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This week’s newsletter suggests printing it out and reading the physical copy. If you choose to go against the grain and stay online, you should do so on LinkedIn or OnlyFans. Those last eight words might be a good enough argument to stay away from the Internet for the rest of your life.

In other news: Hov is back, and a book about the Roc-A-Fella dynasty is coming.

INSIGHT DOWNLOAD

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

OFFLINE STATUS. We have been talking a lot about how it’s now aspiring to opt out of social media, but it might also be impossible to stop talking about. It’s now lame to be on your phone or “chronically online”. Gen Z is abandoning smartphones for flip phones, MP3 players, and digital cameras. Harry Styles’ new album drop introduced an exclusive phone-free experience in partnership with Netflix. Physical Phones is a (Bluetooth-connected) landline brand that has sold over 7,000 phones. “Month Offline” is a communal program that lets people switch from smartphones to flip phones for 30 days. Gen Z is now engaging in “grandma hobbies” to opt out of the digital world. The plot twist? Grandma seems to be the most addicted to the feed.

Being offline is more than a vibe. It’s legislation. A Los Angeles court deemed Meta and YouTube addictive. Bans are being discussed, piloted, or enacted in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Slovenia, and the UK. In Sweden, PM Ulf Kristersson has called for a ban on social media for anyone under 15. A small town in Ireland is taking a different path and imposing a voluntary ban on smart devices, and most inhabitants are following in one way or another.

(Picture from Physical Phones)

DAY LIFE. Gen Z wants mindful indulgence and not excess. Therefore, they shift their drinking from nighttime pub crawls to daytime social occasions. Brands are catching up, and Absolut tapped into “brunch culture” with their Tabasco vodka. YSL ran a daytime block party at Madrid’s iconic Café Commercial. In Seoul, there is a new concept on the last Sunday of every month where people get together to read books and listen to techno. Alcohol is served, but vibes are sedated.

ILLITERATE MARKETERS. Mark Ritson is pushing a study claiming that only one in three marketers would fail the most basic marketing test. The study is conducted in the UK, USA, and Australia by IPSOS and The Marketing Society. Ritson’s MiniMBA is pushing the narrative with OOH ads. Wanna assess your marketing chops? Do the test here.

INFLUENCING STRATEGY. An opinion piece in Time suggests we should take influencers seriously since the sector is projected to be worth $480B by 2027, and is shaping culture, consumption, and the economy (56% of Americans use social media as their primary research tool for which products to buy). Researchers at Politecnico di Milano actually took influencers seriously and developed a new classification system for the trade. Instead of classifying by number of followers, platform, domain, or source of fame, they suggest we look at them as self-journalists (your classical influencer), content creators, or some mix of the two. Their aim is to make it easier to match influencers with campaign objectives, think in portfolios, and understand which ones are more “stretchable”. However, whatever you do, avoid runfluencers. Everyone is hating them now.

BEAUTY BOYS. There is more to male beauty than looksmaxxing and bonesmashing. Teen guys now have quite an elaborate beauty regimen, including Dr. Squatch bar soaps and fragrance collecting as a hobby. The numbers confirm this shift. Skincare among Gen Z men is up 68% between 2022 and 2024. The number of US men who never use makeup went down from 90% to 75% between 2019 and 2024. Want to have a deep dive? Listen to this interview with male skincare influencer Jonna Skincare. However, the male makeup brand Obayaty appears to have shut down its NK store, while its website remains up and running.

THE MAINSTREAMISATION OF ONLYFANS. A bop is an influencer who leverages the traditional influencer playbook with the aim of driving traffic to her OnlyFans page. Anna Malygon (@maligoshik) is an influencer /internet phenomenon famous for her content creation on TikTok and OnlyFans. She has been reporting backstage at Vetements’ runway shows before, and this year she walked for GCDS during Paris Fashion Week. GQ recently portrayed the Christian OnlyFans and TikTok creator (sic!) Sophie Rain, who has made $100 MUSD by building a chaste image on OnlyFans (sic! again). Elle Fanning stars in the new Apple TV series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” in which she portrays a young mother building an OnlyFans account. This mainstreamisation sits deep in young Americans’ souls: US consumers spend more on OnlyFans than on NYT and ChatGPT combined. 32% of Gen Z/Millennials are “happy for them” if they found out a friend has an OnlyFans account. 36% of Gen Z have considered posting to a site like OnlyFans.

SHARP SHOTS. Byron Sharp has decided to throw shots at System1 and Effies Creative Dividend, arguing that the claim that creativity is driving business results is deeply exaggerated. Daniel Gilbert, CEO of Brainlabs, is taking Sharp’s side. As far as I know, System1 and Effies are yet to respond.

LINKED IN-CROWD. I have previously reported on people using LinkedIn for dating, but now it’s also becoming a pop-culture hotspot. A Redditor found Selena Gomez on the professional network and asked, “I thought LinkedIn was for boomers or finding jobs??? Apparently, all the cool girls are joining LinkedIn. Even Selena Gomez is on there now 🤯”. Rapper Meek Mill recently moved from X to LinkedIn with the rationale of transitioning into the business world. Last year, Grimes posted on X that she would only drop her music on LinkedIn, and now a Grimes account has surfaced on the social network. Feeling that you are lagging on your LinkedIn presence? There’s a new tool helping you translate it into LinkedIn language.

ANTI-AI SIGNALING. According to multiple studies, marking something as “made by AI” significantly lowers people’s willingness to pay for it. Hence, proving things are not made by AI will be the new “handmade”. Apparently, typos are the new status symbol, partly due to the rise of overpolished AI writing. Creative ops system Air recently launched a full-page spread in the New York Times, claiming (in raw handwriting) “AI would never smoke a cigarette with you”. Kanye West, who last year claimed to involve AI in his songwriting, now clarifies that his new album BULLY was made without using AI. The New York Times just fired a freelance writer for (badly) using AI when writing a book review.

HOUSE & B. I reported on clubland nostalgia two newsletters ago. Listening to some new music made me think: Is house music and R&B finally merging, or is it just this newsletter editor dreaming the dreamiest of dreams? With Beyoncé’s 2022 album Renaissance as the clear frontrunner, one of the album’s producers, Honey Dijon, has released collabs with R&B singer Chloë of Chloë and Halle. Rochelle Jordan’s 2025 album Through The Wall created a holy matrimony of R&B and house. New releases from Justine Skye and Arlo Parks suggest they have pivoted into some sort of house-rnb hybrid. (I googled, I wasn’t dreaming, according to Rolling Stone, the house influences were an integral part of R&B’s comeback in 2025). Are you as excited as I am? One of the architects of the sound, Kaytranada, is playing at Rosendals Garden Party in Stockholm early this summer.

CONTENT CAREERISTS. Gen Z management consultants have found an alternative to the old “up-or-out” ethos of management consultancies. They instead opt out of consulting to become content creators. They leverage the mystique of the discipline by sharing advice on how to enter a top consultancy and by turning it into legitimate revenue streams sufficient to quit consulting and focus full-time on content creation. Alison Loehnis, ex-CEO of Net-A-Porter, is now bringing home the bacon as an influencer, sharing affiliate links for fashion recs. Are you into corporate influencers? The advertising world’s favorite content parodist, Rob Mayhew, is coming to Stockholm this April.

SELL WITH SEX, OR NOT? According to a Bloomberg opinion piece, there is an increased cultural acceptance of sexual wellness due to celebs and younger generations. Driven by, for instance, Harry Styles’ sexual wellness brand Pleasing. Wall Street is reluctant because financial institutions, regulators, and tech platforms still treat the category as adult entertainment rather than health care. The fashion world is the frontrunner here and is betting it all on sex. Wearable sex toys are the latest fashion it-thing, including a Diesel x Lelo vibrator and furry chokers from Fendi. Duran Lantink’s second collection for Jean Paul Gaultier included what Vanity Fair called “boner skirts”. Who is right, Wall Street or the fashion world? System1 tested Calvin Klein’s latest ad featuring Dakota Johnson of Fifty Shades of Grey fame, and it ranked in the top 10% of fashion ads.

PLASTIC AIN’T FANTASTIC. Is the anti-plastic movement getting its mainstream moment beyond water bottles? When Emily Oberg visited How Long Gone, they discussed the absurdity of using plastic tights while exercising. FT highlights that there are now some brands challenging the hegemony that all functional clothes need to be artificial and toxic. Some European retailers have stopped selling certain headphones from JBL, Apple, and Beats, among others, following a study claiming they contain hormone-disrupting chemicals. Netflix recently released the documentary series The Plastic Detox, covering six couples with unexplained infertility trying to reduce their exposure to plastic in order to conceive. But the risks might be overstated, at least according to a series of recent studies.