Editors note: We’re experimenting with the Substack video function this week, we are tapping into this more soon for a new series, and looking at their Lives as well for the new year. Let us know if you use or enjoy either!
Do you feel like... everything is getting incredibly weird?
Good, because we feel it too.
This week feels like a turning point.
Revolve launched a multi-post AI campaign of their logo projected onto places. You could watch them deleting comments on some of the more obvious, but per usual its just a wall of fan emojis.
Valentino launched a multi-part slop art series with a surrealist AI artist on main. The comments came for them and they… don’t care. Commenting about AI online is low status, that consumer means nothing to them.
Loewe broke the fourth wall with “is it AI or is it real?” on TikTok (1.4m views)and everyone smiled, its CUTE when Loewe does it.
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All the fit pic creators are in, the end of a reality-based feed and the anti-ai comment echo chamber is nigh. Slay on the helicopter babe.
The guardrails are gone.
Meanwhile, Pantone is rage baiting us and hiding the comments as best they can (6000+ so pray for their social team), and CNBC must have hired the Galloway Guys from Cracker Barrel to do this hot mess.
There has never been more proof that the emperors have no clothes.
The positive is we’re learning what we wish we learned in school. The internet has given us an era of teachers who are simply incredible. Learn fashion from Ken Sakata, taste from Rickie, the meaning of love from Sarah, how to make your home smell better from Drew . Never been able to ask your dentist a question without it being awkward? Ask a dentist on TikTok. Testing is down in schools, knowledge is infinite in our feed. They call it brainrot, but for many its 100 chances a day at the lightbulb moment that sets them free.
We are in the land of a thousand gift guides, everyone’s personalized pics, and you may wonder “how are these all still putting up views?” and it’s because no ones going to the old places.
The Strategist links, the GQ article, the Wirecutter recommendation... we know they’re just peddling links, written by people who by the nature of their job are likely divorced from taste. The soul of the publications we grew up with has gone missing and will never return.
The journalist class used to be a standard of discovery, now your average TikToker over 100k sees and tries more items, with more formed opinions on how they’d fit in your house, on your table or in your wardrobe. The people want individualization, they want an aesthetic grid of items the algorithm presents to them because it knows them.
And you know what, ChatGPT is starting to know me pretty well too. When I asked it for some options for more activities when I head to Zurich, it suggested content ideas to go with it, and they were on brand.
Meanwhile in agency-land, Omnicom’s consolidation cuts 4000 creative jobs. Design media would like to tell you it’s awkward to have a personal brand, but you know what’s nice? Being able to post to your followers you can accept freelance projects for the next 90 days and have a large number of people that are interested. You can even do it in a creative way. I look forward to this random guy’s phone answering that tells us he’s back open for a few more bookings.
Meanwhile, in restaurant-land, the worst person you know just scheduled a lunch at Ronnies, because why not dine at Kith. For big brands, do a collaboration, when operating is commoditized? Why try to market your own business as an operator if youre not good at, when you could run partner with A24?
Brands are eating the world, and not just the big ones, instead it’s the ones that get it.
The status symbol of the next few years isn’t going to be offline like many predict, it’s going to be recognizable enough for anyone to notice when you can be replicated 1000 times. AI TJR (I am not linking this for your own good) works because TJR has visual ubiquity for most males under 30. AI James Harden from my friends at And Studio, works because we can immediately recognize a beard and a red jersey (thankfully the clippers and rockets colors match amiright?
In a world of media multiplied by clipping, infinite accounts, the loss of TV, a reduction in personality-driven monoculture... being memorable is a signature.
On my end I’m struggling with how do you even plan, how do you help someone strategize. What’s the proper way to relay that the .75s zoom in’s on your product reel shots could give you a 2% retail uptick next year? That we’re fighting for miliseconds, that everyones getting better at everything, that the agency that your paying isn’t just fucking lost, they couldn’t change if they wanted to because we cant build systems to properly manage employees to work in these conditions when things that are changing so radically every 90 days unless we just give up all sense of traditional hours and boundaries?
Meanwhile all the men in darkly lit rooms on Instagram tell us that THIS MODEL IS THE ONE THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING without having to answer to the raw truth of a meta ad account ROAS.
While all the newsletters seem to become AI, what to buy and repeats of someone else’s TikToks…, I’m just gonna keep up my mediocre writing about what exactly is at hand. We’ll see how it goes.
The Art Direction of K-Pop
Unrelated, the YouTube algorithm and my subscribers aren’t showing this video the usual love, but I really liked it and thought it was a super valuable look at how to get outside of your normal references set. In case you might enjoy a deep dive into the creative direction happening in Korea… here you go
