Be Different
—Careful What You Ask For
Every brand I speak to wants to be different. They don’t want to blend in. They want to be bold, to break the mold, to rebel against the sameness that defines their category. They want to be punk in a world full of pop.
They reference icons like Vivienne Westwood, Kanye West (Ye), Rihanna, Tyler, the Creator. They want to stand out like them, disrupt like them, change the game like them. But here’s the thing: being different isn’t just a strategy. It’s a test of resilience.
Because when you’re different, you get noticed. And when you get noticed, you don’t just get applause—you get scrutiny. You get love, but you also get hate. You inspire, but you also irritate. And in a world where opinions travel at the speed of light, that love and that hate are amplified to a deafening roar.
For brands, being different is often a calculated choice. A campaign. A PR stunt. A new positioning statement. For people—truly different people—it’s not a marketing decision. It’s who they are. And the price of that authenticity is that you will, at some point, be picked apart for it.
The Cost of Being Different
We’ve seen this play out time and time again with brands that attempt to break away from the norm.
Bud Light tried to reposition itself for a younger, more inclusive audience by partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The backlash was swift—boycotts, political debates, and a sharp decline in sales. One campaign, one moment of difference, and suddenly, a decades-old brand became a battleground.
Target faced a similar storm when it rolled out its 2023 Pride collection. Its attempt to be inclusive was met with hostility from certain groups, leading to store disruptions, threats against employees, and eventually, a corporate retreat that angered the very audience it was trying to support.
Balenciaga, in its attempt to push artistic boundaries, released an ad campaign that featured children holding teddy bears in bondage gear. The backlash wasn’t just negative—it was existential. Lawsuits, celebrity disavowals, and a near-total collapse of goodwill followed. The brand that had thrived on being avant-garde had finally found a line it couldn’t cross.
Even Tesla, a company built on disruption, has seen its brand perception shift dramatically due to public controversy. Tesla was once a darling of the progressive, tech-forward crowd. Now? Some former die-hard fans hesitate to support it, not because the cars have changed, but because the brand’s cultural associations have.
These brands all tried to be different—and they were different. But they also learned that being different comes with a price.
AI and the Avatar World: A New Layer of ‘Different’
And now, there’s a new layer to this conversation: AI.
AI has given brands—and individuals—the ability to be radically different, effortlessly. It can create infinite variations of an idea, generate entire campaigns in seconds, build personas, and craft visual identities that never existed before. It lets brands act different, sound different, even look different. But here’s the compromise:
AI lets you be different without risk.
It lets brands test out boldness without truly committing to it. It allows for "safe disruption"—controlled chaos, sanitized rebellion. But here’s the reality: safe disruption is an illusion. The real world still reacts. And when that AI-generated uniqueness meets actual audiences, the unpredictability remains. You still face backlash. You still get polarized reactions.
Take deepfake influencers—AI-created avatars with massive followings. They can say controversial things, push boundaries, challenge norms, but when the backlash comes, brands simply unplug them. No real consequences, no real stakes. It’s difference without resilience.
The question is: can you truly be different if you don’t have to live with the consequences?
The brands and people who truly shape culture don’t get to hide behind AI. They own their difference. They stand by it. They take the punches, and they keep going.
Lessons from the Cultural Disruptors
Some people are built for difference. It’s not a brand positioning—it’s a way of life.
Vivienne Westwood didn’t just design clothes; she reinvented rebellion, making punk fashion a form of social commentary. She was loved for her defiance and hated for being too extreme.
Kanye West (Ye) is one of the most creative minds of his generation. He’s also been publicly shunned, dropped by brands, and called out for his unpredictable behavior. Genius or chaos? Depends on who you ask.
Rihanna disrupted both music and business, redefining inclusivity in beauty and lingerie. But she also took risks that traditional brands wouldn’t dare to take, knowing full well that not everyone would approve.
Tyler, the Creator built an entire brand around not fitting in. His music, fashion, and entire creative ethos reject the mainstream, and yet, the mainstream can’t stop paying attention. Being different is his business model.
Each of them built resilience because they had to. There was no safe retreat, no AI-generated alternative, no avatar world where they could test out being different and then opt out. They made the choice to be different—and they lived with the consequences.
Brands Can Pivot. People Can’t (as easily).
The difference between a brand and a person is that brands can backtrack. They can rebrand, apologize, shift their messaging, move displays, fire agencies, and claim it was all a misunderstanding.
But when a person is different, there’s no PR team to clean up the mess.
I’ve been there. I’ve been trolled. I’ve been dismissed, questioned, underestimated for being different. And maybe you have too. Maybe you’ve felt the sting of standing apart. If so, let me share a piece of advice a wise friend once gave me:
“Go where you’re celebrated.”
Not tolerated. Not merely noticed. Celebrated.
Because here’s the truth: If no one is talking about you, you’re forgettable. And in a world where attention is currency, being debated is better than being ignored.
Pretty easy to say. Sometimes hard to do.
That’s why that advice has always been so important to me. Being different requires a foundation. It takes resilience, but resilience isn’t built in isolation. You need your people. Your tribe. The ones who understand you, who champion you, who give you the strength to stay the course when the world tries to shake you.
Find them. Build them. Nurture them.
Because there will be days when being different doesn’t feel like a superpower. There will be moments when you wonder if it’s worth it, when the backlash feels heavier than the applause. That’s when your people matter most.
It’s easier to be brave when you have a community that believes in you.
The brands and people who succeed in being different don’t do it alone. Westwood had her punks. Kanye has his superfans. Rihanna has the Navy. Tyler, the Creator built his own world of misfits who made him unstoppable.
The same is true for you. Find your people, and let them be your anchor.
Because being different isn’t a solo act. It’s a movement.
The Resilience to Stay Different
Brands want to be different, but they don’t always want what comes with it. They want the love, not the hate. The virality, not the backlash. But you can’t have one without the other. The same is true for people.
And now, AI is giving us all the ability to manufacture difference. To simulate uniqueness. But real difference—the kind that changes industries, reshapes culture, and builds legacies—comes with real risk.
So if you’re different—if you stand out, if you don’t fit in, if you refuse to play by the rules—know this: it won’t always be easy. But it will always be worth it.
The only thing worse than being criticized for standing out is being invisible because you played it safe.
Celebrate different.
Apple told us to Think Different.
In 2025, the challenge is even bigger.
Be different.
March 17, 2025
© 2025 The Continuum
