Your ATTN Please || Monday, 31 March

Ashton Hall wants you to know you suck at mornings.

Dystopia is not a place in the future. It’s here. And it’s full of influencers in mouth tape and sockless shoes making us feel bad for not optimising every aspect of our lives to the nth degree. If you want to know what the heck I mean, ask Ashton Hall, who went viral this week for the absolute ludicrousy of his morning routine.

-Sophie, Writer

p.s. Today’s the last day to get into our Social Media Crash Course for free so make sure you check it out!

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Ashton Hall gets 1B views in March, F1 is now for girls, too & Meta suddenly cares about online safety

Ashton Hall goes viral for “insane” morning routine.

So, you know how we talked about the beauty girlies and their exhaustive morning routines? Well, Ashton Hall has entered the chat to give them a run for their damn money. The fitness influencer has been all over my feed this week after going viral for the craziest morning routine I’ve seen to date, and I’ve seen some sh*t. It includes waking up at 5am to plunge his face into ice-cold Saratoga Spring water, mouth tape, pushups, rubbing banana peels on his face, journaling, bible study, and having a suite of faceless women cater to his needs.

And everyyyything about it gives me the ick. It’s just got this indescribable aura that makes me so uncomfortable. You cannot convince me people actually live like this. Seems I’m not the only one. Because his videos have become the ultimate target for trolls, ridiculing the absolute absurdity of the whole thing. “Bro spends the whole day getting ready for the day,” one user commented. It’s hard to explain it really, you just have to see it for yourself. It’s apparently working for him, because he has gotten 1 billion views just this month. What a time to be alive, I guess.

Female content creators bridge the gap to Formula1.

The girlies are taking over motorsport, and we love to see it. Lizzie Mackintosh, with her audience of 400,000 TikTok fans, are now taking pole position in F1 reporting. That's correct, motorsport isn’t just for dudes in Ferrari polos, and men and women can totally share interests!! Don’t you love the 21st century.

With 77% of her audience being women, Mackintosh’s part of a growing wave of female creators bringing Gen Z deeper into the sport. And they are cashing tf in. Mackintosh’s online presence has seen her work with brands, such as Charlotte Tilbury, F1 Academy’s partner. Her motorsport podcast, Going Purple, has become integral to connecting motorsport with young, female fans barred by the Sky paywall. We love women in male dominated spaces – unironically x

Meta renews teen safety push in new campaign.

It’s no secret that social media is increasingly becoming a very unsafe place for kids and teens alike. Sh*t, even I have my doubts for MYSELF some days. It’s also no secret that social media giant Meta, has long prioritised user engagement over safety, and could kind of care less about the harm done by its platforms, particularly Instagram. While Congress repeatedly considers legislation that would regulate how children and teens use online platforms, Meta has (finally) started running ads promoting Instagram Teen Accounts, a product the company introduced last fall.

The ad tells parents, “You’ve always looked out for them. We’re here to do it with you,” over a scene of a mother watching her son cross the street. Nice Meta, but maybe too little too late? Let’s be honest, we could have implemented changes literal years ago.

Anyway, that’s all folks!

-Sophie, Writer

DEEP DIVE

How to bust through creative burnout (trust me, I've written over 800 YAP articles!)

Creativity isn’t a faucet you can turn on and off.

And sometimes, no amount of "just take a break" advice is going to pull you out of a rut. If you’re feeling burnt out—or worse, working in an industry that feels about as exciting as watching paint dry—you’re not alone. Creativity slumps happen. Trust me, I have my fair share (daily.) The key is knowing how to get out of one.

You may think I’m writing this for you, dear reader, and I am. But I am also writing this in hopes that I can take my own advice for once in my life. See! We’re in this together now 😊. So, here’s how (I think) you reignite your creative spark, even when you feel drained, uninspired, or trapped in a… how to say, less-than-thrilling industry.

1. Stop looking for inspiration in your own industry.

If your job requires you to churn out finance content or insurance marketing, looking at what your competitors are doing will only lead to more of the same. Creativity thrives at the fringes, not in the echo chamber.

Try this instead:

• If you’re in healthcare, see how beauty brands simplify complex science for the masses.

• If you work in B2B tech, study how streetwear brands build hype (ahem, Supreme wrote the manual).

• If you’re in finance, steal storytelling tricks from true crime podcasts (seriously, they make numbers sound thrilling).

Cross-pollinating ideas from different industries is where real creativity happens.

2. Change the medium, not the message.

Sometimes the idea isn’t the problem. Sometimes it’s the format. If you’re stuck writing yet another boring whitepaper, what happens if you turn it into a graphic novel? A podcast? A mock late-night talk show? A song, for crying out loud.

Try this instead:

• Write your idea in a different format (a screenplay, a tweet, a meme).

• Change the platform (turn that dull LinkedIn post into a short, punchy TikTok script).

• Switch the POV (what would your campaign look like if written by an 8-year-old? A villain? A stand-up comedian?).

Creativity isn’t just about the idea—it’s also about how you present it.

3. Make it fun again, even if you have to lie to yourself.

Creativity dies the second it starts feeling like a chore. That’s how you end up on the hamster wheel of doom (ask me how I know). The best way to snap out of burnout? Find a way to make it feel like play again.

Try this instead:

• Set a dumb restriction (e.g., “I can only use five words to pitch this idea”).

• Give yourself a weird creative challenge (e.g., “How would I market this product using only medieval storytelling techniques?”).

• Rewrite a boring idea in the most dramatic, over-the-top way possible—as if it were a soap opera plotline (this one truly works.)

Even if the end result isn’t useful, the act of breaking out of a rigid mindset will get your creative juices flowing again.

4. Go where the actual people are.

If you’re only consuming content made by other professionals in your space, you’re going to end up making content that only appeals to other professionals in your space. Or worse, churning out the same damn stuff.

Try this instead:

• Hang out in places (online or IRL) where your audience actually is.

• Go to the holy land of problems: Reddit threads and TikTok comments. This is where you’ll find the answers, trust.

• Listen to pop culture podcasts—even the trashy ones. They’re great for understanding how to make anything sound engaging.

Creativity isn’t about reinventing the wheel—it’s about listening better.

5. Steal like an artist.

Everything is a remix, baby. And I will die on this hill. Every great idea is built on something that came before it. The trick is stealing from multiple sources and making it your own.

Try this instead:

• Keep a "Swipe File" of cool ads, articles, and ideas that catch your eye (Notion, Pinterest, a messy Google Doc—it doesn’t matter).

• Write down what you like/ find cool about said ads, articles, etc. How can you emulate that?

• The next time you’re stuck, combine two unrelated ideas and see what happens (e.g., “What if a B2B SaaS brand marketed itself like a reality TV show?”).

Great creativity isn’t about coming up with something out of nowhere—it’s about connecting the dots in new ways.

6. Give yourself constraints.

You’d think that having unlimited time and resources would make it easier to be creative. In reality, having too many options always leads to creative paralysis. The best ideas often come from having to work within tight restrictions.

Try this instead:

• Limit your options. What if you could only use one colour? One sentence? One image?

• Force a deadline. Give yourself one hour to come up with an idea. No perfectionism, just speed.

• Use a random constraint. What would your ad campaign look like if it had to be entirely in emojis? Or a single haiku?

Constraints force innovation. Use them to your advantage.

Look, burnout and creative slumps are inevitable, but they’re not permanent.

The trick is breaking out of autopilot mode and finding ways to make your project feel exciting again. The best creative ideas don’t come from forcing inspiration. And they sure as hell aren’t going to hit you like a lightning bolt out of nowhere. They come from messing around until something clicks. So, go mess around.

-Sophie, Writer

TREND PLUG

Honestly, I don’t remember

It's baaaack. The trend that lets you escape owning up to your past.

That lets you make light of your own wrong-doings. That lets you sprinkle a little bit of lore onto the FYP then skip off into the distance. Yes, it's the trending sound that goes, "honestly I don't remember, I was probably f&%ed up, I was crazy back then".

From pov: you ask me about anything i did in 2022 to "remember when you wore literal bralettes and booty shorts to work everyday as a 17 year old", this trend can be used for the embarrassing, the unhinged, the ridiculous.

How you can jump on this trend:

The formula is simple: film yourself lip syncing to the viral sound, use OST to describe a moment you'd rather forget, and you're done!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• POV: you ask me what my first job was but this is my first job

• When anyone mentions anything I did doing the first week of my job

• Remember when you accidentally posted the wrong meme to LinkedIn?

-Maggie, Copywriter

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😂Yap’s funniest home videos: Eggcellent, eggxhilarating, eggxemplary
❤How wholesome: it’s a monday you’ll need this
🎧Soooo tingly: Chocolate ASMR
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: 2 ingredient Mousse

ASK THE EDITOR

Which platform would be the best for hosting, selling digital products and courses? -Jody

Hey Jody,

We use Circle for our Cohort community, and I find it's quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. You can create message boards, host live events, and create private groups inside your community on the platform. We have ours integrated with Stripe, which makes it super easy to take payments for our subscription plans. As for selling digital products, Shopify is your best bet. Good luck!

- 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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