#53 – On Post-Individuals, Post-Shame, a Vibe Shift, People's Lies, and OOH Posters

Hello!

Welcome to the first edition of Strategy Bites in 2025. Selecting the links to feature has really made my head hurt. There’s just so much stuff going on that (seemingly) demands our attention. Not sure how you feel, but I’m already overwhelmed.

In that spirit, here’s a little melange of big to small stuff to get us started: a deep-dive into Post-Individualism and the Internet, the Post-Shame Age, a corresponding vibe shift to “Dark Mode”, and people’s tendency of (over-)reacting. Followed by two (hopefully) less overwhelming topics: OOH’s new potential, and an entertaining little conversation about people lying in research. (Okay, maybe that is triggering for some.)

Enjoy the clicks.

Six Links of Inspiration:

• The Post Individual. Yancey Strickler’s piece is an entertaining trip through a few centuries of human development, taking us all the way to the Me! and the Me’s! of our time. It’s great read that creates a convincing narrative for some “smaller” observations of the previous years (e.g. shrinking social circles, online self-expression, etc.)

• The Post-Shame Age. Joel Stein published a 28-page LinkedIn carousel that will make you think (and probably angry.) He quotes Ruth Wodak and her thesis of us living in the post-shame age – and goes on to show examples of how there seem to be no more taboos for not only the rich and powerful but also the good old common people. It’s brutal.

• The Dark Mode Shift. In a similar vein, Edmond Lau describes a vibe shift from a clean, hopeful world filled with optimism to one where we realise that everything is broken and therefore everyone is embracing their vices (a bit) more openly.

• Are you overreacting? This is a theoretically unrelated but somewhat related article about how we react to stuff. All sorts of stuff. The little things around us, gestures, comments, bumper stickers. Some of it personal and some of it, of course, political. The author summarises a few coping mechanisms, one of which deploys a simple question in order to guide our reaction: Am I reacting as usefully as I can? In my own case I know the answer to be No. Because I simply too often let myself be tempted to react. (That’s what toddlers to do you.) When most of the time a reaction probably isn’t necessary. (Considering Hanlon’s razor that you mustn’t attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. And I mean this in the nicest possible way.)

• Outdoor Advertising overtakes TV for reach. If you ever wondered why Uncommon sweats their OOH execution so much, here’s why: outdoor advertising overtook TV for reach. A great poster does loads for your brand. In this post, Jon Evans shares a few more resources on how to make better posters.

• Everybody Lies. This episode of Behavioral Science for Brands features a fun little conversation full of good book recommendations and some practical marketing advice that most of you probably are already familiar with (the insight mine that a Google search can be, using Share of Search for planning, etc.) but it’s mostly about why you shouldn’t trust claimed behaviour – and therefore a lot of research. It’s also peppered with funny little anecdotes that might help all of us to remember applying the tricks of behavioural science when we develop our strategies, campaigns, and, one day, book covers.

That’s it for now. I would love to hear what articles have inspired you so far this year. Drop them in the comments, or send me an email.

Read you soon,

Maximilian