I think about brands the way anthropologists think about tribes: with too much curiosity and just enough judgment.

Critical marketing

Brand activism did not fail. What failed is the version of it that was never really activism: the seasonal commitment, the logo change, the statement with no operational correlate. The data from 2020–2026 is now precise about the cost of that difference.

Brands and culture

The paradox of authenticity in branding is not that brands cannot be real — it is that the harder they try to appear authentic, the more clearly they reveal they are not. What survives scrutiny is not authenticity. It is consistency.

Strategy and meaning

A meme works not because it is funny, but because it signals cultural membership. Brands that understand this stop trying to go viral and start trying to be genuinely fluent in the language of the spaces they want to inhabit.

Brands and culture

Cultural fluency is not knowing a conversation exists. It is understanding what it means, who it belongs to, and whether your brand has actually earned the right to join it.

Brands and culture

Future-proofing is not about predicting what comes next. It is about building brands structurally capable of adapting when the future arrives faster than planned — which it always does.

Brands and culture

Escapism is no longer a creative indulgence — it is a structural response to collective fatigue. The brands that understand this are building emotional equity that purely rational marketing cannot reach.