Context Collapse: 25 Truths
25 Truths About How Things Really Work: CC #231
In this issue: 25 truths that you might know or that you might not know or that you might not know that you do not know.
The more you think marketing doesn’t influence you, the more it influences you.
There is no “mainstream media” anymore. There are only intersecting audience venn diagrams.
Direct mail advertising works.
AM radio matters.
Pay attention to the people making you angry about things. Follow the money.
There’s one sector of print media that thrives in the US: Foreign language newspapers for immigrants. But they’re written for audiences with limited economic, political and social influence so you never hear about it.
Short online videos for kids, the ones that are under 15 minutes, really do mess up kids’ attention spans.
There are *many* well-hidden foreign influence campaigns on social media… and domestic ones too. We’ll be shocked at what we find out in 10 years.
Journalists are great at finding out information and terrible at business.
Be skeptical about people who always point problems out but never offer solutions to them.
We’re in an age of political realignment in the US where the people who consider themselves Republicans and the people who consider themselves Democrats and independents are shifting. The parties of 2028 won’t be the parties of 2008 at all. Media realignments will follow this.
Video games are cultural monoliths and most people in the industry 40+ aren’t prepared for the tipping point where games will replace movies as prestige media.
Advertisements use all sorts of psychological trickery on you. News sources use them on you too.
The easiest way to make money in marketing as a freelancer is to start a LLC doing digital marketing & SEO for local small businesses.
There’s lots of racial, ethnic and gender diversity in the journalism world. There’s lots of diversity that’s predominantly from rich and upper-middle class families.
There are a good number of journalists from lower-middle class and working-class backgrounds. However, they understand LARPing as upper-middle class is the key to career success 99% of the time.
OMG the digital advertising network ecosystem is full of fraud.
The writers’ strike will change Hollywood forever. Studios got complacent and that will bite them in the ass later.
2020s will be an era of endless musical and pop culture globalization. 2010s and the rise of Kpop was just a taser.
The reason large advertising agencies pay so well is that layoffs are frequent, there’s no expectation of employer loyalty & industry is cyclical.
The public loves consuming news. The public doesn’t want to pay for news.
There’s always money in nostalgia.
If you publish on a platform and don’t have an escape plan, the platform has leverage on you. Find ways to reduce that leverage.
If you’re 18 and want to conquer the world, do TikToks and YouTube to your heart’s content and don’t be afraid to make crap. Keep making crap until you become really, really good at it. That’s when the crap turns into gold.
Creatives need to learn how the business side works in their industry. Ad sales, execs and admins need to learn what the creatives do.
More soon…
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