All Caught Up: AI plagiarism, Ballerina Farm, the Oat Milk Élite
Hello Kitty’s just a girl!
I think the apple’s rotten right to the core…
This week's picks include doomism, predators on Roblox and being coconut-pilled.
Christina’s weekly scroll –
Does Ballerina Farm deserve our sympathy? I don’t think Hannah wants our sympathy.
The widening gap between influencers and creators. Influence > audience.
Glossier joined Dieux, Topicals, Chillhouse and other DTC darlings on Ty Haney’s TYB. And they’re definitely releasing a new eyebrow product.
Time is a flat circle. We’re back to debating if Hello Kitty is a cat or not. Spoiler: She’s just a girl!
Crumbl x Kylie Cosmetics! Kylie’s celebrating the launch of her new skin tint with a cutie Crumbl collab.
The ACLU is advocating for deepfakes?
Google rolled back its plan to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome.
The Online Ceramics founders are parting ways, but fear not~ the brand will live on.
Roblox has a pedophile problem.
What’s going on in the North Atlantic? The ocean is at a tipping point.
Vegetarianism and the memory of pain. I need to read The Sexual Politics of Meat now.
Chinese social media is popping off with anti-Kamala Harris, pro-Donald Trump posts(?)
Paris has too many CCTV cameras for humans to watch, so they're turning to AI for the Olympics…
Nikita’s weekly scroll –
Conde sent a C&D to Perplexity. Remember when I said MTV News, etc were sunset as a data play?
Kamala IS BRAT. I have a lot of feelings about this, which I spoke to Bloomberg about. Here are my full notes from my interview, for posterity’s sake… I think Kamala should come out swinging with a really hopeful, politically sound policy platform, maybe distill that/soundbites into meme content, but otherwise – let’s let the kids meme for her. Her ad on Thursday is a step in the right direction.
Culture is a set of ideals and beliefs, almost like an operating system for who we are and what we believe. We are indoctrinated into this through education and nurturing.
Each summer the last five years has had a frantic, energetic ‘meme’ - whether it’s Hot Girl Summer, Barbenheimer/Barbie Pink, or BRAT. It’s a collision of culture and capital. The subject matter of BRAT itself has been so abstracted from the album that it’s funny to see a politician’s social lean into an album about being a party girl.
This summer BRAT has gone from indie to mainstream. Kamala’s campaign has intelligently seized upon the memes and subverted a weakness (some of the perceivably ‘absurd’ things KH has said, and flipped it into a strength). Memes are small, easy to understand and highly repeatable units of culture, it’s intelligent to do this - to a point. I do think she can use memes to distill talking points into repeatable maxims, but the BRAT stuff has a short shelf life.
One could argue that Trump is the master of this (he is a reality TV star!), and his campaign and experience in show biz has illuminated this path. Biden’s team semi-successfully tried to flip Dark Brandon memes and make him relatable and online, but KH’s age, alignment with this being a leftist/entertainment focused meme, her shared Indian heritage with Charli XCX shows that her team is listening.
There has to be a balance, because if her team plays too far into it, it will kill the coolness of the meme. Fan edits have been emerging for weeks now about KH, so there is a balance they have to hang in where the enthusiasm remains authentic - you can’t talk AT people, especially… as a politician!
Having an easy to repeat maxim makes political campaigns effective - think about Obama and hope.
The luxury market is in peril and Burberry is in focus.
Nara Smith posted a making a Marc Jacobs tote from scratch… and apparently it was ripped from another creator? IDK, jury is out for me on this one because what other creative concept would Nara do in this instance…
Abercrombie won by aging up. Hollister is focusing squarely on teens and bringing back their Feel Good Fest.
A TikTokker sued another TikTokker for copying her content. This should be interesting because… the algorithm rewards sameness.
A very funny conspiracy about how Pop Base is a pro-Kamala psyop. tbh, I think @RNCResearch is because they posted the coconut tree video first.
How niche local meme accounts shape culture. I’ve been saying this for years:
“For millennials and Gen Z-ers, material gain is more about these small, semi-expensive life-style choices—oat milk in your latte—than about bigger ones such as buying a house or having children, which are much harder to achieve in the absence of economic stability.”
˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Little Treat Corner ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
Christina’s weekly report:
READING: Snark subreddits… And I’m scared!
EATING: Ultra Violet Donut (which is essentially a raw purple sweet potato lmao)!
PLAYING: Stardew Valley again!!!
OBSESSING: Over marrying Elliott in Stardew Valley…
RECOMMENDING: Pausing before you hit send.
TREATING: Frozen chai <3
Nikita’s weekly report:
READING: Possibly every political tweet ever written on both sides.
EATING: Little Sesame Tahini sauce.
PLAYING: The Mindset Mentor podcast.
OBSESSING: I need some Jil Sander sandals…
RECOMMENDING: Feeling one ounce of hope.
TREATING: Mango frozen yogurt with strawberry purée and mochi.
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