Why the Bezos Wedding Was So Culturally Off, and How This Relates to the “Rewilding” of American Brands

The Rebellion of Authenticity in Brands is Here

Over the past couple of months, a passionate and urgent theme has been popping up repeatedly in my conversations with teams, investors, and founders around brand building. It’s a theme that I can’t stop thinking about — because it is absolutely critical to building a strong, competitive company, or building any kind of effort that has lasting value.

That theme is authenticity.

This is topical vs. pop culture news right now because the recent Bezos wedding seemed to mark the metaphorical end of an era we’re perhaps beginning to emerge from — an era that, I believe, has been characterized by an exaggerated focus on financial success and outcomes.

Let me riff on this strange wedding for a second, and then I’ll circle back to how this relates to branding and marketing.

The Bezos Wedding

Did the Bezos wedding strike anyone else as strange?

To me, it just felt so culturally off. Like it should have happened in 1985. It was like the crescendo of a wave that’s already crashed — instantly anachronistic. Like an event that will be historically seen as the nail in the coffin of an era we’re moving out of, all unfolding in real time, while the event was happening.

The Bezos wedding represented an era that was defined by a shared archetypal fear of financial insecurity and failure.

Carl Jung — a “genius angel” of psychology who studied core truths about the human psyche — believed that the exaggerated behaviors we see outwardly in people often point to something that is off inside of them psychologically. Signs of inner imbalances or gaps we haven’t addressed. And he didn’t think this was just an individual thing. He saw these patterns as collective — psychological patterns that are shared or archetypal across humanity or populations. In this sense, shared fears or insecurities are a characteristic that help define the spirit of any particular era.

For the past few decades at least — certainly in America — our shared, defining, archetypal fear has arguably been financial. As a culture, perhaps, we’ve been driven by a deep psychological fear of financial insecurity and failure that, in turn, has fueled an exaggerated emphasis on pursuing financial success — or at least the appearance of it. It shows up in our obsession with the perfect house, the dream kitchen, the right cars, the best private schools for our kids. And underneath it all lurks the reality: the mortgage debt, the credit card debt, and everything else we take on to maintain the lifestyle and project the outward image of success — which in turn drives more financial fear, perpetuating a feedback loop of primal financial fear and the projection in our lives of the opposite of that fear (power and wealth).

Cut to the Bezos wedding. Here we have this global, highly publicized “power and wealth” event that, instead of heralding a new era or representing the era we’re currently in, heralds its own passing. And because it feels so off, it makes us realize: we are different now. That all of that $40M hullabaloo in Venice was something we don’t admire. If that’s true, perhaps wealth and power are no longer the right projected opposites of our primary fear — because that primary fear has changed.

The Bezos wedding was out of step with the cultural zeitgeist, and it’s out of step with what’s in everyone’s hearts right now.

The New Primal Fear + Cultural Zeitgeist

Brands often capture and reflect the cultural zeitgeist. The young, cool, up-and-coming brands are like canaries in the coal mine — they give us an early look at where mainstream culture is headed. So what are the current up-and-coming brand trends telling us about this cultural shift, and the new primal fear whose opposite will drive consumption trends?

From my seat talking to founders and investors week in and week out, I believe that brands are heading where hearts are heading: authenticity.

I think our fears around financial security and failure are in the process of being replaced by a more fundamental fear about our value, contribution, and role as human beings. AI is invading our lives so aggressively and rapidly. It’s just in its first inning and it’s already challenging our values and the ways that we contribute to society as human beings. Our deep, collective fears are beginning to shift. We're now faced with new existential questions, like: What is our value as human beings? What can we do that a machine can’t?

If this is true, that our primary fear is switching — what will we collectively do to counteract this new fear? And how will this change us as consumers in terms of what is aspirational to us, and what we’re drawn to in brands and experiences?

I think there’s one clear answer, which is, that it’s already pushing us towards valuing creativity — towards unique and original thinking that comes from emotional depth, an emotional point of view, an inner life, and craftsmanship. I’m already seeing this in some new brands, and I’m seeing old brands rethink their brand values and brand codes. There’s a growing sentiment to value output that can't just come from intellect alone (because AI will beat us at that), but that has to come from something deeper — output that requires human hands and a human heart.

This is something I recently spoke to Marina Khidekel at Inc. magazine about — the importance of brand storytelling and emotional connection-building in the age of AI.

The “Rewilding” of Brands and Human Effort

There’s a concept in conservation called “rewilding”— restoring land and wildlife to its natural, untouched state. That’s exactly the movement I’m sensing in brand creation right now: a rewilding of brands and a rewilding of human effort. And I’m really excited about it — because it’s being driven by courage, aspiration, and real human contribution. There’s an instinctual defensive push to prove that there’s a reason our emotions exist and can provide advantage. And it’s not being driven by financial fear.

Which brings me back to authenticity. The most exciting brands emerging today are fueled by a return to authenticity. They’re building products that capture creativity and richness, storytelling and texture. And established brands are being pulled into this movement, too. There’s renewed energy around rethinking their purpose, taking a closer look at their brand “why,” and rediscovering what makes them matter. There’s a drive to claim a meaningful, specific, and authentic place in people’s lives.

With the infiltration of AI, consumer sentiment and consumer aspirations are shifting. So whatever you’re doing — whether you’re the founder of a new brand, working on your personal brand, or working on an already established brand — think about framing your approach to your market within the context of those shifts.

• “Rewild” your thinking and tap back into authenticity, boldness, creativity, richness, and individualism.

• Think about product choices and presentational choices — from textures to romantic or naturalistic/transcendentalist styling, to outdoor or wild settings in your shoots.

• Avoid making your storytelling obvious or expected. Make it interesting and true —which will make it feel unique, personal, and authentic.

• Stand for values and experiences that help balance out the terrifyingly fast pace of technology and progress, and help us all “keep our feet in the grass” and connected to the primitive and nature-oriented parts of our psyches.

To bring it back full circle to the Bezos wedding — because it's worth looking at it through the lens of brand building — the over-the-top display of wealth and power felt like something from a bygone era because the decades-old financial fear that drove aspirations is being replaced by a much more existential fear: the value of human emotion and creation. The egregious wealth and power display was out of sync with what this new cultural moment is asking for: creativity, authenticity, heart, individual expression, quality, depth, inner life, and emotional resonance.

A rebellion of authenticity and the rewilding of brands and human effort. To me it feels like the coming of a creative renaissance. It’s so exciting.

As always, good luck!

Emily