Creating marketing, advertising and media industries in service to the Good Life

In Part 1, you had a chance to reflect on what a Good Life in 2030 might look like for you. We don’t always get given the conditions to imagine differently, like you and the citizens in part 1 have just done. And when we don’t have the time and space to arrive at our own understanding of a Good Life, the marketing, advertising and media industries will do the job for us.  

Practitioners within these industries are architects of desire, creating stories and communications that shift our perceptions of what’s compelling, aspirational, or relevant in culture. In other words, they shape our shared understanding of a Good Life. 

In other words, they shape our shared understanding of a Good Life.  

Diving back in

Two young fish swimming along meet an older fish swimming the other way.

The older fish nods says “Morning, folks. How’s the water?”

The two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”

— Parable

Our shared understanding of a Good Life is like the water we swim in. It’s part of the culture, and unless we have the time and space to reimagine it, we don’t even realise we’re in it. 

But today, these industries are often still telling a story of a Good Life which looks quite different from the one citizens, and you, may have imagined for yourselves in the future. It’s a story we’ve been told, and telling, for a long time. For ease, we’ll call it the Old Good Life.  

You can see the story of the Old Good Life walking around your local town or city. For example, in our home city in London, the media & advertisements show a Good Life closely aligned with wealth, status, influence, bursting wardrobes, or endless jetsetting. That’s the water we’re swimming in, whether or not we like it (or even realise it). 

But it’s in our power to tell a different story of a Good Life aligned with our visions for 2030. Our industries are uniquely placed to make a new story of a Good Life as natural as the air we breathe, or the water we swim in. 
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Activity introduction

20 minutes

For this activity you will be doing some sketching annotating. Get hold of some drawing materials or use the workbook.

As someone working in the marketing, advertising and media industries, you have a superpower. By creating work that influences culture, you can help change the water we’re swimming in. 

We're now going to use a metaphor of two lakes that represent the shift we need to make. 

  • Lake Present holds the water of today, the water of the Old Good Life. 

  • Lake 2030 holds the water of the future, the water of the New Good Life. 

Picture yourself and your work as a floating pod in the lake, influencing what’s in the water - which in turn, influences the behaviour of the inhabitants of the lake.

Lake Present

Start by drawing a lake, “Lake Present”.

This lake represents the water of today, the water of the Old Good Life. Now add the floating pod that represents you and your work. 

Add what you need to your lake to make this true to your experience of your work today.

For example:

  • How’s the water quality? 

  • Who lives in the lake, and how do they coexist? 

  • How does your pod influence the ecosystem? 

Lake 2030

Now draw another lake, “Lake 2030”.

This lake represents the water of the future, the water of the New Good Life. Now add the floating pod that represents you and your work. How does your pod influence the ecosystem this time? 
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Again, annotate your lake to make it true to the Good Life you imagine for yourself.

Mapping the transition

Finally, we’re going to think about what it would take for your work to shift from Lake Present, to Lake 2030. 

Using the images you’ve built of both lakes, we’re inviting you now to think about your work life in the present, and in 2030.

On the left side of your paper, write FROM - and on the right, write TO.

Now consider: what are the shifts you would need to make to move from one to the other?

You did it!

Congratulations. This is advanced systems thinking in action. Hopefully you’re getting a lot clearer on the role you and your work can play in helping us transition to a new Good Life.

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What did I do?
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You’ve been exploring how to transition between complex systems - that’s no mean feat! Find out more about the futures tools underpinning this exercise in our resources.

20 minutes

Taking a first step 

Look at your FROM / TO list, and think about one small action you could take to move towards that vision.

It might be as simple as…

  • Sharing it with a friend or colleague
  • Pinning your drawings somewhere visible in your workspace
  • Scheduling time to come back and reflect on the exercises
  • Scheduling an email to yourself with a reminder of your FROM / TOs 

Congratulations, you've taken your first step.

We hope you feel inspired by your vision of what an ideal future for an advertising industry in service to the Good Life might look like - and how we may get there.

In the next and final part of this journey, we want to collect all of our ideas and energy into a collaborative manifesto for the future of the advertising industry. 

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20 minutes

We suggest you put aside 20 minutes to contribute to the collaborative manifesto. This might be a good time to pause and come back afresh.

View manifesto