Scrolling through my Facebook feed this morning I stumbled across a fantastic advertisement that I absolutely love! Surprisingly, it’s an advertisement about beer by none other than industry giant Heineken. It caught my attention not because I’m a beer drinker, but because it challenged me.
Guilty of being passionately opinionated on a whole series topics, at times I do forget to consider things from other perspectives (especially if it’s the polar opposite). So you may be wondering, how does a Heineken advertisement fit in with all of this? Well, consider a social experiment in which you are confronted with someone who has the opposite beliefs, views and opinions to you – things are bound to get interesting right?
The advert reinforces the notion that each individual’s belief’s, views and opinions are the very things that limit them from evolving into a better person and heightening their human experience. The truth is, people that challenge us the most are the ones that give us the opportunity to grow the most. Yet, we tend the play it safe and stay in our comfort zones by surrounding ourselves with people that reinforce our beliefs.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”
Viktor E Frankl
Heineken challenges us to take down the veil of ignorance and look through a difference lens, not by changing anything outside of us but by looking within and recognising that our beliefs, views and opinions are very things that hold us back. When we understand that everything we think we know is neither right nor wrong, good nor bad but simply our experience, we open ourselves to the possibility of evolution by learning from someone else’s experience – a different experience. Let’s embrace their hashtag #openyourworld and start enlightened conversations. We may start to see things from the most unlikely of perspectives – Imagine that!