[SIC] 387: Sancerre Peleton

Vol. 8, No. 27. HIP REPLACEMENT w/ Dayna Castillo of "Silence Brand," AI bearishness, open submissions, reflections and ruminations 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 Wednesdays. Read like an outline for a sense of the week’s gestalt. Nobody clicks every link, except me.

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.

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

This digest was sent free on 3/4/26 to 8308 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.

[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.

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Hi all,

Fastidious readers of [SIC] may have noticed upon clicking through to source material that I frequently clipp the “How” and “Why” from the beginning of headlines in my links. It’s a style thing for me; I dislike the over-reliance in digital publishing (read: all media publishing these days) to open stories with these filler words when headlines work better without them.

The tyranny of “How” comes from the SEO-driven days when content providing answers was ranked higher by Google et al when replying to search queries. Higher rankings meant more traffic, meaning more ad space, meaning more revenue for publishers, in theory.

But that game’s been over a while now. I was reminded of it today reading [SIC] Talks alum Jacob Donnelly’s A Media Operator newsletter, in which he wrote of Conde Nast’s recently reported revenue gains,

“It’s pretty impressive considering how the business of publishing has changed so fundamentally over the last four years. Back then, it was predominantly a scale game where brands, perhaps, didn’t matter as much as the ability to get traffic. Today? That’s not so much the case.”

Not so much at all. Search-driven traffic is gone and not coming back. Subscriptions, services, sponsorships and content integrations, IP licensing, physical products and events are what drives the business now.

So, my media industry readers, writers and editors out there, can we please give “how” and “why” a break and stop writing like we’re talking to dummies (or worse, bots)? It’d make me so happy. And it’ll make you come across better too.

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HIP REPLACEMENT Ep. 47 Dayna Castillo (of Silence, Brand!)

Apropos of the ‘why?!’… my chat with Dayna ⚡ Castillo (and of course Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick) was so fun we did it twice; the recording of the first one corrupted. Silence, Brand!’s crab army is Substack legend and she’s herself an inveterate Linkedin shitposter, so it was nothing if not critical. We blamed the lunar eclipse, talked Chris K’s Big Arch fail, Burger King’s response, “Staples Baddie” and the camera-ready requisites of contemporary workplace culture, Horseshoe Theory and “why AI sucks”. Have a listen:

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On of the reasons the first recording corrupted was that I was on-site presenting at another [SIC] Talks alum, Ed Cotton’s “Camp Thrive,” a daylong conference of marketing strategy types, which Ed captured in this Reflecting on What I heard at Camp Thrive post on Provoke.

More alums, more reflections: Sam Valenti IV i invited me to make a cameo in Herb Sundays 178: Patrick Holland, talking about the skateboard video soundtracks of my youth. Captain, there are doubts.

And: Chat, is “youth culture” real? is i-D EIC Thom Bettridge in convo with Casey Lewis , recorded earlier today on Substack Live and it’s now on Thom’s Content.Substack. I make a cameo in the Q&A part, asking about the effect of AI on writers.

I’m a longterm AI bear, in that regard; I think storytellers will be fine, though the current moment is certainly fraught. Fortunately there are still new opportunities arriving regularly, IE:

• The Dirt x Prism contest offering a $1,000 prize for the best narrative-driven cultural criticism about wealth / Dirt

• Submit your Pitches for the Next Are.na Annual, Themed “Score” / Are.na

• The Artlab Editorial Fellowship for 2026, a platform for critical art writing underwritten by the carmaker. Note: It’s the last week to reply / Artlab.Hyundai

Speaking of “fellowship”: anyone wanna bring me along to Printed Matter’s 50th Anniversary Dinner with Ed Ruscha on April 21st? I clean up nice.

Also apropos of Ruscha, a handful his artists books are included in this big sale on rare (mostly art) books / Harpers

And, last thing before the links: I’ll sadly be OOT but the New Art Dealers of America’s NADA Ceramics will be held Friday, March 6 through Sunday, March 8 at The Locker Room, located at 253 Church Street in Tribeca. Opening Reception is Friday 4-8p. Go get your hands on some pots.

ok now the links…..

Ben

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[SIC] 387: Sancerre Peleton

The Current Moment

• Journalists Are Reporting From Iran With No Internet / Wired

• From Celeste: The Speed Of A Trade Got Down To Nearly The Speed Of Light‘ / Odd Lots Pod

• More gaming the market: The collapse of China’s property market bubble has allowed some young people to snap up cheap accommodation and retire early / Semafor

• Bolivia Races to Destroy $62 Million in Cash That Fell From Sky / Bloomberg

• Brazil is underrated / Marginal Revolution

• Speaking of being on the bubble: A24 just dropped made-in-Japan Marty Supreme ping pong sneakers (just in time to wear to the Oscars) / A24

• Borrowing from that playbook: The whole world is collabing with Scream (the movie Franchise) / Hypebeast

• From Iolanda: “Collabs all around - “We don’t just watch stories anymore, we shop them” ;) [Are brand collaborations reaching a saturation point? What ‘Wuthering Heights’ reveals] / Creative Boom

• Corollary: How Selling Out Made Me a Better Artist. I thought my art had to be protected from the real world, but that ended up being unrealistic / T Mag

• The Desalination Edition. The real risk in the Gulf States isn’t energy exports. It’s water / WITI

• Seawater corollary, from Celeste: “The era of the mermaid holiday” [People Are Mermaiding All Over The World] BBC

• Closer to home: New York, I can’t get over you. And I’m not the only one / Audience Intelligence

• Meanwhile, can’t get over this: toilet bowl cameras can use AI to analyze your stool/ GQ

• Speaking of shitty: ‘Leverage.’ ‘Reach Out.’ ‘Circle Back.’ The Corporate Jargon We Hate the Most’ / WSJ

• Related: A New Lost Generation: Why Gen Z is Unprepared for the Workplace. Only 56% of Gen Z adults reach adulthood having had a romantic relationship; a problem because early relationships are where people learn core workplace skills like expressing emotions, cooperating, and managing conflict / WSJ

• From Piers: Why Gen Z isnt’ Dating / NYT

• But… Don’t Let the Gooners Get You Down / Many Such Cases

• Because?! Sephora Tots are Coming. ‘Millennials created the wellness economy. Is it any wonder their kids are interested too?’ / The Atlantic

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Futures

• China is beating the U.S. in developing its humanoid robot industry / TechCrunch

• It’s bots vs. reporters at the AP / Semafor

• Philadelphia Inquirer says new AI-assisted newsletters are proving to be “a massive subscription driver” / WSJ

• To that end: the rise of A.I. has sparked fears of mass unemployment. But what if the technology could be used to create more jobs than it kills? / The New Yorker

• Cause, like, My intern’s AI agent texted me to hang out / Ramp Economics

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Launches

• The ‘European’ Jolla Phone Is an Anti-Big-Tech Smartphone / Wired

• More phone-y: Bland AI bought the rights to Soulja Boy’s voice so that anyone could call him (in his telephone car) / IG

• Corollary, from Geoff: Ingestible Electronics! / Spectrum

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Platforms

• Apple’s move to video could endanger podcasting’s greatest power / Anil Dash

• Social media is turning into TV, but TV is turning into radio. Podcast” meant nothing and everything at On Air Fest / Nieman Lab

• Piracy is in rude health in 2026 - and it is all powered by DSPs / Network Notes

• ‘Health’ Corollary: How Is Kalshi Not Gambling? / Wired

• More ‘predictions’: Instagram and TikTok are testing tools that automatically offer recommendations for products similar to those shown in your photos or videos / The Verge

• From Iolanda: “ChatGPT’ing: the rise of ChatGPT”[Ranked: The 20 Most Visited Websites in the World in 2026] / Visual Capitalist

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Artistics & Stylistics

• Demna’s Still Giving Us the Clothes Our Culture Deserves / The New Garde

• From Celeste: Can Gucci Make Luxury AI? /CNN

• How to Watch a Fashion Show / Show Notes

• Watches for Horse Girls / Dimepiece

• Girlies corollary: Alexis Page, the genius behind some of the best beauty brands in the world, launched a [newsletter] / Self Involved

• Emo as hell: A complimentary profile of pro skater turned actor turned fine-art photographer Jason Lee that was “surprisingly difficult to publish” / Defector

• Also difficult: When buying clothes, can you beat the market? / FT

• The Hermès Game Is Harder Than Ever / Back Row

• A different kind of gnarly:The Gory Details Behind GORE-TEX / Heddels

• Also obscure: The little-known gallery that brought Modern art to America / Artnet

• So then… How Do I Get Into the Whitney Biennial? Conventional wisdom says there isn’t much you can do, but Paddy Johnson knows that’s not the whole story/ Hyperallergic

• Well… this could be one way: Tino Sehgal Turned a Street in Mexico Into a Living Artwork / Artnet

• You don’t have to become a “loafer guy”. And more V.I.P. recommendations from comedian [and [SIC] Talks alum] Kareem Rahma / Blackbird Spyplane

• While fellow [SIC] talks alum Sami Reiss points out that furniture designers don’t matter as much as you think in an ERA-SPECIFIC understanding of vintage furniture / Snake

• A 50-year goldmine of design: AIGA New York unveils its poster archive to the public / Its Nice That

• How Tariffs Reshaped the Global Fashion Map / Vogue Business

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Entertainments

• How Wong Kar-Wai Created the Future. Thirty years ago, the director engineered an era-defining futurist aesthetic and foresaw the anxieties of 2026 / The Chow

• How Shelter, a legendary NYC dance party, has kept going for 35 years / Gothamist

• The Plastic People Edition On real-world testing, depressurized rooms, and London nightclubs / WITI

• Let’s turn the trading floor into a dance floor. How “Industry” Curated the best Soundtrack on TV / GQ

• The Sickening Fairy Tale of Yasmin Hanani / The Atlantic

• Also “sick”: Bungee Reads’s Lure of the Weirdness / Bungee Space

• The Real Story Behind ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ / The Honest Broker

• David Foster Wallace’s First Big Story, from Playboy 1988 / Playboy

• Katherine Dunn’s Caesura: The Permanent Pause in the Life of a Writer. She had everything writers dream of… so why did Katherine Dunn walk away from fiction at the height of her powers? / Apology Review

• When Harry (Styles) met Haruki (Murakami) / Runner’s World

• The business of Lily Allen / Vogue Business

• In True’s Orbit : True Whittaker is a lot, baby/ The FACE

• Maybe not ‘true?’ Paramount said it has no plans to offload any of its cable networks / Deadline

• Corollary: These Gorillaz x Spotify ads are hiding something / Creative Bloq

• From Iolanda: The world’s most famous virtual band is back! [Gorillaz and Spotify Gamify ‘The Mountain’ with 4 Murals Blending Digital and Real] / LBB

• Gorillaz’s Strange Hybrid Formula Is Still Where Damon Albarn Feels At Home’ / New Statesman

• More home territory: A 2-hour mix of music compiled by Thom Yorke that plays before Radiohead’s European shows / Kottke

• And more ‘deep cuts’: An online archive of Walkmans and all the other pocket tape players / Walkmanland

• Apropos of that, from Celeste: The iPods Slow Shuffle Back To Relevance / FT

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Media & Marketing

• There are apparently 6x more publicists than Journalists / Substack

• Yet! 40 years and 10,000 broadcasts in, Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr are still live on air. The pair helm the nightly hourlong TV news for 7News Perth / NYT

• Related: As Broadcast Slowly Dies, Niche-casting is on the rise / Hollywood Reporter

• Case in point: Francis celebrates his 100th Creator Spotlight ep with the gang from Caper , a new food media start up/ YT

• Apropos of creator spotlights, from Piers: In Los Angeles, a growing number of companies are building bright little corners for content creators to try products and shoot short videos / LA Times

• From Iolanda: The Rise of Creators as Production Partners. Key Quote: “Modern creators often operate with capabilities that rival small production teams: filming, editing, motion graphics, sound design, trend fluency and real-time iteration informed by performance data. Many can concept, shoot and deliver platform-ready assets in days, sometimes hours.” / Muse By Clios

• Creator talent agencies are evolving into multi-platform operators / Digiday

• Line item or opportunity: Agencies grapple with economics of a new marketing currency: the AI token / Digiday

• “AI isn’t killing creativity”: hierarchy is hurting the industry. Why job roles are the real threat to creative agencies. / The Drum

• Is On’s muted guidance the sign of a ‘dwindling’ brand? / Retail Dive

• Kith and On have announced a multi-year running partnership / Hypebeast

• The On Founders On What’s Next for On / Dot Dot Dot

• Mike Cherman of Market on the mechanics behind [speed to culture] and what it costs / Unorthodox Blend

• Alum Delia Cai in an instagram campaign for Banana Republic / IG

• From Piers: Why a beauty brand is giving Gen Alpha equity / Glossy

• How Coach cocreated a campaign with Gen Z communities around the world / Retail Dive

• From Piers: “ Consumers in 2026 are seeking environments that feel intentional rather than exclusive, experiential rather than transactional. ” [How Hybrid Spaces Like Maison Welles Are Rewriting the Rules of Retail and Hospitality] Loop Mag

• Heineken wants to make pubs essential spaces / ADWEEK

• And why not?! I mean… Aesop turned intellectual rigour into a $2.5 billion brand / The Brandsider

• Less intellectual: Formula 1 Is About To Get a Lot More American / Reason

• Also the home turf: The Newest Front in America’s Supermarket War Is…Kentucky? / WSJ

• More New: Vanity Fair launched a gang of new newsletters/ Vanity Fair

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Foods and Drinks

• American Snacking Habits Are Transforming the Restaurant Industry. Chains are rolling out smaller and cheaper options for customers who just want a little treat / The Atlantic

• How Gym Bro Favorite Creatine Became the New It-Girl Supplement / Vogue Business

• So… are we at Peak Protein? Dan Frommer’s new report says… no / The New Consumer

• But we’re past the ‘peek’: New York city’s last Hooters has closed and the Post has headlines for days/ NY Post

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The Natural World

• Dogs get the winter blues, too / North Jersey

• True blue: Understanding Natural Indigo Dye. An in-depth guide on natural Indigo, with an explanation of the hand-dying process / Heddels

• Also hands on: A 25,000-year history lesson on body mods / Dazed

• Corollary?! Seven lessons from a year of erotic touch. I gave happy-ending massages to women—for a year/ Shaun Galagos

• Related: The Sexologist Who Unlocked the Female Orgasm/ The New Yorker

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[SIC] 387: Sancerre Peleton

Corollary Sources this week: Following Up / Aontas Intelligence / Retail Dive / Public Announcement / Politico Future Daily / The Future Party / Feed Me / Jimmy / Line Sheet / After School / As Seen On / Ben-Evans