Strands of Genius: Love In Harsh Times, SEO Ruined The Internet, Bertrand Russel's Commandments

Plus: our thoughts on the Super Bowl

Feb 13, 2024

WORKING ON | supporting an agency with a new biz pitch, agency positioning, setting up bird feeders

LOOKING AHEAD

Jan 12 - 21st | Beersheba Springs, TN
Jan 22 - Feb 15th | Chattanooga, TN
Feb 15 - 17th | Atlanta, GA
Feb 17 - 23rd | Seattle, WA
Feb 23 - 25th | Los Angeles, CA
Feb 25 - 26th | Atlanta, GA
Feb 27 - April 4th | Chattanooga, TN

:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::

Last year, we partnered with Zappi to discuss Super Bowl ads on their podcast, which meant a very focused game-watching experience, and lots of live tweeting for #PlannerBowl. This year, I focused on enjoying the dips and the wings and put aside my strategy brain briefly. It was a pleasant and enjoyable experience, and probably more enjoyable for the people we watched it with, too, without us “shhhh”-ing everyone. This year it didn’t feel like there was an ad that “won” the Super Bowl. Still though, the Super Bowl continues to be a celebrity hot spot — not just in attendees, but for brands’ commercials as well.

Scroll on down for more of our Super Bowl commentary, and we’ve got a trend report from the SB coming out on Friday.

Now the big game is over, and we get to see what the brands have planned for Valentine’s Day ;) It’s one of our least favorite holidays (Rosie doesn’t like chocolate, and prefers flowers on any other day of the year, and we both see it as a trick to get people spending more money) buuuuuut we are big fans of love and we hope that you feel lots of it, wherever you are!

This week, we’re especially thankful for:

Buffalo Wild Wings, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Rachel&Mike for hosting an SB party for the 5th or 6th year in a row, Flight Club darts, passion fruit margaritas, pool games at dive bars, finch feeders, birdbelly jelly, & YOU.

:: THE LINKS ::

LOVE IN HARSH TIMES

Amidst societal turmoil (ahem, it *is* an election year again), this article from David Brooks emphasizes the power of leading with love and compassion. It underscores the importance of recognizing and valuing the humanity of others, particularly in a climate of increasing dehumanization. He suggests we can combat bitterness and alienation through acknowledgement and understanding. While there’s a lot to love in this piece, I particularly enjoyed this quote: "The core counterattack against this kind of dehumanization is to offer others the gift of being seen." He continues, writing, “Most people — maybe more than you think — are peace- and love-seeking creatures who are sometimes caught in bad situations. The most practical thing you can do, even in hard times, is to lead with curiosity, lead with respect, work hard to understand the people you might be taught to detest. That means seeing people with generous eyes, offering trust to others before they trust you. That means adopting a certain posture toward the world. If you look at others with the eyes of fear and judgment, you will find flaws and menace; but if you look out with a respectful attitude, you’ll often find imperfect people enmeshed in uncertainty, doing the best they can.” (New York Times - Gift Link, No Subscription Needed)

DID SEO EXPERTS RUIN THE INTERNET?

In the digital landscape, the rise of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts has transformed online life into what some describe as a "search-optimized hellhole." I’m not sure that I’d entirely disagree. As dissatisfaction with the quality of Google search results continues to grow, the spotlight turns to the individuals who exploit algorithms to manipulate online visibility for profit. The allure of traffic and profit has led to the evolution of SEO techniques, shaping the internet into a space inundated with commercialized content. Designed to help us as consumers? Absolutely not. It’s only designed to help us spend money. Amidst criticisms and stereotypes, these professionals are depicted as modern-day pirates, navigating the murky waters of online and sometimes making a whole lot of money through unscrupulous practices. (The Verge)

BERTRAND RUSSEL’S 10 COMMANDMENTS

In 1951 Russell published an article in The New York Times Magazine, “The best answer to fanaticism: Liberalism.” At the end of the article, he wrote: “The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.”
  (via Thomas Oppong & NYT Archives)

:: TALKIN’ BOUT THE SUPERB OWL ::

Michael Cera and CeraVe felt quirky and got a giggle out of me. That’s one of those old brands that I never buy because they are just… boring. The packaging is boring, the brand is boring, and to be fair, CeraVe products also smell very gross to me — so Michael can you pls help them with the smell?! — but now I’ll be giggling and thinking of Michael Cera in store, instead. Is it enough for me to purchase CeraVe?! Maybe…

And then Dunkin’ Donuts gave us a celebrity couple willing to make fun of themselves. Those were the ads with celebrities that stood out the most to me.

Reese’s managed to grab my attention without any celebrities. It was weird and funny and product focused rather than brand focused, which was interesting. (Feels like when brands lean into humor, so often it’s from a brand perspective vs a product perspective.)

Loved Dove’s Hard Knocks, and how they continue to execute smartly against an existing campaign, rather than starting from scratch each time.

But was more impressed with Door Dash, and the ridiculously long code that you’ll need to win everything that was advertised during the Super Bowl. It was on brand, on strategy, and it forced the longest brand engagement… We still haven’t gotten it right, and yet we continue to try!

In terms of ads that I was not a fan of… Temu, Oreo, Lindt all left a lot to be desired. From Temu and Lindt, I expected nothing better — but Oreo, c’mon! Zappi gave Oreo’s ad a favorable rating, and yet most of the chatter we heard was… less than favorable. On Oreo’s ad, one pundit wrote, “The only thing the twist of an Oreo can change is your hunger level, because an Oreo is not a penny or a commemorative Super Bowl coin. It's food. The concept itself is so dumb that you have to wonder how this idea ever made it out of the pitch meeting.” YIKES. It takes a whole lot of effort to make an ad, and there’s even more red tape when big budgets are involved, so I’m not sure that level of snark is warranted… but to someone who has gotten to work on the brand, it felt like a big let down.

Last post that got a laugh from me was Biden, who posted “Just like we drew it up, Chiefs,” leaning into the Dark Brandon meme/energy. This is not someone who I am excited about running for President and have been struggling with big feelings of anger and sadness that we’re left to choose between two out-of-touch oldies again. What I really want is for Biden and Trump to step aside, but since I won’t be getting that, I’m thankful for some humor around the right-wing pundits talking about conspiracies like Biden planning the Chiefs trip to the SB.

But now the Super Bowl is over, and so we get to see what the brands have planned for Valentine’s Day ;) We are big fans of love and we hope that you feel lots of it, wherever you are!

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 in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, 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.

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Strands of Genius