Coronavirus As A Raging Brand Mechanism

Every year we have another flu scare, what makes Covid-19 so special?

Alerts and news reports on Covid-19 the most infectious disease in the world have spread around the globe faster than the coronavirus itself.

The social virality of this potentially lethal disease has been exponential and due not only to our human rubbernecking instinct and the pandemic morbidity of the disease, but because the root code of the coronavirus narrative is essentially Primal, attractive and collective.

Please explain.

We know that Brands are formed around products or services, but the new understanding of “brand” is that brands are communities of people who gather around the same central idea.

This time the central concept is not Just do it, Think different, or #MeToo. It is Covid-19. Coronavirus.

Behind everything that we “believe in” exists a root code and narrative to create a “Primal” Brand. The strategic brand narrative includes a creation story, creed, icons, rituals, a specialized lexicon, nonbelievers and leader.

A close inspection of the Covid-19 storyline shows that it contains all seven of these elements, which not only helps this already newsworthy story make sense, but gives the virus added relevance…