Emotional Nudges and Bikini Bottoms
Emotional Nudges and Bikini Bottoms
“harry styles makes me happy”
Happy Halloween! Biden keeps popping up on TikTok even though it’s banned in the White House (spooky, indeed!); “Gen Z sex symbol” Jack Harlow brutally roasted himself on SNL; rapper Ice Spice's “Bikini Bottom” is suddenly dominating TikTok; and how Gen Z women found their Joker in horror movie Pearl.
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HOW LIQUID DEATH BECAME GEN Z’S LA CROIX, bonappetit
Exceptionally good branding, but that’s not nothing!
Since the brand’s first sold can in 2019, more than 225,000 people have “legally sold their souls” to the Liquid Death Country Club, a membership program that allows patrons early access to merch drops and live event…Others have gone so far as to tattoo the brand logo on their body…Liquid Death is the third best-selling carbonated water brand on Amazon and its most recent round of funding has bolstered the company's valuation to a staggering $700 million.
‘IT RUINED EVERYTHING’: BUY NOW, PAY LATER DRIVES GEN Z INTO DEBT, bloomberg
Sarah Pfefferle had saved $16,000 for her future home by the time she was 18. Then she started using BNPLs, and her savings evaporated, her debt piled up, and her credit score dropped to 580 from 720. Obviously this is a worst-case scenario, and not everyone who downloads Klarna is going to instantly deplete their bank account, but I think it’s happening more than we realize.
PARENTS, WHAT WOULD PERSUADE YOU TO PAY $300 FOR HARRY STYLES TICKETS? YOUR TEENS WANT TO KNOW., wsj
Abbie Williams labored over a PowerPoint presentation all summer, perfecting nine slides to persuade her audience to finance her latest pitch. “You always complain that I am grumpy,” read one slide by the 13-year-old. “Harry Styles makes me happy.”
TEENS TURN TO TIKTOK IN SEARCH OF A MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSIS, nyt
For young people, it has become trendy to identify with a mental health disorder. The diagnosis, official or otherwise, is often “considered a personality trait rather than something you want to heal.”
WHAT TIKTOK DOES TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH: ‘IT’S EMBARRASSING WE KNOW SO LITTLE’, theguardian
An interesting, if terrifying, one-two punch when combined with the above: “The app provides an endless stream of emotional nudges, which can be hard to recognize and really impact users in the long run.”
Speaking of emotional nudges, one last thought:
