PHEV marketing spin turns out to be pack of lies. Quelle surprise. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I note that brand strategists get a mention under the "you're fucked" roles here... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I wish I'd found it much earlier than 2022. My favourite corner of the Internet ever since.

Just seen Lisa Nandy's "Gambling is a great pastime which brings joy to millions" quote. Labour really are just corporate shills these days aren't they?

I'd love to know what any fellow brand strategy folk on here think of this. exodus25.substack.com/p/what-we-sa...

I'm paying a lot of attention to how Japan is dealing with demographic issues, as Europe follows not far behind. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Brands have got to stop all this navel-gazing. It's the thing I berate clients for more than anything else. Internal focus, internal claims, zero demonstration of positive impact on the world around them. We have become so insular in our brand comms, it's maddening.

Very happy to have got to the cinema over the weekend to see 'One Battle After Another'. Fantastic moviemaking and just shades Sinners as the best of the year so far (doubt it will now be beaten).

The quality of Substack articles I've read today is 🔥 I might be frustrated about engagement with my own stuff but it's an oasis of wisdom in an ocean of slop elsewhere.

A Top 50 AI brands list - god their logos are uniformly dull AF

The current Strava/Garmin discord interests me, interesting example of the battle for ownership of the value chains of data.

There's something about the Nobel award, on the seeming basis of "Only Democracy = Peace" that I'm struggling with, when so many western democracies have themselves been so oppressive. Not every alternate is Putin or similar tyrant.

No Gatekeeping. A popular modern phrase and brand signal. Do we know why we're using it? open.substack.com/pub/exodus25...

Jamie Dimon says "6 months to 2 years" for the big AI bubble market correction. Do we have to wait that long?

Latest social enshittification example: Realistic but fake movie trailers swamping YouTube made, via AI, from official "first look" images as source. Requires rethink of what initial media gets put out.

I think that most of the issues with professional services marketing is that those shining stars who have the most to teach the wider world - are also those who least want to have anything to do with marketing/self promotion.

It's not been a good year for social media. Here's where I'm at. open.substack.com/pub/exodus25...

Wise words from Jack Kessler: They [the middle class] can’t even feel as if they’re at least doing much better than those they consider below them, both in educational and social terms. People care not just about how much they earn, but where they sit in the pecking order.

The genius of Cory Doctorow: "AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job"

Highly recommended.

I despair of people bigging up their latest blog "for senior business leaders" which begins with the question: "What exactly Is Customer Feedback?" The standard of copywriting these days is so shit. We've got so used to writing bland marketing 101 posts we can't produce anything else.

"Pet influencers with more than 200,000 followers can earn between £2,000 and £3,000 a post and £10,000 for a campaign, comprising three or four pieces of content." The moron economy is booming.

And here it is open.substack.com/pub/exodus25...

How does your use of AI affect the upcoming renewal of your 'social license to operate'? THAT'S a brand question we should be asking CEOs. I feel a new Substack article forming in my brain.

Red Funnel, another business hugely impactful on the quality of people's lives, bought by private equity firm. Hmm. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The pressure cooker of the UK's failing economy and business outlook is starting to feel intolerable. Something has to give soon, I can feel it coming.

Between the Lewis Capaldi thing and Bad Bunny doing the Superbowl I'm feeling there is too much to unpack on my timeline today.

It's possible I may lose my shit today with people proclaiming the "impromptu/authentic/genius" marketing of Aldi paying Lewis Capaldi a load of money to play at one of their stores.

Without passing judgement on its merits, this viewpoint about what a govt's attitude to its workforce should be is very interesting www.opm.gov/news/secrets...

Email copy, just received: "We’re excited to introduce Fathom Coaching – built to help you transform every conversation into a coaching opportunity." Yuck, sounds like a great way to ensure no one ever wants to call me.

Probably an unpopular opinion but bringing up your kids is a piece of cake compared to managing the decline of your parents. Just the most horrible thing.

Exact same issue exists in marketing

Me too

Saharan social media-based meteorite brokerage is not the story I expected today, but what a tale for our times: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Wrote up some thoughts on what the digital world has done to our intersubjectivity, even bleeding into real-world community, such that we barely even attempt to persuade each other anymore. exodus25.substack.com/p/who-matter...

I thought Italy was supposed to have govt of populist right-wing loons? Yet here they are with a comprehensive AI regulation act, done and in law. Remind me where are we: Nowhere near regulating, instead abrogating that to US techbros in return for £150B in cash? www.linkedin.com/news/story/i...

Just occasionally someone subverts LinkedIn to valuable effect. www.linkedin.com/posts/ken-ch...

FAFO

"Starting November 3, 2025, we’ll use some of your LinkedIn data to improve the content-generating AI that enhances your experience, unless you opt out in your settings" The fuck you will.

You could sub "America" in this article title for many things; capitalism, workforce, technology, economics, nation... and be apt about the state of govt solutions for any.

Typical marketing JD these days. Utter nonsense mix of skills. Prob pays £28K.

So do we. They're called schools.

50+ white guy writes about cool. The absolute cheek of it. exodus25.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

Having enshittified football and golf, it's time to do cricket. www.cricexec.com/saudi-arabia...

I just turned 51. Is that old enough for me to have officially entered my "old man yells at cloud" phase? Because it sure does feel like it at the moment.

I despise RyanAir but can't deny this looks like effective (but highly cynical) brand marketing in 2025. Highly tribal, invoking victim culture, aimed at 'the man'. www.atcruinedourholiday.com

And so the media landscape evolves, TV is now where you package your YouTube clips, rather than clipping your TV show for YouTube... www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/p...

"To protest somewhere truly isolated would be like shouting “fuck the patriarchy” in a penguin colony." Frank Cottrell-Boyce is a great writer.

I have some sympathy for Angela Rayner, this doesnt seem like pure greed, but at the same time, it's a whopper of a misjudgement. And that in itself is enough reason for her to depart.

The biggest problem with strategy today is we strategists are a bunch of people who are great at leading horses to water. But what's needed is the skills and investment to make people damn well drink. And no one wants to pay for that bit.