Markets, mascots, make-your-own CMOs and the struggle for originality
Issue #51
Weekly Exhale
I’d understand if you found it hard to focus this week. The plot twists in America feel less like real life, and more like a Netflix series in development: Liberation Days, from the creators of The Big Short.
I keep hearing a Jeremy Irons voice: We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, the price of a paperclip. We pick the rabbit out of a hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it.
Thankfully, we had other distractions. It was the week ChatGPT learned what we look like and turned us into toys.
Drag and drop a few photos. Add your job title, your skills, and some accessories. A few seconds later, there you are: a 3D plastic doll in a Mattel-style blister pack. Ready for the shelf.
At first, it was cute. Look, Mom, I’ve got my own action figure.
Jaoa Pela, Data Leader—head-to-toe grey, electric bike, MacBook, AirPods. Gemma, Marketing Director—librarian glasses, a bar of chocolate, a mug of tea, a giant to-do list. Noreen Fayaz, Client Engagement Lead—giant Stanley Cup, Audi key fob, Louis Vuitton tote.
Then it got tiring. And weird.
As the algorithm locked onto the trend, my feed—like yours—became a conveyor belt of corporate avatar dolls. One after the other. After the other. After the other.
And no one thought to add a pull-string. “Let’s circle back,” the dolls could’ve said. “Taking this offline.” It would’ve at least been funny. Or terrifying. Or both.
Sometimes, the feet poked out the bottom of the packaging. A tell-tale glitch.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Why were we reducing ourselves to plastic toys in boxes? Was it the inner child crying for safety? A need to turn work into play? Or maybe something darker. A softened form of narcissism required to survive in the attention economy. Look at me. Look at my skills. Aren’t I adorable? #obsessed.
The crackle and flare of petaFLOPS of power and we’re using it to generate action-figure selfies. Zero effort. Zero originality. A culture stuck in fixation loops.
And it’s not just people. It’s brands.
Multiple sources nudged me toward the same realisation this week: Originality has become a rare mineral. Buried under repetition. Getting harder to find. Polyanna Ward asked her Substack community: Is it just me, or does one brand do something and 99 copy?
It’s not just her.
One reader pointed out that innocent has launched an immunity shot that looks suspiciously like MOJU (now the UK’s fastest-growing soft drink brand). SKIMS took over Ed’s Diner in LA just weeks after Prada opened a restaurant in Singapore and Miu Miu hosted a matcha pop-up on Bond Street.
And then Malibu dropped a new ad starring Brian Cox—one that crossed the line from mimicry into straight-up plagiarism. Same actor, same script and same pacing as the ASICS campaign for World Mental Health Day, from nine months ago. This time, swap the trainers for a Hawaiian shirt, and running for roller skating. Apparently, double Piña Coladas still count as self-care.
I asked around: What’s going on?
It would be easy to blame market efficiency. Or the algorithms that reward sameness. But the truth I heard back was more worrying: A generation of creative thinkers hasn’t been taught how to think creatively.
Not just regurgitating trends. But the hard, deliberate work of creating something new. Originality takes time. Discipline. Focus. The resilience to sit in silence. To look at a blank page—with your phone off—and shape something brilliant that didn’t exist before.
I’ve spent time with some of the world’s best creative people. Not one of them describes originality as talent. They describe it as routine. Like solving a crossword. A daily practice.
One summarised it like this: Creativity is a muscle. And right now, we’re skipping leg day.
Let’s talk about some real creative action heroes.
Meet the TFNGs—the “Thirty-Five New Guys”—NASA’s astronaut class of 1978. Except, they weren’t all guys. Until then, astronauts were white, military, male. But the newly built Shuttle had seven seats and only needed two pilots. That left room to widen the aperture.
NASA brought in scientists. Engineers. Communicators. Teachers. Americans from every background. A new vision was dawning: not just a space race, but space exploration. Not just planting flags—or waiting for countries to call up and “kiss your ass”—but uncovering new ideas and knowledge.
And let’s be clear, 1978 wasn’t a golden age. The American Dream was frayed. Post-assassinations. Post-Watergate. Post-oil crisis. Tariffs rising. Trust falling.
Still, the TFNGs showed up. And over the next decade, they redefined spaceflight.
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Dr. Ron McNair was one of the first astronauts of colour. Franklin Chang-Díaz pushed the limits of human endurance in orbit, laying groundwork for future Mars ambitions. Rhea Seddon and Norm Thagard deployed satellites that reshaped our understanding of climate change. And Story Musgrave became so skilled at spacewalking, he repaired the Hubble Telescope by hand.
They proved that while technology can propel us forward, people take us further.
More than that, they reflected an America that looked more like itself. And in doing so, made a quiet promise: We can course-correct.
Over the coming months, I’ll be exploring whether a new school for creative thinking is needed and whether I can help build it. To take technology and train for originality, the way NASA trained a new generation to fly.
If that sounds right to you, get in touch.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Brands run on basics. Eighty per cent, familiar, good enough—that’s where the safe money is. But every so often, a brand has to step into its own main character energy. Put rockets under itself. Shine.
Yes, brands are a consensual hallucination. But that doesn’t mean you get to phone it in. Don’t waste the illusion. For that's where the even bigger dollars are.
In any case, originality nourishes us. It’s not in our nature to stay boxed in. We’re wired to step out, scan the horizon—and if we’re lucky, curious, or just determined enough—wander over it.
Because none of us is on this space rock long enough to live life on repeat.
I’ll leave the last words to Dr. Ron McNair—physicist, saxophonist, astronaut—spoken to a group of undergraduates, before we lost him on a clear January morning in 1986, seventy-three seconds after liftoff:
"The struggle towards excellence must ever be conducted on the high planes of self-confidence, a sense of purpose and positive thought.
The true courage of spaceflight is not sitting aboard six million pounds of fire and thunder as one rockets away from the planet.
But in enduring. Persevering. The preparation.
And believing in oneself."
Let's rise together with every issue. ♡
Market Movements
Latest: US stocks fall again on Trumps tariffs | The Guardian
Trade uncertainty to hit UK growth | Financial Times
Bonds, stock market and China: What's going on | Kyla Scanlon
Brand Beat
Brian Cox's new Malibu campaign. Have we seen it before? | Rolling Stone
Every marketing channel sucks right now | Andrew Chen
Recession risk prompts bleak forecast for ad spend | Wall Street Journal
Glossier releases a basketball | Glossier
Amazon's DSP dilemma | MediaCat
Tony's Chocolonely - it's just chocolate until it isn't | The Drum
SharkNinja's CEO on being great storytellers | Total Retail
Why Unilever can't outsource brand to influencers | MarketingWeek
Chupa Chups campaign is cute | Campaign
Brands are in their unhinged mascot era | AdWeek
SKIMS takes over Ed's Diner in LA | TikTok
Marketing's 'woke' rebrand helped the far right | The Guardian
The branding guy hired to make Yahoo cool again | Wall Street Journal
WPP boss: Life at the top is unrelenting | The Times
Three new terms every marketer needs to know | The Tea
Walmart asks brands to boost ad spends by 25% | Adweek
Actual Y2K brands want in on the Y2K trend | Business of Fashion
Brands and broadcasters have the same attention problem | MediaCat
The new B Corporation standards are here | B-Lab
The WWE-ification of marketing | Joe Burns
£4 espresso tests consumer patience, Lavazza wanrs | Financial Times
How to make your own CMO action figure with ChatGPT | Instagram
Starting Up
More stressful than COVID. Founders and tariffs | Feed Me
Klarna puts IPO plans on hold | Sifted
Shein wins UK nod for IPO | Bloomberg
Tech Tidbits
Shopify CEO says no new hires without proof AI can't do job | The Verge
How 37 Signals builds product | Jorge Manrubia
Microsoft's 50th birthday was eventful | The Verge
Mira Murati's AI startup gains ex-OpenAI advisers | TechCrunch
OpenAI countersues Elon Musk | BBC
Venture Vibes
Meet the female angels shaking up Silicon Valley | Business Insider
Former Sequoia partner Matt Miller is raising a $300m fund | Sifted
The $5 billion creator hold co | Will Ventures
Family offices: Why clarity of purpose is the first investment | Forbes
Atomico partner Irinia Haivas departs | Sifted
Design Driven
Corner Corner is London's most unique destination yet | Wallpaper*
Design assimilated business, but did business ever understand design? | The Drum
Microsoft's new identity is a trip down memory lane | Creative Review
Happiness
Learn about the TFNGs, NASA's remarkable class of 1978 | TellTale
The power of music, young people and a gig ticket you can't buy | Everyday Ambassador
The word that explains everything: Anomie | How We Build A Happy World
Stay gold 🙏🏻