It’s officially Q4, y’all – we made it. This week, we’ll walk you through some of the wildest news coming out of the midterm election marketing universe, Elon Musk’s texts and spat with a Ukrainian diplomat, plus a social experiment LinkedIn has been running for the past five years. Stay cozy this fall!
💡ON OUR MINDS: Midterms
It's that time of year again— the first October Surprises of the month have hit the world of US politics. As candidates near their midterm election dates, hopefuls are facing last-minute reputational challenges meant to disrupt their campaigns.
October Surprises are a tradition as American as apple pie, with major candidate news stories appearing seemingly out of nowhere as we inch closer to November.
The first shockers out of the gate this year include headlines alleging Pennsylvania Senatorial candidate/television personality Dr. Oz killed puppies, and reports that Georgia's candidate Herschel Walker paid for a mistress' abortion.
President Biden/Dark Brandon also might have gotten in on the October Surprise game with his sudden forgiveness of some federal marijuana convictions.
These surprises are a reminder that politicians are entering crunch time for their campaigns, and political ads will only increase in frequency and force this month. A Louisiana Congressional candidate reminds us of this by giving birth in a recent ad.
Be mindful of big, disruptive (possibly coordinated) media moments this month. Tread lightly, as political advertising might disrupt your best-laid marketing plans. 'Tis the season!
🏆BRAND ??? OF THE WEEK: Elon Musk and Twitter?
Twitter vs. Musk is a reputational drama that continues to surprise. Earlier this week, 40 pages of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s text messages were released in Delaware Chancery Court. Musk texted a wide range of celebrities and Silicon Valley figures about the pending Twitter deal, from Joe Rogan to Jack Dorsey. The consensus is that only one person comes across as level-headed: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk gets a lot of sycophantic texts, but Agrawal’s messages, many of them about Musk’s own erratic tweets, come across as reasonable and constructive.
The text messages are an excellent object lesson in two radically different approaches to reputation. Agrawal’s exchanges with the man about to buy his company are focused and professional, a master class in executive communication at a time when your personal messages might end up in a courtroom or shared via screenshot on social media.
Musk, on the other hand, continues to deploy his signature chaotic style of communication. In case you missed it, he got in a Twitter spat with a Ukrainian diplomat after proposing a solution for the nation’s ongoing war with Russia. In the same spirit, the text messages released this week are deeply on-brand for the executive.
Are some of his texts embarrassing? No doubt. But this 40-page document has also become a bizarre status symbol in super-elite circles, proof of membership to a very exclusive club of billionaires, tech executives, and thought leaders. This sort of erratic behavior somehow continues to work for Elon Musk—but we don’t recommend it for anyone else.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
Who knows how your neighbor landed that new job from a guy they met at that thing once? LinkedIn does. The tech giant ran social experiments on 20 million users over five years, finding that relatively weak social connections (only 10 mutual connections) were more helpful in finding jobs than stronger ones. While the research is new, who we communicate with to gain employment has held steady for decades: the best gigs don't come from our parents, siblings, or our childhood BFF, but that one friend we don't really know well.
Publicists and marketers are no strangers to adapting. When #BookTok started blowing up, book publicists and authors quickly learned how to use the TikTok trend to their advantage. Users initially turned to #BookTok to recommend favorite reads, but bookstores and publishing pros wanted in: A recent Morning Brew piece interviewed several publicists who learned how to use the trend to their advantage and boost their author.
REI has cemented its stance on Black Friday: no more. Though not a new stance (the company has closed its doors on the day after Thanksgiving for the past seven years), the decision is now officially permanent. Stores will be closed, and online orders will not process until the following day, while employees are paid to take a day to enjoy the great outdoors. The decision is in line with the brand’s central messaging but also takes into account the potentially waning interest in Black Friday from younger audiences.
A compelling look at how to respond in a corporate crisis - Fast Company is back up and running after hackers infiltrated their internal systems, released a vulgar push notification, and caused several days of chaos. They found a silver lining in the darkness: publishing articles and videos that live exclusively on social platforms and reiterating their commitment to their readers as an agile and resilient company. Take that, hackers.
Turns out drama, intrigue, and the oh-so-faint smell of deceptive art are the secret ingredients to putting together a couture collection and designing viral moments. Last week at Paris Fashion Week, brands like Coperni, Gucci, and Yeezy launched design and creative concepts that lit the internet on fire, from spray-on dresses to twin shows. While a collection may live on forever, it suggests brands realize that a viral moment might just promise more staying power for their ultimate legacy.
🥊QUICK HITS:
In case you missed these stories this week.
Everyone knows there’s only one team to root for in NYC this weekend: THESE METS. The team is leading the city into the postseason with a new brand campaign, in partnership with the MTA, that spreads the team’s unique, resilient spirit across town.
New asset class, same mistakes – after touting a crypto asset on Instagram and failing to disclose it was an ad, Kim Kardashian agreed to settle with the SEC for $1.3 million over allegations she broke U.S. regulations.
All that glitters isn’t gold, and all the Instagram pics in the world don’t mean you’ll actually have a nice vacation. Italy’s Positano, while a popular tourist destination, received a resounding review of “meh” in a Vox article this week.
A reminder that anything you say on a video can (and probably will) wind up on the internet - a lesson (now former) senior Apple exec Tony Blevins learned after making crude remarks in an impromptu TikTok interview.
The announcement of the 2023 MET Gala theme, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” was followed by backlash given the late Chanel designer’s controversial legacy.
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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This week’s newsletter is brought to you by the long overdue SNL parody of AMC's infamous Nicole Kidman ad.