Five things on Friday #378
This week we got: smart adland thinking, VR disappointments, a glimpse into the pre-smartphone days of yesteryear... and more.
#378
Things of note for the week ending Friday June 28th, 2024.
INTRO
Hello hello.
God, you're an inquisitive lot. Every week I say something like 'Hit reply and say hi' or 'Hit reply and tell me what you think of this one?' - I think there was something in the water with last week's edition. SO MANY REPLIES!
Thank you, all of you - I think I've replied to you all. If I haven't, kick me.
I mean it when I say: the absolute highlight of having a newsletter is having people at the other end write back. You’re all gorgeous.
ALSO, if you've never replied before 'Long time listener, first time callers' are always welcome. Go on.. hit the button... you can do it...
What else can I tell you?
This week has been a week of writing. DOING THE PLANNING part of my job. Strategy. Business. Brand. Commms. Insight.
P L A N N I N G.
My brain is tired but from stimulation and hard work. Changing my diet to be lower in salt and sugar hasn't helped much (did I mention I'm speaking on stage in Australia in August? I want to look good!) I mean, I slept for TEN HOURS last weekend. Unprecedented.
Point is: I feel alive. Firing on multiple cylinders. And man, it feels good.
Maybe it's the heat.
Anyway, this is me, passing my positive energy to you, via the medium of the written word. Take it, and fly with it.
Off you go x
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TWO REQUESTS THIS WEEK FROM ME THIS WEEK, PLEASE.
REQUEST 1.
This weekend marks my dear friend Marshall Manson's 50th birthday. Do me a favour and either subscribe to or share (or both) his stupidly good restaurant review newsletter, Professional Lunch, would you?
It is one of my favourite twice-weekly reads and frankly, it deserves more readers. I guarantee you it will not disappoint.
The best part, I know he'll be out to lunch when this goes out so hopefully I'll be with him when his notifications start to go nuts 😅
REQUEST 2.
If you read this and we're NOT connected on Linkedin, please change that.
Don’t be a douche and leave the ‘Add a note’ part blank. Just put something like 'Hey James, FToF subscriber here!' - and I’ll add you. FWIW, I'm interested to see what you all do (and frankly, it's a lot easier than a reader survey (I'm still noodling on that, mind)).
You can add James Whatley (that’s me) on Linkedin.
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Right.
That's the admin out of the way.
Shall we crack on with the things?
I want to keep it light this week because a) I'm aiming for this to land ON A FRIDAY, b) it’s late at the point of writing, and c) well, it'd be nice to not ship 3000 words for once, eh?
Let’s see how we go.
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TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. THE SILVER CULTURE PROJECT
“We are a world and an industry obsessed by youth. Youngest ever CEOs. 30 under 30 lists. Endless briefs and trend forecasts on Millennials and Gen Zs.
To understand why, we have to rewind to the post-war baby boom era, which saw an uprising of economic and cultural change.
The concept of ‘the teenager’, rich in time and money, was born. The gaze of capitalism, and in turn marketing, advertising and the media, shifted away from families and became obsessed with youth culture.
Our industry is still operating on that model today. Many brands cut off their audience segmentation at age 65 or even younger.”
This, from BBH, is v interesting indeed.
Good brainfood.
I dare you to use this in your next presentation.
THING 2. TWO SURPRISE CREEPY AF TRAILERS
FIRST: ‘He is coming…’
NOSFERATU is coming…
Robert Eggers is perfect for this.
I can’t wait.
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SECOND. This, from A24, HERETIC, is.. well, put it this way: not exactly Paddington 3.
(I mean, it could be)
Whatever, I am so here for Hugh Grant’s sinister era.
As an aside, there were a whole bunch of other new trailers that dropped this week but I’ve stuck them down in the bonuses… look out for them!
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… VR
A bit of a change in our usual programming as the PSVR2 comes under the microscope.
So, it is silly season and it is one of those broadly opinion-led pieces that launches a thousand responses but sometimes in these things, there’s a grain of truth at the heart of it driving the story forward.
First, Android Central writes:
Savage.
But one by one other publications followed.
The Verge here with ‘I regret buying the PSVR 2’
PushSquare with ‘Sony is pulling PSVR 2 funding’
And The Gamer says ‘Sony owes PSVR 2 customers a refund’
Quote:
“I don’t think the people who bought a PSVR 2 expected it to be a paper weight a year later. You could argue they should have, given how poorly Sony supported the original PSVR, but even that headset had 34 exclusives. It seems unlikely the PSVR 2 will get even ten. Even in traditional gaming, exclusives are becoming a thing of the past, but the PSVR 2 is double the price of the Quest 3, and it's tethered. People bought it because they wanted to play PlayStation games, and if I was one of them I’d feel pretty scammed right now.”
Yikes. Ouch. Etc.
As a PSVR 2 owner myself, this makes me sad.
It’s hard to look at the release slate and not be downhearted about the dusty road[map] ahead for PSVR 2. I went all in early and while I don’t play that often, when I do play it’s Beat Saber, Walkabout Golf, or Horizon Call of the Mountain.
In fact, the last time I played was a few weeks ago, cross play with some friends on Demeo. That was fun.
But still, nothing new.
One would HOPE that maybe Sony responds to the poor press and offers some updates on upcoming releases. But I don’t think that’s likely.
Ideas wise, I guess they could throw money at releasing (reportedly the best VR game of all time), Half-Life: Alyx. That would be nice. Hell, even being able to play the next (now-Meta-Quest exclusive) Batman/Arkham VR game would be welcome (but impossible now).
CAN YOU IMAGINE IF the heavily-rumoured PS5 Pro was announced with a whole bunch of PSVR 2 supporting features? That would be fantastic.
At this rate, I’d be stunned if it was even compatible.
I’m just fascinated by the lack of investment. We still play VR1 here (again, no PSVR 2 upgrade for Minecraft (yet) - so we still have a reason to boot that up) and yet PSVR 2 reasons are becoming less and less.
The most painful thing of all?
If you were to say to me ‘James, I’m thinking about getting a VR, how can I experience the best of what VR has to offer today?’ it would pain me to the core of my marrow to say 'You should get a Meta Quest 3' - but I would, because that would be the right answer.
THING 4. BEFORE SMARTPHONES
A long long time ago, when I was barely cutting my teeth in mobile start-up land (pre-iPhone days, yes it was hard), I was still occasionally treading the boards at the local am-dram theatre company and was at the point of going all in on pursuing my creativity in the world of work.
We were all out one night, I think after a show possibly, and our producer, Leo, was fielding questions to send to AQA - aka ‘Any Question Answered’
I remember at one point, I’d gone to the bar to get a round in when suddenly there was this huge roar of disbelief and all eyes turned on me. Returning with pints, I asked ‘Yes, what is it?’
Leo showed me his phone.
He had written ‘Who is James Whatley?’
AQA had replied ‘James Whatley is a shining light in the London mobile industry. He is known for being smart, witty, and all round good human’ -
(or something like that. I used to have a photo of this but I don’t have it anymore - such is digital history).
‘IT’S A SETUP!’ they yelled.
It really wasn’t. That was just who AQA were: really nice people that wanted to answer questions quickly and with a good sense of humour.
With that in mind, it was great to read WIRED’s short history lesson of the people who came before Google earlier this week and be reminded of this - and more.
Give it a read, perhaps with a fondness for a time gone by.
PS. Paul Cockerton is a legend.
THING 5. WHY CAN’T WE LET WOMEN BE CREATIVE GENIUSES INSTEAD OF TRAGEDIES?
Some people watch a bad movie and then just turn the TV off and go to sleep. Others watch a bad movie and want to talk to others about it IMMEDIATELY.
Amy Kean, on the other hand, saw a bad movie (the Amy Winehouse biopic) and wrote an 2500 fire-storming words against above title.
“Amy Winehouse was a genius, no question. She wrote her own songs, and her songs were works of art. She turned pain into something beautiful. Yet, across two hours of GSCE filmmaking (no offence to year 11 students), all we got was a walking tragedy. No insights, no analysis, no depth, just smudged eye makeup and a crack pipe. Because tragedy sells.”
And that’s just one killer paragraph. The double standards are large as they are expected.
Elvis. Justin Timberlake. Judy Garland. This one doesn’t stop until it’s ready and, as always, Amy’s writing is terrific.
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.
24hrs after I hit publish last week I learnt that two of my teammates at LEGO won SILVER in the Young Lions at Cannes. Please go and congratulate both their enormous talent and their incredible achievement.
On Steam? How big is your pile of shame?
Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks back together in a film that is reportedly shot from only one angle… HERE.
The Matt Reeves produced BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER takes everything from the original Animated Series and builds on it. I’m so in.
Sian O'Leary on the BBC is a gorgeous listen. Being welsh helps.
Clash meets Justice, by Paul Weedon.
Remember the Rabbit R1? Yeah, lol.
Reported nest of vipers turns out to be a nest of vipers. More at 11.
Meanwhile, in other shocking revelations 'Ad men PITCHING FOR THE ACTUAL GLASS LION AT CANNES are sexist'
Speaking of Cannes, pleased to see the headline interview went well.
THE GOAT, SIMON BILES. ‘Simone Biles Rising’ - Trailer Netflix.
I can’t remember if I wrote about it before but I am STUNNED to learn that iPhone owners are not interested in paying $50 to play old AAA games on 6inch screens. STUNNED.
What happens when a local industry moves an entire marketing budget out of the city? Well, if you believe the Linkedin posts, that’s what’s happening in Detroit. As ever with these things, we overestimate the short-term and underestimate the long-term…
As one of the ‘five noisy men’ mentioned, I endorse this wonderful turn of events.
KFC OOH in Shoreditch looks just like artist’s work in Shoreditch. Yoiks. I hope Mother step in and fix.
OG ‘metaverse’, Second Life, has just launched on mobile (for the first time ever) exclusively/in beta for its premium users (almost certainly beating most Web3 ‘metaverse’ experiences both to the platform and probably in MAUs too).
If you struggle to get your kids to put their phones down, it could be worse. You could be on Mark Zuckerberg’s PR team.
The V&A is hiring a new head of digital content, is it you?
War Child is hiring a marketing lead, is it you?
FREUDS is hiring a senior account / associate director, is it you?
The Women’s Prize Trust is hiring a Marketing Exec, is it you?
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
Signing off this week I'd like to alert your attention back to LIFE SENTENCES - ‘an event in draft for strategists who write’ I wrote about this a few editions ago (Thing 2, FToF #367). I was an attendee then, I am a speaker now.
Here’s James Caig talking about it.
And here’s the eventbrite page if you want to come.
Tickets are VERY LIMITED and it will not be recorded so please only sign up if you can make it.
See you there?
Until next time,
Whatley out x
Ps. Londoners, Fuerta Bruza is back. See it.
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