Soft Power 2.0

André 3000, Soft Power's Joseph Nye and an all American Pope signal shifts in how change really spreads, and who gets to shape it next.

This idea’s been circling me for weeks. Maybe you’ve felt it too? The sense that big-P Power is shifting and taking a new shape in real time. I first felt it reading a Financial Times piece asking “Is this the end of soft power?” in early March and it hasn’t left since.

Then last week came the passing of Joseph Nye, the man who actually coined the term “Soft Power”, and the historic election of an All American Pope. All while André 3000 stole the show at the Met Gala - not with a hyped up Barbie-esque marketing marathon, but with a piano on his back.

"the best propaganda is not propaganda…credibility is the scarcest resource".

— Joseph Nye

It sounds like the opening line of a terrible dad joke, but what do a what do a scholar, a pope and a musician with a piano on his back tell us about Power changing? Or better yet, what does a 90s geopolitical concept have to do developing your brand and content strategy in 2025?

One image says more about the current state of influence than any media met…