Radical Authenticity: Your Mind Makes It Real

The power of storytelling in the world of authentic branding

There is a scene, early on in The Matrix, where Neo and Morpheus are fighting in a simulator, and when they’re done, Neo realizes his mouth is bleeding.

“I thought it wasn’t real,” says Neo.

“Your mind makes it real,” says Morpheus.

I was watching a video of Liquid Death founder Mike Cessario, and he was talking about their early attempts at making viral marketing videos. One of them involved taking a few vials of blood from skateboard legend Tony Hawk, then pouring that blood into a gallon of red paint. That paint then became the primary color of a limited edition series of skateboard decks that Liquid Death sold online. They sold out in minutes.

The question I have is this: Was there anything inherently special about these skateboard decks? They claimed to include Tony Hawk’s blood, and I have no reason to doubt the veracity of such a claim, but how would you know the difference? Even if it did contain Hawk’s blood, what difference would that make? None at all, of course. Except that now you had a story, and that’s what they bought. I’m not even getting into the marketing strategy behind it, which was one hell of a way to reach millions of people, by the way. I’m talking about the notion that just the idea of Tony Hawk’s blood being used in the paint job of a skateboard deck made it infinitely more valuable because people believed it was special.

It was an illusion. An elaborate grift. A beautiful bit of magic for the mind. Is it real? Is it a scam? Who cares? Our minds make it real. I’m not saying they didn’t actually pour Tony’s blood into the bucket of paint. I’m just saying you wouldn’t know the difference if they hadn’t. We buy into the narrative because we want to believe it’s real, because it’s a good story to tell.

This is the power of authentic storytelling. They didn’t claim it would make you a better skater or help you in any way. They didn’t even try to tie it into their canned water brand. They just said, “Hey. We took this famous guy’s blood and added it to the paint we used to color the skateboard decks. Maybe you want one.”

That’s radical authenticity.

If you’re interested in hearing more, check out Sal’s Auto Club.