003: Cultural Tension in an Age of Miracles
AI vs Craft. Prada RTO CorpCore. A few days in NYC. LA meetup this week.
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The Discourse
Miraculous things are happening all around us: in technology, in science, in space, and in our communities, but much of the energy is counterbalanced or extinguished by brain rot, visceral societal decline (especially in cities), political polarization, and the existential dread that is hovering over the white-collar creative class in relation to what feels like inevitable displacement by AI. This past week, a SpaceX Starship booster rocket was successfully caught by mechanical “chopsticks” … this is a phenomenal achievement of human ingenuity, engineering prowess, and should be incredibly inspiring to all who witness it, but the cultural tension and online discourse having to do with SpaceX ownership and e/acc vs Decel (and e/acc vs normies) made celebrating difficult, in the same way that it can be difficult to fully appreciate the miracle that is Waymo without also considering that the markets they operate in continue to deal with skyrocketing rents and an alarming amount of homelessness. As someone who is extremely online, I may just be overthinking this, but the tension is definitely in the air.
I still want to believe that there will be more positive than negative externalities (and modern miracles) that will come out of this new age.
I am fascinated by how high fashion has historically proven to be a both a reflection and harbinger of cultural change, and is in many ways a creative manifestation of (please excuse this cliche) our greatest collective and hopes and fears. I stumbled upon a new Prada hand-painted OOH ad in NoHo NYC earlier this week that seems to capture the current moment. We’re several cultural-ripples into the effects of the pandemic WFH vs Hybrid vs RTO (Return To Office) discourse, and the Prada campaign seems to be speaking to the reality of corporate office comeback season, with a lot of 2024 energy: slightly roomier and looser cuts, a 90s corded telephone and “pre-pandemic throwback accessories” like briefcases and office-appropriate-backpacks (still a controversial option, I know) to capture the current nostalgia doom/hope loop (but in a chic and not overly-Cassette Futurism aesthetic sort of way), and a slightly off-center belt buckle to communicate a bit of edge and muted rebellion. I was told that the off-center buckle may be a nod to how guitar and bass players need to move their buckles out of the way when they perform)
I don’t quite understand why brands continue to get in so much trouble for work that (obviously?) has high potential to offend, especially in this sociopolitical climate. I get how teams can be so locked-in that they may have tunnel-vision and develop blind spots when it comes to cultural sensitivity. I also understand (from experience) how… not diverse most Fortune 500 marketing teams are (both on the brand and agency side), but I assumed that there were enough process safeguards in place (old school creative testing focus groups, advisory committees and councils to do asset reviews, internal processes and external partner/vendor solutions, etc etc) to offset sensitivity downsides.
Regardless, those are not valid excuses. It’s 2024, and the culture war tension and anti-DEI backlash raging in the background are important reminders that it is more important than ever for brands and agencies to get things right. It’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy.
Friend of the City Anu Lingala, cultural strategist and founder of Revisionary, recently took a detour from Palm Springs to meet me in DTLA and physically deliver my copy of Hyper-Optimization: Creative Stagnation Amidst Cultural Abundance, a dossier from the Office of Applied Strategy. The zine includes words and thoughts from Friends of the City Kyle Chayka and Matt Klein, with support from Friends of the City and favs Nick Susi, Ruby Thelot, and Nikita Walia. The content in the dossier - which covers subjects such as the curious state of Luxury Fashion, Love for Algorithms, and Single-Purpose Hardware - is intentionally not available online, and the only way to read it in full is to get a hold of a physical copy, distributed on-location at an NYC launch event (where Anu locked down my copy) and to individuals who were lucky enough to register for a physical copy to be mailed to them (via ephemeral form). At one point there was such demand that a copy was sold on the secondary market via Grailed.
I think this was a brilliant act of marketing for OAS and all involved, and also qualified as performance art and creative commentary on the current state of hype-driven consumer culture.
Creative Tension: AI vs Craft
I had the opportunity to attend an interesting AI panel discussion at NeueHouse Madison Square this past week, hosted and moderated by digital product studio ustwo and involving design executives from Meta (Senior Product Design Manager, AI), Verizon (SVP Customer Experience), and Anthropic (Design Leadership). Given the companies and names (which I will choose not to disclose here) involved in the discussion, most of the conversation was expectedly mid and very rarely deviated from a corporate-comms-approved scripts. All of the usual AI topics were covered, with enough depth as to not infantilize the audience (NeueHouse members are very savvy imho), but also careful not to stretch the conversation into controversial territory. There was the expected discussion about early utilitarian vs creative applications, enterprise solutions for businesses that rely on human and creative capital, what to look forward to in the short term (everyone can explore the creative ideas in their heads, regardless of artistic skill) and the long term (leveraging advanced models to aid in detection and treatment of rare cancers), etc etc etc.
One thing did stick out to me, and I believe may have been a slip of the tongue, from the Meta AI representative: she said something along the lines of generative AI being so powerful from a creative direction and production perspective that brands will likely not need to employ agencies (at least in the current and traditional sense) in the near future. This was an incredibly awkward moment, especially given that the panel was sponsored and moderated by… an agency. Everyone in the audience sort of looked around at each other in that moment to confirm that they heard what they thought they heard. For as much as the conversation was thought-provoking and inspirational, it was a reminder that there is definitely existential tension in the air amongst the creative class.
The other side of that tension became very clear not 12 hours later as I attended Ben Dietz’s Williamsburg OG edition of Breakfast Club, where I had the pleasure of being seated next to and chatting it up with a veteran commercial filmmaker who has worked on some very big campaigns for some very big brands. In reaction to my commentary about the previous evening’s AI discourse, he informed me that things were actually going the other way in his world… *more craft* is now expected from the savviest of big brands, because of the many different media channels and screens that consumers switch between on a daily basis. What is the point of an integrated/omnichannel campaign that does not hit in all media channels in a way that resonates… for those specific channels? For example, instead of a :60-second hero commercial that is cut into a :30 and :15 for TV and OTT/CTV or Pre-Roll, and further cut down as social video assets, the process has now come back around to be more bespoke, and requires a ground-up re-imagination and the development of specific strategic approaches on how to storytell, message, and feature product that is specific to every discrete channel: TV vs OTT vs Pre-Roll, vs Snapchat vs TikTok et al. Now, this may seem very obvious to most of you, but it flies in the face of a lot of the generative AI creative asset solutions that exist, which focus on volume of iterations, vs anything that feels especially strategic (or effective to accomplish anything beyond the most lower-funnel of marketing activities).
I fear that I’ve been a bit too reductive here at explaining why this tension feels especially significant to me, but I don’t want to take up any more space. I could probably write a book about this one when it’s all said and done.
VS
Community
Giveaway! We’re teaming up with Friend of the City and Gen Z economic advisor Kyla Scanlon to gift two copies of her debut book, In This Economy?: How Money & Markets Really Work. If you’re unfamiliar with Kyla, check out her content on Youtube, TikTok, and Twitter.
Fill out this form for a chance at a copy of the book! Recipients will be selected over the next two weeks.
LA Meetup This Week! For anyone in the greater LA area, I have a few open spots for the relaunch party of the NeueHouse Wyman Bar at the historic Bradbury Building on Wednesday, 10/23, from 4-8PM. The NeueHouse DTLA location is one of the most beautiful co-working and communal spaces in the world, and I’m thankful that it is reopening, if only for a short time. If you are interested in being my guest, please respond directly to this email.
Slack Access! A reminder that I’ll be jumpstarting a Third City Slack Community soon (ETA 2 to 3 weeks), with a focus on sharing research, access, and organizing Zoom and IRL events. One idea I’m excited to kick off is having small, members only group discussions about reports like eMarketer’s recent How CMOs Are Using AI to Transform Their Strategies report (chart excerpt below). If the community gets traction, I will very likely put it behind a paid membership wall, so get in early and get in free by applying here.
Until Next Week
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I feel like I’m being a bit long-winded with these first emails. I had 2 or 3 other ideas that I wanted to include in this edition (including a photo dump of interesting OOH in NYC) that would just make for an extremely long singular post. There’s a strong possibility that I will do a mid-week as well as a weekend drop in order to get it all in. Still thinking through this, so let me know if you have any strong opinions.
Lastly, the Third City chat is live on the Substack app. Now sure how that’s going to play out, but I promise to respond to any messages that come through.
Until then, see you on the internet.
Thank you for the kind shoutout - no idea how I wasn't already subscribed!