A Lesson in Not Thinking Black & White

I remember the feeling of being selected to create the brand identity and launch a $100 million fundraising campaign for future Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus and his wildly successful Grameen Bank. Their pioneering work in the development of successful microcredit programs as a very possible way to end poverty for the poorest of the poor —and especially women—on our planet was amazing. As we considered the sensitivity of our campaign emphasizing the state of abject poverty, and presenting to one of most humble human beings on the planet, our instinct was to be extremely frugal — in fact using only black and white to create a look and feel that would move people to get involved. Only as a part of our "exploratory process" and approach of taking a number of different approaches did we decide to also short list a brand concept that utilized full-color printing. This identity would be more expensive to produce than most corporate America identities, but we liked the concept and figured we might as well present it.

Building up to meeting with Dr. Yunus and his extremely busy schedule, including International travel... we were told we had one hour to meet with him in his Washington DC hotel. We packaged up our presentation and, as we normally do present the weakest concept first.. and then build up to the one we recommend. We methodically went through each of the three concepts and then asked Dr. Yunus which he felt best represented the image for The People's Fund and his bank.

Without hesitating he pointed to, then picked up, the full-color one. He said, "This is perfect. This is exactly us! We are joy. We are celebration. We are color!" His being and his answer, once again showed the wisdom of this amazing little brown man and also the biases we carry as privileged people. He went on to tell us one of the biggest problems and why we have poverty is we look down on the poorest of the poor.. as downtrodden misfortunates that really need and deserve a handout. Victims of circumstances. Look at the poor, poor people. When in reality, they are some of the most resilient and capable and hard-working people you can find. They only lack access to the basic capital and resources to make their own way. They don't need handouts. They merely need someone to believe in them. It is no wonder his microcredit concept is transforming lives throughout the world. No wonder he won a Nobel Peace Prize. His unique perspectives and grounded thinking certainly caught this "brand expert" with his pants down. How presumptuous and "responsible" of me to think black and white when thinking of the poorest of the poor. The lesson taught me to always look at something deeper and from the other side and also that the biggest difference between the richest person and the poorest person is not money.