[SIC] 252: Tyranny of Comfort

Volume 5, Number 44

Jun 29, 2023

The [SIC] newsletter on Thursdays is free, and will be forever, unless I change my mind. Unlikely.

But you CAN pay, if you want. I’m into it. Monthly or yearly, or founding support. Paid subscribers get an additional [SIC] Sundays newsletter each week. And founding supporters get invited to a dinner at my home in NYC with special guests.

Meantime, enjoy. And do please pass along to people you like (or people you need to be smarter).

Corollary sources this week (all worth your review, and all easily discoverable): Future of Transportation / Daily Upside / Morning Consult / Dirt / Courier / Ruby Dispatch / Elevator / Dealbook / Semafor / The New Statesman / Ben-Evans / Nieman Lab / Ungerleider Works / The Tilt / The Information / Motive Unknown / Politico / ANA / Morning Brew / After School / Beats & Bytes / Today in Tabs

Morning, all.
Still in Europe - vacation with the family this week, so will keep it tight. Thanks to Hugh, Thobey, Piers, Iolanda and Celeste for contributions. And to everybody for bearing with me as I gallivant around. Back in NY next week. Til then - off to see a man about a boat.

Ben

======[SIC] 252: Tyranny of Comfort======

Zeitgest / Gestalt

Magic Mushrooms. LSD. Ketamine. The Drugs That Power Silicon Valley / WSJ
Hence? Mets owner Steve Cohen pours $5 million into psychedelics research and advocacy / NYPost
Related: The Largest Psychedelic Conference in History is Surprisingly Sane / Vox
But also? The Psychedelic Therapy Hype Bubble Some of the biggest companies are crashing and burning. What's going on? / Rave New World
Related: The AI is eating itself / Platformer
Here Comes the Gorpcore Backlash / BoF
Corollary to that; the Theory of Style: on taking up space / Spike Art
Related: Arches in Portugal is a good example of how more and more factories are becoming their own brands / IG
Soooo … Next up: Chefcore? / Sprezza
Tap-screen tipping: awkwardly, here to stay / FT
The Harried Leisure Class. How do consumers respond to all that increased wealth and no additional time? Goods that are cheap to consume in time / Marginal Revolution
Inflation? It’s because of all the fun you’re having this summer / NYT
So…. should you go fishing? / Forbes
Turns out Nothing is Inflation-proof, not even the Hajj / Morning Brew
While we’re at it: A primer on the Hajj, just in case / APNews
Closer to home: Mondays Are the New Office Fight / WSJ
Hence? The new Holiday Home aesthetic is "Office Lobby" / For Scale
The Best Place to Drink Is the the Hotel Bar (where it’s quiet)/ NYT
Quartersnacks talks to all the kids starting new skateboard mags/ Quartersnacks
Gen Z's community apps. Young users are gravitating to new apps to forge communities / Wunderman Thompson
But have we reached peak community? / Creative Review
Either way, AI-savvy Gen Z-ers are poised to dominate the workforce / WaPo
But also: Gen Z’ers are ‘Live Quitting’ their jobs on social media / NYPost
And The Grimace Shake is taking over social media / Twitter
More on that: The day after McDonald's dropped a bespoke purple milkshake in honor of America's favorite middle-aged blob turning 52, disturbing footage began to appear. The Griminal is on a grampage and no one is grimpervious … Basically, imagine if McDonald’s hired A24 for a social media advertising campaign, with no oversight / Tiktok
Oh also: the official 64 hour long, 1,115 song Grimace’s Birthday Spotify playlist / Spotify
Speaking of grimaces: How Shein’s influencer trip to a Chinese factory backfired / TechCrunch
Meantime, thanks to TikTok and K-pop, the perm has found a new audience: Gen-Z / BoF
Not Perm at all: HBO cuts its losses on The Idol / Showbiz411
And MSCHF's Latest Venture Is a Pyramid Scheme Run on Discord / Hypebeast

World Order

More discord: The Stock Market Isn’t as Calm as It Seems: Traders are scooping up bets on volatility surging at a record clip/ WSJ
One reason: The Putin system is crumbling. After the march on Moscow, things cannot go back to normal in Russia / FT
Because? Prigozhin Showed Russians That They Might Have a Choice / The New Yorker
While Putin Admits the Wagner Group is an Arm of the Russian State / YouTube
The revolution will now be TikToked. Smartphones gave us unprecedented insight into Russia’s latest coup attempt / FT
Covering Russia Has Become Like Watching Dogs Fight Under a Blanket / The New Statesman
Corollary: Investing in inflationary times, US profit margins, red wine decline & the bloodiest war in the world / Chartbook
Almost 40% of the world’s installed software is unlicensed. This is how the world runs on pirated computer programs / The Hustle
The U.S. Population Is Older Than Ever. New census data shows that the country’s median age is now over 38. In 1980, it was 30 / NYT
Did the Supreme Court Just Give Jack Smith the Green Light To Charge Trump for January 6? / New York Sun
Related: the irresistible comedic value of Trump / FT
Corollary: “Malaise and doom” drive populism – not anger / NBER
So Can Anyone Fix California? / Vanity Fair
Apropos of the car state: more pedestrians were killed on US roads last year than in any year since 1981 / GHSA
More positively: West Texas Oil Country Is Revealing a Sky Full of Stars / Reasons to Be Cheerful
In Dubai, a new skyscraper by Bugatti features drive-in penthouses / Domus
The list of people who the CIA follows on instagram includes James Bond / IG
From Celeste Blewitt: “It's another Ted Lasso moment, what a story. With toxic cultures, sport and management thrown in, this is fascinating to read how ownership has moved forward” She's Calling It: 'That Moment' For Women's Soccer Is Now' / NYT
Its promised land drying, Mormon Church works to save the Great Salt Lake” / WaPo
Unsurprisingly: Plastics Are Poisoning Us / The New Yorker
While global cocaine production and sales reached record highs, a United Nations report said. Use is concentrated in the Americas and Europe, but markets in Africa and Asia are growing / CNBC
Methamphetamine production is also up / Reuters
And this year might be the worst tick season ever / Time

The Speculative Future

DeepMind’s CEO is touting a big leap to surpass ChatGPT / Wired
How to Turn Your Chatbot Into a Life Coach / NYT
Robots are now learning by watching videos of human actions / TechCrunch
AI tools are rapidly changing how we imagine the urban environment / Dezeen
Hence: New York State is buying a supercomputer to help it understand AI / Bloomberg
Corollary to that: Branding a city: What makes for a successful design? / It’s Nice That

Pop Cultures

RIP Spanto. Huge loss. I didn’t know him, really, but in our one meeting he encapsulated the qualities described in all the heartfelt testimonies of the past 24 hours/ Hidden
Creator-led brands are poised to dominate the Fortune 500 / Rolling Stone
Tho spirits giant Diageo broke off ties with Sean “Diddy” Combs after Combs sued it last month / AP News
Phoebe Waller-Bridge on Her “Surreal” Journey From Fleabag to Indiana Jones / Vanity Fair
An I.P.O. for a Painting? This $55 Million Masterpiece Is Going Public /WSJ
Pornhub owners would like porn to be more boring / France24
ClownVamp Is Bringing Queer Visibility to Web3 / NFT Now
Corollary: Is Barbie a Feminist Movie? Depends on Whom You Ask / Vanity Fair
Speaking of asking: The limits of therapy-speak / Vox
Anyway…. Saying Goodbye to Hollywood / The Lindy Newsletter
Related: Analysing trends in the titles of works of art over the past century/ Cultural Analytics
Not a good trend: 2023 means the end of PC Music / IG
Who Tomorrow's Music Business Is Being Built For / Midia Research
Why the U.K. Got Absurdly Good at Rock & Roll / Tidal
Tho … per Sir Paul McCartney: Bruce Springsteen is ruining it for everyone/ Telegraph
Influencers are the new Spotify tastemakers / Fast Company
From Piers Fawkes: photographer Owen Harvey explores the divisions surrounding Spanish bullfighting / Creative Boom
From Celeste Blewitt: “The Ultimate Symbol Of Michael Jordan's Loyalty To Nike? A Reebok Jacket” / Sothebys
And on the topic of garm stories: The 35 Slappiest Shops across the Spyplane Universe / Blackbird Spyplane
More Spyfriends: The Content Change that Turned Seth Rogen Into a Success / Content Inc
Out here: Travis Kelce Is Going for It / Vanity Fair
Also’ unhinged, from Celeste Blewitt: “Fetch The Mop - It's A Code Brown!: The Diary Of A Glastonbury Toilet Cleaner’” /The Guardian

Media Happenings

Fox News Beat ‘The Tonight Show’ - Greg Gutfeld has installed his brand of insult conservatism as the institutional voice for the next generation of Fox News viewer. And it’s catching on.” / NYT
From Iolanda Carvalho: the YouTube Culture & Trends Report 2023. Key Quote: “This year, we turned our focus to the rapid technological changes in creation and consumption that are enabling creators and their fans to put these individual perspectives front and center." / YouTube
Also from Iolanda: the Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2023–2027 / Key Quote: “The slowdown, caused in large measure by sluggish consumer spending, is pushing companies to reset expectations, refocus inward and seek ways to recharge growth." / PWC
BuzzFeed expands creator network to produce more content while keeping fixed costs down / Digiday
Corollary: How the Guardian will use generative AI / The Guardian
Barry Diller is no longer trying to sell The Daily Beast / NYT
And Linda Yaccarino’s vision for Twitter 2.0 emerges / FT
Local journalism’s burnout crisis is unsustainable / Poynter
Why authors should ditch Mailchimp and move to Substack / Jane Friedman
A study of US media spend found that 21% of programatic ads and 14% of spend are on spam sites / ANA
Related: WTF are made-for-advertising sites? / Digiday
Advertising industry seeks refunds over YouTube skippable ads. Study shows millions of ads are hidden away in violation of Google-owned group’s policies / FT
This Saturday, the deadline arrives for converting from Google’s Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) / Google

Market-ations

[SIC] homie and Kouch Culture major domo Drieke Leenknegt named CMO at Vans. Congrats, Drie!/ Retail Dive
From Piers Fawkes: In the resale era brands from Telfar to Chanel are making products even harder to get as the secondhand market grows / Fashionista
AI Isn’t Coming for Marketers’ Jobs—Not Yet, at Least / WSJ
From Iolanda Carvalho: An audience at the Cannes Lions Festival’s Creative Impact Track heard speakers debate whether popular culture is dead – an answer more complicated than a simple yes or no. The new shape of popular culture / WARC
Related: Why executives see Cannes as a worthwhile investment / Marketing Dive
Apropos: Surrealist Marketing Is Suddenly Everywhere / BoF
Why Hollywood fell out of love with podcasting / Semafor
While in contrast: Mattress Firm bets on original content like podcasts to prove its expertise in sleep / Digiday
3 pivots that took Oatly to $10 billion / Don’t Be Boring
Corollary: Bud Light is offering a July 4 $15 rebate on 15-packs in an effort to jumpstart its sales, which are down 28% from a year ago / NYPost
And also Reintroduces Bud Knight / AdAge
While Sprite tries to reach Gen Z, millennials with QR codes, social spend honoring hip-hop's 50th anniversary / Digiday
Elsewhere: Gap taps Sean Wotherspoon for first vintage collection / Futurevvorld
How Topgolf Is Helping Make Golf Cool For the Culture / Complex
And from Thobey Campion: “Recommendation here for the weekly newsletter - this is probably the best ad for a ‘streetwear’ brand I’ve ever seen.” Noah x Puma goes all 7 Days in Hell, but in reverse / Design Scene
Elsewhere: Allbirds creates "world's first net-zero carbon shoe" using regenerative wool / Dezeen
Crocs creates Jibbitz-themed virtual store experience. Shoppers can customize a pair of shoes with up to 26 charms in the virtual experience and then purchase a physical version of their creation / Retail Dive
Community, culture, and collabs: Luxury’s mission to understand skaters / Jing Collabs
What China’s love affair with tennis means for fashion / Vogue Business
LVMH Chief Bernard Arnault Embarks on China Tour / BoF
While son #1 Antoine Arnault Calls for Luxury-Focused Sustainability Pact / BoF
From Iolanda Carvalho: "May Breakthrough Brands 2023 ignite your imagination, spark new ideas, and propel you towards your own exceptional accomplishments." / Interbrand

Superficial Interest

Reading people is a learned skill, which means that with time and practice, you can develop and improve it. This will help you in countless ways in your job and career / Debliu
Debatable: The Road is the greatest parenting book / The Cut
Unrelated, but not debatable: The Perils and Promises of Penis-Enlargement Surgery / The New Yorker

Food / Drink

How Dirty Is Your Gas Stove, Really? / NYT
From Hugh Dietz: “I hope you see and appreciate the impeccable logic! NYC Pizzerias versus Climate Change Busybodies / WUWT
This past weekend, Ye held a surprise tasting event in Tokyo to formally establish the "YZY Food Division”/ Hypebeast
Also surprising: Pickles and beer: pickle beer / IG
And finally: Gen Z discovered Cottage Cheese / WS