A Time For Citizens | Jon Alexander | TEDxCardiff

In this talk, Jon Alexander explains how his career in advertising sparked an idea for change - from talking about consumers, to citizens. Jon Alexander is co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, a strategy and innovation company on a mission to support the shift in the dominant story of the individual in society from Consumer to Citizen, whose client list includes The Guardian, the European Central Bank and the European Journalism Centre. Jon is a Fellow of the Young Foundation and the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of the OECD’s Future of Democracy Network.
Having begun his career with a decade in the advertising industry at agencies including BBDO and Fallon, he is a proud former winner of Brand Republic’s Big Idea of the Year Award, for creating the concept of MyFarm in 2011: handing over decision making on a real working farm to the public by online vote and debate as a way of engaging people with sustainable food production.
He holds three Masters degrees in disciplines spanning humanities and business; has won several essay awards including the inaugural Ashridge EABIS Sustainable Innovation Award, and the Young Foundation’s Beyond Meritocracy Prize; and was a major contributor to the recent bestseller New Power (shortlisted for Financial Times Book of the Year 2018, by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms). Along the way, Jon has also represented Great Britain in two different sports. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx