[SIC] 106: Exquisite Corpse

September 17th, 2020

Returning to the original stream-of-consciousness flow for this week, where each item flows from the last. LMK what you think, good bad or ugly. Thanks to Reid, Dom and Syd for their contributions this week; they’re appreciated.

As a companion to this week’s edition I’ll be joined for [SIC] Talks #17 by Theo Keetell, a longtime friend who just departed his role as Global Head of Marketing for Clarks Shoes to take up a new gig with an iconic American brand. It’s on IG Live at 4p ET today, and in my feed thereafter. Head over to @dietznutz for that.

xo Ben

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Start Here:  Via Lefsetz Letter: Check your AQI [Air Quality Index] - Enter your city or zip code in the box in the upper righthand corner, click on your town in the resulting list and then click on the red button that says "AQI”. 

• Then, welcome to your bland new world, where all the new things look the same as the other new things. (Bloomberg)

• Via Lean Luxe: “The new Dadaism is upon us” as Gen-Z rebels against that same blandalism (Future Commerce)

• And to that end, meet CARLY (Can’t Afford Real Life Yet), the Gen-Z muse (Future Commerce)

• Speaking of, Gen Zers Say Silicon Valley Is Elitist and Exclusive. Can They Build a New System? (NYT)

• Maybe? Via Axios: More than 400,000 people have registered to vote in 2020 via Snapchat. The vast majority of Snapchat’s user base is under 30 years old.

• But, but, Blackbird Spyplane asks: “Would Socialism Kill Cool Clothes?”  (Substack)

• And Patagonia’s not alone. Noah (the streetwear brand) is blogging about How To Fight Back Against Trump's Anti-Environment Agenda

• Related: #mendcore, the case for never buying new clothes again (Fast Company) 

• To that end: The pandemic is ravaging the business of fashion. So why haven’t more brands embraced on-demand manufacturing? (Fast Company)

• Maybe that’s why everything is sold out (The Atlantic)

• Case in point: Travis Scott meals are selling so fast McDonald’s is running out of ingredients (USA Today)

• PSFK’s ‘holiday toolkit’ for retailers this holiday season (starts at 6 minutes, subscribe to get notifications of similar Retail Innovation Week talks) (YouTube) 

• The pandemic has turned everyone into gamers (Quartz)

• As evidenced by (from Reid Moncada): MSCHF’s latest project Card V. Card is a competitive multiplayer bank account. All players’ cards connect to the same account. Money is deposited at random: race to spend it before the others! 

• Another angle: IKEA and ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced a partnership to create “affordable gaming furniture accessories” with a starting lineup of 30 products. (Hypebeast)

• And speaking of furniture, via Kouch Culture: musicians Disclosure built a digital world in Minecraft for their new album (Rolling Stone)

• From a band with signature illustrations to a band that’s all illustrated: This K-pop single by a group composed entirely of video game characters is No. 1 on the Billboard charts (Protocol)

• Elsewhere: Grimes has teamed up with eBay and Maccarone for an exclusive series of curated art drops collectively called “A Decade of Grimes.” All of the proceeds will benefit Carbon180, a non-profit organization  fighting climate change. (Hypebeast)

• The feed is the new [Art] gallery (The Sociology of Business)

• Related: What exactly did Inigo do, and will he get away with it? (Artnet)

• The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse will sell Jackson Pollock’s 1946 painting “Red Composition” to acquire art by underrepresented artists. The sale is estimated to garner between $12 and 18 million. (Hyperallergic)

• Via 1440: The 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction, honoring the best original English-language novel, released its shortlist of six nominees including four debut novelists (BBC) 

• For her new project, Artists-In-Presidents: Fireside Chats for 2020, Constance Hockaday invited 50 artists, including Miranda July, Edgar Arceneaux, and Coco Fusco, to deliver a five-minute presidential address (Hyperallergic)

• Red Bull Arts has got “Akeem Smith: No Gyal Can Test", the artist’s first show, beginning on Thursday, September 24 at 8:00PM

• This is fun: A New Book Chronicles the 125-Year History of the Button, Its Design, and Its Role in Cultural Change (Colossal)

• Speaking of wearables: Balenciaga's Demna Gvasalia Curates Apple Music Playlist for "Hello, My Name Is Demna” Merch (Hypebeast)

• And Merch still matters, even when everything is on your phone (Hypebeast)

• Via High Snobiety: Burberry’s become the first brand to stage a fashion show on Twitch  (Instagram) 

• Also in streaming news: via Quartz, YouTube is testing its TikTok rival in India. YouTube Shorts gives creators tools to make videos up to 15 seconds long.

• Platform adjacent: Matt Taibbi says the news media is destroying itself  (Substack)

• How WSJ is producing brand partner content quick-fast: Before coronavirus, the standard time frame from agreement to campaign launch for a custom content campaign was eight weeks. Now, it’s four. (Digiday)

• Over the last two years, The Economist has narrowed its focus on what it publishes to LinkedIn. And it’s starting to reap the benefits by turning those users into subscribers (Digiday)

• Bustle says it’s a ‘Logical Candidate’ for SPAC Merger, throws some shade, and makes some points. (The Information)

• Vice Media Group is using a new tool from consumer reporting agency Experian and data platform Infosum to excel in a post-cookie world. (Digiday)

• Never far behind, Translation Teams Up With Nielsen to Measure Cultural Impact (Adweek)

• Axios with a list of companies giving their staff PTO for Election Day. 

• Via WITI: Workers of the world, decamp: Thailand just announced a tourist long-stay visa, valid for 9 months and renewable twice after that.  Estonia’s got a new digital nomad visa, and Georgia’s program, called ‘Remotely from Georgia,’ allows workers to stay and work there for up to six months.

• To wit: Via Protocol: Stripe is offering employees $20,000 if they relocate from San Francisco, NYC or Seattle, Bloomberg reports. But there's a catch: a salary cut of up to 10%

• From Dom Shales: McKinsey has collated all their thinking around emerging from Covid into a top 10 of how companies need to be acting, with supporting detail!

• Via Marginal Revolution: What's Wrong with Social Science and How to Fix It: Reflections After Reading 2578 Papers

• Here’s one thought: via GARAGE’s newsletter, Maeve Nicholson co-signs the Good On You app, which provides a breakdown on how hundreds of brands operate, and how they impacts its workers, the planet, and animals. They also provide recommendations for similar brands if your favorites are "not up to code.” 

• Old VICE friends MFG Creative tried to help spread #BlackLivesMatter by recruiting pet IG accounts and impelling them to share vital info and action items 

• John Boyega’s split with Jo Malone points to systemic industry issues in global brand marketing, including credit and compensation for creators of color and a lack of diversity in international ads (Glossy)

• While Glossy launched Unfair, a podcast about the global skin-lightening industry and everything it touches, from the demand for lighter skin to the beauty companies selling to it. 

• Via Indie CPG: Meet the recipients of Glossier’s grants for Black-owned beauty brands (Glossier)

• And via Jing Daily: Kerby Jean-Raymond’s latest initiative “Your Friends in New York” first announced in March, is expanding in partnership with Kering into a fully-realized creative platform able to simultaneously boost emerging brands and grant aid to marginalized communities. (The Cut)

• Also: Kerby Jean-Raymond on Why This is His Last Interview (For a While) (Vogue)

• Speaking of friends in New York: via @ocularge: Trip party live at MARS in 1989 with DJ Duke of Denmark, Grandmaster Caz and Kay Gee. Sound quality is terrible, but also sounds insanely fun. (Soundcloud)

• Related, a 2017 interview with Stretch Armstrong about NYC nightlife culture (and his book No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988-1999) (Master & Dynamic)

• And other downtown icon, Chloe Sevigny takes over NTS on October 5th, sharing her favorite love songs and playing yours on @nts_radio coinciding with “We Are Who We Are”’s 3rd episode about first loves (Instagram)

• Switching gears: The $88 Trillion World Economy, in One Chart (Visual Capitalist)

• Peter Zeihan on The End of the Last, Best Chance for US / China relations. (Zeihan on Geopolitics)

• Counterpoint, of sorts, to Zeihan: China’s long-term soft power strategy is much more insidious than just captivating American teens. (NYT)

• Speaking of international relations: via Quartz,Taco Bell is making its own wine. In Canada. Jalapeño Noir is designed to pair with its Toasted Cheesy Chalupa. (CNN)

• And Red Lobster and PepsiCo Launch 'the Dew Garita,' the Unofficial Official Cocktail of 2020(Adweek)

• While, opposite: Pepsi rolls out a new bedtime drink (Fast Company) 

• And Tyler the Creator’s got a new ice cream flavor (Pitchfork) 

• IF YOU ARE A COP YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO COOK THIS . DOWNLOAD CHINESE PROTEST RECIPES HERE(032C) 

• Speaking of recipes for the near future: via Trucks, Ford's incoming CEO looks to focus on commercial vehicles and services. (Reuters) 

• Also in transport news: via Marginal Revolution: “We conclude that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally generated public health costs of as much as $12.2 billion." (NBER.org)

• But wait, The Sturgis Bike Rally paper does seem quite wrong, and perhaps the authors and the NBER should withdraw it? (Slate) 

• Either way, the kids don’t care: with In-Person Gatherings on Hold, Virtual Experiential Marketing Events Have Yet to Fully Captivate Gen Z (Morning Consult) 

• Maybe this will help? Stuff to do: Andrew Yang will keynote the NYC Media Lab Summit 2020; FREE tickets here.

• And Pitchfork Festival is Saturday, September 26 at 7 p.m. Eastern and will be available to watch on the Pitchfork homepage and Pitchfork’s YouTube channel. RSVP here.

• Also worth a watch: via Office Hours, “Wired says Locally Grown TV is “Like a video archive that is available 24/7, Locally Grown is an anti-streaming streamer, the PBS of black cultural ephemera“”

• More stuff to watch: (via BBSP) Adam Curtis’s “Century of the Self” (4-part documentary about the use of psychological techniques in the field of public relations) for free. 

• Also heavy, also essential:  "La Haine” here for free, courtesy of Aime Leon Dore and Criterion Collection. 

• From Syd Allen-Ash: “This is lovely. Everything Bardia makes brings me so much joy.” (YouTube) 

• Phew. Cocktail time. The Intoxicating History of Gin (The New Yorker)

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