counter-culture & anti-trends.
The PR Backfire of the Anti-Dupe Crusade
Charlotte Tilbury's line that a dupe dupes the consumer set off a wave of videos showing cheap alternatives to her products. In a cost of living squeeze, budget beauty reads as access, so attacking it reads as gatekeeping, and the quiet loss of her cruelty-free label made it worse. Premium brands win on product proof and community, and a dupe is only a threat when the product has nothing else to stand on.
Read the full thing →Navigating Black Friday Without Losing Your Brand’s Soul
The Black Friday playbook of fake urgency and race-to-the-bottom discounts is wearing out consumers and small brands alike. Three alternatives: replace urgency with radical transparency, run a subtractive counter-offer like Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket”, and sell one intentional buy less, buy better bundle.
counter-culture & anti-trendsThe Godlike Experience of the Offline Gadget
Gabi Abrão turned her spare iPhone into an offline music player and called it almost godlike. The pull of early 2000s tech like the iPod and the flip phone is a reaction to devices that track us and sell to us. Chompi Club and single-utility apps show how brands can build low-fidelity zones that respect people's boundaries.
counter-culture & anti-trendsWhy unavailable brands are winning the attention war
By stepping off the content-factory treadmill and focusing on deep, memorable brand equity, you become completely immune to the volatility of algorithms.
most read in this topic.
The PR Backfire of the Anti-Dupe Crusade
Charlotte Tilbury's line that a dupe dupes the consumer set off a wave of videos showing cheap alternatives to her products. In a cost of living squeeze, budget beauty reads as access, so attacking it reads as gatekeeping, and the quiet loss of her cruelty-free label made it worse. Premium brands win on product proof and community, and a dupe is only a threat when the product has nothing else to stand on.
Navigating Black Friday Without Losing Your Brand’s Soul
The Black Friday playbook of fake urgency and race-to-the-bottom discounts is wearing out consumers and small brands alike. Three alternatives: replace urgency with radical transparency, run a subtractive counter-offer like Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket”, and sell one intentional buy less, buy better bundle.
The Godlike Experience of the Offline Gadget
Gabi Abrão turned her spare iPhone into an offline music player and called it almost godlike. The pull of early 2000s tech like the iPod and the flip phone is a reaction to devices that track us and sell to us. Chompi Club and single-utility apps show how brands can build low-fidelity zones that respect people's boundaries.
Why unavailable brands are winning the attention war
By stepping off the content-factory treadmill and focusing on deep, memorable brand equity, you become completely immune to the volatility of algorithms.
Why we're turning our hobbies into a crusade
Hobbymaxxing is the shift from casual hobbies to deep, obsessive mastery. It comes from a generation craving real, tangible proof of effort after years of abstract, screen based work.
How to decline the next software update.
Goblinmaxxing is the deliberate rejection of constant self optimisation. It is choosing mess, rest and comfort over the endless corporate pressure to upgrade every part of your life.
Why the internet's culture war just crashed into reality
Everyone online said Christopher Nolan's new film would flop. It just had the biggest opening of his career instead. This proves online outrage does not predict how people really behave.
What happens when social media strips culture of all meaning
That sad saxophone sound all over your feed is not just a vibe. It is the actual score from Boyz n the Hood, written for one of the most devastating scenes in Black film history, now soundtracking burnt cookies and broken nails. It shows how fast the internet can strip the meaning out of anything it touches.
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