Filed under: America, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Cars, Corporate Evil, Design, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Technology, Twitter
Tesla.
When they launched, they were a glimpse into the future of mobility.
A way to combine technology to drive sustainability while keeping all the excitement of performance. Something that had previously been seen as impossible to create.
But they did and with it … it positioned Elon Musk as a modern day genius.
Edison x Einstein x Jobs. Maybe.
He added to his legacy when he launched a self-landing rocket.
The first time I saw that, it was – similar to sitting in a Tesla for the first time – like living in a sci-fi movie, such was it’s impressive impact.
But now?
Not so much.
Elon – through his actions, behaviours and attitude – has demonstrated that either he was trolling us or his immense success has resulted in him believing he is better than the rest of us.
The purchase of Twitter.
Accusing innocent people of pedophilia.
His treatment and attitude towards members of his family.
Claiming ‘freedom of speech’ except when it revolves around him.
There’s been so, so many moments of him revealing his ugliness.
That doesn’t mean he’s not very smart – he obviously is – but sadly where once we hoped it was to help lift everyone up, it’s apparent his focus is about lifting himself up. It all feels like he is seeking revenge for all the girls at school that turned him down and all the boys that wouldn’t let him play in their game of soccer.
We can’t say we weren’t warned.
His ex-wife’s interview in Marie Claire back in 2010 was a major red flag … which we collectively ignored because back then, he was still making headlines for good things more than satisfying his immense ego.
But now, his true character is fully on display and nothing sums this up more than the design of his cyber-truck … also known as the ‘middle-aged, white republican male, steroids-on-4-wheels-mobile’
Recently I read a designers review [@no_commercial_value] of the Cyber Truck aesthetic and it was the most perfect description of the philosophy and attitude of it’s creator … and the people who seem to love it the most.
It was this …
Paramilitary Cosplay is the most perfect description I think I’ve ever heard.
And the other definitions aren’t bad either.
It reminds me of the time Cynic did some research for Hummer and heard from interviews how the ‘feature’ many owners aspired to have was a ‘gun turret’ … I kid you not.
I also remember one person complaining about glove boxes you could close, because that was ‘pandering to the weak’.
I suppose none of this should come as a surprise because apparently when the iconic movie ‘Die Hard’ was first shown to test audiences featuring American men, many saw John McClane/Bruce Willis as ‘a coward’ as they interpreted his actions as ‘running away from trouble and that’s not what America does’.
Kind of explains a lot doesn’t it … including the rise of Trump and – getting back on subject – Musk.
Yes, I know Musk is South African, but his behaviour is pure Americana. Or should I say, 80’s Americana, as depicted in movies featuring Stallone, Schwarzenegger and van Damme.
Which all feels like the ‘theme’ behind the Cyber Truck.
A futuristic vision of a totalitarian regime. Where the rich are powerful and intimidating [and white] and the poor are disposable and weak.
Paramilitary Chic … as it were.
No doubt we can expect to see Putin, Trump and every other right-wing leader wearing 80’s style, Hugo Boss suits with massive shoulder pads soon … looking like some cartoon general with a metaphorical chest full of [fake or self-anointed] medals.
In many ways, they are a perfect example of a powerful brand … where society either loves them or hates them, but rarely apathetic towards them.
This revelation initially petrified me because this is kind-of what our industry is here to do.
I was going to point out that we should be careful what we aspire to.
But then I looked at what we’re producing all over the world – and what clients think is edgy – and realised there’s absolutely no danger of any of this happening, which might be a tragic indictment of the state of our industry but a relief that we’re not adding to a world of egomaniac, dictator-fantasist fuckwits.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Business, Confidence, Context, Culture, Fake Attitude, Marketing, Membership, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Pretentious Rubbish, Revenge, Twitter
Over the last 12 months, one of the things I’ve had an almost adverse reaction to is twitter.
I can see Andy reading this – and I expect an email from him reinforcing this – and shouting:
“Now you know why I always called it twatter”
And he may … just may … be right.
I used to like twitter.
It had a similar feel to the early days of blogging.
Community. Supportive. Elevation of knowledge and debate.
But now …. well, it’s a cesspit of hate, ego and imposters.
Full of people on self-made pedestals claiming to be the next incarnation of Christ. Who believe they are better and smarter than the bastard love-triangle-child of Weiden, Edison and Ocasio-Cortez. Who are disturbingly confident in their claims of being more knowledgable about companies histories, operations and decision making than employees – or even founders – of those very companies. Or even the CIA.
And yet, when you look for any of the work these genius’ have actually made … what you tend to find is more tweets.
Tweets about what others are doing wrong.
Tweets about how they could do things better.
Tweets about how they know the answer to everything and beyond.
Tweets about how they want others to give them answers to questions that someone else is paying them to provide.
Tweets about how they claim ownership for business or societal behaviour change via articles that they had nothing to do with that talk about business or societal behaviour change.
Tweets about how their ego, arrogance, aggression, bitterness and dismissal of others know no bounds.
Tweets. Tweets. Tweets.
And this was before Elon Musk, the World’s comedy villain, overpaid for the bloody thing.
Of course not everyone is like this. There are still some amazing people on there who are generous and open with their comments and consideration … who can disagree without aspiring to demolish those who have a different point of view … however they’re increasingly becoming the minority, drowned out by wave after wave of hateful, spiteful, vicious commentary which – for the first time in my life – pushed me away for my mental health.
This was shocking to me for 3 reasons.
1. Having worked in this industry for so long, I have the thickest of thick skin.
2. I’m a social-media tart. Not just in terms of platforms I belong to, but in terms of ‘content’ I churn out.
3. No one was personally attacking or abusing me.
Basically, twitter has become exhausting to me.
A firehose of cliquey, self-congratulatory, pseudo-intellectual commentary that tries – and fails – to hide it is ego and insecurity shouting into an echo-chamber.
Personally this has devastated me.
I loved twitter – like I loved blogs – because I genuinely felt they helped me be become better at things I do or wanted to do.
It gave me a direct line to people I respected where I was able to listen, learn, interact, explore and debate.
Twitter wanted me to be better.
It wanted me to be exposed to new ideas, ideals and considerations.
But not now.
Now it’s like a digital version of The Hunger Games.
Destruction in 280 characters.
Words used as bombs and swords.
People elevating themselves by bringing others down … through verbal attacks, gaslighting or building a wall of imagined exclusivity between them and others, even if it only exists in the minds, ego and insecurity of those who post so often, you wonder how the hell they have time to do their actual job.
Anyway, the reason for all this is that I recently read a quote from Musk about what he thought Twitter was:
I couldn’t agree with him more.
In fact, I think he encapsulated why I have fallen out-of-love with his $44 billion indulgence.
Because mediums are neither rare nor well done.
Filed under: 2025, A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Content, Context, EvilGenius, Relationships, Relevance, Revenge, Rivalry, Social Media, Stupid, Twitter, Viz
Monday.
On the second week of this blog of the new year.
So what better way to start it than a post from Satan about Jesus.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the dangers and damage the internet – specifically social media – can do. And it’s all true. But then, anything in abundance with minimal control will do that – albeit, it’s worse when the person ‘in control’ is the egotistical, arrogant, spoilt, delusionist, that is Elon Musk.
However, among all the darkness is light.
Glimpses of the brilliant madness that the internet offered us all in the earliest of days.
Where people found ways to use it that served little purpose other than to add colour, weirdness and humour to our lives. Things like Star Wars Kid or Eric Conveys An Emotion.
But one other place that was a beacon for the good weird was, at least in its early days – when it was 100% Bird and 0% X – was Twitter. And while it is now a cesspit of hate, porn and ego, it still has some magic on there and two of my fave people are God and Satan.
Given I am not religious at all, that may seem strange. But what is even stranger is that they often post shit that I find far more sensible or insightful than many of the self-professed geniuses on there. Or Linkedin.
Of course, what they write has zero to do with religion and more pisstaking out of it. But like The Stones vs The Beatles … Oasis vs Blur … Coke vs Pepsi … Democrats vs Republicans … Kodak vs Fuji or Delivereasy vs Uber Eats … they make it – intentionally or otherwise – a 2-horse race so the cultural narrative around the topics and subjects they represent or cover are sucked up and conducted by them or about them.
In other words, they have a disproportionate influence in the direction of how and where the category travels … meaning it’s harder for others to break in and mess with stuff.
Not impossible. But harder.
Of course, there is also the danger of it backfiring. Where you get so obsessed looking to your side to see what your core competitor is up to, you fail to see what is happening behind you. Or in front. Or around. Just ask Nokia, for example. However, when done well – and with the right amount of self-awareness and openness – the power of the 2-horse race is almost unprecedented in its ability to shape a cultural and category narrative in your favour.
Which all sounds incredibly serious given this is coming from a photo of a tweet where someone is pretending to be Satan and taking the piss out of the ‘virtue signaling’ of Jesus.
Maybe it’s funny because it’s challenges the righteous pomposity of Christianity.
Maybe it’s funny because we all know someone a bit like this.
[Minus the death/crucifixion]
Maybe it’s funny because it’s petty and that can be funny.
But whatever the reason, it’s good … but still not as good as this masterpiece about Skegness by the Mablethorpe Tourist Board, courtesy of the twisted brilliance of Viz:
God, 2nd week in and I’m already at the barrel scraping level of posts.
It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year does it?