Welcome to Friday Fives, Vol. 288
This week, we’re touching down on 2024 Super Bowl ads, illuminating Google’s new video AI, getting a taste of a wine-based meme, solving the NYT game explosion, and spreading the news about newsletters.
The Super Bowl is a singular entertainment experience because it has something for everyone. The game, the food, the drama of whether or not Taylor Swift will make it from her show in Tokyo in time to see her boyfriend play in “The Big Game.” And, of course, the ads. Around this time every year, people start to question if Super Bowl ads are worth their hefty price tag. The truth is, no matter how divisive or poorly executed a Super Bowl commercial may be, it’s seen by such a massive sea of eyeballs that it almost doesn’t matter if people hate it. All we know for certain is that we’ll be watching the game with our phone cameras out in case one of those pesky QR codes pops up. We missed scanning one last year and haven’t stopped thinking about it.
Lumiere Lights the Way for AI Video
Five seconds. It will only take five seconds for Google’s video AI, Lumiere, to blow your mind. Go ahead. Watch the text-to-video clips created with uncanny accuracy and realism. The magic behind this leap forward in AI video creation is a new diffusion model called Space-Time-U-Net, or STUNet. In strictly non-scientific terms, this model locates where objects are in a video and predicts where they’d move next, allowing it to generate in one continuous process instead of piecing small segments together. In the future, it will also have image-to-video and stylized video generation. Stay tuned for “Friday Fives: Video Version.” We’re mostly kidding. Mostly.
The high-brow world of wine can be as musty as the cellars that store their wares. Perhaps that’s why Josh wine is rising to legendary meme status. There are certainly wines with sillier names, yet Josh’s elegant cursive font paired with its reasonable price point creates a juxtaposition that doesn’t try nearly as hard as other brands but works just as well. Josh occupies a space that’s a step above Barefoot Wine, making it an acceptable offering at dinner parties that screams, “I don’t drink bottom shelf because I’m classy like that.” The irony in Josh’s success is that it was named after the winemaker’s father, who was a lumberjack, Army veteran, and volunteer firefighter. The branding in no way reflects that heritage, although it carries his hardworking spirit in every barrel.
Get With the Times and Their Word Play
Wordle. Connections. Crossword. Spelling Bee. What’s the connection between these four words? Here’s a clue: They all provoke equal parts daily frustration and thought-provoking titillation. The Times has flourished by modernizing and expanding one of the best aspects of a traditional newspaper: the games. While arguably, the iconic Crossword is the Godfather of their games, Wordle created a resurgence of activity. But Wordle was only just the beginning. Wordle was the addictive gateway game to the world of other addictive NYT games. For all puzzled at the process, Vanity Fair is now giving a glimpse into the notebook drafts of Connections foursomes and the interesting Wordle word choices. Though personally, “leggy” still feels like a pretty random one.
There was once a time when your go-to “stylists” were the pages of a magazine or the deprecating hosts of TLC’s “What Not to Wear.” Now, Substack, an online platform for digital newsletters, has seen a rise (80% year-over-year, in fact) of stylists and fashion gurus giving their hot takes to subscribers through the virtual mailbox. Consumers have grown tired of the disingenuous IG paid influencer posts and wasteful SHEIN hauls. They’re looking for expert and authentic advice from the mouth of the wearer on what trendy pieces are worth the purchase, where to shop sustainably, and how to style the clothes they already have. So, if you’re curious how to channel your inner Carmela Soprano with the “mob wife aesthetic,” see what the newsletters have to say about it–after you’ve finished reading ours, of course.
