Marketoonist: "Humanize the Brand" cartoon

Weekly hand-drawn business cartoon from Marketoonist Tom Fishburne

Author

Tom Fishburne
April 21, 2025

Welcome back to Marketoonist, the cartoon I’ve been hand-drawing to poke fun at marketing and business nearly every week since 2002. Was this email forwarded to you? Please subscribe here.

Humanize the Brand

There’s an aphorism I heard somewhere that “brands want to be human and humans want to be brands.”

I’ve always found it funny when brand teams try to engineer sounding “human”. It can be like manufacturing “authenticity.” It’s often easy to see through it. But it’s particularly funny to me in the age of AI, as our own human roles alongside technology are in flux.

The rise of AI notetakers feels like a sign of the times. While useful tools, AI notetakers change the dynamics of the meetings they’re in. And it’s particularly awkward when the AI notetakers show up before (or even instead of) the actual attendees that send them.

As Chris Stokel-Walker put it in a recent Bloomberg essay on the rise of AI notetakers:

“If workers trade in-person engagement for AI readbacks, and colleagues curb their words and ideas for fear of being exposed by bots, what’s left? If the humans step back, all that remains is a series of data points and more AI slop polluting our lives.”

This at a time when there’s an opportunity for humans to step forward to stand out. And connecting with humans requires more than just sounding like humans.

I recently read Mark Schaefer’s insightful new book, “Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World” as well as his accompanying newsletter. Last week, he wrote about a trend called “Proof of Human” and the merits of what he calls “strategic imperfection.”

I was struck by this insight:

“In a world where AI can generate seemingly perfect content with ease, human imperfection becomes a powerful differentiator. The subtle flaws in human-created content may soon be the most reliable indicator that a real person was behind it. "Proof of Human" is a significant trend for all of us going forward.

“As marketing professionals, our job isn't to achieve perfection – it's to create connection. And sometimes, the quickest path to that connection is through the strategic embrace of our wonderfully human imperfections.

“The brands that understand this paradox – that flaws can be features rather than bugs – will cut through the noise and build the authentic connections that drive lasting engagement.

“Because in the end, we don't connect with perfection. We connect with humanity. And humanity, by its very nature, is gloriously imperfect.”

Keynote Speaking

Let me know if you’d like to talk about any events or conferences you’re planning that could use some levity. Here’s some detail on my most popular keynote topics.

And here are a couple upcoming events:

Cartoon From The Archives

And here’s a cartoon I drew in 2018.

Thank you for all of your support (and cartoon material)!

-Tom

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About Marketoonist

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of me, Tom Fishburne. I first started drawing cartoons as a student in the Harvard Business School newspaper (not quite as well-known for humor as the Lampoon) and later started this newsletter from a General Mills cubicle in 2002. The cartoons have followed my career ever since. I poke fun at the ever-changing world of marketing and business because I believe that laughing at ourselves can help us do our best work.