exploring the Powerful Partnerships Shaping Culture Vol. 24
Cousin Greg, Gordon Ramsay, Hilary Duff, Gabriel Macht and Alysa Liu. My dream blunt rotation. Oh yeah and Punch the Monkey.This week AI takes centre stage, behind Hilary Duff. Because who can ever comprehend outshining the gay icon that is Miss Cinderella herself. As the Winter Olympics skate on, we plough headfirst into the ‘snowstopping’ partnerships, brand collabs and cultural extravaganzas of the past week.
Hilary Duff Text
Everyone’s favorite icon has referenced HERSELF (iconic, so camp) to promote the release of tickets for her new tour. The reference, L O L. This meme is biblical now, it is written into the halls of internet fame and can never be written out. Self-referencing her Cinderella Story moment, same outfit, same flip phone, same wry, naive smile, it is a perfect pop culture moment that needs absolutely nothing added to it. Excuse me whilst I go and buy my tickets.
Rimowa Backpack Campaign
Cousin Greg and Rimowa. This hot off the press campaign features actor Nicolas Braun and his new Rimowa Campaign existing in pure marital bliss together. From dinner time, to yoga, to painting the walls Nicolas and his Rimowa are inseparable. It is the apparent total randomness of the campaign which marks this out as a winning strategy. Rimowa have built their brand on being a travel companion, so why not level up how that companionship is visually manifested. This pushes the brand into a different audience, one that is attuned to cultural contexts and online discourse surrounding a certain ‘ludicrously capacious bag.’
Gabriel Macht x Harvey
Harvey Specter meets real-world Harvey as Macht helps humanise legal AI, borrowing TV-lawyer brilliance to build trust in a fast-moving category. We all wanted to be a lawyer after watching Suits, and we all definitely thought we had photographic memories a la Mike Ross. This partnership is the first of its kind for Harvey, the AI platform that is specifically designed for legal and professional services. This partnership is savvy both on a business and a brand building level, shaping how the AI platform is perceived across multiple demographics and touchpoints.
Gordon Ramsay x PolyAI
Ramsay goes full rage-mode on bad automated calls, giving voice AI instant relevance by dramatising a pain everyone recognises. PolyAI's actual product proposition - that their voice AI sounds natural, handles complexity, and doesn't make customers feel like idiots - is almost impossible to communicate in abstract terms. You can't show a neural network. But you can show a man who has spent thirty years demanding perfection being quietly impressed. Ramsay becomes a proxy for every customer who's been burned before and has every reason to be sceptical. IT'S RAW.
Alysa Liu Winning the Figure Skating Gold
At 20 years old, skating in a divine gold dress, Alysa Liu became the first US woman to win Olympic gold in figure skating since Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Liu claimed the title yesterday in Milan, delivering a free skate set to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park Suite.” “I don’t need this,” Liu told the press afterward. “What I needed was the stage—and I got that. So it was all good, no matter what happened. I mean, if I fell on every jump, I’d still be wearing this dress. So it’s all good.” Understandably, we are all obsessed with her and her incredible hair. This was a perfectly joyous moment that the Winter Olympics has given us once again.
OLIVIA’S OPINION
Punch the Monkey
OMG. How could I not include Punch the Monkey in this. Devastating, heartwarming, life affirming - and no I am not talking about Wuthering Heights! LOL. This Monkey has stolen our hearts just like Moo Deng did 2 years ago. Punch deserved a dedicated shout out and he got it with brands such as IKEA utilising the Internet’s new son in their campaign.