Your ATTN Please || Friday, 18 April

Coachella has been, shall we say, “problematic” for years.

And 2025 doesn’t seem to be its redemption year. Last weekend, attendees showed up as early as 2am, reportedly spending 12+ hours in traffic trying to get into the camping area with no bathrooms or access to water. But, for some reason, the masses continue to flock (riddle me that). Here’s hoping Weekend 2 is less of a disaster.

- Charlotte, Editor ♡

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Coachella’s still problematic, Celebs slam all-female space flight & Adidas revisits its roots in new campaign

Coachella Weekend 1 was “literal hell.”

Last I checked, the festival was heavily criticised for their funding of organisations with anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-marijuana stances, the predominantly white and male-dominated lineup, and the obnoxious influencer/ brand culture that takes away from the music. Not to mention the logistical car nightmares, environmental impact, and “festival flu” that spreads around every year. So like… why is everyone still going? That was the one question on my mind as I watched all my fave IT girls party to Charli XCX and take flicks at Revolve.

Last Thursday, social media was flooded with attendees who were stuck in traffic for over 12 hours with no public restrooms available, being forced to go on the side of the road with thousands of packed cars watching. Multiple disastrous sets followed, including Rema, Meg Thee Stallion, and CardiB’s distorted ass. Many believe this is the worst the festival has ever been.

Blue Origin receives major backlash from celebs (and everyone else).

The star-studded mission that sent Katy Perry, Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn into space is not being celebrated the way I assume they thought. In fact, the strange and brazen attempt of a display of feminism has been ripped to shreds by the internet. In a video shared to her TikTok, Emily Ratajkowski called out the hypocrisy of the stunt, spearheaded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

“That space mission this morning, that's end time shit,” she opined. “Like this is beyond parody, saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's single-handedly destroying the planet.”

“Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space for what?” she continued. “What was the marketing there?... I'm disgusted, literally I'm disgusted.” Bar for bar, not a lie was spoken on this day.

Adidas reimagines classic silhouettes with "The Original" campaign.

The iconic sportswear brand is doubling down on its cultural legacy with a new campaign targeting the next gen of Adidas wearers. "The Original" reimagines three of the brand's most recognisable silhouettes: the Superstar II, Handball Spezial, and Samba OG.

Adidas demonstrated strong growth and increased market share in 2024, with the revival of the Sambas becoming a Pinterest and TikTok sensation. The brand is currently ranked among the top ten largest apparel brands globally, with a brand value of 14.5 billion dollars. With the way they crushed last year, I have no doubt this new era aimed at the next gen will only further solidify the brand's icon status, even if the Sambas are played.

Anyway, that’s all folks!

-Sophie, Writer

DEEP DIVE

Why owning your audience is more important than ever

The internet is not a public space. It’s a mall.

And we’re all loitering under the watchful eye of security. So you best act accordingly. There’s a popular fantasy we’ve been collectively clinging to since the early 2000s: that the internet is a public square. A town hall, if you will. A digital commons where people gather, protest, dance, create, and argue in the open.

I’m gonna hold y’alls hands while I say this, but if the internet were ever a free-for-all (the MySpace, Bebo and Tumblr era maybe), that version died somewhere between Cambridge Analytica and TikTok's algorithm-induced identity crisis. Today’s internet is not a town square, dear friend. It’s a mall. Privately owned, corporately governed, and just a little hostile to anyone not shopping or selling.

Think about it. Every platform you “hang out” on is owned by someone (duh.)

These platforms are not civic spaces. They're commercial environments masquerading as community hubs. They feel public, but they’re governed like shopping centres—complete with rules about what you can and can’t say, what you can wear, and how long you can loiter before you get shadowbanned for being “off-brand.” You’re welcome 😊 until you’re not ☹

Try setting up a protest in your local Westfield and see how long you last before security shows up. I can guarantee you it won’t be too long. The same thing happens online—just more subtly. Deplatforming. Algorithmic throttling. “Community guidelines” so vague they could mean anything. Even verified creators with massive followings have learned this the hard way. One wrong word, one flag, one off-message post, and poof—your reach seemingly vanishes overnight. This isn’t a bug in the system. It is the system. And the brands understand this better than most of us do.

Because they play the landlords, not the tenants.

While users are busy trying to be authentic online, brands are out here buying up billboards inside the mall. They’re making deals with the management (read: platforms), sponsoring events (read: TikTok trends), and embedding themselves deep within the architecture. They don’t just want to exist in the mall. They want naming rights to the food court, parking lot, you name it.

That’s why a single brand tweet can reach millions while your hot take on housing policy gets zero engagement. It's not that your voice doesn't matter. It's that you’re not paying rent, baby. Brands are. In ad dollars, in partnership deals, in backroom handshake agreements. They understand that this isn’t neutral ground; it’s premium real estate.

Every movement happens on corporate-owned turf.

Remember when protests were happening on TikTok? Or when mutual aid groups were organising through Instagram Stories? These grassroots movements found footing online, but always with the risk that their posts could be removed, accounts suspended, or hashtags banned.

So, what happens when every conversation, every cultural moment, every trend is funnelled through a privately-owned algorithmic filter? What happens when our discourse is dictated by engagement metrics and brand safety guidelines? You get an internet that’s less about community and all about commerce.

That’s just the reality of it.

If we accept the mall metaphor, we also need to get smarter about how we use these spaces.

• Creators: Diversify your platforms. Build an email list. Own your audience somewhere you can’t get kicked out of.

• Marketers: Understand the rules of the mall, but then create content that adds value without feeling like a walking billboard.

• Everyone else: Be aware that what you see online isn’t “the world.” It’s the food court. And not every voice is given the same platform to speak.

The internet was probably never truly free. But as it becomes more mall-like by the day, the least we can do is recognise where we are. Maybe then, we start asking bigger questions—like why the most “viral” voices always seem brand-safe. Or why real conversation gets buried under dance trends and sponsored hauls. Maybe we stop handing over our culture to platforms that rent it back to us in 30-second clips.

It’s time to stop playing tenant and start thinking like architects. Because if we don’t build new public spaces online—real ones, owned by us—then we’ll always be shopping, and never truly speaking.

-Sophie, Writer

TREND PLUG

I can hear you just fine

In a now-viral moment from Love on the Spectrum, Connor finds out his next date is blonde, and he’s clearly not thrilled.

As his mum keeps talking, he cuts her off with the most composed, quietly upset energy ever: “I can hear you just fine. Speak. I am very upset with you.”

It’s firm. It’s emotional. It’s honest. And now, creators are using the sound for those moments when something minor hits a little too hard. Like when your boyfriend gives you logic instead of comfort or someone interrupts your nap. It’s that moment where you’re visibly trying to stay calm, but everyone in the room knows you’re one sentence away from logging out.

How you can jump on this trend: 

Use the sound and overlay it with text that describes what ruined your day. No acting required. Just stare into the camera like you’re done explaining yourself and let the sound say the rest (through you).

A few ideas to get you started:

• When someone says “you’re too online”

• When the feedback is just “make it pop”

• When a client says “can we get this today?” after ghosting all week

-Abdel, Social Media Coordinator

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: Inside all-female crew’s flight to space
✨Daily inspo: do. what. you. love.
🎧Soooo tingly: Hair ASMR
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Brazilian Coxinha

TODAY ON THE YAP PODCAST

Want even more “YAP”ing? Check out the full podcast here.

ASK THE EDITOR

I've just started a newsletter for my coaching clients. How do I get my LinkedIn audience to sign up for my emails? -Tammy

Hey Tammy!

There are a few ways you can go about this. First, you can create a LinkedIn newsletter and put your content in there, at least at first. When you do this, LinkedIn will let you invite all your followers to follow your newsletter as well. Once you've got a lot of your audience reading your newsletter on LinkedIn, you can start asking them to sign up for your email. Gradually reduce the amount they can read on LinkedIn so they have a reason to move over.

Another option is to create more content that will drive people to your newsletter. Two ways to do this are “pre-CTAs” and “post-CTAs.” A pre-CTA teases content you’re about to share in your next newsletter. Let your audience know what you’re covering and how to sign up so they don’t miss out. You can also use a “post-CTA” after each newsletter. This is where you create content telling your audience what your most recent newsletter was about. Then, you invite them to sign up so they don’t miss the next one.

- Charlotte, Editor ♡

Not going viral yet?

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.

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