Introducing the Based Brand Video
We made a spec ad inspired by Julius Evola's Meditations on the Peaks
“The best wish we can make for the new generations is that mountain climbing may not amount to a desecration of the mountain. Moreover, I sincerely hope that those deep sensations at the root of the ancients’ mythological deification of the mountain may be increasingly reawakened and come to exercise an enlightening influence on those who, today, led in a confused way by the instinct to overcome the limitations inherent in the everyday commercial and mechanical life of the plains, climb rocks, crests, and walls surrounded by the sky and the abyss, pressing on toward icy and bright peaks.”
- Julius Evola, Meditations on the Peaks, a collected series of works dating 1930-1942
The above video—created by anon writer/director Propane 2001 with creative direction from myself—presents what we call a “spec ad” (spec meaning speculative) inspired by Julius Evola’s Meditations on the Peaks. Disgusted by woke propaganda, one of my projects is to create better advertising than the waste excreted by the adult daycares that ad agencies have become…even if the brands themselves don’t want to (or can’t) participate; ads like the ones that used to inspire us with genuine insight and humor:
ALCOHOL AD BEFORE WOKE TAKEOVER:
ALCOHOL AD (JOHNNY WALKER) AFTER WOKE TAKEOVER:
JOHNNY WALKER AD BEFORE WAKE TAKEOVER:
In his magazine Man’s World, for which I’ve written before, Raw Egg Nationalist creates genius spec ads (or are they real ads?) for aligned brands and projects, and parody ads for the enemy. I’ve been compiling a compendium of my favorites here.
Vitalist philosopher Julius Evola has resurged in recent years among young men seeking meaning in today’s submerged society. His Meditations on the Peaks, a series of essays written between 1930-1942, articulates an extraordinarily prescient call-to-action for such young men. Climbing mountains, he says, allows men to become heroes, to transcend, to touch the divine realm, to disappear into eternity while still on earth. Evola warns, however, against commodification and over-indulgence in the mystique of the mountains—using it to gain glamor, for thrill-seeking, or for various sporting victories:
“We should save the mountains from the contaminating invasion of tourists who attempt to conquer them by building their “civilized” base camps…those faint-hearted youths who bring with them to popular mountain resorts their vain, mundane city habits (such as discos and tennis courts), and who snobbishly display the colorful new equipment they’ve bought to use only for some harmless walk in the woods….those who tarnish silent and uncontaminated places with materialism and triviality, namely with a competitive spirit and mania for that which is difficult and unusual, for the sake of setting new records.”
“This pursuit of radical sensations generates, particularly in the United States, all kinds of extravagant and desperate feats and bold acrobatic activities, such as jumping in midair from one plane to another, daredevil stunts, extreme sports, and so on. All things considered, these things do not differ very much from other excitements or drugs, the employment of which suggests the absence rather than the presence of a true sense of personality, and also the need to be stunned rather than to possess oneself.”
Here, Evola presages the existence of Instagram Adventure™ by nearly 100 years, and reveals why he’s such a powerful influence for young men today. In REI, Patagonia, North Face commercials, we find hope that true adventure and the possibility of heroism still exist. But we also know deep down that these are phony commodifications of the heroic instinct, that these brands present only the sort of colorful, high-cost, within-the-lines excitements that Evola warns against.
We chose Salomon for this Evola-inspired spec brand video for two reasons. First, it seemed like a battle we could win: when we started the process, Salomon was the one outdoors brand that had stayed out of the woke fray. Sadly, as we were producing it, Salomon took a strong woke turn—their Sports Style Instagram account deleted its prior, more interesting posts and started replacing them with woke crap.
The second reason is that Salomon Sports Style undertook what we saw as Evola-esque branding on its own (before it got woke). Evola’s fears have been realized. The mountains have been desecrated, roped off, mapped and photographed to the degree that transcendent heroism is near impossible—hence why today’s mountain heroes climb with no ropes. Interestingly, Salomon seemed to be heading in a more interior direction, marketing its outdoor gear to blue collar workers in the audiovisual and media/technology infrastructure industries, and to urban explorers, as if to say “mountains do still exist, they’re just created by humans.” We thought that this provided an interesting update of Evola’s thinking—that perhaps heroism can be achieved via urban exploration, skyscrapers and giant cranes the “rocks, crests, and walls surrounded by the sky and the abyss,” which today offer more dangerous and unknown peaks than mountains.
In any case, we hope you enjoy the ad. If you’re interested in making your own based spec ad—perhaps to add to a portfolio of work (called a “book”) to help find gigs in the creative industries—drop me a line on Twitter and I can help lead the way.
Space exists, Mars exists.
I'm not a Sci-Fi nerd.
That's just the safest - yes - and most hopeful direction.
We are a restless people said Churchill, meaning the English-Speaking Peoples.
We need a safe direction to expand.
There may be up to a billion, at least 800 million young men of military age in the Northern Hemisphere who are underemployed and unchallenged, unfulfilled.
And every inch of the Northern Hemisphere is defended directly or indirectly by nuclear weapons, most of that directly. Anything of value in the Southern Hemisphere as well, and there are more nuclear powers than commonly acknowledged [Brazil].
We need a safe expansion and challenge and full occupational satisfaction; the Infinite is the best direction. Surely the Infinite offers possibilities that even Evola would appreciate.
As far as Woke Engineering or Woke Space Travel - do not fret, this problem rapidly self corrects.