Five things on Friday #372
This week things are... INTERESTING.
Things of note for the week ending Friday May 17th, 2024.
INTRO
Hello hello.
It's been a wholesome few days over here.
X-Men '97 finished (honestly, still processing - there’s a mid-credits sequence btw, if you missed it). My X-Men Lego set arrived (hoorah!). I went to a super interesting conference (see Thing 2). And I rubbed shoulders with some shiny smiling slebs at the YMU drinks thing at Advertising Week Europe. Fancy.
Oh and we finally got around to putting the fresh batch of herbs and vegetables in the garden.
Cross your fingers that the slugs and snails leave them alone this year.
How has your week been?
Anything exciting you're working on you wanna tell me about? Hit reply and tell me. You're all so bloody unique, it's a pleasure to hear from any of you.
I am mostly listening to CMAT (again), playing ANIMAL WELL (more, later), and mostly trying to figure out what the rest of 2024 looks like. You know, a casual bit soothsaying. Why not?
What else can I tell you?
Ah yes!
‘FIVES, A TEN IS SPEAKING…’
…IN AUSTRALIA.
No but actually, I am actually speaking in Australia in August. Eep!
I know there's a small handful of you who read this Down Under (so God knows what day it actually arrives for you - what is it, like, Five things on Tuesday?) so you MIGHT be interested to know that I'm speaking at the STATE OF SOCIAL conference in PERTH this coming August.
What I should make clear is that the unwavering Meg Coffey has been chasing me down FOR YEARS and it has always clashed with either a) Gamescom, b) my annual summer party (long story), or c) both.
This year: no Gamescom (woo!) and I've not locked the dates for the party yet (double woo!) AND SO when those two things meet Meg (again, the kind of determined woman who when she reads 'I want to go an adventure this year' in someone's newsletter, she replies with 'Do you want to go on an adventure to Australia and shall we jump on a call right now?') then you aren't really left with much choice.
To be clear, I'm not talking about (or representing) LEGO - gotta say that. I am going to be talking about my experiences of working with brands and how to best activate against them with and/or in video games.
Featuring the good, the bad, and the down right ugly, this talk is being written and planned RIGHT NOW (Meg, I've got my opener NAILED), I'm only presenting entirely bespoke presentation at the STATE OF SOCIAL 2024.
So if you wanna see it, you gotta come x
Tickets are available NOW.
PS. If you ARE coming, please yell - Meg has chucked me a promo code that gets you $50AUD off your in-person ticket. So hit reply and I’ll throw it your way x
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If you CAN'T make it to PERTH (I mean, if you're not already there then fair enough) then I do do VERY OCCASIONAL speaking gigs (workload, brief, audience, event depending). This year I've got two training things booked in (mainly brand/integrated strat-based), two speakingy things, and two advisory positions.
So I think I've probably got room for one more thing between now and the end of the summer? I think? Maybe? I don’t know. Let me know.
-
Right, that's enough pimping for one day. Shall we crack on with the Things?
LET’S.
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. MARY WELLS LAWRENCE
Mary Wells Lawrence, the original inspiration for Peggy Olsen in MAD MEN, passed away last weekend at the grand old age of 95.
The New York Times obit features the phenomenal line, ‘Ms. Wells Lawrence had homes in New York and the south of France, but spent most months in later years aboard her yacht in the Mediterranean’.
Goals.
But this isn’t about that. This is about her impact on women in advertising. I am not an expert in advertising history and I am definitely not a woman.
So instead of blindly making it up, I asked erudite copywriting queen, Vikki Ross, if she would write this part of the Thing this week - and she said yes.
Vikki writes:
“Ad legend Mary Wells Lawrence died last week.
Usually those statements start with a negative like 'Sadly' or 'Unfortunately' but I don't want us to be sad. I want us to celebrate the life and legacy of one of the most famous women in advertising.
After almost two decades as a copywriter, Mary became the first female CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange when she founded ad agency Wells, Rich, Greene in 1968. A year later, she was earning $225,000, making her the highest paid woman in the world. She was inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame in the same year - at 40 years old, she was the youngest inductee ever.
As a copywriter, I'd love to focus on her writing, but she was so much more than the words we saw on screen and in print. She was the mastermind behind some of the biggest business transformations in history. She was one of the clearest, quickest and most creative thinkers. Ahead of her time - as a woman at that time? Absolutely. Standing out in an industry dominated by men? Definitely.
“The best advertising should make you nervous about what you’re not buying.”
I wish I could've met her - I wish I could've worked for her. Reading her book, A Big Life (in Advertising) is the next best thing. If you haven't already, I urge anyone reading this to read that.
"You can't just be you. You have to double yourself. You have to read books on subjects you know nothing about. You have to travel to places you never thought of travelling. You have to meet every kind of person and endlessly stretch what you know."“
THING 2. INTERESTING 2024
On Wednesday I spent the evening at Conway Hall attending Russell Davies' excellent INTERESTING conference.
If you've never heard of INTERESTING, I'm sorry. We're changing that now.
If you have heard of it, and never been - well, let's sort that next year (this year was, shockingly, my first time).
And if you have heard of it - and have been before (or were in fact there this week) then hoorah for you. And if you were there on Wednesday and we didn’t see each other - hit reply and tell me.
Ten speakers, ten minutes (ish - you know who you are) each, ten wildly different and wonderfully interesting talks.
Russell is an endearing host and everyone wants to be there. No dickheads, y’know?
Anyway, WHAT BRAIN FODDER!
And forgive me, I have some names (not all), some notes (rough, below), some memories (fleeting) - and not much more than that.
We had talks about:
TAPS. They were good. Now they’re not. Why? Capitalism (Obvs). Ben Terrett. A tight and v funny opener looking at bad/overly designed faucets.
Becoming COMPOST. Sonia Turcotte. Notes included: Buckets, not barrels. Alfalfa. Cardboard. ‘If we do this right, we can live our way into a different way of thinking’ - The smell. The process. The joy of giving back to earth. I now want to compost.
Thinking with DUST. Jay Owens, author of DUST, talking about DUST, in a dusty hall. Notes included ‘Anthropocene. Book. Reasons to think about dust - you’re not going to change by doing something easy’
How to get RICHer
quickSLOWLY. The disarming Anna Goss on form talking about PENSIONS and inviting us all to join her on the beach. Not many notes. Just lots of attention paid. One might call it compound interest. I wrote ‘Pensions’ three times, and ‘SIPP’ and ‘Vanguard’. Recommend issue one and two of Checksies.com.MATCHA do about nothing (title of the night - big cheer). Gianfranco Chicco explaining his Matcha-making process - the history, his love of it - and sharing it, literally, with the front row as well. Delightful.
‘WHOOSH WHOOSH - BEEP BEEP’ Lucy Dearlove - on a short history of noisy kitchens. Notes included ‘Dorothy Hartley. Clunking. Whirring. THE SOUND OF KITCHENS from 120 years ago!
LIES, damned LIES, and mid-00’s video games PR* Matt Muir, he of web curios fame, doing a live confessional of ALL THE LIES he was paid to tell to help sell video games in the mid-noughties.
*I know that wasn’t your title Matt but it’s what I wrote down - in fact I wrote LIES a lot throughout - well done.A SYSTEMIC APPROACH TO COOLNESS 1974-2024. Sophie Sampson. A very well disguised love letter to Yves Saint Laurent. Notes included ‘Clothes. Choices. Things. Past. Future. Disco! Fashion design, sparkles - MOVEMENT.’ @wardrobestrategy
GOD’S GREATEST LIAR. No, not the orange one. Or the the partying-through-covid one. Terry Stiastny taking us a quick tour of the history of Brendan Bracken. Notes included: Churchill’s fixer. Famous liar. FT owner. ‘Lying didn’t go away but getting caught caught up.’ Look up a book of ‘Unparliamentary Expressions’.
ELSIE DE WOLF. OPTIMISM AND WHITE PAINT. Albert Hill. Notes: Interior design. The Lady Mendl from ‘Anything goes!’ - what an incredible life.
So yes! It was VERY INTERESTING and you know what, it’s this kind of thing that reminds me just how much I really fire-trucking LOVE nerds.
Passionate nerds sharing the things they are passionately nerdy about.
Nerdy nerdy nerd nerds.
Perfect.
The good news is:
So maybe I’ll see you at the next one?
To find out when that’ll be, follow Russell (on Threads or other platforms).
PS. Thanks to John V Willshire on Flickr for the great photos.
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN... GAMING
One quick thing. Then lots of little things. The quick thing: Animal Well.
In spite it being SO SMALL in size that the 4K backdrop needed for its PS5 store placement is bigger than the game itself, Animal Well is an absolute corker of a game and I fully expect to see it on the shortlists for GotY and possibly even some BAFTAs next year.
Ambitious, clever, and just so so so charming, Animal Well is one of those games I just really want you to play. I’ve seen one set of credits already and I’m going to go back and see some more very soon. Play it!
More.
Quick News Bites
Kari Vinter Nielsen (had a call with her the other day - she is ACE), on why LEGO sees its gaming future in Fortnite.
More Animal Well? OK! Keza MacDonald celebrates the indie gems that just keep coming. It’ll be a fallow year for AAAs this year so the indies will be able to SHINE.
PlayStation’s revenues are up and it only just misses its hardware sales target (in this economy, I’m stunned it’s that high at all). Normally I’m all over these earnings but I’ve honestly been so busy I haven’t had a chance this quarter. Fortunately…
Friend of FToF, George Osborn (not that one) has covered all the earnings reports at VGiM. Worth a look.
‘Why does EA think in-game ads are better business than a Mandalorian game?’ - spoken like a man that has never spent any time with a media owner.
What are you playing?
THING 4. THERAPY
So I went back to therapy yesterday. Woke up a week or so ago and went ‘Oh, yeah no’ and lo, yesterday afternoon, I found myself on a call with my old therapist (I am smiling as I write this) catching up like old friends.
Truth is: I’ve got some work to do.
Earlier this year, I experienced some real feelings of loss. Grief. Betrayal. Hurt people hurt people right? And I got hurt. Tie all that up with losing someone close to cancer while at the same time trying to support a partner going through some major health issues… It’s been a lot.
And now? Well, the first step is knowing how to ask for help. Knowing how to seek out compassion, love, empathy and friendship.
Shame dies in the light.
And I’ve got work to do.
THING 5. THE DANA SQUID
The Dana Squid is around six-seven feet in length (a couple of metres), lives in complete darkness a quarter of a mile under the sea, and what we know of it we’ve learnt from examining left over parts that occasionally turn up inside whales.
Oh and it apparently has ATTACKING HEADLIGHTS on the front of its tentacles too.
Yeah, so scientists have just managed to capture some footage of it in full attack mode, some 1000m below the surface.
One thing to note before you click through and watch the video, about halfway down after that it says:
‘And although it is impossible to tell from the video, the cameras are falling at nearly 60m per minute when the squid attacks, showing how quickly it can move.’
Keep that in mind when you watch (or don’t watch).
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
If you’ve ever joined a call with me you might spot a few Lego things in the background. A Batman Tumbler Batmobile (thanks Digitas), a Horizon Zero Dawn Tallneck (with Lego Aloy), Optimus Prime, and this Mandalorian helmet. Anyway, I did a call with a new colleague last night and they spotted mine and said, ‘Hey, check my one out’ - and they showed me this, from Brickdistorted. Yeah have fun on that website. Sorry in advance x
There’s a STORROR/Parkour thing floating around again showing the SPRINT/Parkour race from Moorgate to Farringdon. The video is a fun watch but it is a fake (a clever one - and an impressive one) but still a fake.
‘61% of Americans play video games for at least an hour a week’
The first MEGALOPOLIS reviews are in. Can you say ‘divisive’?
‘My job… it’s just deck’ - Joe Burns on the Ken Effect and frankly, how the industry is CRYING OUT for better managers. Especially in planning. Oy.
Sometimes we all need to be reminded of the parable of the drowning man.
I don’t post pictures of my children on the internet.
Here’s one reason why - Becca Caddy reporting AI-driven fake sextortion (happening to HERSELF).
And here’s another - ‘Meta uses Instagram photos to train its AI image generator’.Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that EU is opening a new investigation into Facebook and Meta (care of the Digital Services Act) over the suspected negative impact these platforms have on the physical and mental health of our children.
Then there’s Business Insider: ‘I spent entirely too much time thinking about Mark Zuckerberg’s outfit at his birthday party’. All bases covered I think?
If you park the rag press interviews aside, the very real impact of Baby Reindeer - and the male survivors turning up to seek help - is remarkable.
It's been two years TO THE DAY since I said 'The Metaverse doesn't exist, you're talking about gaming' - we can all agree on that now, right?
Although saying that… WALES, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
DUNE: Prophecy had no idea this was a thing (Hmmm).
Matt Waksman, waxing (ten points).
Ralph Ineson IS Galactus (exciting).
Another week, another content robber. Here’s Open AI failing to answer the question ‘Have you trained your AI on YouTube data?’ - again. How is this legal?
‘People at Apple are INSANE’ (this is pretty nuts)
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
Happy Friday, fam. As I write to you now it’s 606am on Friday May 17th. My youngest had a nightmare at 330am and I have not been able to go back to sleep. Today will be fun! Wish me luck…
Upside is: you get a newsletter IN THE MORNING.
On a tangential note, I’ve found myself talking about you on more than one occasion this week - you, the reader of this thing. There’s a spike suddenly in people being interested in what you’re all like. Which is nothing short of a huge compliment (about both of us I guess?)
The words I’ve used have included: Unique. Eclectic. Warm. Gorgeous. Mysterious.
And overall very, very lovely.
That’s what I think you :)
Thanks for reading. Thanks for subscribing. If you like this edition, chuck your favourite bits on your social media platform of choice and send people to fivethingsonfriday.com to sign up to the next one yeah? Thanks.
Hope you have a great weekend, friends.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
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