👋 Hi. The outpouring of enthusiasm after my last newsletter was really incredible — I’m grateful for all of you! And I have room for additional clients! See an overview of my offerings and schedule a call with me. Work-related convos and informal chats are equally welcome. As always, reply with questions, comments, or thoughts about anything you read here.

This issue features 16 brands. Fifty percent are white-led, 19 percent are Black-led, and 6 percent are led by non-Black people of color. You can find the complete Chips + Dips inclusion index here.

The Chips 🎀

• There are a million women’s underwear brands using hot, moody photography. Creo is doing the same for the guys.

• I’m fascinated by seaweed’s carbon sequestration and methane-reducing capabilities. HartSpan’s Khelp is a kelp-based acid reflux supplement.

• I think Brain Spa is the first real psilocybin brand I’ve seen?

• Skintellect is a marketplace with beauty products for and by Black women. 

• Ready To Hang is a playful diffusion line by Bower Studios.

• If you liked the SKIMS nipple bra, you should know about Perkies.

• Spoonful sells overnight oats in cute little tins.

• Mamalila makes babywearing jackets.

• Lucy and Yak teamed up with Unhidden for an adaptive clothing capsule.

• Super Field Trip provides resources to help dads play a more active role in their kids’ lives.

• Lifelines is a collection of grounding products for adults from the founder of toy company Melissa & Doug.

The Dip 🦺

Digitally altered images have been the language of internet virality for decades. What those have looked like, specifically, has evolved. Over the last year, we’ve seen a rise in what marketing pundits have labeled “FOOH” (faux out-of-home) — it’s a really interesting trend that, among other things, has left me thinking about its effect on consumers.

Billboards and photoshop

I noticed brands posting billboard mock-ups on social channels over a year ago. Ritual has used this template recently, as have Sweetgreen and Cava, while emerging brands have leveraged it to promote new products and retail partners.

Fake billboards are a byproduct of We’re Not Really Strangers-type content. Created in 2018 by Koreen Odiney, We’re Not Really Strangers is a conversation card game designed to facilitate connection, but is perhaps best recognized by its social media presence — mock-up billboards and bus shelters and graffiti in rich red and white with phrases like “How are you doing, really?” Its Instagram presence makes We’re Not Really Strangers seem omnipresent, with thought-provoking questions and affirmations lurking around every corner. Having spawned dozens of copycats, the mock billboard concept is now a creative trope — one that has the effect of making a brand appear more established and flush with cash. 

For many digitally native businesses, the decision to invest in real out-of-home advertising marks a turning point. Out-of-home ads make a brand more visible and lend credibility in the eyes of a consumer (a shady TikTok brand wouldn’t be buying billboards, y’know?). Out-of-home ads require compromises that early-stage brands aren’t always willing to make. While a billboard has a strong chance of repeat impressions, companies can’t measure every engagement or retarget prospective customers in the way they can with digital ads.

A fake billboard shared on digital channels, by contrast, is cheap, trackable, and can be used to deepen engagement with existing customers (rather than attract new ones, as a real billboard would).

Imagine a world…

Companies like Maybelline, Rains, and Jacquemus have shared CGI animations on that depict fake brand activations. They’re entertaining, obviously fake, and have garnered quite a bit of press. 

I also see immersive brands as a form of FOOH. I’ve previously noted that Vacation is a role-play brand, inventing and committing to an ‘80s resort bit. Rochambeau Club, a made-up tennis club to support rosé sales, takes a similar route but manufactures exclusivity as a means of building intrigue.

CGI FOOH and role-play brands are imaginative provocations that ask “what if?” What if marketing could be more of an escape? What if the world was a capitalist amusement park? What if any of these were actually real?

Are you even real?

Digital marketing manipulates our reality. Brands, and the way that consumers engage with brands online, can be an escape. Is FOOH deceptive? Sometimes. (It’s not so dissimilar from AR filters that offer a digital facelift!) Does it matter? I’m not sure.

FOOH isn’t inherently malicious, but can certainly be misleading. Fake billboards are largely harmless, despite feeling disingenuous at times, while CGI stunts and world-building are playful, surrealist expressions of a brand.

FOOH isn’t really about selling products, and it’s not always intended to convey a specific message. It’s about leveraging the unique potential of a digital medium and, most interestingly, positioning a brand as a means of escapism…

Still hungry?

• I also find parallels between FOOH and branded AR filters on TikTok and Instagram. The primary difference between the two is the role the consumer plays. In the latter, the consumer becomes the main character and is consenting to participate in the AR experience by choosing a filter themselves. With FOOH, the consumer is acted upon — temporarily dropped in a fantasy world, possibly without realizing it.

Real Dip 🧸

A basil-walnut mess. 

Chop a big handful of walnuts and a bunch of basil and add both to a bowl. Grate one clove of garlic, add a pinch of pepper flakes, a three-finger pinch of salt, and a few cranks of black pepper. Douse it with good olive oil — not to the point that it’s drowning, but until it’s a little over-dressed. Stir, taste, and add what’s missing.

Plays well with fresh ricotta, braised fennel, and good bread.

Thanks for snacking,

— Emily 🏛️

PS: My phone line is open! Schedule a call with me.