Issue 018: Brand Patronage, The 700 Club, A Castle In Banff & Flatulent Bloody Mary
I'm writing this from a cafe in Ojai where I'm eavesdropping on two conversations: a table of bikers talking about how 'the poor' are just trying to use taxes to steal from the rich, and a well-dressed bohemian couple (one of whom is Anne Hathaway) doting over their adorable child. It's a pretty accurate representation of Ojai culture. Anywho... let's do the newsletter!
Brands Are Just Patrons. Creatives feel guilty and weird for "selling out" and I've heard many colleagues talk about how 'brands are the only people paying for art these days.'
BUT – it's always been this way. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Mozart, and Beethoven were all supported by nobility. Hell, the Medici's paid for the majority of the Renaissance era art and buildings that make Florence famous.
These patrons had messages they wanted to proliferate. What's the difference between Botticelli agreeing to make religious figures look remarkably similar to the Medicis and Refinery 29 using their trusted authentic tone to help push Glossier in some branded video?
Furthermore, why is making 'branded content' any different than making non-branded content for a tv network? MTV, for example, is a subsidiary of Viacom Media Networks, whose parent company is Viacom, of which a controlling share is held by the private company National Amusements, Incorporated.
This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Any art you don't self-fund is helping push the agenda of whoever controls the purse strings. The sooner we as creatives realize this, accept it, and empower ourselves to make what we want with the brand benefactors (brandifactors?) we agree with, the better. Whadya think?
The 700 Club airs twice a day on the Freeform network due to an ironclad contract put in place by evangelist Pat Robertson. The article sources several unnamed Disney execs are super frustrated but can't do anything about it.
The Consumer Credit Reporting Industry has an official website where you can opt out of receiving any unsolicited credit card offers.
And the only image on it is this fun silver fox stock photo...
The BBC has an entire subsection with news reported in Pidgin
Three Princes (Devin Field, Zac Oyama, & Jacob Wysocki) released three video sketches and they're the first set in a while that's made me truly miss sketch comedy. I'm supes jealous of all three, but "Kites" is most squarely my sense of humor.
Love me a sketch with a meta heighten.
Excuse my preaching for a moment, but if you have griped about Donald Trump AT ALL since 2016, if you've gone to a march or a protest... you've got to volunteer for a campaign in 2018.
Swing Left makes it easy to take action. Nobody likes making calls or knocking on doors, but it moves the needle more than yelling into our own social media echo chambers.
Seattle-based Amplifier has commissioned some of the greatest activist artists working today — including Shepard Fairey, Rommy Torrico, Munk One, and Kate DeCiccio — to create posters for public school classrooms.
The project, We The Future, is being funded on Kickstarter - where a donation of $5 or more will get you access to the high res digital files.
Banff looks amazing and the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel – Canada's "Castle in the Rockies" – looks like an incredible way to see it.
Here's another old Halloween-themed Tremendosaur sketch. This one features Betsy Sodaro as a flatulent Bloody Mary and was shot by future Chef's Table showrunner Danny O'Malley.
Thanks for reading! I'd love to get your feedback. Favorite segment? What's working? What's not working? What do you want to see more of?