Balletcore and the 'Soft Power' Revolution What happens when the shoes that make the most noise are the ones that barely make a sound?

New cover story, out now:
open.substack.com/pub/showpony...

Hey we might finally get the chance to work together!

Could never have guessed the final resting place of This is America would be a weight loss ad #PlannerBowl

I think that's a nice ad but I think the biggest danger Nike will face is that in their new desire to Go Back to Their Roots™️ they end up just playing it a tad safe. #PlannerBowl

Duracell ad was great and however much they paid for the talent integration was worth it.

Bonus points for filming Brady and Burkhardt in the exact same outfit they're wearing for the actual broadcast. #PlannerBowl

If you're gonna do the multiple celebrity thing, at least go all out - have a heap of eclectic and culturally relevant talent and put them in positions to do really good bits. #PlannerBowl

Uber Eats crushes it honestly. 'When you're hungry' is such a competitive but hugely profitable category entry point and they've just chipped away at it, year after year. #PlannerBowl

It's also just delightfully absurdist. So many of these spots will be either overly serious or too Hollywood glossy. Doritos tonally always seems to pop.

Oh and there are more ad breaks than ever (20 this year vs. 18 in previous years), which only further washes out the celebrity-centered ads. #PlannerBowl

I know it gets said every year but...
- there are more celebrity ads than ever
- the style of these ads is more homogenous than ever
- the celebrity choices themselves feel more gratuitous than ever

Just feels we're ripe for something genre busting. #PlannerBowl

Amazing get, reallllly hope they do something with her and Bill beyond the spot

They put so much thought into their choice of celebrity (Affleck, Strong, Druski...all great), and not enough into the pacing and copy.

Rough start.

Dunkin just shouting at me for a minute, Pfizer stitching two different ads together, betting ad (boo). #PlannerBowl

Forget the ads, Fox debuting a totally new scorebug in the #Superbowl is the real eye catcher.

Not sure I can do two weeks of even more Kelce coverage than we're getting now.

It's Zuck's real secret bunker

People love saying the Chrysler is their favorite building

I'm increasingly convinced that this particular style of tactic (incredibly thought-out, talent intensive, geographically specific and hyper sharable one-off activations) are more important than just about any other media option for modern TV/movie marketing.

Next year Netflix should have a Beyoncé concert and have the NFL play for 10 minutes at intermission

The most underrated impact of streaming platforms move into live sports is the effect on channel changing.

Whole lot people bout to watch a whole lot of State Farm ads.

Love him to death but Prof G is never more wrong than when he’s talking about advertising and brands

The only thing surprising about the Omnicom x IPG acquisition is that it happened before a Peacock x Paramount+ acquisition.

Every day, all around the world, people gather in meeting rooms and say 'you know who would be great for this...Snoop Dogg'

I can't tell whether it's the format (side scrolling / carousel) or the content, but I think the effectiveness of the former breeds more of the latter, as increasingly people realize that it's the best way to get their thoughts out and have it rewarded by the algo.

I'm talking about things like these, maybe I'm getting the name wrong.

Carousels on LinkedIn are like corner 3s in the NBA.

They've become way too efficient, to the point that everyone is now doing them and it's made for a more dull, homogenous product overall.