I cannot take credit for Safe is Unsafe; that belongs to the Founder & Creative Director of Hub San Francisco, DJ O’Neil. But having seen the foundational ethos of Safe is Unsafe in action, once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

Having known DJ since our days roaming the rolling lawns of University of Colorado as undergrads—and later working at Hub—it would be impossible, and frankly irresponsible, not to mention how transformative it was to witness Hub’s work in action.

We are pack animals. From the moment your best friend in 4th grade says, “Everyone thinks your t-shirt is stupid,” we all work feverishly to fit in.

You see this across every single brand in every single industry. “Ahhhhhh, we look just like everyone else. We have arrived.”

But from a branding standpoint, working to fit in is the most unsafe brand strategy out there…unless you have a fan in Selena Gomez and a P&G marketing budget to pile drive your message to the masses.

Want to see how dangerous fitting in can be? Just walk down the Cabernet aisle the next time you are at the grocery store. It’s like every $200K CMO called their fiercest competitors and said, ‘Love your maroon cap and vineyard sketch on faux parchment—mind if we all do the exact same thing?’"

Then Barefoot Wine rolls in with its sunny, clear, joyful voice, and yoga moms around the country are slurping it in their backyards fueling a buzz worth hundreds of millions over their competitors.

Safe is Unsafe.

“Safe is Unsafe” doesn’t mean being reckless, offensive, or edgy for shock’s sake. It means refusing to settle for bland. It’s a challenge to create the best product you can—and then communicate about your beloved brand in the boldest, truest voice you’ve got.

It’s a call to be the other: more poignant, more witty, more clever, more thoughtful, more moving, more fun, more real.

In other words, to speak about what you’ve committed your life to doing in a way that captures the authentic emotion of the human experience.