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.
One of the great AI fallacies pushed by tech boi CEOs was that these new tools would supposedly free you from the drudgery of repetitive tasks. For designers, that meant more time to be creative, you know, doing the stuff that really gets your juices flowing. Welp, if you were paying attention, this was a tactic conmen like Sam Altman deployed not only to get buy-in from the folks they were forcing these tools upon, but also from other C-suite types who have a real distaste for human labor. So it doesn’t warm my heart to hear that more employees are working on Sundays now. According to a State of Hybrid Work Report cited in this Fast Company piece, 76% of Gen Z workers and 62% of Millennials are clocking in on Sunday because “AI has increased what they’re expected to accomplish in a day, and 46% say it sometimes hinders their productivity.” So whenever your boss says AI is going to help you be your best creative self, don’t confuse that with some romantic idea about the future of work when, in reality, it’s just an extra eight hours that’s now on your plate. Incidentally, the report also cites “meeting fatigue,” and boy howdy is that shit real, too.
Cutesy campaign from McDonald’s Croatia, but a lot of disappointed children are gonna learn that a McD French Fry cannot pierce the beating heart of a McNugget. Although perhaps you could use a straw to poke holes in those nuggies?
Ugh, stop being so dramatic! As of this writing, I have no idea where this NOT Laughing Cow campaign will go or if it will backfire spectacularly. This whole “We Need To Talk” schpeel feels immensely threatening, so I suppose I’m not laughing either!
You know, it used to be that you didn’t trust the guys in the suits. Now it’s the guy with a mullet and Balenciaga Crocs. Because, clearly, if you burn all of your half-zips and tech vests (puff piece alert), people will respect you more, right? Right?
That said, I DO trust the blonde-mulleted guy eating his way through every buffet until he gets food poisoning, likely because he’s doing it in jorts and slides? I couldn’t say, although I want to vomit every time I see him without the aforementioned slides when he’s reviewing the cleanliness of the bathrooms. We’re goonin’ now, boys.
It’s a little hard watching my boys get beat up by the Brew Crew these past few days, so I don’t even want to remotely rep anything Brewers, but I can’t deny these Miller High Life-inspired jerseys by Pete Rogers.
Snack brands love infidelity! Like, by a lot. Two weeks ago, we did a piece on HallPass, and now we’ve got grow-ass protein- and fiber-packed faux-Dunkaroos in Sidepiece. All your new-fangled snacks have a wandering eye, and I don’t trust them. Trad-snacks for me!
By the by, anyone going to Woodsist on Sunday? Toody Cole! Don’t forget your galoshes.
-Bill