Welcome to Friday Fives, Vol. 294
Every Friday, we highlight five things we have on our radar that we think should be on yours, too.
This week, we’re diving into water marketing’s rebirth, watching videos on a listening app, getting bittersweet about a bittersweet veggie, suspecting the royal family of bluffing, and commenting on inspiring design posts.
01. Liquid Death Brings Life to Water Marketing
Liquid Death is the rough-around-the-edges skater boy of water brands that was recently valued at $1.4 billion, and we can’t help but feel it’s a testament to the wild side they bring to the otherwise reserved branding within their industry. Water is water, and the marketing efforts on water’s part have always been with the same outlook of freshness, purity, luxury, and Jennifer Aniston. Liquid Death brings a different type of freshness. With their hardcore attitude and marketing stunts, like a Tony Hawk blood-infused skateboard for anti-plastic efforts, they’re what you’d least expect from a can of water, but one you can’t help but want to drink. If you need an example to believe in investing in branding, look no further than Liquid Death’s birth of “cool and edgy” water.
02. Video Did Not Kill the Radio Star
Spotify announced their “Switch to Video” feature–a new app option to watch a song’s video while listening, in hopes of helping artists gain new fans. In its “beta” stage, the feature is available to premium subscribers in 11 markets and only has a limited catalog. This feature may speak to the overstimulated phone users who love to keep their eyeballs busy, or the lovers of nostalgia who have fond childhood memories of searching up music videos in their parent’s “computer room.” Plus, it gives musicians a visual opportunity to brand themselves outside of lyrics, album art, and catchy samples that scratch a certain itch in your brain. We’re excited to try this new feature out–but if Spotify becomes the home for music videos, how else will we see the weird, and oddly personal, comments on YouTube music videos?
03. The Sweet, Sweet Fame of a Bitter Brassica
Move over, arugula. Out of the way, kale. There’s a new green queen in town. Cabbage, a humble background character to other full-bodied meals, is finally getting its shining moment on menus across the country. It has a long shelf life, is cheap, and it now enters a list of other veggies like brussel sprouts that have recently experienced what can only be described as a rebrand. The vegetable is simple enough to be given a new air of inventiveness at restaurants and has been lauded as an almost-cure-all, which goes a long way in an era of trendy post-pandemic, “clean girl,” healthy eating. So, get ready for a cabbage renaissance, and if you’ve always enjoyed it–be sure to tell everyone you liked it before it was considered cool.
04. A Royally Bad Photoshop
After a surgery in January, Kate Middleton disappeared. Then came the photo: a highly doctored image of her with her kids. Despite the titillation being similar to that of a true-crime podcast, the scandal raises the issue of manipulating images for public consumption, the advent of AI-photo creation, and its possibility of changing narratives. What can you get people to believe if you doctor an image just enough? Platforms like TikTok are attempting to get into photo sharing, which will only heighten questions of accuracy. If an established “brand” such as the royal family attempted to serve up fake images, who is next and will they get caught? What’s real and what’s not? Where is Kate? Did the Queen have Princess Diana killed? Sorry, we’ve really gone down the royal family rabbit hole this week.
05. Following the Leaders of Design
As creatives, we know a thing or two about digging through Instagram for inspiration, which is why we love Co. Design’s list of their favorite Instagram accounts for design and mood-board-worthy content. From photography candy colored enough to be in a Wes Anderson film to furniture restorers turning a cat-scratched armoire into a brand-new piece, this list proves that design inspiration can be found anywhere. Compare one editor’s choice of Laura Callahan’s overstimulating colorful prints of womanhood, complete with messy rooms and boob mugs, with that of another favorite: Geoff McFetridge’s simplistic graphic illustrations with just a few colors. What are some of your favorite IG accounts for inspiration? Seriously, tell us. We can never have too many.
