The Weekly-(ish) Roundup (week of 8.19)
i know i've been inconsistent with these, i'll be better i promise
1. It’s A Good Time To Be Weird
A fashion picture working at its very best can tweak our sense of normalcy just a bit, can jostle our sense of safety even,” noted Stella Bugbee. “We had a fixed idea of Daniel Craig, and with a bit of exposed collarbone and some emo hair, everything seems flexible. And that flexibility makes you think about yourself—about how wearing clothes might allow you to alter your sense of self or how others see you.” In simpler words, these pictures of Daniel Craig are weird in a way that’s impossible not to look at.
This article dovetails pretty nicely to the title of this piece by Ryan Broderick, “Culture Froze in the Biden Era. Is It Finally Heating Up?”. Though I pretty much disagree entirely with his conclusions about why culture froze, and how marketing/art/culture entered this awful and creatively hamstringed era, he identifies a relevant and important phenomenon taking place. I’ve noticed it too. Things are starting to get more interesting, creatively. Incredibe movies are being made, advertising feels inspired again, and fashion campaigns are making me excited in a way that I hadn’t been in the past few years. But why? The reality is that post 2020 was a horrible time for artists because everyone was just scared to take risks, injecting political considerations into nearly every decision. Hyper political correctness took over most corporate settings in a way that was completely at odds with making good creative, however, the impact of bad creative wasn’t felt because of low interest rates and record level spending on consumer products. After interest rates were jacked up to subdue inflation, and the world opened back up post pandemic, consumers have been allocating their money differently and are now being impacted by a significantly higher cost of living. With more competition and less disposable income sloshing around in the market, companies have been forced to go back to the basics and get rid of their newly formed bad habits… The market will always correct itself.
To facilitate an environment of creative freedom you have to create a safe space for creatives to thrive, and that means taking on risk and putting aside the neuroticism to allow room for weirdness and differentiation, not dogmatic conformity. Just take a look at this Business of Fashion article: “Inside Nike’s Big Marketing Vibe Shift”.
Nike’s wider “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” campaign, launched just before the start of the Olympics, asked whether star Nike-sponsored athletes, including LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sha’Carri Richardson were “bad people” for wanting to win at all costs.
It was a significant vibe shift from the less combative, more inclusive tone Nike has struck in recent years, directly challenging the “everyone’s a winner” mentality that had taken hold in wider American culture in a way that harked back to the bold ads of the brand’s glory days.
So yes, it is indeed a good time to be weird, and embrace basic truths about human consumer psychology. If Nike proved anything with their incredible Olympics campaign, it’s that it’s ok to create campaigns that signal strength, vitality, and winning… people seem to actually resonate with things like that and like being left with a feeling of dogged inspiration rather than projections of mediocrity.
2. Gap Inc. was careening toward retail irrelevance. Then it hired the Barbie brand’s savior
Amazing what the impact of 1 or 2 people can have on an entire company…
3. Entire Studios: From teen Tumblr stylists to taking on the fashion system
Ex-Yeezy protégés and Kylie Jenner collaborators Sebastian Hunt and Dylan Richards Diaz are disrupting the luxury fashion industry with their accessible, elevated line
4. How the Harris Campaign Beat Trump at Being Online
Trump has always drawn ideas from the darker corners of the Internet, but his new opponent has found a different kind of traction by embracing the Web’s native formats.