Good morning from Dieline’s editor-in-chief, Bill McCool. Here’s your daily side serving of design news, short musings, brand stuff, and forgotten ephemera.
I am deeply resentful that every November 1st now signals the arrival of Mariah season. Please, I am begging you. Let Thanksgiving come; let me enjoy the last few vestiges of autumn and listen to a few Sandy Denny records without being bombarded by the holiday season.
Are you telling me I can get a religious exemption from using AI? Looks like I just jumped on board with the Humanists.
Publishers Weekly took a close look at Sarah J. Maas Inc. and the author behind the massively popular romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses. Specifically, they turned their attention to the licensing and merch deals the author has received after joining up with the WME group...which seems to be turning off fans. That last sentence here is a doozy, too: In an October 23 video, one bookfluencer summed up this ambivalence: “I don’t know how I feel about my favorite series becoming a capitalist nightmare.” There is a point where you eventually go a little too hard on the cash grab and merch a little too close to the sun (looking at that monster, JK Rowling). You have to do this sort of thing in a way that genuinely makes sense and feels non-icky.
There’s no such thing as a “Disney Cool Girl.” You cannot simply rebrand the Disney Adult.
Using South Park is certainly one way to market your video game.
Mentioned this one a few months ago, but this is an immensely pleasing box from Tavern and the beverage they developed for their Cannes trip last summer.
Guess there really is no stopping December’s hemp ban, huh? Better get your fav drinks and gummies while you can!
Man, just bring back the glass bottle already, will ya’, Snapple?
Please vote today. Please.
-Bill
The Maas story is the licensing lesson every brand relearns the hard way: fans accept merch that extends the story and reject merch that only extends the revenue line. Ferrari went the other way in 2019 and cut its licensing deals by about half to protect the brand, and it has kept its pricing power since. When a bookfluencer calls your universe a capitalist nightmare, the bill arrives with the next launch, not this one.