Is marketing tuberculosis?
By lbrowning@hubspot.com (Laura M. Browning)
You might know him as the author of YA bestsellers like The Fault in Our Stars, but John Green’s most recent book is a nonfiction defense of its own title: In Everything is Tuberculosis, he argues that tuberculosis has shaped everything around us.
For instance: When a hatmaker in the 1850s started coughing up blood, his doctor told him to head West, where the dry air would heal him. The hats in the West, Green writes, “sucked” — they were either “bug-infested, brimless coonskin caps” or “wide-brimmed straw hats that … leaked in the rain.”
So the consumptive hatmaker — one John B. Stetson — designed the cowboy hat.
Upon finishing the book, I fired off an interview request to try to get an answer to my burning question: Could John Green make a connection between marketing and tuberculosis?
John Green
Author, YouTuber, TB fighter
On brand deals
When Green got invited to discuss a possible partnership with Dr Pepper, he was over the moon, so to speak. (He showed up 10 minutes early. To Zoom. Dude really likes Dr Pepper.)
He had a modest proposal: that Dr Pepper sponsor humanity’s relationship with the moon. (Pause for impact.)
Green would make videos about humanity’s relationship with the moon, sponsored by Dr Pepper.
“I‘ve always thought this was a funny idea — that you can’t sponsor a heavenly body, but you can sponsor humanity’s relationship with a heavenly body.”
He didn’t get a follow-up meeting.
Green doesn’t fault Dr Pepper (the missing period isn’t a typo —“it‘s a big part of Dr Pepper’s brand identity, whether they know it or not”). It’s an absurd idea.
But that’s kind of the whole point: “I’m not particularly interested in doing a brand deal for the sake of doing a brand deal. I’m interested in brand deals that can enhance the absurdity and joy in the world.”
On scaling passion projects
Passion is powerful fuel. Whether the endeavor is personal or professional, passion can give you wings and make you soar — and it can bring you a little too close to the sun.
So I asked Green, who’s successfully scaled more passion projects than I’ve so much as dreamt of, what his early-warning system is. How do you know when growth is going to kill what made your project so special?
“I think the most important thing is the very first person you hire who isn’t you,” he says. “Making sure that their values fit, that they share your passion, that they want the same thing out of the project …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
