Just tweet through it
Plus: How fixing awful photos just got easier and how the government makes a meme
Good PR people don’t get enough credit for creativity.
For example, how would you like to be the person who has to dig out of these?
Tuesday night gave us the gift(?) of Topanga-gate, where the TV producer husband of the 90s “Boy Meets World” star tweeted images of what appear to be shrimp tails and additional yet-to-be-identified matter he allegedly found in a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But before the shrimp tails got back from DNA testing – or, that’s how the story goes, at least – he was accused by multiple people on Twitter of being a pretty bad person. This is guaranteed to take more weird twists.
The Teen Vogue racist tweets saga continues to churn. This insightful analysis talks about why the situation was as much about corporate media ineptitude as it was about questionable tweets, plus the clean-up job ahead (which now includes the questionable tweets of a staffer who had advocated for the editor in question’s ouster).
It all makes health food chain Krispy Kreme’s announcement that the chain will give a free glazed donut every day to anyone who can prove they’ve been vaccinated seem so long ago. At least the donut giant could have more fun with this if they wanted to.
Creativity and Marketing
Now you really can fix your mom’s pixelated photos: Adobe introduced Super Resolution recently, which will ship as part of Lightroom and appears to be a significant advancement for every creative who gets asked to “fix” previously unsalvageable blurry/tiny photos for clients or family members.
DJI will be snagging this for an ad: Bjorn Steinbekk’s drone footage of the Fagradalsfjall volcano eruption – happening right now in Iceland – is worth 30 seconds of your time.
Could it sound more sinister?: Digiday breaks down what dark patterns are and how some marketers use them to manipulate you.
Removing the excuse: Dove – known for their challenges to the concept and portrayals of beauty in advertising – created a campaign offering to foot the bill for advertisers who chose to include non-traditional talent in their ads.
The meme that took three weeks to make (and is still a little confusing): Think your job has bureaucracy? Check out this story from Vice: “The Pentagon doesn’t meme like you or I. Before the DoD’s cyber warriors can shitpost, images must be approved, tweets drafted and redrafted, and everything has to go through the chain of command. From conception to deployment, the picture of the Soviet bear dropping malware candy took 22 days.”
“Um, hey … can you mute?”: Twitter Spaces should launch for everyone in April, in case you need even more social media chat line action in your life.
The news gets in on NFTs: An NFT of this New York Times column just sold for about $560,000.
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Culture
Who owns your face?: You may want to keep wearing your COVID mask after reading this feature on the actions and implications of Clearview AI.
Celebrities on Sandwiches?: Architectural Digest’s “Open Door” series is bingeable content for anyone who likes nice things. But what caught my eye in this look at David Diggs/Emmy Raver-Lampman’s home was the Celebrities on Sandwiches portraits at the 10:17 mark. (I may or may not have subsequently purchased another print from this series.)
Fedcoin!: A digital version of the U.S. dollar is inching closer to reality, and America’s banks really don’t like it.
If it didn’t already feel hard enough to save up to buy a house …: Your main competitors are now people who are trying to buy their second home.
See you next Thursday.