Cilantro is one of the most polarizing foods on earth – you either love it or hate it. According to this study choosing a side isn’t an option since your genetic makeup has already decided for you. So which are you? A cilantro lover or hater? Your genes won’t allow you to claim indifference. To me, cilantro is the equivalent of eating industrial-strength cleaning detergent. Even so, that hasn’t stopped every restaurant around me from keeping it on their menu. Are they trying to alienate me? I sure hope so. I was never the customer they needed to reach. No matter how much fancy advertising they threw at me, I’d never come in and eat their cilantro. Ever. Advertisers will often broaden their message in an attempt to alienate no one. Only problem is the message ends up being forgotten by everyone. If the message were a person, we’d call it a people-pleaser. But we don’t like people pleasers, feel safe with them, learn from them, marry them, or teach our kids to be like them. Heck, it’d be a miracle if we even remembered them. Ad campaigns are no different than people. They talk. They express. They need attention and interaction. They believe in something, but not all things. The disconnect occurs when an advertiser fails to understand that ad campaigns are meant to speak human. Humans are multidimensional beings forever seeking out safety, growth, and freedom. They’ll never make you a part of their journey if they don’t believe you, learn from you, trust you, or relate to you. If only all advertising campaigns were like cilantro. Love them or hate them, at least they would make us feel something. The absence of feeling? Indifference. The death of any relationship, and far worse than alienation. Lori McIIwain