Strands of Genius: Character Builds Brands, Fashion Copying is Cool, Radiohead's TikTok Problems
Strands of Genius: Character Builds Brands, Fashion Copying is Cool, Radiohead's TikTok Problems
plus our thoughts on: Ultra Processed Food
WRITING FROM | Orlando, FL (USA)
WORKING ON | Article on deadline, Q4 planning, onboarding a new assistant, final things for Paid Attention 2.0
LOOKING AHEAD
Sept 6-23 | Aix-en-Provence, France
Sept 24-30 | Toulouse, France
Oct 1-31 | London, UK (tentative)
Nov 1-20 | Mexico (tentative)
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
We spent the week in Orlando for our first in person gig since the beforetimes and it was so good to be on a stage again and amongst the buzz of a conference. Everyone is so excited and ready to chat and mingle. Plus there is swag.
It’s still strange of course being around large groups, but we take all reasonable precautions (of course). Right now we’re in an airport lounge in transit back to Europe and travel is still significantly diminished due to the appropriate pandemic restrictions and concerns. That said, like with how hotels are so happy to be ecologically friendly by not washing towels or in any way that saves them money, it certainly feels like airlines have taken a similar approach, degrading the experience in any way that saves money without making any concessions for the customer who is willing to fly during these times. Still, this is all liminal and we’re looking forward to getting to Aix-en-Provence, our of our favorite places, tomorrow.
Also Happy Birthday to Faris’ Mum!
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Carrie, Julie, Lisa, and Gabi (Congrats on an amazing event!), The JW Marriott despite the endless alarms that went off during our stay, a lazy river, a brief taste of American food (even if the portions are insane if you’ve been spending time in Europe), walking miles and miles at Disney, Star Wars Rise of the Resistance, masks, vaccines, the novel XX by Rian Hughes and our friend Rueben for recommending it, conference swag, de-escalation, everyone who wrote a new blurb for Paid Attention 2.0, Excedrin, good pillows, Gunpowder Milkshake (a bit, good performances in a sort of stupid film), Faris’ parents, and You.
(Editor’s Note from Rosie) Also, quick favor: Faris is currently 10 short of 40k followers on Twitter. This is the very essence of a vanity metric, we get it, but it would make him happy if he hit this meaningless milestone so if you don’t follow him on Twitter, maybe give it a go just to give him a smile? He curates a lot of great stuff and tells bad jokes mostly. Also, I won’t have to listen to him talk about how many followers he is away from that 40k mark. (HA! Love you babe.) (Sorry for the PDA for the rest of y’all.)
:: THE LINKS ::
IN FASHION, COPYING IS NOW COOL
This piece looks at famous designers Virgil Abloh, Marc Jacobs, and others who quote freely from other designers. Fashion is a culture and it evolves by sampling, quoting, remixing and transforming but remember - the same is lame. A good sense check? If you feel comfortable sharing your inspiration. If you do, odds are, that you’ve transformed things enough. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing what inspired you, it might be that you haven’t done enough to transform what you initially found. (GQ)
CHARACTERS BUILD BRANDS
Faris’ chunky column looks at distinctive brand assets which seem to be less and less common and more and more important in advertising, with some good bits of planning theory and recommendations you can probably use or at least mention in your next meeting. “Truly, the icons of advertising are not Ogilvy and Bernbach but Snap, Crackle and Pop.” (WARC)
RADIOHEAD’S TIKTOK PROBLEMS
Radiohead got an agent to get them on TikTok and weren’t happy with the results, as they explain in this very funny video. There’s something more here though. As everyone now mediates themselves, they become advertisers if not brands (ugh i know personal branding is an icky concept but once you have pushed a version of yourself out through media it is impossible to not consider, as the curated fragments of you add up to something, but that something is not you, exactly) the inside baseball conversations between clients and advertising agencies are more common in culture, as the veil has been pulled back, and it’s easy to make fun of the industry. Like Radiohead do here. Also it’s in landscape which is spot on. ( TikTok)
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS ::
Faris was friends with a pair of very funny, nice, charming twins at high school in London of Canadian descent. They lost touch (well he lost touch with almost everyone from school tbh, apart from a guy who lives in Africa and a baker. It happens. We live, we move, we grow, we change social networks…) and Faris left the UK in 2006 for Australia and ended up in New York in 2008 and, well, you know the rest probably.
In the interim, those twins became doctors, scientists, and TV stars in the UK: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken, of Operation Ouch and loads of shows, books and other media things. A chance tweet let him to find this out a while ago and more recently they did this wonderful podcast called A Thorough Examination based on a very interesting premise. Despite being twins, Xand is 20kg heavier than his very slightly younger brother (8 minutes to be precise).
“The reason Xand is overweight is the same reason that most of us in the UK are overweight: Ultra Processed Food or UPF.
It’s the main thing that we now eat (and feed to our children), but most of us have never heard of it. It’s addictive, highly profitable and the main cause of the global obesity pandemic. It’s destroying our bodies, our brains and the environment.”
It’s also heavily advertised.
UPF was only defined as a distinct category in 2014 and today it makes up more than HALF OF ALL THE CALORIES eaten in the UK, and more than that in the USA. It’s not really even food and how it makes people consistently overeat is not well understood yet.
It’s strange and disturbing and this podcast explores it with empathy, humor, wisdom and science. Despite being doctors and having PhDs and that, they make the podcast very accessible and extremely honest - even with all that knowledge Xand succumbed to these hyper-appetizing food like substances that surround us, in stores and media.
:: AND NOW… A THOROUGH EXAMINATION WITH DRS CHRIS & XAND ::
It’s an insightful and surprisingly emotional podcast that might just change how you think about Ultra Processed Foods.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)