The extremely online report: November 2024
A monthly digest of discourse, drama, and digital ephemera
It’s been a long month—beginning with the results of the 2024 election, and ending with me serving 25 people Thanksgiving dinner. We’re back with the November report. Let’s recap what happened in our corner of the internet this month.
Ben Affleck understands AI better than most tech CEOs
At CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference, Ben Affleck delivered an unexpectedly technical and nuanced take on how AI might reshape creative work. Describing AI as “a craftsman at best,” he offered a keen distinction between technical execution and creative judgment: “Craftsman is knowing how to work. Art is knowing when to stop.”
His vision is a the future where AI dramatically reduces production costs and democratizes content creation, even enabling fans to commission customized episodes of their favorite shows. But rather than replacing human creativity, he sees AI handling the mechanics of creation while humans focus on the art of judgment. In a world where anyone can generate endless variations of anything, the ability to recognize what’s worth keeping becomes paramount.
Meanwhile, the New York Times published an article positing that AI is good for Hollywood—without interviewing a single VFX worker or union member fighting AI.
Jaguar rebranded (and everyone hated it)
The luxury automaker unveiled its new identity as part of its transition to all-electric vehicles, and the internet collectively cringed. The rebrand features mixed-case “JaGUar” typography, retires the growler emblem, and embraces a design language that feels… somehow future-forward and dated at the same time.
Elon Musk couldn’t resist, asking “do you sell cars?” while Nothing, the consumer electronics brand, gleefully mocked the new logo on X. Nicole pointed out how Porsche’s recent campaign with Aimé Leon Dore successfully balanced heritage with irreverence, while Jaguar’s rebrand feels oddly disconnected from the cultural moment. When your Chief Creative Officer has to clarify that the team wasn’t “sniffing the white stuff,” maybe it's time to reconsider your design direction.
New Coca-Cola Christmas ad is missing the sauce
Coca-Cola’s AI-generated remake of its iconic 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” commercial sparked immediate backlash. Despite scoring well in initial testing, TikTok quickly deemed it “less festive, more creepy holiday vibes.” Maybe some traditions are better left un-augmented.
We held space for Defying Gravity
In what might be the most 2024 moment yet, an earnest press junket interaction between Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and an Out Magazine reporter about “holding space” for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” became an instant meme. The phrase “holding space”—borrowed from therapeutic practice—spawned increasingly absurd variations, culminating in the Empire State Building tweeting that its 103rd floor was “originally built to hold space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity.”
Drama on Writing Twitter™
That Vanity Fair article about Cormac McCarthy’s relationship with Augusta Britt sparked intense backlash, and for good reason. The piece, written in elaborate ‘70s New Journalism style, glamorized a problematic relationship while centering the writer’s own blossoming friendship with its subject. If you’re writing about a relationship between a grown man and a teen, maybe pull back on the purple prose?
Worth your time
Willem Van Lancker started doing Career Decision Office Hours
“gen z “jane birkin-ifying” bags with shein charms & looking for shortcuts to personal style” is another part in the taste conversation
John Maeda on living a hybrid career resonated with my generalist soul
Good marketing
Linear’s Conversations on Quality series continues to deliver
Nike copywriters knocked the NYC Marathon ads out of the park
Calm’s election night ad was just what we needed
“Time is never wasted defending what you love” is a hell of a tagline
Meet the Aimé Leon Dore Porsche 993 Turbo
AI bits & bobs
Perplexity handled election coverage surprisingly well
Friend takes an interesting approach to emotional connection with users
Claude might be the most poetic LLM, but is still connecting the dots with their ads (I liked this one)
“Soon we’ll have agent-optimized sites, just like we have mobile sites today”
Which LLM will launch a “Chat with Santa” marketing campaign?
Reggie James with the take of the month: “We are giving the weirdos too much clout too early... We want silent weirdos scaling and unconcerned with clout. That’s how this world was built.”
Something fun
Someone dressed up as “the intersection of art and technology”
I love company handbooks, so thanks, Matt, for scanning Facebook’s
Gradient-generating techniques from Justin Jay Wang
Nodding along to Walter Benjamin’s Rules for Writing
The magic formula: “Is it attracting the best minds and most ambitious people?”
Also: The Hawk Tuah girl ships faster than you, Brian Eno is addicted to Photoshop, and wanting to go to space might be a red flag. Just another month on the internet!
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.
Another exceptional issue. I was fascinated by Ben Affleck's AI savvy in distinguishing between technical execution and genuine creativity, "AI can write you an excellent imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan; it cannot write you, Shakespeare," but I can see that it will simplify technical jobs making film-making more economical and therefore more accessible to indy filmmakers. I would also like to join the critics of the new Jaguar logo. I don't like it, but they've succeeded if the goal is to put the brand back in the public's eye, albeit controversially. I enjoy your newsletter. It's a good way to stay informed on what's trending on AI and the internet. It's educational and fun.