Five things on Friday #376
Stars, Astronauts, Dr Wenowdis. What else do you want?
Things of note for the week ending Saturday June 15th, 2024
INTRO
Well hello there.
As I start this week’s edition to you today, it’s 17:43 on Friday and one HOPES that this edition might actually go out on time. We shall see (it’s probably more realistic to say it’ll come tomorrow, Saturday, but LET’S WAIT AND SEE).
The good news is: the recent delay in newsletter delivery has come about thanks to an increase in work commitments.
Unexpected (yes yes, I know) but entirely welcome.
Three intro-type things to tell you this week.
FIRST, a massive HELLO to the 60+ new subs that found their way here over the past seven days. A combination of this amazing endorsement from my smart and brilliant, far away friend, Elle McCarthy (thanks mate, I know you’re reading this) AND an appearance on a WORD TONIC MASTERCLASS (a huge ‘thank you daddy’ hello to my new Gen-Z subscribers (IYKYK)), means the numbers for FToF have swollen and, well, it’s just nice to have you here.
Quick recap of the rules: Five things on Friday. It doesn’t always come on Friday but you always get more than five things.
I hope you like it.
SECOND, speaking of WORD TONIC, if you’re a GEN-Z COPYWRITER (or if you know one) and you’re looking for a vibrant, supportive, and frankly laugh-out-loud hilarious group of people to help you LEARN, GROW, and FIND A JOB, then I cannot recommend joining enough (I am not allowed to join, I am too old).
You get to enjoy MASTERCLASS activity from people like me, presenting slides like this:
Actual death.
..
I would love to share the talk, but I CAN’T. SORRY.
It was a) written bespoke for WORD TONIC and b) a mega closed event so it was UNIQUE and had major YOU HAD TO BE THERE vibes.
Saying that, the notes of gratitude I’ve had since have genuinely moved me to tears so, y’know, it was worth it.
The tl;dr is: I had fun with that wild bunch of Gen-Z maniacs so if WORD TONIC ask you to talk, you say YES (related, and I hope they don’t mind me saying this, if you’re a seasoned creative advertising veteran and want to talk to 50+ young-uns in easily the most chaotic/good presentation experience I think I’ve ever had, then get in touch and I’ll connect you (fair warning: the standard is HIGH - ahem).
THIRD, in a week of putting my face on camera and doing recordery-shaped things, the very nice Neil Perkin of ONLY DEAD FISH, asked me to join him in an episode of Google Firestarters (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts). The episode is not live yet - this is more of a trailer I guess…
Point is: if you’ve not listened or watched Firestarters before, then a) you’re missing out and b) you’ve got a LOT of episodes to catch up on. I used to go a fair bit when it was a live event and now, as a podcast/video series, it’s even better (as you can revisit them).
Neil and I only recorded yesterday so the episode won’t be out for a few weeks yet, however, if you’re looking for something to get your brain into, the guests are great and the conversation nourishing (my favourite recent ones are Adah Parris and Jason Oke).
So yes, all in all, it’s been an excellent intellectually stimulating week.
I hope you’ve had a good week as well.
Thank you for joining me, again, I’ve no idea what’s the THING bucket this week, shall we give it a swirl and see what comes up?
Let’s.
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TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. STARS GO BOOOOOOOM
This. Is. Spectacular.
Later this year, roughly around September time, and for the first time since 1946, a ‘new’ star will be seen in the sky.
A "star" that hasn't been seen since 1946 will appear once again in the night sky, and astrologers are determined to get a glimpse of the once-in-a-lifetime event.
The "star" is an explosion, also known as a nova event, that happens around once every 80 years. It will be so bright that it can be seen with the naked eye.
Two stars, a red giant star and a white dwarf, orbit each other. The giant will move behind the dwarf and cause an explosion of material which will bring a "new star" to the night sky, said NASA.
SO TO BE CLEAR. TWO ACTUAL STARS. ORBITING EACH OTHER. ARE GOING TO TRIGGER A THERMONUCLEAR EXPLOSION. 3000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY. AND IT WILL SHOW UP AS A NEW STAR IN OUR SKY.
If you’re familiar with the night sky then you’re looking for the CORONA BOREAUS area (see below).
The universe is incredible y’all.
Mark your calendars, I’m sure there’ll more about this nearer the time…
Eyes up.
THING 2. WOMEN ARE BETTER ASTRONAUTS
Sticking with the theme of space for a moment…
Due to the unexpected work load this week, the collating and collecting of THINGS meant I was missing ONE thing to put in at number two. I asked Threads, and the wonderful EML (author of the always thought provoking POP HEALTH newsletter), came back with this brilliant article:
Well, what do you know. It turns out the child-carrying, patriarchy-surviving, sexism-enduring, home-making, hard-working, pain-resilient, man-flu avoiding half of our species might actually be better at handling the stresses of space travel.
A major study into the impact of spaceflight suggests women may be more resilient than men to the stresses of space, and recover more quickly when they return to Earth.
The findings are preliminary, not least because so few female astronauts have been studied, but if the trend is confirmed, it could prove important for astronaut recovery programmes and selecting crews for future missions to the moon and beyond.
“Males appear to be more affected by spaceflight for almost all cell types and metrics,” scientists write in a Nature Communications paper that examines the effects of space travel on the human immune system.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the future is female yo.
ALSO, as an aside, I can absolutely see the opening credits of a new movie starting with:
‘In 2025, a year after it was discovered women were better at space travel than men, a new women-only space unit was setup. Now, wwo hundred years later, galactic peace has been achieved, and a new all women-crew is setting out to discover what lays beyond the stars…’
Hook it into my veins.
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… GAMES
WE'RE IN THE MIDST OF SUMMER GAME FEST (which while technically is ‘one night’, really it’s all of summer as everyone gets involved) and there have been a ton of trailers, announcements, and... trailers and announcements.
Two weeks ago we had Geoff Keighley (FToF passim #375) and this past week it was Microsoft’s turn and let me tell you know, the Xbox team absolutely smashed this.
Look at it!
Xbox has of course put out a ‘here’s everything you missed at the showcase’ (including all the trailers) out a better than ever Developer Direct.
My personal favourites included:
MIXTAPE stole the show for me. The whole trailer is just a complete VIBE and I don’t care how it plays (this it the team behind THE ARTFUL ESCAPE), I am just in in in in in. Watch the trailer, you’ll see.
Next up on the interesting list, SOUTH OF MIDNIGHT. Again, talk about a vibe, I really like the animation style - and the gameplay looks kinda different, and joyous with it.
FABLE. Another trailer reveal for this one. Richard Ayoade last time, Super Hans this time. Having worked on the comms around the original Ayoade reveal, it’s great to see the continual leaning in to the quintessential British humour that Playground are layering in.
DOOM: The Dark Ages. I’m not a huge Doom player (sorry) but I just liked the vibe of this. I don’t think I’ll ever play it (I’m not a huge gory game player) but for some reason I thought this trailer just went HARD and I admire it for that.
GEARS OF WAR: E-DAY. An honourable mention because I know one of the Guys behind this and I’m just so happy for how well their announcement has gone down. Congrats y’all. You know who you are x
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QUICK BITES / LINKS / POINTS OF INTEREST
For reasons (and a little related to the above) I've recently been spending time looking at smart integrations between games and brands.
I did a bit on this on the Firestarters chat mentioned at the top (coming soon), and I’m drafting a couple of talks I’ve been asked to do - so I’m in full research mode.
If you work brand or agency side and you're trying to put together a list of games of where you might be able to get some kind of partnership away, then this list from Josh Eloi at Heaven Media is a good place to start. It’s a little surface level for my liking and it could work a bit harder on things (like release dates and how open the publishers of the titles might be to working together) but like I said, it’s a good start.
STILL WAKES THE DEEP got reviewed by EDGE magazine and score an 8. And I can’t wait to play it. It’s out June 18th.
VALORANT CONSOLE BETA is out now (I’ve just finished downloading it and am going to jump in this weekend).
METALLICA ARE NOW IN FORTNITE and as a long-standing black album fan (basically the soundtrack to my school years), I am very excited.
Also, kids’ news programme, Newsround, running this headline absolutely killed me.
I also can’t wait for more ASTROBOT.
THING 4. DR WENOWDIS
I was talking to someone this week about [redacted] and it got us onto Kate McKinnon. We both expressed our love of all things Kate McKinnon and then we both shared our favoure Kate McKinnon bits.
My all time favourite, from smack bang in the middle of the pandemic is this, from SNL’s Weekend Update: Dr Wenowdis.
Even if you’ve seen it before you owe it to yourself to watch it again. I love it.
And I love Sara McKinnnon.
THING 5. PLEASE STOP SHARING PHOTOS OF YOUR KIDS ONLINE
Two editions ago I told you how to object to Meta using any content you’ve shared across its family of apps: Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram etc - to train its AI models (Thing 4, FToF 374).
This week I’m telling you why steps like these are important.
WIRED is reporting that over 170 images and personal details of children from Brazil have been scraped by an open-source dataset without their knowledge or consent.
Grim.
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.
‘I’ve Spent A Lot Of Time Pretending Not To Know What I Want’ is one of my favourite reads of the week. I can feel ever word, and feeling. Maybe you will too.
I will never tire of Voyager 1 updates. Turns out Voyager 1 won’t either.
Why not give it all up and be a dance teacher? In Havana they do.
I've almost certainly heaped praise on Louis CK’s comedy in the past. I do not do that anymore. This new film 'Sorry not sorry' spends time with the people that really matter: the women he abused.
Meanwhile, the work keeps going (the trick is seeing it on another client now).
I'm not saying inviting ELON MUSK to speak at CANNES is achingly representative of exactly why advertising is still one of the least trusted industries in the world (third from bottom is still bottom you self-congratulatory cretins), but I'm also not not saying that either. I mean, the hypocrisy is ridiculous.
CANNES: 'Hey advertisers, we're representative'
MUSK: ‘Advertisers can go f*** themselves’ (and while we’re at it, f*** trans people, f*** the entire LGBTQIA+ community, but hey we welcome racists though!)
WPP: 'Sounds like our guy!’ (also, WPP: ‘this is how we engage authentically with LGBTQIA+ communities’ - lol, what? Mark Read losing whatever credibility he had left hosting this awful human at CANNES is abhorrent and I’m frankly stunned that if CANNES can cancel CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA then they can certainly cancel this.Related: Nintendo has now officially/completely removed X integration from its platforms. There are now no ways to share to this platform from the three major systems. MaStErFuL sTrAtEgY, eLoN. Imagine Mark Read asking about that.
‘PwC asks for silence from departing staff in programme of UK job cuts’ - according to the FT, ‘PwC has launched a round of “silent lay-offs” in the UK, with affected staff told they must not inform colleagues why they are leaving and have to follow a “suggested wording” if they want to send goodbye messages.’ - honestly this is as disgusting as it is insane, and I’m glad it’s been brought to light. It's always fun when ex-employers try to cOnTrOl tHe MeSsAgE 😅
Right enough of that, back to much more interesting bonuses: THE WORD is back after an extended break and spends a good amount of time, rightly talking about the summer of £69.
Here in the UK it is ELECTION SEASON and while I will keep most of that out of FToF (if you vote Tory, please unsubscribe), but this excellent perspective of how, in light of the BBC's ongoing pressure to not annoy anyone in charge, ITV has stepped up to hold the government to account.
A couple of job-related things. My friend Joe has recently joined Territory Studios and is looking to beef up his roster of freelance senior & mid level key art designers. If that’s you, get in touch. As a side point, I did a small bit of work with Territory (more on this later) before joining LEGO and they are fantastic.
YRS Truly is looking for a London-based Social & Influencer Campaign Manager (four days a week, £34-£38k pa, nice people etc), details here.
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
As I bring this edition to a close, it is now Saturday. It’s coming up on 3pm and we’re having a lazy day. Doctor Who was aces this morning (the kids woke me up to watch it) and, as they’ve been so well-behaved since, I’ve promised some VR game time later.
Thank you for the words of support I had back in regard to my harasser I’ve had to block. The blocking has continued this week - and I’m a) grateful for amazing friends and b) feeling better about things. Life has been trickier this year. The weather isn’t helping much. But you are. Truly. Thank you x
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A bit of newsletter admin: there’s usually a summer break on FToF. Tends to fall around July or August time. I’m yet to decide precisely when yet but fair warning and all that.
July is looking busy and August not so much but I guess we’ll find out when we get there.
I think that’s it for this week.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
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