big week for bad ads

Bonjour,

I’m here to brief you on these men and their internet.

Before I do — Boys Club is looking for a summer intern who can design & edit content. To give you a sense of the vibe, our daily stand-up is entitled DBH, which stands for ‘dumb bitch hour.’ Info here. To apply, send your best original meme to [email protected].

OK, let’s get into it.

ily,

Writer: Natasha (insta)
Editor: Deana

Hoe-ing ain’t easy, catch us in Austin this month with dYdX & EVG. Get on the list here.

Tense week for marketing teams. Advertising fumbles are making their way through the alphabet.

A is for Apple, who took a page from TikTok and outraged many (maybe intentionally!?) with an ad for the their latest iPad. The take was that a giant machine (monolithic, corporate, cold) crushing the tools of human creativity (warmth, humanity, history etc.) wasn’t the imagery to go with.

Twitter went bearish, while I on the other hand don’t think it’s that serious.

B is for Bumble. This week, Bumble rolled out a brand refresh around their big app update — men can now take the first move. The campaign that went along with it told women “don’t be a nun.” Its reception was chilly, just like this ad.

W is for Weak. In my opinion, the true sin here isn’t the bad ads. Ultimately, the point of an ad is to get people talking, which both of these did. But instead of basking in the attention and owning the discourse around it, both of these companies went soft and issued apologies. If you can’t say something with your whole chest, don’t say it at all.

G is for Gay. Unfortunately, a third bad ad from this week did just that.

Meme Stocks are back. GameStop stock rallied because the guy tweeted. Catch up on the drama on the latest episode of our podcast Too Online.