[SIC] DAY THREE HUNDRED TWO

Vol. 3, No. 21. Hip Sabbatical

[SIC] DAY THREE HUNDRED TWO.2.

Last Tuesday I launched a new weekly conversation (some might call it a podcast) with

Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick

called “Hip Replacement.” It’s a moving meditation on Generations XYNZ (new trademark term alert) and I think it’s shaping up to be pretty interesting. Our series producer is currently on Spring Break in Miami so I can’t yet point you to the new ep (it’ll be up shortly today) but here’s episode one (with the

Selleb Sisters

), if you haven’t listened.

Today’s episode is with

Georgia Graham

of Threads of Converation (itself a pod and sletter), not a Z herself but certainly close to the movements of the cohort. We talked about an array of topics in a tight half hour, among them:

Gen Z Is Taking ‘Micro-Retirement.’ Don’t Laugh. Per Bloomberg, “young workers have rebranded sabbaticals — and they may be onto something.” This sounds dumb to me, mainly because a) I think branding matters, and b) I associate retirement as a finality (and sabbatical as an opportunity to recharge and refocus). But as Kyle and Georgia pointed out it’s also got a dark late capitalist undertone - ie ‘you’re going to work forever, so an unpaid micro-retirement’ is the best thing you can expect.’ I’m not quite convinced things are that bleak - but I do think the idea that sabbaticals (in the traditional sense) make sense as an employee retention strategy. Micro-retirement remains bad messaging tho.

Corollary to micro-retirement: we didn’t talk about it on the show, but this FastCo story about the trend of Americans increasingly spending more time at home — a trend that was happening even before COVID forced us to stay in. Turns out we’ve been and spending less and less time engaged in activities away from home stretching all the way back to at least 2003 (aka the year Friendster dropped) - another irony of the ‘social’ media era. Screens mean taking our own little retirements, without the help of companies.

Hence? Hasbro is betting on ‘kidults.’ Though, as Quartz points out, the toymaker’s strategy to focus on adult collectors could be threatened by Trump’s tariffs, the IP-powered perpetualization of adolescence is present everywhere, not least in the parlance “[INSERT NAME] Cinematic Universe,” which slides into converation today with the ease of a cliche.

It’s a compelling strategy (one I espouse myself, via my ‘superformat’ thesis) - and we talked at some length about how it might inform the agency approach that gave us KFC’s new UK effort to Lure Gen Z Into Its Bizarre Cult with an ad by Mother London [that] culminates with a gravy baptism, urging people to believe in the brand by worshipping at the feet of Chicken and the holy egg. Like I pointed out, every element - Yeezy-esque sweatsuits, the baptism drumstick -could be rendered as a collectible and marketed to brand obsessives.

The ultimate return to a cinematic universe, tho? Ted Gioia’s How James Bond Can Fix the Crisis in Masculinity, in which the Honest Broker makes a series of well-intentioned suggestions for Bond’s new commissioners in Bezosland to adapt the character so he becomes the role model he was in Ted’s use once again. No bad calls herein, I don’t think - but Ted misses the best suggestion, which Georgia nailed in our conversation: make the next James a she.

[SIC] DAY THREE HUNDRED TWO