We Need A Villain

We need a villain.
Finally, someone has said it.

Not because we enjoy conflict, but because without contrast, meaning dissolves. We don’t decide who we are in isolation. We decide by drawing a line and saying, “We are this, not that.” When a brand names a clear enemy, ambiguity disappears. Choice becomes simpler. Meaning sharpens. Belonging becomes possible.

At its best, the enemy is not a person. It’s a problem people are already tired of carrying. Complexity. Noise. Waste. Empty promises. Stand against something specific and you sound like you know what you’re doing. The right people feel relief. “Finally,” they think. “Someone gets it.”

But this mechanism has a dark edge.

History shows us what happens when the enemy becomes human. In Rwanda, extremist propaganda framed Hutu as rightful insiders and Tutsi as dangerous outsiders (cockroahes). Complexity collapsed into a moral binary. Fear hardened into identity. Violence was reframed as self-defence.

Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric uses a structurally similar mechanism. Citizens are positioned as legitimate insiders, undocumented migrants as threatening outsiders. Complexity is reduced. Boundaries are moralised. Enforcement is framed as protection rather than policy. The mechanism is the same. The consequences are not.

This is why enemy-based positioning matters for marketing and salesmanship.

These psychological levers are powerful:

• Us versus them framing

• Fear as motivation

• Identity over evidence

• Repetition over truth

In business, these levers can create loyalty.
In politics, they can consolidate power.
Unchecked, they can create catastrophe (genocide).

So there has to be a rule.

Make the enemy an idea, not a person.

Brand-safe contrast targets behaviours, beliefs, systems, and ways of working. Never people.

Unsafe: “We’re better than traditional agencies.”
Safe: “We don’t believe in bloated retainers and endless decks.”

The enemy is waste, not agencies.

Done well, this kind of positioning doesn’t feel aggressive. It feels calm. Grounded. Almost generous. As Seth Godin would say:

We’re for people who care about doing work that matters, not work that merely looks busy. People who value clarity over noise, progress over posturing, and trust over tactics. This isn’t for everyone. It’s for people like us.

By the way, this is one of the ideas we’ll be pulling apart properly at my How To Persuade Anybody To Do Almost Anything in-person workshop on 18 February at The Tryst, Kramerville. Find out more.