From papal selfies to the viral generative AI pictures that includes a trendy puffer jacket, Pope Francis grew to become a distinguished in style tradition determine throughout his papacy.
His 2013 election was important for a lot of causes, together with the truth that he grew to become the primary Jesuit and first pope from Latin America. His acension to the papacy represented an try by the Catholic Church to rebrand itself by Francis’s “progressive” public picture.
The Catholic Church as an institutional model has been on the centre of quite a few scandals and controversies after committing grave injustices for generations.
Pope Francis, alternatively, grew to become what branding knowledgeable Douglas Holt calls an “iconic brand.” These are entities that function highly effective symbols that mirror cultural myths and beliefs.
Similar to politicians or celebrities, popes additionally want branding to develop their public identities.
Branding and the papacy
Pontiffs have all the time been topic to branding, making them distinctive topics for public fascination and in style tradition. Choices about what sneakers to put on and what papal identify to take are in actual fact acts of branding.
Pope Francis selected his papal identify to align himself with Saint Francis of Assisi. He additionally selected to put on a easy white cassock for his first public look on the balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica. These choices have been branding methods.
Francis’s use of social media introduced the papacy into a brand new digital age. It supplied him with a platform to construct his model in a fashion much like politicians.
His embrace of expertise made him seem “cool,” resulting in a decade of viral social media posts and memes. The primary papal selfie, taken in 2013 with teenage pilgrims visiting the Vatican, went viral on Twitter.
Pope Francis poses for a selfie with a household on the finish of his weekly basic viewers within the Paul VI Corridor, on the Vatican, in late January 2025.
(AP Photograph/Alessandra Tarantino)
Iconic manufacturers can’t act alone to keep up their cultural standing. As Holt explains, they depend upon “co-authors” to create myths that join manufacturers with the general public. Co-authors are media texts or cultural teams circulating tales that give that means to iconic manufacturers.
Simply days after his election, The Washington Submit labelled Francis “the People’s Pope.” This title related Francis to figures likes Princess Diana, the same iconic determine identified for difficult protocol and her progressive charity work who was dubbed “the People’s Princess.”
A ‘progressive’ picture
After legacy media bolstered his iconic model as “the People’s Pope,” Pope Francis strengthened this messaging by strategic, selective actions.
Francis grew to become pope throughout Barack Obama’s presidency in the USA. The 2 males shared some similarities, together with representing completely different “firsts.”
Francis was conscious of his iconic model as “the People’s Pope.” Like Princess Diana, this branding allowed him to attraction to a worldwide viewers, no matter non secular affiliation.
His first official journey was to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, holding mass for asylum-seekers and migrants.
His response of “who am I to judge?” to a media query in regards to the Catholic Church’s place on 2SLGTBQ+ points gained constructive media protection.
In 2015, Francis printed his first papal encyclical centered on the connection between local weather change and world poverty.
Pope Francis speaks to migrants whereas visiting the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy in July 2013 on his first journey as pontiff.
(AP Photograph/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis developed an iconic model that related with the general public throughout a decade outlined by progressive beliefs as legacy and social media labored collectively as co-authors in constructing his id.
Iconic manufacturers can rework the establishments they characterize. Pope Francis’s picture demonstrates how papal branding is not any completely different than different types of branding. It is dependent upon completely different dynamics coming collectively on the proper second to kind myths for public connection.
Memes associated to the film Conclave are already going viral on social media. The brand new pontiff will enter a special cultural panorama than Pope Francis, however the methods for creating an iconic model stay the identical.
