[SIC] 350: Rare Role Reversal

Vol. 7, No. 40

Jun 12, 2025

[SIC] Weekly is a digest of developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, published free on Thursdays. Feel no compunction to open every item in a new tab; [SIC] is intended to be read as you would a bulleted list.

This digest was sent free on 6/12/25 to 7651 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.

I'm Ben Dietz, longtime media/entertainment business guy, and now advisor-for-hire to brands, publishers and agencies. 

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New original art each issue is courtesy of Gordon Hull.

Special thanks this week for stories: Isaac Dietz, Piers Fawkes, Josh McHugh, Anu Lingala, Ricky Engelberg, Mike Klein, Celeste Blewitt and Iolanda Carvalho.

Comments, Questions and Contributions are invited from everyone.

Hi all.

Writing this in motion so forgive the lack of exposition. Tightening up has been a theme lately; I started sending the first 20 links of the day to paid subs exclusively, so there’ll be a little less volume here going forward. Which is great if you’re pressed for time, but if you want the full insides of my brain here’s a link.

One thing I’ve heard a bunch: people want stuff to do. So here are a bunch of events You won’t see me at til July (going to Cannes and then on holiday) but I’d check out if I could;

There’s an exhibition in London spotlighting The Grey Org the proto art/advertising group that did the seminal artwork for De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising up now / IG
From Anu: Great to meet in person yesterday! Here's the event this weekend at Forecast that I mentioned / IG
From Mike: On June 19th [Mystery At the Grooms] Hermès is opening the doors to the Grooms’ House, a singular theatrical set where the Grooms live with their faithful horse companions / Hermes
June 20 the Deep Water Literary Fest in Narrowsburg has Douglas Stuart, Marlon James, Dylan and Becky Ann Baker and a gang of other creative luminaries talking books / One Grand
Blackbird Spyplane’s Paris Party is Wednesday, June 25th, from 6pm until ~9pm or so, at 51 Rue Volta in the Marais / BBSP
Bompas & Parr present the next in their Future of P-Leisure series on July 8th at the Barbican in London, diving into the uncertain future of nightlife / Bompas & Parr
And July 18 sees the return of MoMA PS1’s stalwart Warm Up Series / MoMAPS1

HIP REPLACMENT Ep. 13 Ariana Romano

Bit of a new vibe for the pod on our lucky thirteenth ep, thanks to a new cold open courtesy of series producer Campbell.

Ariana Romano

is a strategist and newsletterer (check out her ‘Right Now’) and a good buddy of

Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick

’s, so the discussion flowed really well. Among the things we talked about:

DEAD END. and the wild weekend we all had
Big hair and wired headphones: Millennial trends are cool again / NYT
AI is the Gen Z Lifestyle Subsidy / The Atlantic
How it is changing our neural function pointing to the next / Tiktok
Gen Z is shaking up the entire education system with AI / Twitter
Millennials using AI mostly for therapy/companionship / HBR
And oops - getting caught having intimate chats with bots on the Subway / IG
Are boomers smoking more weed? What does that mean for "the culture" of weed, for both the young and old? Or are older people just admitting it versus pretending they never touched it? / Daily Beast
Sabrina Carpenter's "Manchild" being both predictable — and expressing an exhaust for Millennial (Jack Antonoff) musical 1980s nostalgia / Tiktok
The David drama, which feels like the protein bubble swells further — and speaks to literal style over substance, perhaps? / Food Business News

Listen in!

Ok, now the links. Catch you next week from Cannes (and give a shout if you’re over there too!)

Ben

[SIC] 350: Rare Role Reversal

The Takegeist

Pop Culture Takes Up Smoking Again nyt
Related: The Diminishing Returns of Having Good Taste / The Atlantic
So… Do Not Try to Get Your Kid Into the Pop Culture You Like / GQ
Get them into The Art of Not Getting Fired instead / The Lindy Newsletter
Or turned into The online bazaar — turning old stuff into income / FT
Or…Consider Massena, NY. How to Live on $432 a Month in America /shagbark-substack
Because?! State of the Consumer 2025: When disruption becomes permanent. Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers’ crisis-era habits have lingered / McKinsey
Corollary to habits: An investor makes a case for funding sex, drugs and other socially taboo products / TechCrunch
Also taboo: How social media is toppling woke / The Times UK
Somehow corollary, from Celeste: “An excellent read on the technical side of biometrics, foreign intelligence and espionage” How Digital Identities Challenge Traditional Espionage / The Strategist
Apropos of that: Who is Arfur Rock, the 'Gossip Girl of Silicon Valley?' / Business Insider
Big Tech has grown so hostile to academia that Gen Z hopefuls are seeking to avoid it entirely / Business Insider
Welcome to the Chaos, Class of 2025. Rachel Janfaza writes that the Class of 2025 defines the American Dream not by landing big jobs or owning real estate, but simply by having “a calm nervous system.” / The Up and Up
Not calm: Time Again got an Open Streets permit. Then came the backlash. / Gothamist
Related to that: The new creative neighbourhoods in Mumbai are preserving cultural heritage, while trying to avoid gentrification / It’s NIce That
Snob corollary, from Josh : Have people been sending you this? [Biennial Art vs Douchebag Art] / Magid Eye

Fashionisms

Edmond Lau: Tiny Creators, Big Pants. Fashion's missing middle has been filled not by traditional retailers, but by creators who've turned parasocial relationships into profit margins / Future Commerce
Has Fashion Given Up on Emerging Designers? / BoF
Haven't We Seen This All Before? Fashion’s problem isn’t the algorithm 'slop'. It’s us / The Sociology of Business
ON THE FUTURE OF FASHION / Spike Art
How to Make Music for a Runway Show with Michel Gaubert /032C
From Celeste: How Jacques Marie Mage Made The Most Opulent Sunglasses On The Planet / British GQ
You know its summer when they’re debating To Sock or Not to Sock / GQ
American sneakerheads are switching allegiance from basketball shoes to football boots / BoF
What Even Is a Sneaker? / NYT
It’s Never Been Harder to Dress for Work. Just Ask Gen Z / Fast Company
Wearing a bucket hat to see Oasis on tour could get you fined / Manchester Evening News
Chapeau corollary from Celeste: “An Akubra hat is synonymous with Australia, similar to adding a pair of RM Williams boots to the outfit and you have the Australian agricultural and city starter pack” [The Woman Who Wants To See Every One Of Us In An Akubra] / AFR
Zohran was on Throwing Fits last week / Spotify
John C. Reilly too / Spotify
Frame and Sotheby’s made a capsule that’s perfect for the West Village Girls/ Frame
Unfortunately for the Ridgewood homies Nosegrab Fragrance is sold out / Pearfat
But Daisy Francis and Cole discuss on Tasteland / Spotify
And Kenny Scharf and Hot Wheels made a toy car that’s perfect for East ….hampton / Hypeart
Meanwhile, Sean Wotherspoon Shows Detailed Look at SW x Porsche Car / Jing Daily
And Brynn’s got a Dimepiece x Timex dive watch inspired by JFK Jr / Dimepiece

Screens & Platforms

YouTube quietly loosened video content moderation rules after Trump was reelected / NYT
Meanwhile, Young People on Tiktok Are Trying to Make the 80s Happen Again. Y2K nostalgia is so last year. Gen Z creators are embracing the 1980s / Dazed
EDGLRD has a new game called Tamashika and you can play it here / EDGLRD
The Cloud is a physical place / Are.Na Editorial

AIAIAI

Faster, Smarter, Cheaper: AI Is Reinventing Market Research. Thesis write-up / A16Z
From Piers: pitching my own piece for newsletter comnsideration your call as to whether it fits or not [The Singular Interface Experience & The Ive Phone] / LInkedIn
What Happens When People Don’t Understand How AI Works. Large language models are not smart in any recognizably human sense of the word / The Atlantic
Has the “gentle singularity” already begun? And when did the singularity become “gentle”? / Nieman Lab
In contrast: Mark Zuckerberg is putting together a team to achieve artificial general intelligence / Bloomberg
Apropos of that the ChatGPT outage panic is a stark warning for creatives. Absence makes the heart grow... terrified? / Creative Bloq
But…. If AI’s your only strategy, you’re already behind / The Drum
So… From Iolanda: “Brace for Impact ;) [At Creative Impact 2025, we need a bit more ‘how’]” / WARC
Bit WTF is AI slop doing to warp media metrics? / Digiday
And then there’s The Odd Experiment of A.I. Art Summaries in Venice / Artnet

The Fine Arts

“Slam, Dunk, & Hook” : Christian N. Kerr goes one-on-one with Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem about basketball and blocking out life’s trash talk / Simple Magic
There’s a Lana Del Rey-Themed Group Show We Didn’t Know We Needed / Artnet
Corollary? Miranda July has been amassing a collection of the candy wrappers she has found in her child’s pockets / Miranda July
Which is paralleled in the work of Ecstasy Pill Art Collectors / VICE
Also sketchy: A Guide to Dodging and Burning / Magnum
Despair To Delight: Lost Rodin Copy Sell For $1m / BBC
So, Have we reached peak painting? / The Art Newspaper
Also peak: Leeds during Thatcher: An alternative vision of northern coming of age / It’s Nice That
Elsewhere back in Blighty: The rise of the anonymous art critic. “In London, you’re not supposed to write a negative review” / Frieze
Apropos of negatives: The Jerry Gogosian Project has Concluded / Artnet
Speaking of championing the underwing, How Indigenous Art Became In Demand / FT

Marketeering

Why these five possible candidates could take over for outgoing WPP CEO Mark Read / Digiday
The death of the checkout counter is leading brands to rethink their store layouts / Modern Retail
What is experiential design, the trend of the moment? / Creative Bloq
From Iolanda: Lions Predictions... [Contagious’ analysts and editors predict which campaigns will win Grands Prix at Cannes Lions] / Contagious
More predictions, also from Iolanda: The after virality life [Stanley’s post-viral phase looks to new products, geographies, and partnerships] / WARC
Elsewhere, from Ricky: The invite-only series brands are obsessing over / Sara Wilson
Regulations that have held back commercial drones in the U.S. are easing / Axios
Amateur Hour Is Over: College Athletes Can Get Paid by Schools / Reason
From Piers: “Is there too much lego?” [ serpentine unveils LEGO-built play pavilion by sir Peter cook] / Design Boom
From Iolanda: And the growing brands class of 2025! [Insurgent Brands Steal the Spotlight in 2025] / Bain
Also getting bigger: A Beijing auction house has sold a human-sized figure of a Labubu for $150k / BBC
A symptom of, from Celeste: The Rise Of The Status Stuffed Animal / Town & Country

Sounds & Visuals

FFNY QuickTakes with Giovanni Reda / Friends from New York
Speaking or quick takes: Is This a New Golden Age of Dad Rock? / GQ
Riot grrrl is back. Do we need it more than ever? / Huck Mag
Matthew Perpetua put together playlists of the songs of the summers from 1994, 1999, 1988, 1979, 1984, 2013 and 1969 / Fluxblog
From Isaac: Here’s a mix of twangy 45’s records I compiled to play at the WZRD campout / Mixcloud
Franz from Turnstile is the coolest bass player right now / The FACE
Addison Rae Transcends Cringe / Fashion Magazine
Chris Black interviews Mike MIlls about directing the first-ever music video for “Psycho Killer”/ GQ
How ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ rewrote the indie movie marketing playbook / Morning Brew
A24’s podding with Kyle MacLachlan & Benito Skinner / A24 Pod
And there a brewing Battle of the Cool Kids: Inside the A24, Neon and Mubi Turf War / Hollywood Reporter
The New Yorker on “Videoheaven,” Alex Ross Perry’s documentary about the disappearing culture of video stores and movie theaters / The New Yorker

Things to Eat

The NY Times will have two chief restaurant critics, and will expand full-length starred reviews beyond NYC / NYT
Lunch with the Roti King. Sugen Gopal on his new cookbook, plans for expansion, and 10 years of roti canai / Slop
One Man's Quest for the Perfect Way to Kill a Fish / GQ
Related: the “Omnivore” Tuna Episode is absolutely killer TV / Apple TV+
All these products are *real* according to The Erewhon of Pet Food. Why your pets are snacking better than you / Snaxshot
Mushrooms and Our Search for Meaning / The Marginalian
Zohran Mamdani's Bagel Order / the Melt
Nostalgia is Soda's Biggest Weapon. Every new generation yearns for the past / Snaxshot

[SIC] 350: Rare Role Reversal

Corollary Sources This Week: Blazer / Declarative Statements / Public Announcement / The Unskippables / Today in Tabs / Marginal Revolution / Delightful / The Future Party / The New Statesman / The Material Review / Exec Sum / Catchdini / Elevator/ Dinner Party / Nieman Lab / International Intrigue / Brendan’s Communications Miscellany / Fashion Matters

[SIC] 350: Rare Role Reversal

Vol. 7, No. 40

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