#41 – On the end of good cheese and good culture, the incomplete rules of brand building, and terrible tech
Happy Friday everyone.
It was a big week for advertisers. Squeaky-bum time in a lot of marketing departments after they had spent millions on an ad that would air for 30 seconds during the Super Bowl – and then be dissected by the LinkedIn motley crew of critics.
But because we all read about this already, this week’s issue is about a few other things: the subtle difference a “t” makes (for a German speaker), the harrowing impact of social media and phones on our lives, the uninspiring state of trend forecasting, the incomplete rules of brand building, and why a cheese crisis should make us worried about AI.
Enjoy the read.
Six Links of Inspiration:
My McLuhan lecture on enshittification. Here’s why I don’t like the term “enshittification”. It’s not that I don’t think it’s true. It’s that, as a German, I always read it as “entshittification” – which would literally mean the exact opposite of what Cory Doctorow meant by it: the fact that the platforms and services we once loved turned on us an in turn turned into a pile of shit. So every time I read that word, I need to do a double take to make sure it means the thing it’s supposed to mean. And not that a thing is getting less shit. Anyway. That’s my problem. If you haven’t heard of the term, in his is a speech at the Canadian embassy in Berlin, Doctorow explains it graphically and entertainingly.
METAstasis. I have two kids that are too young to own a smartphone. (Even though my almost three-year-old has already developed a good sense of how to use one.) I have a niece who has just gotten her first smartphone. So every time I see an article like this one by Prof. Galloway, pointing out the effects of smartphones and social media on teens mental health and national suicide rates, my heart sinks. “The two leading reported causes of death among young Americans are guns and cars. You can make the argument that social is more dangerous to our children than guns or cars. Since 2007 the suicide rate among young Americans has gone up by 60-70%, meaning an additional 2,000 lives lost annually in the social media era. That approximates, and overlaps with, the 2,571 young people killed by guns in 2021. And suicides are just the tip of the social media spear.”
The META Trending Trends: 2024. Matt Klein delivers his annual meta trend analysis and comes to a sobering conclusion: I decided to go back in time and flip through some old 2018 reports. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time traveling. Those reports, now published over half a decade ago, read eerily similar to what’s being forecasted for 2024. In the accompanying post on LinkedIn, he worries that organisations “play it safe reporting upon the past, fearful of ‘getting it wrong.’ But this denies the opportunity to play with tomorrow; envisioning what we want, need and must avoid.” Tom Goodwin has a point of view on this, too: “This isn't about how unhelpful they are, this isn't about how wrong they are, this is about how identical and generic they are. Where is the debate? Where is the release of energy from discussion, where is the depth of analysis and debate? Where is the diversity of thought. They all look like the product of the same prompt into ChatGPT. Why isn't there more outlandishness, more width, more passion, more vulnerability.”
Philip Kotler vs Byron Sharp. In his post, Joakim Vars Nilsen sums up the evidence of two (competing) theories of brand building and how the Kotlerian world view seems to lack any real-world relevance before delivering Prof Koen Pauwel’s critical view: “there is no convincing evidence for the mantra to segment, target and (differentiate their) position. Unfortunately, the current manuscript also fails to provide sufficient evidence for its alternative viewpoint.” Turns out, we know more about how brands grow, and what is considered (laws of?) best practice. But, seemingly, there are always exceptions to the rule. Businesses who understand that will possibly be able to create an unfair advantage for themselves.
A cheese crisis is looming. As a friend of oozy cheese, this VOX article shared by Amy Daroukakis made me panic. Not just because the prospect of delicious brie disappearing from our plates is worrying, but because it shows how our desire for the familiar (the uniform) eventually turns against us. There is probably some parable in this relating to the increasing use of AI to generate cultural objects (or even ads) and how this will eventually create a uniform glob of cultural garbage that will clog up the pipes of the internet and our brains. Not just low-quality commodity but no-quality crap. How this would play out for ads is something Dr Grace Kite has mused about here.
It was adland’s worst Super Bowl in years, but everyone is too afraid to tell you. Andrew Tindal shared his discouraging take on the event on The Drum. The headline says it all.
That’s all for this week. I hope you get something out of those articles; that they make you think about something anew or slightly differently.
Read you next time,
Maximilian