Uprising: How to Build a Brand--and Change the World--By Sparking Cultural Movements

CHAPTER 1

What Is a Movement?

AND WHY SHOULD IT MATTER TO YOUR COMPANY?

It began with a couple of celebrity deaths: first the soul singer Barry White, then the comic actor John Ritter. Both died of heart attacks, and in each case, the death led to the predictable media cycle of nostalgic film clips and fond farewells. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t.

In the weeks that followed, friends and relatives of White and Ritter began to make high-profile public appearances, talking about something called CVD. The letters stood for cardiovascular disease, but in much of the ensuing public discussion, which circulated through the broadcast media, on the Internet, and gradually on the street, only the acronym was used, stirring intrigue ...