[SIC] 385: Dim Lightbulbs

Vol 8, No. 25. HIP REPLACEMENT w/ Leann Abad. Writing from the road. Dinner Guest lessons. Newsletter peregrinations. We're doing classifieds. And all the liiiiiinks.

[SIC] Weekly is a digest of developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, compiled for information obsessives and published free on Wednesday.

[SIC] is made possible by its paid subscribers, who also get 20 “[SIC] Day” links on Mo/Tu/Th/Fr, and the weekly [SIC] Sundays mini-digest of 30 freeform links.

Many recipients expense their subscriptions as research in marketing, advertising, entertainment + tech. You can too.[SIC] prospers when you share it, so please do.

New original art and animation each issue is made by Gordon Hull. Special thanks this week for ideas: Piers Fawkes, Iolanda Carvalho and Celeste Blewitt. Comments, questions and contributions are invited from everyone.

This digest was sent free on 2/18/26 to 8251 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.

I’m Ben Dietz, advisor-for-hire to brands, publishers and agencies, interviewer, moderator and occasionally event/exhibition producer. Give a shout: @dietznutz on socials.

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Hi all.

Earlier than normal send this week; another dispatch from the road. It’s day three of a college tour journey with my daughter and her bestie, so we’re keeping the top short this go-round. A few bulletins:

I was struck by [SIC] Talks alum Matt Klein’s “Dinner Party Etiquette & Brands” post in Zine from this morning - asking essentially: Is your brand a good guest? And then offering some smart observations on how to not be that person / brand at the party.

The impulse (and the need) clearly isn’t just Matt’s (or mine); [SIC] Talks alum Julia Harrison launch introduced...saloon rolodex this week, a directory for creatively minded people to put themselves out there (in terms of what they’re seeking / offering professionally and socially). It’s a cool initiative, and the Saloon community is good vibes.

Corollary: HIP REPLACEMENT alum Jaskaran’s putting himself out there feeling a little aimless, or something thereabouts; his newsletter The Social Juice is analogous to [SIC] in its extensiveness, but more singular in its focus (on marketing). It’s very good, irrespective, but I sympathize with Jaskaran’s introspection; what are we doing this for? Like Matt’s post above notes, if you’re figuring our a Substack strategy now, you’re four years too late. But for those of us who’ve been at it for a while the question is more like: what do we do now?

One thing is for sure: We’re doing [SIC] classifieds. Literally 100% of the MANY respondents voted ‘yes’ in last week’s poll; much more resounding than I expected. First instances will run next week; I’ll send details in the [SIC] subscriber chat this week, and first slots will be offered to paid subs. Looking forward to making those as useful as possible, so any suggestions… stick them in the chat.

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HIP REPLACEMENT Ep. 45: Leann Abad

In this weeks episode, I was on the road as mentioned above - hence some of the technical difficulties. Fortunately the ep didn’t suffer: founder of Trifecta, Leann Abad is nothing if not a lively conversationalist. We bounced from spelling bee infamy, snatched Jesus, the “Lore” wave, personal branding and storytelling to generational differences in media consumption, the impact of AI on personal branding, and the evolving dynamics of social interactions, how to date, how to order wine these days, the Chloe Malle x Anna Wintour interview the implications of Khaby Lame's recent IP catalogue acquisition and what it means for the future of content creation and media companies, and of course Clav-maxxing. It’s a fun one. Listen here:

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Last thing before the links:

Kyle and I got invited to appear on Rashad Rastam’s Wear Many Hats pod and it was fun. In lieu of new [SIC] Talks, another chat for your consideration:

And the full conversation lives here. Thanks for having us Rashad!

And now… liinks.

Ben

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[SIC] 385: Dim Lightbulbs

The Current Moment

• There Are No Satantic Elites and the Scramble to Redefine “Woke”. [SIC] Talks alum Katherine Dee’s thought digests are not to be missed / Default Friends.

• And Everything Is Tyra Banks’ Fault / Culture Work

• Corollary: Naomi Campbell visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island and got him invited to parties around the world / NYT

• And Casey Wasserman announced that he’s putting his agency up for sale / The Wrap

• Apropos: Epstein’s Ghost Is Calling All the Shots in Trump’s White House / Vanity Fair

• Meantime, The British Are Furious at Donald Trump Over Chicken. They Actually Have a Pretty Good Point. Part food safety fight, part cultural identity crisis / Slate

• Anthropic and the Pentagon are reportedly arguing over Claude usage: The apparent issue: whether Claude can be used for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons/ TechCrunch

• Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance are talking again / NYT

• Zeihan says Japan’s Debt Crisis Is Just the Beginning / YT

• We Are Now All Pretend Experts / Provoke

• For College Applicants, Pressure to Make Summers Count Has Gotten Even Worse / WSJ

• This time really could be different on jobs. Three catalysts are driving an intensifying divergence between a cooling US labour market and strong GDP growth / FT

• Some Americans are “un-retiring” — and not by choice / Quartz

• How to write a coaching/learning prompt / Seth Godin

• The Fashion Exec’s Guide to the AI Career Reset / Vogue Business

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Futures

• From Piers: “Good news for [SIC] subscribers” [Meta Patented AI That Takes Over Your Account When You Die, Keeps Posting Forever] Futurism

• What worked last time is the enemy of what works next / It’s Nice That

• The AI hater’s guide to code with LLMs / Aredridel

• I Loved My OpenClaw AI Agent—Until It Turned on Me. I used the viral AI helper to order groceries, sort emails, and negotiate deals. Then it decided to scam me / Wired

• And: “An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – More Things Have Happened” / Shamblog

• Hence: ‘Being very careful’: Weeks after unveiling ad plans, OpenAI works to control the message / Digiday

• Meantime, Sam “Claws” Attention Back OpenAI / On My Om

• Corollary: Big Tech is using design philosophy as a smokescreen. “Calm technology” is all the rage but big tech companies are leveraging the concept to distract / Dezeen

• Also smokescreeny: From Celeste: Dinner Is Being Recorded, Whether You KNow It Or Not / NYT

• More surveillance; Robot Dogs Are on Going on Patrol at the 2026 World Cup in Mexico / Wired

• While elsewhere: A startup wants to use water to fly through space / Gizmodo

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Launches

• What Brands Should Build Next... / Dot Dot Dot

• Meantime, Snapchat launches creator subscriptions in the US: will let creators set their monthly subscription price / TechCrunch

• And Date Drop, a questionnaire-based dating platform is remaking online dating at universities across the country / TechCrunch

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Artistics & Stylistics

• A Global Portrait of Generation Z / Magnum

• Corollary: Year of the Horse Energy. Ellen Stagg | Soft light, strong women, and staying sharp in New York / Friends From New York

• Surprisingly? Ocean Vuong Is a Legitimately Good Photographer / Hyperallergic

• Also surprising: Brendon Babenzien is parting ways with J.Crew / WWD

• Related: Can J. Press Reclaim American Prep? / Vogue

• What’s “Chic” in an Apocalypse? In defense of “gorpcore”: How brands like North Face, Salomon, and Arc’teryx created the defining look for the polycrisis / The Chow

• Maybe Wool Workout Clothes? The Demand Is Growing / BoF

• Speaking of trendy: “ICE Out” Pins Are All Over New York Fashion Week and the Red Carpets—What’s Next? / Vanity Fair

• Also: Fashion Gone Country (w/ Amanda Mull) /The New Garde

• Gildo Zegna on the true price of luxury / Monocle

• Corollary: Why the Most Coveted Products Are Surprisingly Affordable / BoF

• Ergo: The Nicholas Daley Interview / Throwing Fits

• Elsewhere entirely: The Surprisingly Sexual Side of Medieval Christian Art / Artnet

• And from Piers: Giant Crocheted ‘Dumb Phones’ by Nicole Nikolich Tap into Millennial Nostalgia / Colossal

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Entertainments

• FREDERICK WISEMAN 1930-2026 An Archival Interview from Vice Magazine back in the day / Apology

• No RIP: Matt Groening says there’s no end in sight for The Simpsons / NYT

• But… Do You Need a Writer’s Room? We think we need space to be creative—but that might have it exactly backward / The New Yorker

• Videos aimed at pets are drawing millions of views. But who’s actually watching? / NYT

• Corollary: A No-Name Director to Everyone but His 38-Million Fans / The Atlantic

• Speaking of DIY-ing it: On writing “Us v. Them,” R-rated orchestras, and a just world where artists are paid a living wage. In Conversation with Ronen Givony, Freelance Writer and Founder/Producer of Wordless Music / Thought Enthusiast

• Related: DIY America #9: Atlanta, GA an inside look into the best DIY venues, bands, and more of Atlanta / Gunk

• Corollary: Ephemera mania! Akosua T. Adasi goes inside an installation of vintage printed matter from New York City’s nightlife / Dirt

• Three from Celeste: No Sex Please, We’re Bronte Purists / FT

• And: Love it or hate it, Emerald Fennell and Lucky Chap have got the world talking about Healthcliff and Cathy. [Wuthering Heights Rakes In $77m At Global Box Office ON Opening Weekend] / The Guardian

• Because?: Turns Out Crying At The CInema Is Good For Our Health (And The Box Office)’ / Elle

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Media & Marketing

• From Iolanda: Every business is an ad business - part 236 [Netflix grows its dominance as an ads business] / WARC

• AI Isn’t Cutting Marketing Jobs—But It Is Making Them Harder / ADWEEK

• Companies are tailoring their digital marketing to chatbots / NYT

• ‘Agentic with a small a’: CMOs are adopting AI more slowly than it’s evolving / Digiday

• How Reddit Plans to Be the Antidote to AI Shopping / Vogue Business

• How fake AI influencers generate real cash / BoF

• Ars Technica pulls article with AI fabricated quotes about AI generated article / 404 Media

• [SIC] Talks alum Darren Hemming of Network Notes sat down at Rinse FM to chat all things AI [and music] / Soundcloud

• While (unrelated) [SIC] homie and former colleague Lars Hemming Jørgensen on Culture, courage and the bank of happiness / Unorthodox Blend

• Apropos: Brand Building Begins With Respect : Rei Inamoto x John Jay / The Intersection

• From Iolanda: “Brandom” and other ideas ;) Let’s Get Real About Brand Love / LBB Online

• Because? Virality is dead, part 2. When culture moves fast, look for things that move slowly / The Sociology of Business

• Opportunity then?! Email disclaimers, wtf?. Ubiquitous, useless, gibberish. Excellent, we can work with that / Tone Knob

• Speaking of Ts and Cs: From Piers: I’m waiting for 100 days at 100% [British outdoor brands discounts the longer it rains in UK] / Retail Times

• Olympic visibility alone means little. Execution is everything. China’s Olympic sportswear moment exposed a harsh reality: cultural storytelling captures attention, but can’t build the distribution networks that drive premium market sales / Jing Daily

• Corollary, from Piers: “It’s interesting to see an alcohol co be so somber and reserved when it comes to their corporate experience - esp as the first experience I think of when it comes to Moet is a bunch of douchey UHNWIs spraying it over each other at an Aspen mountain lodge” [Moët Hennessy Poland Offices by Colliers Define] / Retail Design Blog

• In contrast: Behold the ‘Vertical Pizza Box’ by Pizza Hut, spotted on London’s streets / Creative Boom

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Foods and Drinks

• The pie and mash crisis: can the original fast food be saved? / The Guardian

• How American Kids Got So Picky. Before the 20th century, children happily ate the same food as adults. What happened? / The Atlantic

• GLP-1s bite into snack profits / Semafor

• From Celeste: Weight Loss Jabs Push Sugar Price To Five Year Lows‘ / FT

• Australia has the most expensive cigarettes in the world. The prices have fueled a multibillion-dollar black market / NYT

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The Natural World

• How to Avoid Choking. Ilia Malinin’s prefrontal cortex probably got in the way / Range Widely

• No Views, No Hikes, Just Zzzs: Welcome to the Sleepcation / WSJ

• Arda transforms beer waste into plastic-free faux leather / Dezeen

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[SIC] 385: Dim Lightbulbs

Corollary Sources this week: Ritzholtz / Garbage Day / The Future Party / Marketplace / Politico Future Daily / Feed Me / Nieman Lab / Dealbook / The Material Review