Out of Scope Issue 45: 2021 has been a ~~journey~~
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Out of Scope Issue 45: 2021 has been a ~~journey~~
This week’s nonrequired thinking on reputation, business, and culture
This week, we’re looking at Peloton’s whirlwind of a week, media mergers, fast-fashion marketing, and corporate “journeys.”
💡ON OUR MINDS
Reputation success(ion)
Following years of puff pieces and even the oddity of a celebrity interviewing themselves (looking at you, Beyonce), the as insightful as it is honest celebrity profile made a comeback with Michael Schulman’s profile of Succession star Jeremy Strong for The New Yorker.
The profile overtook Twitter timelines with its juicy nuggets about Strong’s acting techniques, his obsession with certain Hollywood stars, and quotes from coworkers that all paint Strong as a work-horse, dedicated to his craft like no other — to which his onscreen father, Brian Cox, called a “particularly American disease.”
As Twitter and Hollywood continue to debate the fairness of the piece (some Hollywood stars and creatives have taken aim at Schulman’s profile for what they perceive as a one-sided presentation of Strong’s work ethic), it no less reminds us that reputations can be far more nuanced than “good or bad,” and consequently, it is exactly these kinds of people who make for the most interesting reads.
Corporate jargon junkies, this one’s for you!
The business buzzword of the year is apparently “journey.” Not only was it the most used word of the year by S&P 500 executives on conference calls, but it’s also the fastest-growing buzzword. Before 2001 it was used once. This year, it was used over 3,000 times (and counting).
Join us on a little *journey* through why this word has become so useful to communications leaders, according to Bloomberg’s analysis:
It’s encouraging. According to linguist Grant Barrett, “It’s less clinical and corporate than saying something like, ‘during the last eight quarters,’ and it’s more affirming than talking about a period of transition or uncertainty.”
It applies to a lot of different business scenarios. Whether the company is changing up its strategy or transforming its offering, “journey” is a more exciting way to rally listeners around what’s likely to be a lengthy process.
It’s flexible — perhaps too flexible, depending on who you’re talking to. Because a journey usually doesn’t come with a defined end date, it can be vague.
So while “journey” is a useful mechanism for getting people more comfortable with slow or difficult progress, be wary that it’s becoming a word that doesn’t really mean anything anymore. Know when your audience is looking for specificity.
🏆 BRAND (ALMOST) WIN OF THE WEEK: Peloton
It’s safe to say that Peloton has had a week. Last week, Peloton nabbed a feature on the Sex and the City reboot, only to discover they weren’t being framed in a flattering light when (spoiler alert) longtime love interest Mr. Big dies from a heart attack after taking a not-Jess-King class on his bike. After a bit of a brand whoops, Peloton came in for what was hailed by the media and the internet as a surefire win, pulling together an ad in just 48 hours with the help of Ryan Reynolds, instructor Jess King, and Mr. Big himself, Chris Noth.
Fast forward just three days, and Peloton had another brand crisis on its hands - Chris Noth was accused of sexual assault. Almost immediately, they pulled the ad, archived related social posts, and issued a statement.
Peloton’s stock has been riding the reputation waves all week, dropping 11% on the day of the show’s premiere. Is it a win or a fail for the brand? This time around, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to come up with an answer just like that.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
In any functioning relationship, trust is everything — even the relationship between brand and consumer. Research shows that consumers support and buy brands that really commit to their values. The study suggests that this is because consumers are more likely to judge brands based on automatic intuition rather than analytical thinking. That's resulting in a big change where ESG initiatives that normally live in decks and "about" pages are actually manifesting in the physical product. It’s time to tune up that purpose-driven messaging!
The media landscape is poised to change in many unexpected ways, but not many could claim to have predicted the new merger between Vox Media (which includes New York Magazine, SB Nation, The Verge, and other titles) and Group 9 (home to Pop Sugar, NowThis, The Dodo, Thrillist, and more). What does it say about the media landscape when even the digital media darlings combine their offerings? If nothing else, it can be characterized as an illusory choice where, despite the number of sources for our media, many of the stories originate from a slim pool of reporters.
Dr. Oz is finally canceled… the show, that is. After announcing his run for Senate in Pennsylvania, Sony Pictures canceled his long-running TV show.
Metaverse, meet Nike. Nike, a brand known for innovative marketing, is now forging its way into the metaverse. This week Nike announced that they’ve acquired RTFKT, a company that creates virtual products and experiences through game engines, NFTs, AR, and blockchain. We expect more brands will follow suit in the near future.
Crypto has found its latest ambassador: Melania Trump. On Thursday, it was announced that she will sell an NFT titled “Melania’s Vision,” which includes a piece of digital artwork and an audio recording of Melania reciting a “message of hope,” with a portion of the proceeds directed towards those aging out of the foster system. If there’s one thing that can unite the political parties, it may just be the crypto craze.
Bass Pro Shops, known for its hunting, fishing, and camping merchandise, as well as its home in the 10th tallest pyramid in the world in Tennessee, is trending as of late for a different reason. The brand has recently been seeing an increase in sales on their $6 (yes $6) mesh Bass Pro hats. The trend has taken off with the younger generations searching everywhere and even paying over a 300% markup in some cases on eBay to find the hats. So the question remains: should BPS utilize the opportunity and put some brand power behind the product itself, or continue on course and let them sell themselves?
The days of H&M and Zara ruling the fast-fashion world are over thanks to Shein. The massive fashion company, headquartered in China, is known for its ability to churn out a seemingly endless variety of low-price inventory to U.S. consumers. While its success is due to an array of factors, Shein has relied on marketing to set itself apart from its competitors — many of whom copy the same popular pieces that Shein replicates from the hype cycle of TikTok and Instagram. By gamifying their app and pouring significant funds into Google and Facebook advertising campaigns, influencer deals, and even its own social media reality show co-hosted by Khloe Kardashian, they’ve seemingly cracked the code on how to mass-market fast-fashion to Gen Z.
The Nieman Journalism Lab, self-described as Harvard’s “attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age,” officially announced its 2022 predictions for journalism. So what’s in store for next year? Gen Z will demand more personality from journalists. If that feels on-brand for Gen Z, it’s partially because social media has turned parasocial relationships between viewers and content creators into the norm. Now Gen Z wants a deeper connection with journalists too.
Cuomo’s one last substantial win from the past year and a half is officially canceled. After news broke that Cuomo used staff and state resources to write his 2020 book, the New York State ethics committee declared his book profits were to be returned to the state’s coffers.
Be sure to check the fine print before making any sweeping staff demands. Trump administration appointee Michael Caputo is facing trouble after demanding HHS employees stay away from the press, which violates their free speech rights as well as the anti-gag provision in the 2012 federal Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.
The podcast for long-distance besties everywhere, ‘Call Your Girlfriend,’ is officially ending. Co-hosts Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman and producer Gina Delvac sat down with Vulture for an exit interview, where they shared more about why they’re winding down a show that amasses hundreds of thousands of listens each week. Fans can rest easy knowing that the news doesn’t signify the end of Aminatou and Ann’s friendship, which is still running strong after being examined on the podcast for over seven years and in their NYT bestselling book, Big Friendship.
Who's responsible for communicating when no one person is in charge? A major software flaw was found in a system called Log4J, which is used by massive companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and more. Because Log4J is maintained through open-source code by a group of volunteers, the vulnerability only recently came to light, despite existing since 2013. In the last week, there have been over one million breaches to the software, and it may take years to fix.
“Plantfluencers” are being overrun by the size and cost of their collections. After exploding in popularity with 2020’s stay-at-home measures, plant ownership’s trials are coming to light in a big way for internet users swayed by the luscious green vibes of beautifully curated Instagram and TikTok posts. Remember kids: you never see the full picture when you’re on the Internet.
Despite what crypto advocates may say about the security of blockchain, McDonald’s is seeing the potential dark side of a code-based product with its latest McRib NFT. The company discovered that an anonymous user sent a transaction to a McDonald’s crypto-wallet that included a racist message in the metadata field. Since NFT records are permanent, there’s no way to remove the history of the transaction from McDonald’s wallet history, leaving brands to wonder, ‘is it worth it?’ when it comes to NFTs in the future.
Was a new Internet-based religion on anyone’s 2021 bingo card? Cobbling together manifestation and prosperity gospel, astrology, Judeo-Christianity, and QAnon, a younger generation has curated a new set of beliefs. That an entire spiritual ideology was generated as a function of internet culture illuminates an interesting truth about the nature of beliefs: they’re only as widely adopted as they are consistently communicated.
We’ll see you here soon! 👋
HL
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The fine print:
This newsletter was brought to you by a very apt tweet.
