Dispatch from an advertising future #136

https://www.engadget.com/ai-covid-19-cough-detection-from-recordings-213858299.html

He should be used to it by now. Trying not to look at his own image in the corner of the matrix; raising his electronic hand; remembering to unmute and then… starting. He’d not been particularly confident in The Before. He knew he often stumbled and always felt every other word was “erm”. And now it was not just the wall of squared-off faces that were judging him. He looked at the last report. His TrustHealth (™) score was orange, but that was the internal meeting. This one was with the client. And he knew they had TrustHealth (™) too.

Dispatch from an advertising future #135

https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dash-smart-shelf-20-dollar-scale-reorder-products-163254718.html

When people came round, she always made sure she showed it off. Her favourite room. “It’s like something from a movie,” they’d say, “so retro”. She’d even bought a wheeled ladder that slid silently along the stacks. She’d ostentatiously climb it and move along a little to pull one out to show off the cover or the binding. And then there was the giant armchair. They always wanted to sit in it and pose, sometimes for a selfie. As she climbed down the shelf’s quiet voice appeared in her ear. “You’re running low on contemporary fiction, I’ve ordered the latest.”

Dispatch from an advertising future #134

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX2XCBH-6zQ

As we emerge into Normal 2.0, it is time to think again about our position in the new marketplace. As you know, from last week’s “fireside chat”, we have said goodbye to a number of valued friends as we have doubled down on leveraging our OmniAI system within the creative process. We have also migrated to a decentred space of creative homepods. But these are internal moves. Our business needs to enter Normal 2.0 with a new image and so, today I have asked OmniAI to take time away from client briefs and to deliver our new brand.

Dispatch from an advertising future #133

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/27/21537286/microsoft-teams-115-million-daily-active-users-stats

She looked at her desk, checking the time. Three minutes until the first meeting of the day. Yes, everything was in place. Since she’d moved the monitor, she had a bit more room to fit everything in. The new camera should make it easier too. A slightly wider angle giving her a bit more room. She switched on SmartDress (™) and checked how she looked. Gucci today, she noticed. Just as she was about to join the meeting she noticed she had the wrong brand phone in view. She quickly swapped it. Lucky, she’d caught it, she needed that contract.

Dispatch from an advertising future #132

https://www.ft.com/content/d9e18a02-3c86-48eb-80a4-47cdaa71941a

He was a flâneur. He wandered the city. He’d done it in The Before allowing himself to be carried along with the crowd. No aims just strolling, seeing. Psychogeographic purists had rejected the glasses claiming the feeds destroyed the chance encounter and random meanderings of thought and sight. He loved them. He called them his ‘turtle’ as they overlayed stories of urban activity like an Iain Sinclair sentence. He’d loved seeing the vibrancy of city life and commerce encoded in wandering live data points. But that was then. As he wandered through his city now his glasses flickered only occasionally.

Dispatch from an advertising future #131

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/cannes-lions-offers-best-practices-for-lo-fi-content/44267

You’ll have seen Chris’ message after the client saw the work. I am sure you were as shocked as I was. To have such a stinging attack from a long-standing partner hurt us all. And it should. Chris was right. Message, story, idea: all great, but execution? The technical quality just was not there. We should not be putting work of that quality in front of clients. We need to up our game. Or perhaps I should say we need to lower our game. As Chris said: “I’m not paying you to see every bead of sweat. I want glitch.”