Adweek recently asked me what I thought the Biden win would mean for my agency, Fancy LLC. And I said, and believe that, “one of our immediate priorities at Fancy will be to create work that leans harder than ever into the power of positive. These last four years have been a swirl of negativity and disinformation, and we can’t wait to move past that.”

This prompted someone to reach out to me on LinkedIn and ask what I thought about toxic positivity. I had to stop for a minute and think about that. As a society, we’ve been so focused on, and so inundated by, the unrelenting and alarmingly toxic negativity of the recent past that I hadn’t really even considered the polar opposite. 

Toxic Positivity is the belief that no matter how devastating, how difficult, how deeply despairing a situation is, a good attitude has the power to change it all. We can turn that frown upside down. It’s an often delusional look on the bright side. 

Toxic positivity can be annoying and detrimental. 

Not long before I founded Fancy, my mom was battling lung cancer. Lung cancer is a horrible disease with a dismal prognosis (at the time, the overall 5-year survival rate was 15%, if you were diagnosed at stage 4, like most people, including my mom, survival dropped to just 2%). Hearing those words from a doctor is a real blow. There’s a lot to process. An ocean of emotions. And a person will do anything to survive. 

Friends, wanting to help, to support, but not knowing how, tried to cheer her up. Mind over matter, you can do it. Just have a positive attitude. Good vibes only. The suggestion was essentially that thinking anything negative would impede any kind of recovery. With only well-meaning intentions they were denying her the human need to actually feel emotions. It was lung cancer. A terrible, devastating disease that has overwhelming odds of killing you. There is a LOT of valid negative in that! 

That kind of positivity is not what we advocate for our brands at Fancy

We help brands find a positive purpose in their being

Yes, you make hair shinier. Yes, your pizzas arrive on time. Yes, and more important than ever these days, you kill 99.9% of germs. But so what? Successful brands, brands with meaning, brands that occupy a place not just in the minds, but in the hearts, of consumers do more. They go beyond the functional and offer something that helps their consumers think, grow, connect, laugh—essentially move themselves and the people around them into a truly better place. 

Positive can be difficult

It can be about facing your past, striving to be better. Owning your mistakes, your missteps, It’s not easy to admit a failure, often harder still to account for bad judgment, insensitivity. 

Positive is real

The word authentic gets bandied about an awful lot these days. Honestly, it’s kind of annoying. Still, being true to your core beliefs, not hiding who you really are, being honest about what makes you, you is important. You’ll attract the people who appreciate you. Who believe in you. And who will want more of you. 

Positive is brave 

At Fancy we talk with our clients a lot about Brave Actions. Things that are intrinsic to not just what they do, but how they do it. These things may never be seen by consumers, but they affect every cell of the brand. They should be tough. They should be challenging. They should make you wonder if you can actually live up to them. Because when you do, you stand for something. Not because someone is watching, because they aren’t and you do it anyway.

Positive is power

It is taking and shaping your brand’s DNA into the very best version of itself. Not because it makes you better (which it does) but because it makes us all better.