Always "One of a Kind"?

In the above music video, singer Sara Bareilles demonstrates a great image of what peer pressure and conformity may look like in our society. Upon initially viewing her music video, my first thought was, “Well, don’t they look cool in their matching leather jackets, white shirts, and jeans.” She was the initiator of wearing the outfit (around :13) and eventually, all the strangers who she makes contact with are also wearing the same thing (2:01).

Peer pressure works in that way; it spreads so that people can conform and eventually look similar or the same as their peers. It is a way for people to feel like they belong and conform to what their peers think is acceptable. The feeling of belonging is appealing, and having a way to belong by conformity is often something people turn to. Looking like others, like the dancing people in the leather jackets, is cool. (And I guess a leather jacket itself is considered “cool” in our society as well…which helps my point of looking like your peers “cool”.)

How do brands use peer pressure in their advertisements? Let’s take a look:

Dr. Pepper, like the Sara Bareilles’ music video, is using great visual appeal.The shirts start with one guy who drinks the Dr. Pepper, and soon a large mass of people are wearing the red shirt that the initial guy wore. Each of the shirts had something different written on them about each individual person, which I found to be ironic because the shirts all looked the same anyway. The unique words on the shirts for each person could also be a tactic for Dr. Pepper, saying you could still “be yourself” and be a part of the group; being yourself is often against trying to fit in because no one likes to stand out. In Brandwashed, Lindstrom notes how standing out can be uncomfortable for people All of them (except one: the “rebel” in the commercial) had the same red shirt with white letters on. Is it a coincidence that they are all happening to wear the same shirt? Of course not; this happening is caused by drinking Dr. Pepper. Basically, the commercial wants to advertise that Dr. Pepper is accepted by others, and you are not alone in drinking Dr. Pepper, so it’s okay to enjoy it and still be yourself - you belong to the massive amount of people who wear red shirts and drink Dr. Pepper, too.

Although this kind of peer pressure in advertising is different than the peer pressure described in Chapter 5 of Brandwashed, it still shows how companies can use peer pressure and our fear of not belonging. Dr. Pepper may not be the “I-need-to-have-it” kind of beverage, but it is the kind where “It’s-okay-to-drink-because-other-people-drink-it-too”. Our need to belong shows how human we are. Our God is self-sufficient! He doesn’t need us like we need other people and Him. The fact alone that He created us and our entire universe proves He was here first and that He existed before anything else. Our need to turn to Him further shows our shortcomings and how human we are – we can’t do this alone! We need to rely on Him for acceptance and must be careful not to look to others for feeling secure about ourselves. We already belong to God as His children, as it says in Galatians 3:26, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” – what more can we ask for? He accepts us if we accept Him as our all-powerful, all-knowing, self-sufficient God.