Friction Formats, Craft Media Revolution and Ball Bags. Accidental Insights #34 is a heatwave of insights.

I’m back in the city after a week of remote working from Tornedalen. I’m also back with a new collection of insights.

New work alert: I helped the wonderful people at GLAM a little bit with their client Semper, and this campaign went live last week.

The most interesting things I’ve read, seen, thought about, or debated the last two weeks. High and low.

FRICTION FORMATS. Vinyl has shown the way for music being anywhere but streaming services. But some artists push even harder to go beyond the Spotifys of the world. Pop artist Beabadoobee decided to share her new single All I Did Was Dream About You with select fans by sending out iPod Shuffles preloaded with the song. House producer and DJ Peggy Gou is collaborating with Spanish jewelry brand Two Jeys, launching a USB stick designed as a cowboy boot filled with music. NYC rapper Starker decided to launch his latest project, Living Type Dangerous Vol. 1, in the shape of an early-00s mixtape (CD-R, inkjet-style cover, with the tracklist on the front). If you are a deep Jay-Z fan like me, some of his works are now available on cassette. NTS radio has collaborated with Atonemo to develop an audio streamer that you can connect to any speaker system to stream the radio channel (and other music) without a screen. Frictionmaxxing but music.

(Peggy Gou’s brand new USB stick)

CREATOR CANNES. There is a new type of creativity in Cannes. Agencies are no longer the main attraction, the creators are. According to Digiday, it’s becoming the Super Bowl moment for creators. AJ Eckstein, CEO of creator marketing agency The Creator Match, claims Cannes Lions now is “at a level where, if you can go, you’ve ‘made it’ in the creator economy”. Creaors now are no longer just panelists but the headliners. Adobe is partnering with Lions Creators for the first time for a Creator Beach, including a content studio and a panel with Steven Bartlett, host of The Diary of a CEO podcast. BCG is sponsoring Business Insider content claiming that the Mad Men are over and that Cannes is now a creator town. If I was on the Côte D’Azur, I would head to this event where Emily Sundberg, Casey Lewis, and Max Stein, for one time only giving their secrets away.

CRAFT MEDIA REVOLUTION. Ad media is getting worse. The rise of digital platforms has led to the enshittification of media buying, fueled by practices with no grounding in marketing science. Digital outdoor is a case in point: what used to be a confined space for one ad is now a carousel of multiple brands, killing the impact of OOH. Media right now is where food, fashion, and furniture were in the 90s: cheap, synthetic, mass-produced. And just like those categories, the first steps of a craft countermovement are forming. Last newsletter I reported on print being rethought from broad mass media into a high-quality niche channel, “the haute couture of media.” Brands like Legora buy the most prominent OOH spaces in the cities that matter. Influencer marketing is shifting from shallow campaigns into always-on partnerships with creators who provide domain expertise, not just “what to buy.” Meta is testing a “series” feature for episodic creator content, opening up for longer, deeper storytelling. Marketing strategist Peter Sengengberger is working on a book laying out a system for judging the quality, not just the reach, of different medias. This might be the rise of craft media as opposed to slop media. And smart brands will hopefully understand that they need to invest in the former.

BALL BAGS. Athletes have been fashion icons at least since the days of David Beckham, and it has intensified in the last couple of years. But now they are also handbag influencers. TikToker Jack Savoie is breaking down the manbags of choice among the world’s leading footballers. Here you can, for instance, get to know the bag collection among the French team, or Haaland’s Birkin collection. The Japanese team also carries an impeccable set of bags. The clear winners are, however, Kongo, who flawlessly matches their leopard suits with leopard bags.

DESIGNER TURNTABLES. Technics is leveraging the audio as design paradigm, and they do so with exclusive design collaborations. They collaborated with Aimé Leon Dore for a remix of their legendary Technics 1200. Recently, they also launched a burgundy edition of the Technics SL-40CBTFH together with Danish design stalwart Fritz Hansen. Hermes recently designed a very expensive and exclusive DJ booth. The king of collabs, Hiroshi Fujiwara, is (as always) ahead of the game and has moved onto CDs and designed a Fragment version of the B&O Beosystem 9000c triple CD player as a part of B&O’s Recreated Classics Series.

NOSTALGIC TRUST. Morning Consult’s Most Trusted Brands 2026 has landed, and the verdict is clear. Nostalgia is a winning strategy right now. The biggest trust gainers are American childhood favorites such as Capri Sun, Lunchables, Hot Wheels, and the recently relaunched Mr. Pibb. The most trusted brands are reliable and not so exciting household staples like Dawn Dish Soap, BAND-AID, Heinz, and Hershey’s. AI? It’s almost absent – Gemini is the only brand on the trust risers list. According to Morning Consult, “in conditions of ambient uncertainty — economic, political, technological — consumers appear to be routing their trust toward brands that provide predictability and comfort.” Makes sense.

OPT-OUT CULTURE. Optimization culture is facing a backlash. People who used to track everything from food to steps to exercise through their Whoops, Apple Watches, and Fitbits are now quitting since the data made them more anxious than healthy. They all claim to have improved their mental health after opting out of their optimization devices. Affluent and influential people are jumping on the anti-optimization bandwagon as well. Joining a sold-out “Return to Self retreat” for high performers in the English countryside or heading to a monastery in Friesland. They all might be right according to science. Constant optimization locks the brain system into a destructive feedback loop where we only scan for what is wrong and never register what is working – the data makes us more stressed, more shameful, and increases our risk of burnout and depression.

THE NEW NORDIC. Stockholm’s fashion scene is developing beyond Scandi minimalism. Beata Rydbacken is taking over the internet with her big clip hoodies and making custom-made stuff for Rosalía. This year’s Stockholm Fashion Week offered something different than mega-houses, luxury conglomerates, and blockbuster shows of the major weeks. It provided a youthquake with brands such as Bewilder, Maddwoo, and Steph Orozco. Provocative and kinky Gullbo, as well as LLL's off-schedule show, went way beyond any preconceptions about Scandinavian minimalism, staking out a new vision for Stockholm's fashion scene.

SNACK AND COCKTAIL. Is cocktail and snack the new wine and dine? Maybe. The New York Happy Meal (or Adult Happy Meal) – french fries with a martini of choice – has been a bar trend for a couple of years (I usually have mine at Stockholm’s Stadshotell). Now, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij, aka Chef Pam of Bangkok-based Michelin-starred Restaurant Potong, created a line of elevated bar snacks for hotel chain MGallery Collection. It spans their 16 global properties, each pairing five signature bites with regionally inspired creations to celebrate World Cocktail Month. Prada’s latest hire is not a new designer but an in-house mixologist. I wonder which snacks and cocktails go best with SS27.

DUMBPHONE REVIVAL. The dumb phone market is healthy, growing, and honestly really exciting. Commodore just launched a distraction-free cell phone with a really nice retro aesthetic. Nokia has launched a dumbphone for the Chinese market, hence it can still use WeChat. However, it also might be going in the opposite direction. OpenAI is maybe developing a new smartphone in which apps are replaced by AI agents.

ARTIFICIAL CREATIVITY. AI is coming for the creative industries. The Economist tracked AI’s impact across five creative fields, and the results demonstrate AI’s impact. Amazon e-book releases have tripled, self-filed lawsuits have doubled, 57% of academic papers show AI influence, monthly app releases have more than doubled, and 44% of new music on Deezer is now AI-generated. OpenAI is also in the creative fields and has begun helping clients automate their creative production for ads. It also seems to be the way they want to position their company. Their latest campaign demonstrates how the language model can be used as a creative force for anyone with imagination. A24 is partnering with Google DeepMind. Cannes Lions has introduced a new subcategory – AI Craft. Its aim is to “recognise work that combines human creativity with artificial intelligence, focusing on projects where technology enhances creative intent.” The creative AI revolution opens up a new set of titles in adland, including but not limited to emotional strategist, capability architect, and agentic workflow architect.

The creatives themselves? They are protesting. In a speech at Harvard recently, comedian Ronny Chieng went hard against replacing creativity with AI. The Art Directors Club has accused Martin Scorsese of “turning his back” on artists who helped him due to his backing of GenAI startup Black Forest Labs. R’n’B singer SZA has slammed Diplo and GenAI platform Suno after learning hundreds of her songs were used for training the platform, highlighting the disproportionate usage of black artists to train AI models. The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzeberger recently slammed AI firms of “brazen theft” that threatens journalism, simultaneously suing OpenAI for copyright infringement.

THE GREAT FASHION GENDER BRAND SWAP. We are in for a paramount shift in fashion. Aimé Leon Dore is launching a womenswear line, and Toteme is launching a menswear line. ALD boyfriends can now buy ALD for their girlfriends. Toteme girlfriends can now buy Toteme for their boyfriends. Get ready for the next millennium.

THE TUBE TO THE BIG SCREEN. The new road to Hollywood stardom is through YouTube. Animated YouTube series The Amazing Digital Circus brought its final two episodes to cinemas this weekend, led the domestic box office on opening day with $7.8 million, and grossed $35.4 million globally to land in the US top five. The incredibly hyped Backrooms is a cinema adaptation of a YouTube series inspired by a picture posted on Reddit. Curry Barker, the director of the hit movie Obsession, got his deal from uploading a short horror film to YouTube. Iron Lung is an adaptation of a video game, directed and starring YouTuber Markiplier. Some are yet to make it to the big screen. The new movie economy is also happening somewhere in between the tube and the big screen. Silk White is a former drug dealer-turned-filmmaker who grossed $1.9 million over 12 months, predominantly on Tubi and Roku.

AI AS A PERSON. Spotted: AIs are now persons. Argentina is considering a new legislation allowing AI agents to own companies. Estonia has begun issuing ID codes to autonomous agents in order to govern them. Y Combinator has decided to back their first AI founder – a virtual human who starts, runs, and grows his companies. SF-based startup Meow lets AI agents open up bank accounts. Not everyone is as entertained – several US states are seeking to ban legal personhood for AI.

Things I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to. Some connect to bigger ideas. Some are just nice reading on their own.

Michael Burry (of The Big Short fame) is calling out Nvidia.

A first clip from Netflix documentary about the Trustor Scandal. A must-see.

How the Hays changed Danish design.

Popeye is launching a new English issue – this time a style special.

Men need a little vanity.

LinkedIn is building a creator marketplace for B2B.

The definitive timeline of the hipster music era.

The Shards’ TV adaptation now has a date (August 5).

Intel for Stockholm-based marketers. Jobs, new spots, and occasional gossip.

Stockholms Bränneri has created an exclusive gin for Gondolen.

Weekend itinerary: Aurora in Båstad. Söderblomster on Södermalm.

Sthlm08 is a newsletter from the people behind Hint, launching after the summer. I wrote that someone should start a proper English-language Stockholm newsletter. Someone did so, but in Swedish.

Infrastructure update: Liljeholmen Centrum revamp. Fotografiska is now boat-bound. Stockholms Konstnärliga Skola’s consolidated campus in Slakthusområdet.

OpenAI is opening a Stockholm office.