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“I have Zinzi and Ryan, and there’s no two guts I trust more,”
Proximity Media
co-founder Sev Ohanian says. “I bring the data, they bring the guts.”
The trio of Ohanian, Ryan Coogler, and Zinzi Coogler founded Proximity in 2018. The production company is home to the box office shattering and Academy Award winning vampire film “Sinners”—which broke the record for the most Oscar nominations in history earlier this month.
In this episode of The Truth About Leadership, the founders discuss navigating impostor syndrome, balancing their personal and professional relationships, and what they learned from their first jobs.
Watch the full episode and others here.
Your stereotypes about Gen Z aren’t just inaccurate. They’re hurting your business
Are you sick of hearing about Gen Z yet? For more than a decade, they’ve been the premier target audience for brands and entertainment. They’ve dominated trend reporting, research, and the cultural zeitgeist. But, despite all of those studies, what have we actually learned? Is there really any connective tissue that unites everyone born between 1997 and 2010?
The truth is, there is no Gen Z—not how we’ve come to define it. We’ve painted the generation as more socially conscious and purpose-driven, more addicted to technology, and credited (or blamed) them for new slang. We’ve complained that they don’t take life seriously and use humor as coping mechanisms, and that they don’t want to work or go to college. But these are the same stereotypes that have been articulated about young people for generations.
The reality is more nuanced. And unfortunately, when it comes to how brands categorize and engage different generations, nuance is not generally welcome. That disconnect has led to some pretty tone-deaf brand moments.
Take 2017’s infamous “Live for Now” Pepsi campaign—an early example of the pitfalls of broadly gesturing toward supposed Gen Z tropes and expecting it to land. On paper, Kendall Jenner heading into the streets to participate in a vague protest of some kind might seem like a great way to fulfill all of the Gen Z stereotypes. Instead, it missed the mark completely, turning Pepsi into a punchline.
Driven by radical shifts in politics, culture, economics and more, members of Gen Z are less likely to share as many commonalities as you might think. In a way, there is no Gen Z. Or, at least, brands will need to act that way if they want to stop misrepresenting one of the industry’s most coveted demographics.
Read the full story on Fast Company.
