Bad Bunny Bowl
Pettiness wins, robot fumbles & beauty brand ski wars
Welcome to the Sunday Scroll! Your weekend recap of the world of culture, marketing & commerce. Think of us as the group chat you wish you had to run your mouth about the wild world of being too online. Come for the chaos, stay for the structure.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise…today is Benito’s day. Whoever has yet to grasp the magnitude of his star power, will understand in just a few short hours when he takes the halftime stage. No doubt he’s about to shatter streaming/merch/tour sales records, making his impact impossible to ignore. Besides that, consider us uninterested. We don’t care who wins and we’ve already been able to watch most of the (mid) Super Bowl ads starring Gen X celebs on social. Only Pringles & Door Dash really did their thing, but we’ll get into that below. For now, and in honor of the man who is potentially our last hope for humanity, we give you some of his best work, a video that is our go-to mood booster on a rainy day.
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In other news, if chaos was a week it would have been this one. It was a metaphorical game of dodgeball, no? There were moments we swerved in a way that made us feel unstoppable. And then there were moments that left us needing ice for that wound. One thing that got us both through the highs and lows of the week was music. Whether it was blasting Make Out Jams while baking banana bread, holding onto 2016 energy by playing Views from top to bottom, or, of course memorizing the DtMF set list. Sometimes a somatic shake out is exactly what the doctor ordered.
This week in ~mood~
The Structure
🛍️ Cyklar entering Sephora stores this month (called it)
👗 Margot Robbie gagging us with her Wuthering Heights looks
🐄 Door Dash’s Super Bowl ad pairing talent & culture flawlessly
😍 Teyana Taylor and her minis in head-to-toe Thom Browne
🧳 The vintage Porsche cameo in this Rimowa campaign
The Chaos
⛷️ The Rhode vs Rare Beauty Ski Trip battle…never putting an end to the rumors
💔 Getting a McNugget Caviar kit for Valentine’s Day
🎭 The last black contestant getting banished from Traitors, during BHM?!
💰 Poppi using LinkedIn marketing and changing titles to “vibes”
📸 Our algorithm being almost exclusively ANTM clips (not mad)
Quote of the Week
The Rule of Thirds: “1/3 of the time you should feel good about the work toward achieving a big goal, 1/3 of the time you should feel OK and 1/3 of the time you should feel really bad” - Alexis Pappa’s coach circa Rio Olympics.
Aka what you need to know when you’re trying to do something really hard! Raise your hand if you also needed the reminder that it shouldn’t feel good all the time.
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*Adds to Cart*
We’re now on ShopMy, so, if you click and purchase any of our recommendations, we may receive a small commission <3
💦 The most soothing face spray to chill out reactive skin
🧴 Replacing an empty of this body oil, plus it’s black-owned
🌷 Fresh flowers to feel something until Spring decides it’s sprung
👠 Sexy vintage Cavalli booties bc we can’t resist a leather + fur combo
✍🏼 This game-changing software for anyone writing a novel, screenplay, etc
Consciously Consuming…
✏️ tariro makoni’s Essay on Analogue “Trend” & Privilege: Tariro was one of our first Substack follows and her in-depth analyses on cultural trends & fashion keep us hooked. We’ve been thinking a lot about how the whole “analog as a status symbol” trend will materialize and this scratched the itch. It’s a solid deep dive into the accessibility, what being offline looks like online (trippy), and who actually has the privilege to adapt an unplugged lifestyle.
📲 The Cut’s article on Friction Maxxing: Required reading before you get into the above. Have you ever questioned how many of your daily frustrations are connected to your desire to eliminate friction in your life? We’d bet a lot of them. But the twist is, friction is not only what makes us human, it makes life worth living by being the necessary catalyst for growth. Almost all of the best things in life require a lot of inconvenience, discomfort, and those pressure cooker moments. So you might want to get more comfy with friction, k?
🎧 Is Everyone an Influencer Now?: The Culture Study Podcast dropped an episode about the current state of social media and how regardless of if you call yourself an influencer or not, it’s hard to deny the amount of opportunity that can come with being more visible online. We’re at a time when the lines are blurring between celebrities, influencers, creatives, and someone with an expertise that is interesting. It’s a perspective worth listening to, especially for anyone needing the nudge to step outside of their comfort zone to learn a new skill that might make them easier to be discovered.
🌚 The South Node and Learning to Let Go: Astrology with Alice is so good at putting astrology into the context of daily life. If you’re like us, you love using astrology as a tool to tap into your instincts and nudge you towards whatever the situation calls for, whether it’s action, acceptance, release, or, bum bum bum, stillness. We’re heading towards eclipse season, which, for the astro-newbies, means change might be knockin’. A lot of out with the old, in with the new type energy. Will you resist and fight for control? Or learn how to let go a little better? Ball’s in your court.
🎥 The Moment: Now, let’s preface that this will not be for everyone. It is far from a BRAT concert film and more of a “what if” BRAT sold out to capitalize on corporate gain and succumb to a fear of irrelevancy. It felt more like an industry inside joke than something that should have been heavy promo’d for the big screen, so it wasn’t surprising to find the theater essentially empty. But, if you like dry humor, feeling uncomfortable for the plot, and a message that challenges cultural brainwash, you might have as much fun as we did watching it.
If you’re a free subscriber, this is where we leave you on Sundays </3. If you don’t want to lose access to candid POVs, business analyses and access to industry insiders, join the party & upgrade to paid for $5.55/mo. PS - the tea lives behind the paywall.
Big Thoughts On…
The cultural conversations (and tensions) taking up far too much space in our brains.
Brands Doing Super Bowl
The Good, the bad, and the dissolve the S-Corp immediately because, yikes.
