Guitar Heros and Prairie Plagues

"manifesting brands"

Gen Z has found its guitar hero (and his name is Steve Lacy); the little plague of the prairie dress; boomers are all the rage; and conspiracy theorists on TikTok are saying Anne Heche was murdered :/

‘MORE ZEROS THAN I’VE SEEN IN MY LIFE’: THE AUTHOR WHO GOT A SIX-FIGURE DEAL VIA ‘BOOKTOK’, guardian
After she was dropped by her agent, Alex Aster turned to a books-obsessed corner of TikTok to gauge interest in her YA novel. Now Lightlark is one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the year. (Fascinatingly enough, Aster’s twin sister is Daniella Pierson, the 27-year-old founder of The Newsette who is now worth $200 million. Their mom must be proud.)

HOW BROOKS IS TARGETING GEN Z AND MILLENNIAL RUNNERS IN NEW CAMPAIGN, adage
In an effort to compete with Gen Z’s favorite running shoe brand — Hoka, obviously — Brooks tapped Stranger Things star David Harbour. (When I saw this headline, I expected a celebrity partnership with Millie Bobby Brown or Sadie Sink or Finn Wolfhard or Noah Schnapp or really anyone but 47-year-old Jim Hopper.)

TIKTOK LAUNCHES AN IN-APP US MIDTERMS ELECTIONS CENTER, SHARES PLAN TO FIGHT MISINFORMATION, techcrunch
Earlier this week, the Times published a story with the headline: “On TikTok, Election Misinformation Thrives Ahead of Midterms.” And then yesterday, TikTok responded by detailing its big plans to fight misinfo.

The company also detailed its broader plan to combat election misinformation on its platform, building on lessons it learned from the 2020 election cycle. For starters, it launched this in-app Election Center six weeks earlier than in 2020. It’s ramping up its efforts to educate the creator community about its rules related to election content, as well. This will include the launch of an educational series on the Creator Portal and TikTok, and briefings with both creators and agencies to further clarify its rules.

I guess it’s better than nothing, but I still feel a chill down my spine reading this. Did we learn nothing from Facebook and the 2016 election?

CONSUMERS ARE GROWING MORE PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THE ECONOMY—WHAT BRANDS SHOULD DO, adage
According to McKinsey’s latest consumer survey, boomers and Gen Xers are far more worried about inflation (75% and 71%) than millennials and Gen Z (55% and 44% — for younger consumers, “personal and political issues dominate instead”).

THE BUSINESS OF INFLUENCE: HAVE WE HIT PEAK INFLUENCER BRAND?, voguebusiness
A pretty bleak look at the future of influencer brands: “As long as they’re fully beholden to the algorithms of TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, they’re fragile and vulnerable to losing reach.” Still, though, “some creators have side-stepped traditional social networks, opting instead to build communities on direct membership platforms such as membership-based creator app Patreon; subscription newsletter platform Substack; and Gen Z group messaging app Geneva.”

One last thought:

it's me sally darr @sallydarr

saw a 17-year-old make a tiktok that said "manifesting brands i want to work with" and poured myself a glass of wine at 1pm