Out of Scope Issue #120: A Summer of Nostalgic PR Campaigns?
Plus: More AI Creep and Diva Supercharged Economies
Happy Friday! It's another recording-breaking week of high temperatures and high stakes in tech, media, film, and much more. But first...
đĄON OUR RADARÂ
AI may be reaching yet another inflection point. Among the most significant developments: Meta makes its latest AI tech open-source, marketers (warily) embrace AI-generated ads, and Wikipedia braces for large language models to shake up their platform. Meanwhile, sci-fi author Bruce Sterling explores some of the weirder corners of AI discourse at Newsweek.
AI has even infiltrated SAG-AFTRA/WGA negotiations. Writers were already concerned about AI's potential to supplant writers' rooms. Now actors are worried, claiming studios want to scan background actors in one day's work and use their likeness in perpetuity. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) refutes this, saying they'd only use AI-generated extras in specific projects and compensate actors for subsequent use.
According to recent reports, Taylor Swift and BeyoncĂ© aren't just headlining their world tours; they're headlining major shifts in the global economy. After BeyoncĂ©'s Renaissance tour was blamed for introducing even greater inflation in Sweden (since debunked), Swift's Eras tour was reported to add $5 billion worldwide in 2024. Seasons and melodies may change, but the power of a strong one-woman brand is forever. Â
đĄON OUR MINDS: A Summer of Nostalgic PR Campaigns?
In the words of author Stephen King, "Sooner or later, everything old is new again." Brands seemed to be embracing the sentiment with a twistâtapping into consumers' nostalgia in hopes that everything old is (profitable) again.Â
Take Mark Zuckerburg, a household name for years, who seemingly has another "moment" in the current cultural zeitgeist. Not as a wunderkind this time, but a jiu-jitsu fighting, camo-print weighted vest-wearing, tech-disrupting father of three. Some suspect this is a concerted PR play to drum up support (and ad spend) for Threads, Zuckerberg's answer to Twitter rising amidst Elon Musk's problems. Whatever the case, there seems to be a push to remind the world that Zuckerburg revolutionized social media once, and he can (and will) again. Â
In the story of another rebranding effort, Neopets, an online gaming siteÂ
where users can care for their virtual pets all while playing games and spending virtual currency, is trying to revive consumer excitement like it's 1999. With a game and homepage relaunch, Neopets is trying to relive it's glory days by reviving the popular minigames of yesteryear to remind the mostly millennial base of the fun they had and also introducing new mobile games as part of the "Neopian renaissance." It will be interesting to see if the mixture of the old and new will be enough to bring Neopets back to the forefront.Â
But in a summer of nostalgic callbacks, one doll reigns supreme: Barbie. After months of its global marketing campaign that saw collaborations with every company from Bumble and Boohoo, to Crocs and even Canada Pooch , Mattel and Greta Gerwigâs film has launched Barbie back into the hearts and minds of young girls and cultural commentators (see 41 articles mentioning Barbie from the New York Times alone this week)ânot to mention social feeds everywhere.
đ„QUICK HITS:Â
In case you missed these reads.
On the heels of the tragic disaster that compelled OceanGate to suspend its operations, the company has now gradually removed its online presence.
Between exposĂ©s on the âZoom Waveâ and Manhattanâs office vacancies, a debate about the future of work and where it will play out is still alive and well.Â
Last year, despite experiencing a surge in Amazon orders, the e-commerce giant successfully reduced its plastic footprint, eliminating around 25 million pounds of plastic.
Thanks for reading,
HL
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