Borkowski Media Trends: Mark on Signalgate & MORE
PLUS: Ashton Hall's 'Morning Routine' | AI-nime trend flooding X
Mark Borkowski on Signalgate
Head to the boss’ LinkedIn for his full thoughts on senior White House staff inviting a journalist into a Signal group they were using to plan a military operation.
“It’s absurdist performance art. It’s Alice in Wonderland, if Alice had stumbled into a Signal thread about NATO procurement and who gets to do the next Fox News slot.
It reveals a deeper rot: a total collapse of narrative discipline at the top of the comms food chain. In any half-competent institution, there’d be resignations, pushing off the plank of a hapless fall guy. But this isn’t a world of consequences. It’s a world of engagement metrics.”
Headed for the Hall of Fame?
Social media went wild this week for a video posted by influencer Ashton Hall of his morning routine.
Timestamped (dubiously) to the minute and laden with vulgar displays of wealth, tropes of alpha male hustle culture like mouth taping, and an outlandish skincare routine in which Hall routinely dunked his face in a bowl of bottled Saratoga water and ice, the video was both a timely reminder of how far past the peak of creator culture we have come, and the perfect fodder for a range of memes.
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At time of writing it’s been watched over a billion times, but now the jury is now out on whether it will allow Hall to bridge the gap between manufactured influencer clout and genuine fame.
The video has launched criticism as well as memes, leading some internet sleuths to question how reflective it is of his actual lifestyle, and one designer to recount a bad experience of working for his sportswear brand on X.
Hall’s follow-up has also been somewhat unconvincing. A frequent misstep of viral stars is to release a glut of hasty content that comes across as a ‘pick me’ tribute act to their original hit. After the extraordinary wave of attention unleashed by his morning routine Hall’s mention trend (via Meltwater) is trending back towards anonymity already, suggesting that this follow up content has been unsuccessful in sustaining his fame.
Some creators are good enough at what they do to release fresh content that rides the wave of their initial viral, where others, such as ‘Hawk Tuah’, take their search to elongate their 15 minutes to any channel, platform or partnership who will have them.
Hall may have avenues towards the latter path. Saratoga received so much publicity from the viral that they have reached out to Hall about a brand partnership. Meltwater shows that during the peak of the virality 65% of Saratoga mentions were positive even as 75% of Hall’s were negative; his far-fetched routine seemingly still had a positive impact on the brand whilst being memed and ridiculed.
Ironically Hall may have been trying to give the impression that they were already sponsoring him, but even if it’s shattered the illusion of his previous levels of fame, he’s still shown some skill for product placement that might attract further brand deals, even if it won’t make for A-List status.
AI-nime Trend Catches Fire
Those surfing the choppy waters of social media this week likely saw OpenAI's latest image-gen upgrade, which lets users create high-quality graphics with a few prompts and the push of a button. ChatGPT's ability to mimic graphical styles and have people feel some sort of ownership over 'their' creations has caught fire, both literally and figuratively. Responding to the chaos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the tech firm's "GPUs are melting" - a pertinent reminder of how much energy it takes to run generative AI when a story like this goes viral.
While experimenting with this tech is fun, the outcry from environmentalists and creatives cannot be ignored. As tech companies rapidly develop AI, its tremendous impact on the planet is a critical problem and solutions to cooling this technology down aren't keeping pace with ongoing advancements. And with creative industries struggling to grapple with their place in this landscape, something has to give.
This struggle is best displayed by Studio Ghibli, the animation studio responsible for groundbreaking films like Spirited Away. As one of the most distinctive and influential animation styles, many are testing this new tech by asking for novel creations in the style of Studio Ghibli and seeing remarkable results, like asking what it would look like if Studio Ghibli directed Lord of the Rings.
For all the manic excitement on platforms like LinkedIn with users rushing to laud this as a watershed moment, there are pockets of those reminding us how long this journey took us. Posted on X, this four-second crowd scene from The Wind Rises (2013) took animator Eiji Yamamori 15 months to complete. What does it mean for human creativity that someone with no design experience can rip this style off in seconds? Footage from 2016 has Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli co-founder) reacting to AI-generated zombies with contempt, “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” This movement certainly doesn't have his blessing!
As a tool for creatives to speed up their work, AI can clearly add value. But this technology is an undeniable threat to creativity. Are we going to start accepting knockoffs as moments of inspiration, or will this trend have the reverse effect and put more value on human creativity when these mass-produced, over-glossed creations start to feel cheap and lacking emotion? Certainly one to track.