Hi. Welcome to Context Collapse, the world’s best comms newsletter. I’m Neal Ungerleider. I run Ungerleider Works and used to work as a reporter for Fast Company, write op-eds for the LA Times, and work as a senior copywriter for R/GA. This newsletter helps readers navigate the weird new world of media and gleefully ignores all the conventional wisdom about marketing, public relations, advertising, and marketing.
New month, new things. As I write this, it’s June 1. June has traditionally been the start of a busy season for journalism and advertising. On the advertising front, the big agencies and clients are gearing up for Cannes Lions and the busy summer outdoor audience season. On the journalism front, June and July are when outlets rush to release prestige pieces and needle-moving interviews/features before August’s silly season.
But enough silly. There’s a lot to discuss in this newsletter.
So let’s go.
What I’m Thinking About Right Now:
🤖Chris Harihar on the logic behind OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s “regulate us, please!” approach to government.
💵Ginormous internet publishing concern Dotdash Meredith is bulking up their ad targeting tools.
🤖Samuel Hammond on what a Manhattan Project for AI safety would look like.
🏙️2020s problems: What happens when a gas station attendant in a poor neighborhood starts a YouTube channel where he pranks his customers.
🌭In the time-honored trend of stunt product rebrands, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is now the “Frankmobile.” Hot dog!
💬Ted Merz on the secret history of Bloomberg Messaging.
🤔Jason Diamond on northwest_mcm_wholesale and the rise of the shitposter as critic.
📱New global study by Sapien Labs finds kids who get smartphones earlier become adults with worse mental health.
🖥️Upcoming Reddit API changes will likely kill third-party mobile Reddit browsers.
PS:
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What I’m Loving:
Agencyprobs explains why you have meetings about meetings about meetings.
Succession co-creator Jesse Armstrong on the IRL inspiration for Succession:
My US agent was the first person I recall suggesting a totally different approach. A fictional family, a multi-series US show. For five years or so, I dismissed the idea, certain that a portrayal of a fictional family would never have the power of a real one. Four works changed my mind: HBO’s excellent Robert Durst documentary, The Jinx; Sumner Redstone’s grimly business-focused autobiography, A Passion to Win; James B Stewart’s propulsive DisneyWar; and Tom Bower’s fascinating Robert Maxwell biography Maxwell: The Final Verdict. These turned the idea of doing a media-family drama without a singular real-life model from a terrible betrayal of reality into a tantalising chance to harvest all the best stories.
Digital Chadvertising on surviving the in-house layoff Game of Thrones:
Moderator Mayhem is a new web game where players pretend to be content moderators at a large social media site and learn EVERY DECISION THEY MAKE IS THE WRONG ONE.
Gotham Ghostwriters’ Dan Gerstein on the Digital Politics with Karen Jagoda podcast on speechwriting best practices:
Ben Smith of Semafor talks with Saagar Enjeti of The Realignment about the collapse of Buzzfeed and 2010s internet media.
Hasan Piker vs. Graham Stephan on socialism vs. capitalism. No pressure at all.
That’s it for this today. NOW DO AWESOME STUFF.