Anti-phone phone marketing is here

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Keeping my iPhone 17 tucked away in a box so one day my kids can reflect on simpler times…—Kate

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When women’s razor brand Billie launched in 2017, they faced a conundrum. They came onto the scene as an openly feminist company, marketing their subscription service as a way to fight the “pink tax.” But at that time, feminist culture was all about not shaving, and Billie had to figure out how to advertise their product in this climate while adhering to their feminist image. “A new razor brand is encouraging women not to shave,” Quartz wrote in 2018. All in all, the efforts across billboards and social media came out sounding a lot like this:

2026 is the year of the anti-phone. Whether or not people are actually logging off is irrelevant. Culturally, we’re going analog, buying a Brick, and acting embarrassed about our screen time. As I wrote earlier this year, being chronically online is cringe now, and the idea of getting more plugged in is not appealing to anyone.

“I have a complicated relationship with technology,” host Trever Noah began the 2026 Made By Google event, which I attended as press. “I love it, but I wish I could use it less, but I can’t live without it at the same time.”

It was an interesting way to kick off what would go on to be an hour of promoting said technology, mainly the Google Pixel 11 smartphone and the Google Pixel 5 watch. But the sentiment was woven throughout most of the demonstrations that evening. “What if I told you there’s a new way to quickly grab great photos and a video at the same time so you can experience the moment without being glued to your phone?” Kenny Sulaimon, a project manager at Google, asked when promoting a new camera mode called “Magic Capture.”

Google has read the room. People do not want to be on their phones. And yet, Google still has to sell them. Which means big tech is having its Billie moment.