#17 – About hype machines, AI partners, sources of pleasure, and the UK media landscape
Hello 👋
and welcome to issue 17 of Six Links of Inspiration, with a call to resist the hype machine, an explainer why ditching Twitter (sorry X) is harder than it seems, a debate about the impact of AI partners on human relationships, a new source of pleasure for women, Day 1 advice for new Heads of Strategy, and lots of data and information on the latest trends in the UK’s media landscape.
Enjoy the clicks. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to never miss out on a quick dose of inspiration before the weekend.
Happy reading:
We must resist the hype machine. A lot has been written in the past few weeks and months about Barbie and Oppenheimer and the marketing machinery that fuelled the hype behind those two titles. This piece discusses the culture of hype and overreaction that increasingly dominates our online lives and how it shapes popular entertainment. It argues that the need to justify every piece of popular entertainment as high art leaves little room for critical debate and that this culture of overreaction will only lead to worse popular entertainment (read: overly-commercial long-form product placement franchises.) The final conclusion that “popular” isn’t necessarily genuinely “good” (in terms of quality) is hardly a surprise – considering it’s ultimately a matter of taste.
Why you’re struggling to ditch Twitter for Threads. Meta's new social media platform, Threads, has gained 100 million registered users in just five days after its launch – (that’s really fucking fast) – but initial excitement is starting to fade. While the app's interface is similar to X’s, it faces challenges in replicating X’s cultural dynamics and user habits. Not only are people probably experiencing a bit of an app fatigue from the many social media platforms available, engagement on the app—such as likes, reposts, and replies—still seem paltry compared to Twitter. (I mean, X.)
Day 1 Advice for New Heads of Strategy. Here’s a link to a 37-page strong PDF collated by Julian Cole sharing some advice from 40 big industry brains for new Heads of Strategy. From accepting your own mistakes, modelling behaviours by setting high standards, to taking time to really get to know the people, it’s a very easy, inspiring read with lots of great little nuggets of wisdom. It’s also a beautiful reminder of what great people work in our little industry.
Uncharted territory: do AI girlfriend apps promote unhealthy expectations for human relationships? This week we had a long discussion in our team about how AI can make creative work better. What we didn’t discuss, at least not at length, is how AI will shape human expectations on relationships. Companies in the field are keen to stress that “92% of users have no difficulty communicating with real persons after using the application.” The AI applications are creating new use cases and experiences – and are occasionally the starting point for human-to-human connection (e.g. in Subreddits.) It’s an interesting topic that reminds me of a comment I’ve heard years ago on a stage at Next Conference in Hamburg, when a speaker mentioned how his daughter would only send voice messages rather than calling him. His hunch was that there was an aversion to immediate (potentially negative) feedback. Being able to chatting and engaging with robots instead of humans might lift these anxieties onto a whole new level.
Audio Stories are Redefining Pleasure for Women. Talking of redefining relationships, this article discusses the way how audio apps are creating safe spaces for women to explore their sexuality – even though our still quite prude little world requires fun little marketing tricks to not be censored: putting pleasure in a wellness wrapper has allowed those apps to be on the AppStore and Spotify, as well as advertise on Facebook and Instagram.
Ofcom Media Nations 2023. Not much to see here other than a PDF offering an overview of the UK's media landscape, including the latest trends in television, radio, and online consumption. It also includes data on the performance of the major players in the industry and looks at the impact of regulation on the sector.
I hope you’re enjoying this week’s little selection. If so, please consider sharing this issue with some of your friends, will you?
Thanks for being here, happy weekend, and see you next Friday.