Opulent Art Direction, Expensive Coffee, and Scammy AI ✨
You're Going to Love This One...
GM everyone. You ever have one of those workouts where you literally cannot stop sweating? I just did and after getting fully cleansed and suited up at the gym, I had to rush back to take off that fit and lay on the floor. Locked In Summer™️ continues….
In Today’s Newsletter—
Shock Intros Have Gone Too Far
Is Gen AI a Hoax?
Your Cortado Is Going Up in Price
Job Hopping is Over
Art Director Spotlight: Giuliana Nardi
NEWS
Shocking ad intros have maybe gone too far. Please please please watch this video from Clean Skin Club, a face towel that is supposed to clean your skin.
It features a ‘shock ad intro’ where the video’s speaker is hit by a CGI car, then transitions into the ad. Intros like this have become incredibly common. I’ve seen car dealerships, cooking products, and other brands stitch a video of something shocking (the most used is a person falling off a stretcher as paramedics wheel them to an ambulance) and then cutting into the promo video. This type of marketing is meant to hook audiences and ‘stop the scroll’ but comes across as so junky and jarring. What do you think of this ad? Is it bad for brand or effective for sales?
Goldman Sachs released a 31 page report detailing their concerns over Gen AI’s economic impact. The detailed analyzation casts doubt on the bullish claims GenAI companies like OpenAI often make, and therefore call into question the need for the immensely powerful processors Nvidia is making to power AI. Nowadays, it seems like every single company is integrating GenAI into their products, and receiving commiserate stock boosts due to the hype that it will create trillions of dollars in economic impact.
But this report from Goldman Sachs lays out a solid case that GenAI may be a bubble, and the economic advancements it could create will cost significantly more than what we’ll get back. Goldman’s Global Head of Equity Research, Jim Covello, argues that there is not a trillion dollar problem GenAI is currently optimized to solve, but it will take trillions of dollars to create the necessary processing and electric infrastructure to fully integrate it. He dispels the comparison to the ‘early internet’ saying that, “even in its infancy, the internet was a low-cost technology solution that enabled e-commerce to replace costly incumbent solutions,” whereas AI is not inexpensive at all. This report comes as the S&P 500 is hitting record highs, largely on the backs of the biggest tech companies growth due to AI hype. Go read the report, its incredibly wonky, but sobering compared to the incessant AI craze.
Your cortado or oat milk latte is going up in price. Lavazza, one of the world’s largest coffee roasters, is warning consumers and businesses that coffee prices are set to continue rising. This is due in part to poor harvests in equatorial regions, potentially due to climate change. The Financial Times writes, “London robusta futures, the global benchmark, reached a high of $4,844 per tonne on Tuesday, having soared about 70 per cent over the past year” UK coffee prices have already risen 15% YTD and Lavazza predicts another 10% rise by EOY. That coffee on the way to the office is going to keep preventing you from purchasing a home or retiring… and how will all of your favorite clothing stores keep up with rising bean costs?
People aren’t job hopping as much anymore. During the pandemic, the labor market shifted to put companies at a disadvantage, as workers hopped jobs frequently, often picking up large raises just by switching firms. Today, that’s a different story, as the Wall Street Journal reports the number of U.S. workers currently seeking a new job is down 14% YoY. And if you are looking to switch, the reward isn’t as much as it used to be: job hoppers now net a median pay bump of 5.2%, compared to 8.5% last year. My question is:
✨ ART DIRECTOR SPOTLIGHT: GIULIANA NARDI ✨
Giuliana Nardi is currently the ‘Things Director’ at Cose Journal, a new independent publication striving to spark reflection on everyday objects and their different uses through a variety of vehicles for creative expression.
This Milan-based designer’s work is clean, its beautiful, its refined, and f*cking opulent—
Go check out Giuliana’s website, especially her visual diary for some great references.
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, and designer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio
I use CSC towels daily BUT that ad is a travesty lol