We’ve hit peak purpose-driven brands. Now what?
Today is the day. We’ve reached peak (or rock bottom?) lifestyle brand advertising and thank goodness for that. When burritos are marketed as a badge you wear to broadcast your values to the world, where do we go from there?
And don’t get us wrong, we’re pro making conscious choices. Very pro. This is honestly a little uncomfortable because like Chipotle — and every other brand out there, apparently — we have always been a purpose-driven brand.
Our purpose: basically keep the internet from imploding. More specifically, Mozilla’s mission is to keep the internet a global public resource, open and accessible to all, and we do that through programs and policy and products like Firefox.
And we believe people do use Firefox as an expression of their values, whether that’s protecting their privacy, taking control of their experiences online or supporting not-for-profit challengers in a tech-giant world, but we don’t want to sell you Firefox as that kind of ~lifestyle~ brand. In fact, we prioritize our users’ privacy so much we barely know anything about their lifestyles and we want to keep it that way.
So how do we cut through the emotion-based, values-driven marketing noise when we’ve been at the intersection of purpose and performance all along? We think (and hope) it’s by being upfront about what we do and why without overstating the influence our products will have on your daily life. We just want to make things that make it easier and safer for you to get what you need to done and get offline.
Is free guacamole a lifestyle? Probably not, though it is a good thing in this world. Is a free and open web? Not necessarily, but it can impact our way of life.
Either way, don’t use Firefox as a way to reinforce your identity. Use it because it works and might make the internet a better place for everyone (including you).
