Upstream #157
infantilized dinkwads, schlumpy, retail meeja, uprising, spinoza.
Welcome back. Itās 2023. Wow. Thatās miles from where we started, but miles to go still. Looking forward to everything this year brings. Gonna be great. Right, letās go.
āLife is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.ā
AnaĆÆs Nin
culture // infantilized dinkwads
The idea of āKid-ultsā isnāt new. Peter Pan syndrome and all that. An ageless trend (excuse the pun). But it IS growing. āKidultsā are now responsible for one-fourth of all toy sales annually, around $9 billion, and are the biggest driver of growth in the toy industry. Lego are doubling down, with this nice work. And itās not just toys, 50% of Disney+ subscribers are adults without kids. TheĀ rise of the DINKWADsĀ š (dual income, no kids, with a dog) might be a reason. No needy kids, means lots of cash for lego and stuff. Plus,Ā acting like kids is fun and a greatly needed escape. Maybe weāll all just eventually regress into some Metaversal Disney adult creche and play games till the end.Ā Sounds ok to me.
brands // schlumpy
We still live in strange times. But maybe this year weāll haveĀ a more real, philosophical and balanced approach. Maybe instead of binary thinking, weāll findĀ more "middle paths between ignoring threats and despairing about them, between dismissing opportunities and glorifying them, and between asceticism and hedonismā. BetweenĀ sad & smart. Between ourĀ Scylla & Charybdis. Maybe weāll also start to celebrate real in ā23, not some ritzy version of it. In fact, rich people are the new villains of 2023 (see White Lotus, Succession, Musk &Ā Bankman-Fried hating etc) and eating the rich may be the dominant creative narrative this year, as people and brands celebrate social realism (or you know, real life). Real life slobs can rejoice too, as looking dreadful will be the height of fashion this year as people get comfortable getting real (see Portiaās āschlumpy" look from The White Lotus). Yeah, embrace the schlumpy and the real, becauseĀ reality, often hides in plain sight.
technology // retail meeja
Google and MetaāsĀ duopoly is finally being rightly disrupted by retail media, which is growing fast (despite some challenges for ā23). Group M reckon itsĀ now 11% of global advertising spendĀ (which is nowĀ 57% digital). Renting e-commerce space in now just part of the game and as the pie hasnāt grown, everything else will be pinched. Shopify are in on it with a different approach and just launchedĀ Shopify Audiences. It lets brands to pool their customer data, and use it to target lookalike audiences on Meta platforms, while targeting their own customers on Google platforms. Meanwhile, lots of noise about new tech, including Microsoft's new voice AI, which canĀ simulate any voice in 3 seconds (goodbye VOās). Which is quick and almost as quick asĀ Ryan Reynoldās ChatGPT3 ad for Mint Mobile (which T-Mobile are looking to buy).Ā
creativity // uprising
Really like theĀ Saatchi and Saatchi upriser initiative in the UK. TheyāreĀ aiming to inspire school students with the power of creative thinking and make them aware of careers in the creative industries. In light of Sunakās plan for UK students to study math until theyāre 18, this feels worthwhile. SomeĀ niceĀ tactical messaging too.Ā Creativity will change the future. Weāre goosed without it. Because creative acts, are oftenĀ conceiving things that donāt exist. Which is vital.Ā Remember that 'societies in which the past was revered to the extent that it was viewed as unsurpassably greater - intrinsically - showed relatively little innovationāĀ (part of a great thread on The Renaissance and theories of innovation).Ā So yeah, creative thinking is important.
five random (ish) things:
Peanuts. Dare you not to laugh š.Ā
2023 trendsĀ reports be like š„.
An amazingĀ set of qās to ask yourselfĀ for ā23 š¤.
Big sample sizes = patterns š.
watching // spinoza
Thinking about philosophy at the mo. āWTF are you talking about you pretentious twatā, you might ask? But yeah, thinking about why we think, the way we think. I started with Spinoza, who believed God is everything. And everything is nature (Pantheism). So everything is connected. And to understand ourselves, we have to understand the natural world in which we exist. The nature of things. Anyway, you be the judge.