Culture Quake: Forces Reshaping Communications and Marketing
For an industry that claims to “cut through the noise,” communications and marketing have mastered the art of ignoring signals.
The country is being rewired in real time — from digital cognition reshaping how people process information … to a revival of more traditional values that don’t fit neatly into some brand decks.
Yet much of communications remains nestled in the routine shelter of institutional jargon — “authenticity,” “purpose,” “storytelling” — terms that now function less as strategy and more as placeholders that substitute language for direction.
The next few years won’t be gentle. Comfort is about to become a liability. This isn’t another cycle of platform churn or demographic recalibration. It’s a cultural renovation at structural scale.
Brands still operating on pre-2024 instincts are heading straight into a wall … and any organization treating a hashtag as a north star should buy helmets for the team.
Artificial intelligence, fractured identity and shifting social norms are rewriting rules at a velocity most boardrooms still underestimate. Warren Buffett said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” This tide could be at tsunami.
So, what are the forces reshaping communication and culture …
1. AI will be the first audience — and least impressed
In the next few years, most messages won’t be seen by a human first. Instead, they’ll be scanned, summarized and ranked by AI — long before reaching any customer, journalist or investor.
Crisis statements, product launches, investor updates —will all pass through filters and credibility algorithms, repackaged for machines before people even click.
As AI generates more of the world’s content, a strange paradox emerges: language must sound human enough not to be mistaken for a machine. Anything stiff, corporate or dripping with clichés risks being sidelined by similar systems meant to amplify it.
Tip: Clarity wins, structure matters, facts carry weight. One audience gets outraged … the other deletes without blinking.
2. Faith, family, and “old fashion” values are in — just not on Manhattan’s 6 Subway.
Spotting where culture is headed requires stepping off the subway and out of key Uber zones.
Beyond coastal bubbles, the atmosphere shifted. Faith is rising. Family drives decisions — from ballots to budgets. And values once reserved for grandparents’ photo albums are back in style and shaping decisions and markets.
Yet some brand copy still reads like it’s written for a Brooklyn freelancer with oat milk and a fear of commitment. Meanwhile, conviction is converting.
Black Rifle Coffee brewed more than $300 million serving caffeine with a side of values. Jeremy’s Razors cracked eight figures with a single line.
God Is Dope turned faith into a $40 million streetwear empire. The Chosen built its own streaming platform with 500 million views. Homeschooling is now a booming category — complete with apps, merch and waiting lists.
Tip: Skip brand workshops. Rent a car, spend a week in Knoxville, Fort Worth and throughout the country. Culture moved — many decks didn’t.
3. Stop trying to please everyone. Brands are not wi-fi
What was once considered brand safety now registers as strategic indecision — or worse, fear of owning a position.
Bud Light wasn’t boycotted for taking a stance, it was punished for not knowing and understanding its customer and then pretending it didn’t matter. This brand build reputation on loyalty, misread the room, faltered in full view of its customers… and watch its top market position vanish.
Disney and Target tried to split the difference — woke and traditional at once — and ended up pleasing no one. Investors noticed. So did customers. It’s now a case study in brand oversteering: messages run through legal, softened for safety, and still fell beyond flat.
Then came Cracker Barrel — once known for biscuits and front-porch comfort — suddenly at the center of a culture war over a rainbow rocking chair and a modernized logo. Nostalgia met a new narrative, and many did not applaud.
Tip: Before releasing the next values statement, imagine Charlie Gasparino reading it on live TV. If the phrase “go woke, go broke” is inevitable, there are two choices: don’t post it — or post it because it’s worth losing a noticeable portion of the brands customers.
4. Narrative liquidity will outperform narrative control
Today, brand narratives aren’t delivered. They’re interpreted — often by people who weren’t invited.
Trying to enforce a single storyline across platforms isn’t just outdated; it’s counterproductive. The more tightly you grip the message, the faster it fragments. Audiences reshape it, strip it of context, remix it … and many times make it more damaging.
Tip: Influential brands craft ideas sturdy enough to survive the journey. If messages only work uncut, you haven’t built a strategy, you’ve staged a play, and no one’s lining up for tickets.
5. CEO’s voice is now part of your brand — and a potential liability
AI can mimic voices, faces and speech with unsettling accuracy, executive personas have become brand vulnerabilities, not just media assets.
In 2023, a multinational was fooled by a deepfake video call with a fake CFO and transferred $25M. This past spring, an impersonator used an audio AI crafted deepfake to mimic the voice of Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles that successfully reached U.S. senators and business leaders.
No hack. No breach. Just a public voice clip altered with cheap, accessible software — and the deepfake succeeded. That’s the new playbook.
Tip: If it can mimic a White House top advisor voice, it can just as easily attack a CEO, CFO or general counsel. Deepfakes move faster than facts and teems, they’re not just cybersecurity threats — they’re trust tests brands must pass before proof even arrives.
6. Customers don’t need more content … they want coherence.
For years, brands chased clicks, tone and reach. In many cases, it resulted in burnout, mistrust and an internet that feels like a broken intercom.
Tip: If your brand says one thing and does another, no one’s confused. They just stop listening.
In the end, only brands that matter are the ones that make sense when no one’s in the room to explain them.
***
Richard Torrenzano is chief executive of The Torrenzano Group which helps organization takes control of how they are perceived™. For nearly a decade, he was a member of the New York Stock Exchange management (policy) and Executive (operations) committees. His new book Command the Conversation: Next Level Communications Techniques, was launched in June. For additional articles.