Bubble Characters and Canon Events
Discover more from After School by Casey Lewis
Bubble Characters and Canon Events
"you're a professional sim"
Watch Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka in the official trailer; Ticketmaster France crashes after more than 1 million Taylor Swift fans swarm Eras presale; and Gen Z bans scrolling phone with index finger — that’s for ‘old boomers’.
PULLING AT THREADS: WHY THE TWITTER RIVAL MAY WORK FOR FASHION, voguebusiness
“Threads feels like the comment section of TikTok in the best way,” says The Black Tux CMO Matt Sutton, who says that his brand’s growth on Threads has taken off faster than any other platform. He adds that while most consumer brands need to stay “buttoned up” on Twitter because it’s primarily a platform of frequent customer service inquiries, Threads is for fun. “We’re testing meme content we wouldn’t share on Instagram and leaning into building community with conversation-starters and funny direct talk.”
THE ‘SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE’ TIKTOK TREND THAT ALMOST WASN’T, nyt
An emerging TikTok trend has catapulted a new phrase into the pop culture lexicon: the “canon event,” a pivotal moment that must happen in order for people to mature into their future selves — like, for example, breaking up with a high school sweetheart or being let go from a dream job. The phrase was first popularized by “Across the Spider-Verse,” which has topped $600 million at the box office worldwide.
AMAZON LAUNCHES TIKTOK GAME SHOW FOR PRIME DAY, marketingdive
As part of its Prime Day sales event — happening now, as I’m sure you’ve noticed — Amazon teamed up with TikTok influencers for an “interactive livestreaming experience,” combining shoppable content with a game-show format. Fans in the comments could work together to unlock specific deals, apparently. It looks like pure chaos:
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GOOGLE QUIETLY DITCHED PLANS FOR AN AI-POWERED CHATBOT APP FOR GEN Z, nbcnews
Called “Bubble Characters,” the app featured a choice of a talking digital character that would interact in conversations with Gen Z users. The app’s description states that it featured “human-like” conversations that “take action” and are “interesting for GenZ.” The conversations were powered by LLMs. However, the company recently “deprioritized” those efforts amid an internal reorganization (at Google, “deprioritized” usually means it’s dead).
GEN Z MAY FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT THE OFFICE IS GOOD FOR: EAVESDROPPING AND SNOOPING ON COWORKERS TO GET AHEAD, fortune
Offices are overrated, imo.
INFLUENCERS BOOST WIMBLEDON CLOTHING RANGE AS CLUB CASHES IN ON TENNISCORE, theguardian
In hopes of capitalizing on the tenniscore trend, Wimbledon is working with influencers to promote its clothing range for the first time in its 146-year history. This week, 32-year-old Londoner Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe, who has 314,000 Instagram followers and is one of Britain’s biggest fashion influencers, posted a photo of an £85 Oxford shirt from Wimbledon’s new “semi-formal” collection.
One last thought:
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