The Horniness of Flamingo Estate
Welcome to Wednesday, futurists!
Did you miss VISIONS Summit NYC? We’re here to sate your future thirst:
📼 Four hours in 40 seconds. It’s like speedrunning both culture and commerce, simultaneously. Catch the recap on YouTube Shorts.
🎞️ Our debut short film, “When AI Becomes the Muse.” Featured at VISIONS Summit, this short film shines a spotlight on Marlon Portales, a Cuban artist who integrates AI into his traditional acrylic paint workflow. Watch the short film directed by JT Turner.
🔴 Get the VISIONS NYC Recordings, including Kyle Chayka’s keynote, and our sit-down interview with Alison Roman! VISIONS recordings will be available to Future Commerce+ members starting next week. Join today to take advantage of our other benefits ahead of the content drop!
Light on Details. Heavy on Merch. The Netflix IP universe is about to come to the physical world. Soon, fans in Dallas and Philadelphia who yearn for a Bridgerton t-shirt and Squid Game varsity jacked will engage in ‘experiential’ shopping, as well as food and beverage. Just don’t call it a store — it’s ‘Netflix House’ to you, pal.
Our Take: I’m old enough to remember when the N in ‘FAANG’ wasn’t Nvidia. Besides the fact that, honestly, merch is so over, Netflix has done an abysmal job of merchandising its own content as shoppable when in the app.
When we look back, one might measure ‘peak merch’ around the time that Netflix launched its eCommerce presence on Shopify. Building a physical store experience might widen its moat as far as investors are concerned, but this can only end as well as The Disney Store did… poorly.
"Oh Flaming-So-Horny’ What’s happening over there at the bougie soap ‘hot tomato girl’ brand?? Following our prior coverage of Southern California’s favorite purveyor of expensive spicy jams weighing into election season discourse, they’ve jumped fully into garden nymph(o) mode… and why on May 30? New hire? Or new fire…. 🤔
“OSHA For The Mind.” Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for warning labels on social media platforms, saying usage can “harm teenagers' mental health.” He plans to urge Congress to require these warnings, arguing the platforms haven't done enough to address the issue. This latest effort underscores a core theme that Future Commerce co-founder Brian Lange has often repeated: that “OSHA for the mind” is a future, and potentially necessary, function of government.
Haute Cow-ture? The very-well-caffeinated (and now Platinum-certified) Espresso marketing machine is somehow still going… and going… and going. Bougie creamery Van Leeuwen partnered with Sabrina Carpenter to make sure you never sleep again. Their express-flavored collaboration drops on June 28 in the brand’s scoop shops and via online order.
Futurism = Fascism? What does the Italian futurist art movement have to do with Commerce? In the age of AI and ‘effective acceleration,’ it has more in common than you’d think. Episode #355 of the FC podcast is available on YouTube (and Apple or Spotify) if you’re hip.
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