Twenty years ago today, a peaceful revolution swept over Czechoslovakia, the country of my birth, launching the overthrow of the communist government and continuing the wave of events triggered by the fall of the Berlin Wall. I turned 13 that winter; the event remains the formative macro-historic event of my life. Aside from the emotions the anniversary elicits, the event’s symbolism continues to fascinate me. What took place wasn’t just a peaceful overthrow of an evil regime; it was the Velvet Revolution.
Why are symbols so pervasive in the marketing of ideas? Does sustainability have a symbol problem?
The symbol revolutions
In the past decade, a number of regime-change events, successful or not, have taken place in the former Eastern Bloc and elsewhere that took their inspiration from the Velvet Revolution’s symbolism:
- Serbia, 2000: Bulldozer Revolution – nicknamed after the piece of machinery that charged the state TV station
- Georgia, 2003: Rose Revolution – the flower wielded by the opposition in their parliamentary protest
- Ukraine, 2004: Orange Revolution – the color of an opposition party’s campaign
- Kyrgyzstan, 2005: Tulip or Pink Revolution – the reference in the country’s authoritarian leader’s speech
- Lebanon, 2005: Cedar Revolution – the country’s national tree
- Burma, 2007: Saffron Revolution – the color of rebelling Buddhist monks’ robes
- Iran, 2009: Green Revolution – the color of Islam and an opposition candidate’s campaign; also known as the Twitter Revolution
Many of these events have been grouped under the moniker color revolutions. As simplistic as they may sound, the adjectives serve as convenient and memorable labels to quickly describe the complex events on the ground.
Symbol this!
My Oxford American Dictionary says a symbol is “a thing conventionally regarded as typifying, representing, or recalling something, esp. an idea or quality”. Wikipedia says a symbol is “something, such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.”
The psychology behind symbols is fairly extensive. Suffice it to say that symbols are shortcuts that help our brains, which are not designed for complex thinking, perceive, understand, and remember reality. Symbols make concepts or ideas concrete, and concreteness makes ideas sticky.
Sustainability’s symbol problem
The color almost exclusively associated with sustainability is green, a nod to the roots in the environmental movement. As with any symbol, the advantage of using a single color is simplicity. Indeed, green has become entrenched in the popular mind. Which its main drawback; green says that sustainability only equals the environment. A more apt color to connote diversity that is at the core of sustainability would be multicolor or rainbow, which of course is already taken. Finally, color blue has been percolating through the sustainability discourse to signify the next-generation of sustainability.
Other symbols commonly used to connote sustainability include:
- Earth - the most reductionist of all symbols, narrowing sustainability down to environmental concerns
- Three chasing arrows forming an endless loop – typically symbolizes recycling or recycled materials, though the loop element has particular relevance to closed loops, a central concept in sustainability
- Three intersecting circles – depicts the outcomes of addressing the different combinations of the triple bottom line (this one is my favorite because it depicts the relationships among the three components)
- Three nested circles – depicts the relative positions of the economy, society, and environment
Contrast the multiple symbols of sustainability with the single symbols of the color revolutions. The rules of marketing include consistency and simple messaging – multiple symbols lend themselves poorly to persuasive communication. What does sustainability stand for? More importantly here, what stands for sustainability? If we can’t agree on a single symbolic representation of sustainability, how can we expect mainstream adoption and establish it as the post-growth paradigm?
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Video credit: Yahoo! Music Beta / EMI
Image credits: Wikipedia (The coin image depicts the reverse of Slovakia’s euro coin commemorating the events of November 17th, 1989. It says “Slovakia – 17 November – Freedom – Democracy – 1989-2009″. As for the image, during the revolution, protesters jingled keys in the air to symbolize the unlocking and opening of doors. The sound of the thousands of jingling keys became the sound of the Velvet Revolution. It still gives me goosebumps. Also, Slovakia is a predominantly Catholic country.)
