A nice idea.

"Don't be yourself, be someone a little nicer." 

-Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1996

When I first became interested in advertising/branding/ideating I was told to watch out for all the snarky, mean people I would encounter.

Growing up with two older brothers I felt like this would be easy. People who were picked up by their head, who aren't traumatized, can typically handle even the most obnoxious people after all. 

Here's what I've come to realize though. It's not that people are mean, it's that they are wildly opinionated and brutally honest. You must have tough skin and an opinion to keep up. THAT I am okay with. THAT I can handle. THAT I actually enjoy. I love a challenge.

The problem is, that some people in this industry use the fact that the industry is brutally honest as a free pass to be an asshole. THAT I am not okay with. This certainly doesn't apply to everyone or even most everyone. It's just something I've been thinking about for a while now. 

Why? Well, leadership studies was my undergraduate major and as a result I am hyper sensitive to managerial and leadership styles. One of the lessons  I learned early on- People like to be challenged BUT only by nice people. 

Now, I realize nice doesn't have the best brand image. It's got an unfortunate reputation for being weak. 

So here's an idea- as an industry more in tune with branding than any other, let's re-brand nice. Let's continue to be the critical, hard-working, tough loving, brutally honest people we know ourselves to be... but let's charge ourselves to find a way to inject nice in their too.