been addressing global politics in a subtler way. The exhibit, "Controversies," seemed to have momentum, garnering as much if not more interest and passion as the Beijing Olympics exhibit just next door. It forcefully addressed the challenges photographers face in preserving their freedom of speech when their work provokes controversy. To drive the point home, the Elysee Lausanne promoted the show all over the conservative town with the iconic photograph of a priest and a nun kissing, originally shot for a Benetton advertisement by Oliviero Toscani. What was described at that time by United Colors of Benetton as "the affirmation of pure human sentiment" seemed to draw a pretty good crowd.

At the Olympic Museum, it was bright and optimistic: all red and yellow, the national colors of China and the Beijing Olympics identity. You could pass under a yellow and red Chinese portico to enter the Olympic park and have lunch at the museum restaurant at tables decorated with yellow and red menus, place mats and napkins. By contrast, the photographic exhibit at Elysee Lausanne was set up in a loft-like atmosphere with little lighting and a lot of drama. The ambience was silent, dark, quiet and profoundly reflective.

I wondered if the timing and proximity of the Elysee Lausanne to the Olympic Museum revealed a quiet way the Swiss can make strong points without disturbing the social calm. Their message clearly goes one step further than the Chinese debate, or a passive yet powerful questioning of the IOC's role: Is freedom challenged everywhere?

Which leads me to ask: Are the Olympics losing control of their freedom to express what they stand for in a meaningful way? I think specifically of a documentary by Tom Jennings, a director who has spent three years covering the journey of the first Chinese Olympic baseball team, a bold entry from a nation that has no baseball league. To train this team, China sent athletes to Phoenix, Arizona to work with two American managers in preparation for the 2008 Games. It's a true, emotional story about harmony and fostering international friendship through the magic of sports, but, apart from a PBS program that aired during the games, the film received no attention from Olympic sponsors.

I'm sure there are many other stories like this that will never make it to the public - stories of hope, harmony, excellence and fairness. But good stories are so often suppressed if they don't align with national propaganda or fit into the superficial, adrenaline-driven ads produced by the corporate logo-divas.

So, dominated by global superpowers and equally powerful global brands, there is a wrong-headed war over the Olympic ideal: brand dominance versus hegemony. The public sees only the conflicting and violent news continually plastered on TV screens, with the dark side winning! Greed over idealism, cynicism over sincerity, power over humanism. Might the Olympics have unwittingly become the perfect vehicle to promote envy, anger and revenge?

Caught between demanding sponsors and national interests, the IOC seems like a football in a soccer game: important and essential, but anonymous and getting kicked around a lot. Of all the messages that will keep lingering after these - and future - Olympic Games, which one do you want your kids to remember? The ideals of the Olympics or the very few overpaid athletes, the violence of politics and the manufacturing of unattainable dreams by media machines? Should the IOC stay passive in the middle of those fights, or should it try to rise above the fray?

With the purported "threat" of China, a nation of 1.3 billion people eager to make the jump into the 21st century, we saw a lot of posturing, propaganda and patriotic nonsense, and we are sure to see more even now that the games are over. In the future, The IOC should rise about all this and draw their own conclusions, perhaps that non-violence is something that you can actually die for, and that the solution to violence is to continue to propagate a message of peace in the most powerful way. To have this impact the IOC needs to promote their message better than Nike or Adidas, better than the soft drinks, better than any of their sponsors because at the end of the day, they need to be the true hero.

I don't know if a priest kissing a nun in a fashion advertisement sent a bigger message than making the Beijing Olympics a poster child for all the ills of the world. But if, from quiet Lausanne, the IOC's message could remain the most powerful of all, it might create a cascade of positive behavior. It could be the sole message that stays with us forever, inspiring us, drowning out the cynical chatter - the message that will keep us going as the human race and in our own personal challenges.

It could make the planet a better brand.

Just adjacent to it in the museum was a highly advertised exhibit called “Color Chart.” After seeing “Design and the Elastic Mind,” where I could freely photograph any pieces I wanted for my reference or to share later with friends, I was told by a guard at the color exhibit that, for copyright reasons (some of the work came from private collections), I wouldn’t be able to do the same there.

What a contrast, I thought: On one side, elasticity and an open platform, the democratization of ideas for everyone to share, and in the next room, rigidity. The limitations of bourgeois art loaned by collectors who went to all the effort to share their prized possessions with us common folk on one condition: no photos. God forbid…someone might just sell the images and they would not see a cent! How frightening would that be?

I noticed that “Design and the Elastic Mind” was packed, full of energy, amazingly dynamic, an atmosphere fueled by the presence and passion of visitors who could not help but express their pleasure. Imagination was in the air. “Color Chart,” on the other hand, was eerily empty when I was there, rigidly strange with a frightening vibe very much at odds with your expectations of an exhibit about the power, energy and vibrancy of color.

What a contrast, indeed, but also what a message. In art and design there will always be the world that inspires and stimulates us, versus the one that is bankable and destined for the vaults of auction houses or the graveyard of commoditized ideas. Fortunately, “Design and the Elastic Mind” is reminding us that art and creativity have long been about risk, imagination and pushing the limits of audacity, lest it become a mummified version of itself in a museum.