Greetings from LHC HQ, where almost all of us have remembered to turn off our Out-of-Office auto-replies and started getting back to the business of creative genius. That said, August treated us well, if our #Vacation Slack channel is anything to go by.
But enough about us and onto the #content that you’ve been craving...
Making Fetch Happen, Again, and Again, and Again
Just when you think it can't get any more head-spinning, the metabolism of popular culture edges ever closer to hummingbird-on-methamphetamine levels of escape velocity. How is it possible that that whole hawk tuah episode is less than three months old? Raygun's epochal Olympics breakdancing debacle happened only 27 days ago? If things continue at this pace, those 2024 year in review packages coming in December are going to look like the Yellow Pages (remember the Yellow Pages?).
Watching brands try to keep up with the zeitgeist has become particularly uncomfortable. Take a look at "brat summer". Just consider how quickly consumer brands, government agencies, and massive political campaigns just dropped everything so they could embrace a concept that didn't become much of a concept at all, aside from Pantone 3570-C and lower-case Arial.
We love Charlie XCX, and yes, we were fans of brat, but does anyone actually want this?
Or how about this?
And now that brat summer is officially over, per Charlie XCX's directive of September 2, MMXXIV, watch as the media outlet of every possible corporate, state, or non-governmental agency embraces "demure", or whatever the hell it is a week from today.
Once upon a time, creating and shaping a brand was something meant to last more than a few months. Sure, Pepsi might enlist the pop star du jour to sell their canned diabetes vector, but "The Pepsi Generation" branding, and its several incarnations, dates back to 1963.
McDonald's I'm Lovin' It has survived more than 20 years, even as the Justin Timberlake kick-off single has transmogrified into a baffling, and dare we say it, charmingly terrifying voice-over from Scottish ogre Brian Cox.
But now that the meme machine has thankfully given brands a new buzzword to run into the ground -- demure, in this case -- get ready for a whole new round of corporations ditching the style and brand guidelines so they can do... something?
If you're looking to add a little object permanence to your own branding efforts, might we suggest getting in touch?
Recent work
Check out the sparkle we brought to this Generative AI survey from one of our favorite clients, Elastic, creating a Ceros experience for an interactive and eye-popping look at AI adoption.
Like what we do? Want to find out more? Respond to this email, we'd love to work with you!