[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY NINE

Vol. 3, No 8. Special Saturday Make-Up Edition. Unlocked.

[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY NINE

Forgive the missed send yesterday. And the unscheduled Saturday intrusion, all. I’ve been roped into helping organize a fast-approaching group show at an art museum coming this summer and I got waylaid by meetings. More on that to come, but I appreciate your patience. Here’s what I was working on for yesterday:

I went out Thursday night to a special Byline x Julie Event celebrating the release of Matters of the Heart, a special edition publication Meg and Gutes produced around themes of young love and self discovery. I was the oldest person in the room by a decade at least so it was interesting watch the Zillennials rock; high-caliber readings by Ali Royals, Iman Hariri-Kia and Peyton Dix were particularly notable (as was just generally the idea of readings as primary entertainment to my old ass band/DJ-coded brain).

But the most interesting thing to me was the participation of Julie, an emergency contraceptive product from the same brand family as Starface (cutecore acne patches), Overdrive (hedonism-forward drug testing kits) and Blip (Nicotine Replacement products powered by brainrot aesthetics).

[SIC] Talks alum Alyssa Vingan introduced me to Layla Halabian, the newly-installed editorial director of Julie - we talked about how a brand selling a CPG product that customers hopefully only buy once or twice in their whole lives can still create a long term relationship with its audience - so that if the time comes, the brand is top of mine. Editorial output and memorable storytelling (and smart partnerships) being one clear strategy. I am biased (not just because I am an advisor to Byline) but this make a lot of sense to me - and watching the wild ascent of Hims & Hers in recent weeks (ignoring Friday’s market-wide crash for a sec) demonstrates the huge upside in brands made for limited purpose expanding product ranges horizontally and creating a deep relationship with customers across need states.

I brought the Matters of the Heart zine home to my daughter after the party, and I could hear her and her friends giggling as they took turns reading Iman’s cute, slightly spicy diaristic vignettes to one another; a triumph of physical media as a means to make tricky feelings approachable. ‘Branded Content’ FTW, yet again.

A few other things that caught my eye yest:

Apropos of giggles: The National Portrait Gallery’s new show celebrating the iconic The Face magazine has opened. The Guardian on its “raucous sense of fun” :P

And vis a vis thoughtful conversations: WSJ chats with Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol about bringing back the company’s “coffeehouse vibe” to its many stores.

The world’s tallest Passive House (a building that doesn’t require any traditional heating systems) is coming to Brooklyn, and is MUCH bigger than any ‘house’ (except possibly the Ambani residence)?

Also passive: Can happier sheep make better wool? A growing community of Australian regenerative producers are reimagining wool farming, focusing on small-scale production and emphasising ecological and animal welfare.

More future: From Teddy Charms to Bunny Slippers: Behind Fashion’s Cuteness Craze. As consumers seek out products that are both uplifting and unique, brands from Coach to Anthropologie are leaning into whimsical motifs.

And finally, more whimsy: Cheetos unveils Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle flavor.

[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY NINE