10 More Things// NotebookLM, McBroken & Mustard

In this edition: Google changes the AI game, McBroken hosts the best digital display ad I've ever seen & why now is the time to build a mustard company

Hello and welcome to Substack edition 3. I should have said please feel free to send me stuff you’ve found interesting, if I include it I will always credit you (unless I’ve already saved it). Enough admin, now onto the newsletter.

Tech & Culture

NotebookLM. Starting off with some mind-blowing AI. Not only can you store up to 50 docs in Google’s new NotebookLM but they’ve made it really easy to ask it questions and then link back to where it’s sourcing the answers from. It’s a much slicker experience than ChatGPT.

That doesn’t sound mind-blowing I hear as you spit at the screen and hover over the ‘unsubscribe’ button. The mind-blowing bit is you can turn your document uploads into a 10-15 minute podcast that’s indistinguishable from actual (American) podcasts. It even replicates the thing all American podcasters say in response to someone giving them new information: “huh, interesting”.

It’s quite difficult to impress upon you how mind-blowing this is without giving you an example. I uploaded a PDF copy of Rory Sutherland’s Alchemy and unexpectedly it did a nice job of making something interesting sound interesting. Then I uploaded a PDF copy of a strategic response (which is safe to share) and suddenly I had a podcast bringing something inaccessible to life. I wanted to hate it but the way they talked about the work added interpretations which we hadn’t even intended. All I can say: sign up and go try it.

AI’s Cultural Impact. Nicely designed deck Number 1. A (long) report that details all the ways AI is impacting art, film and culture. It takes a balanced but positive stance overall with most artist's excited about how how they can use AI to create and produce new art.

Gatekeeping Information Is So Boomer Coded. Nicely designed deck Number 2. Another (long) report that covers Gen Z internet habits and some good examples of brands that are doing a great job of capturing their attention on TikTok. Thanks to James Parnum for sharing.

Great work

McBroken Hijack. McDonald’s ice cream machines famously breakdown a lot. Frustrated fans built a site called McBroken which tracks all the broken machines up and down the US. An ingenious competitor spotted an opportunity. I’m not going to give away who has bought the only digital advertising slot on the website. Click yourself and find out.

Kwik Fit’s Drive Away Happy Every Time. Kwik Fit turns to the absurd with a fun creative hook, the mechanic is so committed to fixing cars that they don’t ever leave their roller board.

James Blunt Name Change. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Back To Bedlam, which has been described as “an album” filled with “songs”, James Blunt has offered to change his name on the condition that the album re-enters at number 1. Likely contenders are Blunty McBluntface and Bames Junt. All credit to him and his team, it’s turned a mundane album release into a big PR moment.

Voxi Boxi. Chicken boxes that turn into phone stands. Nice.

Pick N Mix

The Mustard Second Coming. I enjoyed this slightly odd post about imagining what future food trends might be according to K-wave theory (i.e. 40-60 year cycles). The reasoning is abstract but the conclusions make sense. The author predicts a resurgence in mustard which hasn’t peaked since the ‘90s but has all the attributes of other foods that are peaking now: lots of varieties, able to make in small batches, unchanged market leaders. Bring on the mustard revolution!

Bop Spotter. I like to think of this as an art experiment raging against people who play music out-loud in public but it’s just a delightful little website that tracks what people listen to on a specific street in San Fransisco with a cheap phone set to Shazam constantly. Then it uploads the the song to the website which links to Spotify in real-time. Could be quite a cool OOH idea.

Netflix’s Freedom & Responsibility Culture. You may have heard of Netflix’s expense policy ‘act in Netflix’s best interest’ but you may not have seen the doc it came from. It’s called ‘Freedom & Responsibility Culture’ and it’s probably the best and most influential workplace culture guide, ever. If you’d bought £100 worth of Netflix shares when this was written you’d now have over £10,000.

Peace out ✌️

Alex