Musk's odd salute, the top 10 brands, Stargate and the dog food parable

Weekly Exhale

Mild shockwaves continued through the tech and media worlds following the U.S. President’s inauguration this week. It was the expected spectacle—one pastor pleading for mercy on transgender kids, another using the service to launch a memecoin. The room was filled with billionaires who control our screen time and the ad dollars that fund it. Oh, and Joe Rogan.

Hours later, Musk grabbed the spotlight—was his victory gesture a fascist salute or a botched attempt at The Dab? Was the brother high as a kite on cocaine and ketamine? Or was he just happy? Who knows. But that didn’t stop the image and ensuing argument from clogging our algorithms yet again.

The Dog Food Parable

Last summer, at my son’s final junior school assembly, the speaker walked onto the stage holding a supermarket bag. “Missed lunch,” he said casually, asking if anyone minded if he ate in front of them. From the bag, he pulled out a tin of dog food.

The audience froze—half horrified, half thrilled—as he theatrically peeled back the lid, scooped out a chunk of meat-in-jelly, and slurped it up. “Ewwwwww!” the kids screamed. Then he invited a junior teacher and the head girl to take their turns, both wincing under the crowd’s jeers as they swallowed their spoonfuls. It was a grotesque scene straight out of a Roald Dahl book.

Here’s the twist: the dog food wasn’t real. It was jelly and chocolate.

The speaker’s lesson? Outside the walls of school—a place where you can (hopefully) trust what you’re told—you can no longer take things at face value.

The “Don’t Knows”

If you’ve ever done life coaching, you’ll know the concept of “don’t knows.” Our imaginations thrive on filling in gaps. No one at that assembly actually ate dog food, but the audience felt like they had. They tasted it in their minds. And just like that, fiction became a shared reality. If people have become the most valuable brands, those who master the art of manipulating “don’t knows” rise to the top.

Here's the thing: When we obsess over “don’t knows,” we pay for it with our time, our focus, and often, our happiness. Let’s stick the “don’t knows” in the mystery box. The platforms profiting off our confusion are rich enough without getting all our free attention.

While Musk’s antics were spreading across social media, I was reading a post from Lizzie Hanbury-Tenison. Lizzie and her husband Merlin look after a magical, four-thousand-year-old temperate rainforest called Cabilla, where the sweet terpenes in the air can lower cortisol for up to six weeks. She reminded me of five words that can make you happier. Would you like to know them?

These are the good days.

It's funny how we tend to reflect on “the good old days” without realising we’re living them now. As a founder, I’ve experienced some of my most successful years as failures, too consumed by stress to see the bigger picture.

That’s not to dismiss life’s real struggles. Seasons of hardship are inevitable. But seasons pass. And if we’re lucky, we’ll one day look back and realise that these days—today and the ones right in front of us—were incredible.

We become what we give our attention to. So, let’s give it to the present and the known: The people we love, the passions that fulfil us, and the joys that ground us.

And hopefully, a little chocolate and jelly too.

Let's rise together with every issue. ♡

Market Movements

US shouldn't put tariffs on the UK, the government says | BBC

Are efforts to win business confidence 'fiddling while Rome burns?' | The Guardian

US stocks at most expensive relative to bonds since dotcom era | Financial Times

Brand Beat

UK marketers fear budget reduction will impact 2025 goals | Marketing Beat

Alt view: Marketers expect bigger budgets, influencers will be the winners | Digiday

Tech titans top the world's most valuable brands league 2025 | Euro News

The UK's most memorable ad slogans revealed | ASA

Brands urged to recognise consumers want less | Decision Marketing

People are the new brands | Ed Elson for Prof G

The democratisation of creativity, Amazon Music on fan-powered futures | Campaign

Trust in advertising increases, driven by young people | MarketingWeek

Pinterest backs state laws banning phones in schools | The Washington Post

Sainsbury cuts 3,000 jobs as cafés close for good | The Grocer

Superbowl 2025 Poll - will you be on X, Instagram, TikTok or another platform? | AdAge

Burberry shares jump 13% after better-than-expected quarter | CNBC

Are Shein's emissions being overlooked ahead of its IPO | Vogue Business

From anti-DEI to alcohol-free, fashion faces a culture quake | Business of Fashion

New research: Conversations are the new landing pages for discovery | Reddit

Trending: Mills makes meal replacement shakes | Thingtesting

System1's ad of the week goes to LinkedIn | System1

Oscar nominations snubs and surprises | The Hollywood Reporter

Get back to where you belong, a view on WPP's return to office | The Drum

Starting Up

The 100 fastest growing tech companies in the UK | The Times

Startups brace for tariffs rollout: "We're in the dark" | Sifted

Why you should be testing founder story ads | Growth Waves

What a buzzy startup reveals about Britain's biotech sector | The Economist

Tech Tidbits

$500bn in US AI: Announcing the Stargate Project | OpenAI

Wake-up call: Tech leaders urge EU to match the US's $500bn AI plan | Sifted

The Trump Cryptonaissance has arrived | Wired

Apple is facing a fork in the road on AI, but has one advantage | Fortune

Tata acquires 60% stake in Apple partner Pegatron | TechCrunch

When AI passes this test, look out | New York Times

Venture Vibes

US presidency to spark $33bn in Chinese-UK investments predicts VC firm | Maddyness

Trumpcoin and TikTok | Kyla's Newsletter

Crypto's richest man turns VC firm into family office | Bloomberg

Gold rush: Why do VCs suddenly love mining? | Sifted

Design Driven

Lego's new brick set is a science class in a box | Fast Company

A new "raw and cosmic" visual language | It's Nice That

Major charities creating bold new brands as donor numbers fall | DesignWeek

Hello, Happiness

How to revive strategic thinking in an age of digital outrage | Big Think

Finding Ikigai in a portfolio career | Annie Mack's Stack

The case for brain rot | The Atlantic

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