Early this year, Mark Zuckerberg made headlines by saying corporate culture needs more masculine energy. This sentiment was echoed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseths call for the militaryan employer of 2.1 million Americansto return to a warrior ethos, promoting traditional masculine standards like aggression and athleticism.
And yet, according to recent news reports, recruits at ICE (another workplace) are struggling to pass basic fitness tests, and Hegseth allegedly installed a makeup room at the Pentagon. Such contradictions remind me of a former manager who once criticized a potential hire for being kind of girly, yet spent most of his free time online researching spa treatments and shopping for floral polos.
Masculinity standards can be nebulous and conflicting. GQs 2025 State of Masculinity Survey asked 1,929 American men their thoughts and beliefs on masculinity, and men surveyed defined masculine as strong, protective, and toughbut when asked how theyd like to be described by a friend, they said respectful, honest, and responsible.
It seems even men themselves are confused about what masculinity is. Meanwhile, the GQ survey also found that 68% of men think about how to be masculine every single day.
Men are navigating mixed messages, says gender equality and masculinity researcher Dr. Sarah DiMuccio, Head of Research and Development at Above & Beyond, a DEI consultancy and leadership academy based in Copenhagen.
Be more open and empathetic. But also: ‘man up’ and be decisive.
In todays world, workplace leaders are doubling down on a narrow, quasi-toxic version of masculinity, determining who gets heard, who gets promoted, what behaviors are rewarded and what the tone of the organization is. This impacts the way men behave, define success, and shapes business, as well as larger culture. The consequences are real: Economically, harmful behaviors associated with masculine stereotypes cost the United States over $15.7 billion each year.
Masculine performanceand anxiety
As a gay man, Ive never been naive about how masculinity is used as currency. But because I was raised in what I now realize was a very progressive household, it wasnt something I worried much about. I started rethinking how I performed it after being passed over for a work promotion.
My then manager (the floral-polo-bedecked one) encouraged me to apply for this interview, telling me I was a natural fit. While Id never mentioned being gay to him before, it somehow came up during an interview hed sat in on. The unofficial, non-HR-sanctioned feedback I got from him when I didnt advance? I think they were just looking for, like, a sports-and-beer guy.
Can I absolutely prove it was being gay? No, but Id bet money on it.
A 2022 study published in Sex Roles: a Journal of Research found that both gay and straight men tend to prefer gay colleagues who are in leadership roles to present as masculine. And while I subjectively feel I present pretty masculine, masculinity and sexuality are routinely conflated. Even at more progressive companies, I now strategically choose when to acknowledge my sexuality. Its hard to blame me, when work culture (and the wider culture) rewards a very narrow idea of masculinity, putting it on a pedestal for others to conform to.
Dr. Travis Speice, a sociologist specializing in gender and sexuality studies, says, Sometimes, it doesnt actually matter how we perform our gender or our sexuality in the workplaceit’s other people who decide whether its acceptable or not. This can lead to some absurd-seeming contradictions. One might think Pete Hegseths installation of a makeup studio in the Pentagon flies in the face of warrior ethos, but if others have already deemed him (or any man) the right kind of masculine, it might not matter.
And yet: I dont know that any performance is absurd if the performer feels like there is a social advantage by following through with that performance, Speice says.
On top of the muddied definitions and public displays of masculinity, the pressure for men to perform as masculine at work worryingly has an adverse effect on everyone involved.
A 2018 study published in the Journal of Social Issues, entitled “Work as a Masculinity Contest,” found that workplaces prevalent with men attempting masculine performance tend to be ones also filled with toxic leadership and bullying, as well as fewer opportunities, more burnout, and worse wellbeing for the women in the office.
Success comes to focus not on meeting performance goals, the study says, but on proving you are more of a man than the next guy. Thus, being a top performer is tantamount to being a manor for the winners, the man.
The need to prove masculinity at work can cause men to behave aggressively, embrace risky behaviors, and sexually harass others. Half of men have taken time off from work to cope with mental health struggles, but less than one in ten would disclose said struggles.
DiMuccio was a researcher on a 2021 study entitled Masculine Anxiety and Interrupting Sexism at Work, which found that 94% of men at work experience masculine anxiety: the stress men feel living up to masculine expectations.
She points out how the way this anxiety manifests doesnt always look like nervousness: Sometimes it looks like bravado, competition, or withdrawal. Speice adds that In some work environments, straight men may feel even more pressure to perform traditional masculinity, desperate to prove their real man status.
The tech bro: Our loudest archetype
At the moment, few industries capture the celebrated absurdity of masculinitys narrowest view more than Big Tech.
Silicon Valley is embracing a new era of masculinity, Zoe Bernard wrote in her 2023 piece for Vox entitled Silicon Valleys very masculine year. (An award that Silicon Valley is about to win for the third year in a row, and maybe then we can retire the trophy.) Tech’s “leaders are powerful, virile, and swole,” Bernard writes. Todays tech brosMark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Mukhave become the unofficial poster boys for performative masculinity, trading in hoodies and office foosball tables for MMA and bow hunting.
Nick Clegg, former Meta Vice President of Global Affairs, recently critiqued the tech bros (though it should be noted he spoke highly of Zuckerberg as a colleague), in an interview with The Guardian, hinting at the fragility of performative manliness. He called the trend cloyingly conformist, adding: I couldnt, and still cant, understand this deeply unattractive combination of machismo and self-pity.
Dr. Peter Glick, a Professor of Psychology at Lawrence University (and co-author of the Work as a Masculinity Contest study) told me that traditional masculine roles provided men with a set of privileges that some feel are slipping away due to gender equality and DEI advances.
My own sense is that if anything, we have moved into a phase of highly reactive, defensive, aggrieved masculinity, he says, especially among many men who resent loss of status, power, purpose, and clarity with respect to how to fulfill masculine identity. DiMuccio agrees, citing the influence of the manosphere: a loose, online network of blogs, forums, and social media promoting traditional masculinity and highly critical of anything it deems feminist.
Men are promised belonging and purpose, but in a way that is deeply problematic, misogynistic, and reinforces narrow versions of masculinity even more, she says, noting that these spaces thrive on masculine anxiety. They turn the fear of losing status or identity in a changing world into resentmentand performance.
If youre accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression, says Clegg.
Rethinking masculinity
Growing up, being perceived as masculine wasnt something I worried about. I attribute that to my father, who, on paper, embodies traditional masculinity: Hes tall, not super emotive, and possesses the authoritative air befitting a retired Marine Colonel. But his is actually a more nuanced version of masculinity: While he certainly has protective and imposing traits, hes neither aggressive nor bombastic, embodying a quiet confidence that seeks neither attention nor approval. He modeled being a decent guy, not arbitrarily proving he was the man.
Perhaps those qualitiesa steadying, grounded presence that doesnt default to performing toxic traits or demanding others to comply with themis what masculinity in the workplace could look like instead.
DiMuccio thinks that deep down, Most men do know, at some level, that these [toxic] behaviors silencing others, overcompensating, refusing to ask for helpundermine teamwork and performance. But she points out that, in many workplaces, the social rewards of being perceived as masculine still justify the performance.
Its not that men dont care about the greater goal. They do. But the cultural script of masculinity is so strong that it can override logic. Changing that requires shifting what we reward and recognize as leadership and success at work, DiMuccio says.
For better or worse, the concept of masculinity will continue to shape the ways we live and work. We can point out its hypocrisies and absurdities all we want, but the reality is that the ways men choose to telegraph masculinity shape who gets ahead, who gets heard, and how teams functionreflecting a broader cultural tendency to reward appearances, conformity, and social signaling over substance.
Recognizing this dynamic might empower individuals to identify and call out the smoke and mirrorsand allow more men to stop playing pretend.
If you work in an office, your next coworker might not be human at all.
Workers are already well-acquainted with artificial intelligence in the office, using AI tools to take notes, automate tasks, and assist with workflow. Now, Microsoft is working on a new kind of AI agent that doesnt just assist, but acts as an employee.
These Agentic Users will soon have their own email, Teams account, and company ID, just like a regular coworker. Each embodied agent has its own identity, dedicated access to organizational systems and applications, and the ability to collaborate with humans and other agents, states a Microsoft product roadmap document. These agents can attend meetings, edit documents, communicate via email and chat, and perform tasks autonomously.
The rise of AI has already spelled death for middle management, and is having a significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labor market, according to economists at Stanfords Digital Economy Lab.
Gartner projects that by 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will incorporate agentic AI, and at least 15% of daily business decisions will be made autonomously by AI agents. If AI employees can soon take over the grunt work no one wants to do, like scheduling and reporting, leaving people to handle the big picture tasks, thats a win, right?
Yet it also raises questions like: whose job is it to supervise AI employees? How much can AI really be entrusted with? And what happens if, or when, something goes wrong?
Last year Deloitte surveyed organizations on the cutting edge of AI, and found just 23% of these organizations reported feeling highly prepared to manage AI-related risks. According to one study, 40% of agentic AI projects could be canceled by the end of 2027 due to inadequate risk controls, unclear business value and escalating costs.
As AI rapidly establishes itself as a workplace norm, 2025 will be remembered as the moment when companies pushed past simply experimenting with AI and started building around it, Microsoft said in a blog post accompanying its annual Work Trend Index report.
The rollout of Agentic users could start later this November, according to internal documents first reported by The Register. With Microsoft Ignite this week, stay tuned.
Our culture equates busyness with importance, overcommitment with achievement, and exhaustion with value. For high-achieving professionals, this belief system isnt just inconvenient, its quietly eroding energy, focus, and fulfillment. Meetings pile up, emails never end, and the pressure to do it all becomes a measure of worth. And yet, this version of productivity is deeply misleading.
The truth is, sustainable success doesnt come from cramming more into your day. It comes from aligning what you do with who you are, and giving yourself permission to prioritize energy, clarity, and presence over perpetual motion. Because motion for the sake of it is meaningless.
The Cost of Outdated Beliefs
Most of our thoughts are inherited patterns: echoes of beliefs we absorbed without realizing or having context. Many high achievers carry invisible scripts around their worth and value that may seem insignificant, yet arent harmless. They quietly shape decisions, drain energy, and fuel cycles of overcommitment. Left unchallenged, they keep us trapped in performance over presence, forcing a choice between professional success and personal fulfillment that shouldnt exist.
The data confirms the danger: Nearly 60% of professionals report negative stress impacts, including irritability, fatigue, and decreased motivation. Chronic stress is linked to over 120,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone. Leaders who push past their limits not only compromise their own well-being, but they also set a tone for teams that normalizes depletion.
Rewriting Your Inner Story
The first step to changing the way you work and live is identifying the beliefs running the show. Ask yourself: Which internal narratives drive my decisions? Which of them are inherited, unexamined, or outdated? Do they still serve me, or do they keep me misaligned?
Once these scripts are visible, you can begin to rewrite them.
Old belief: I must prove my worth by doing more. New truth: My worth is inherent; I do not need to earn it through busyness.
Old belief: Busyness is a sign of importance. New truth: Stillness is a strategy, not a liability. Reflection and focus expand my impact.
Old belief: I can (and should) do it all. New truth: Freedom comes from focus, not volume. Saying no is wisdom, not weakness.
Even small shifts in thinking create space for bigger changes in behavior, energy, and presence.
Story in Action
Consider Laura, a senior leader at a fast-growing tech firm. On paper, she was thrivingleading teams, closing deals, and responding to emails at all hours. Yet she felt perpetually drained, anxious, and disconnected from both her work and her personal life. Every day felt like a treadmill she couldnt step off.
When she began questioning her internal narratives, she realized her default belief: If Im not constantly available, Im failing. With that recognition, she experimented with small rituals to reclaim her energy. She started each morning with a 10-to-20-minute walk, phone-free, allowing her to plan her day with clarity. Before meetings, she paused to breathe and set her intention. And in the evenings, she created simple rituals that increased her presence: journaling one win for the day as she stepped away from her laptop, a gratitude circle at dinner with family, and reading for pleasure.
These small, deliberate actions transformed her experience of her own life. Laura wasnt doing less; she was choosing differently. Her focus sharpened, her decisions felt clearer, and she felt more present in conversations with her team and family. By embedding rituals instead of relying on autopilot routines to just get through the day, she reclaimed control over her energy, rewrote the story she was living by, and discovered that sustainable success comes from alignment, not overextension.
Rituals, Not Routines: A Practical Tool
Changing beliefs is only the beginning. Without intentional action, old habits quietly reassert themselves. This is where ritualsintentional and meaningful rhythms unique to youbecome transformative.
Unlike routines, which can be automatic and draining over time, rituals are infused with purpose. They create moments of renewal, grounding, and clarity. For example:
Starting your day with a five-minute reflection instead of jumping straight into email.
Brewing coffee or tea while you set an intention for the day or the next meeting.
Closing the workday with a transition ritual, signaling the shift from professional to personal time.
Winding down with reading, candlelight, journaling, or a hot shower.
These intentional pauses are strategic, not indulgent. They preserve energy, enhance focus, and allow you to operate from alignment rather than autopilot.
Presence as a Leadership Advantage
The most effective professionals arent necessarily those who work the longest hoursthats the old way of working. Theyre those who show up whole because theyre in alignment with who they are, inside and out. Presence is a competitive advantage. It fosters better decision-making, inspires teams, and creates ripple effects that extend far beyond individual performance.
Leaders who model energy stewardship and intentionality shift culture without a single memo. By choosing rituals that anchor them in alignment, they normalize boundaries, reflection, and focused contribution. And in doing so, they give others permission to do the same.
Practical Steps to Begin
Identify your top stress-beliefs. Notice moments you feel compelled to say yes or overcommit. Ask what underlying belief is driving the behavior.
Reframe them. Convert old stories of proving and performing into new narratives of presence, permission, and focus.
Anchor with rituals. Introduce small, meaningful practices that support the beliefs you want to live by. Examples include morning reflection, mid-day resets, or transition rituals between work and personal life.
Observe the ripple. Notice how these changes affect your energy, decision-making, relationships, and the culture around you.
Even small, consistent choices shift patterns over time. They turn pressure into presence, busyness into clarity, and stress into sustainable energy.
Redefining Work-Life Success
Utimately, high performance doesnt require sacrifice, but it does require alignment. When you stop measuring worth by how much you do and start measuring it by how intentionally and fully you show up, everything changes.
You dont have to do it all. You have to do what matters, and do it in a way that preserves your energy, your joy, and your ability to be fully present. The rest will follow.
The future of work starts now, and success is being redefined: Lead not from exhaustion, but from alignment. Lead not to impress, but to empower. Your rituals are the blueprint, not only for your own performance but for the culture you create.
Do you know that the longer a decision-maker views your résumé, the more likely it is that youll get an interview? Recent research combined eye-tracking and machine learning to understand résumé decisions better. The most actionable conclusion was that Experience section dwell time predicts interview invitations.
Thats next-level information. Weve had eye-tracking studies for years. They tell us what readers look at, but give no additional meaning. Now, by applying AI, we know which sections of the résumé matter the most for getting interviews.
I was a retained search consultant for 25-plus years. For the last 10 years, Ive been writing executive and board résumés. When I did search, the first question I asked candidates after interviews was, How long were you there? That was the best way for me to know how well the interview went. Thus, it makes sense that résumé dwell time also predicts success.
So, lets talk about how to make your résumés Experience section sticky to readers via design and content choices.
Eliminate Walls of Text
People dont read word by word. They scan, looking for information relevant to their needs. Large blocks of text lose readers because theyre hard to scan.
In How People Read Online: The Eyetracking Evidence Report, The Nielsen Norman Group, a user experience firm, described a wall of text as a major repellent that instantly makes users think twice about engaging. To avoid that, limit résumé text blocks to three lines, four if you must. Nothing else about your résumé matters if people wont read it.
Focus on Experience
Help readers navigate your résumé by providing clear section labels (Professional Experience, Education, Skills, Community Service, etc.).
Nielsen Norman also shared that many readers assess whether a page is worth any time in less than a second. They appraise before they even start the infamous six-second scan. Because the Experience section drives interviews, place it below the summary at the top of your résumé. You have to show your relevance immediately to earn deeper reader attention.
Use a Consistent Structure
Present your recent experience in a consistent structure. I include:
Company names
Company descriptions
The locations where my clients worked for companies
Job titles
Employment dates
Job scope descriptions
Impact statements.
I always place company names and job titles on left margins to help readers who are scanning. They want that information. Give it to them effortlessly.
Also, lighten readers cognitive loads by separating job scope information and impact bullets. Describe scope in a narrative paragraph. Follow that with impact bullets. Dont force your readers to do the scope and impact sort. They want you to tell them what your role was and how you performed in it. Make it easy for them if you want to keep their attention.
Rank Order Your Impact Stories Based on Your Readers Needs
Identify a jobs deliverables. To do this, use job postings, talk with insiders, and ask AI platforms questions. Then, write your impact bullets to convince readers you can succeed in their roles. Let go of what you think is important about you; youll have time for that later. To grab and keep your readers attention, align your bullets’ content and order with their most critical needs.
Provide White Space
White space makes résumés easier to read and understand. That ease increases dwell time because it makes readers more willing to engage. Use these minimum parameters:
Three-quarter-inch top and bottom margins
One-inch side margins
Half-point spaces between bulleted impact statements
If you need more room, edit your content; dont fudge the white spaceyoull lose readers.
When I see a crowded résumé, I think the person hasnt learned whats important to their audience. Because of that, theyre sharing everything they guess might be relevant. That erodes the likelihood readers will find what they need and, in turn, dwell time.
Readers Evaluate Résumés and Make Decisions
Ive talked a lot about readers here, but the reality is that the people who view your résumé are evaluators. They look at your presentation. Then they decide whether you appear to meet enough of their needs to merit more of their time. Make it easy for them to understand your relevance, and they will slow down to focus on you.
Over the next 20 years, an estimated $84 trillion will change hands in the U.S.; some call this the Great Wealth Transfer, others the Silver Tsunami. This wealth is held in cash and assets, but also in the estimated 2.9 million private U.S. businesses that are owned by those over 55. Many retiring business owners will look to sell their company to private equity or larger conglomerates, while others will pass their businesses on to their heirs.
A few are considering something more radical: giving their company away to good causes, like Paul Newman who gave his eponymous food company to Newmans Own Foundation when he passed away in 2008. This idea remains radical enough that when 83-year-old Yvon Chouinard and his family announced that all of Patagonias future profits would go to fight climate change in September 2022, the New York Times devoted a full-page spread to the move. Now, theres even a book dedicated to Patagonia and its transition.
100% for Purpose companies like Newmans Own and Patagonia are still the exception, but there are more of us than you think: ticketing platform Humanitix, search engine Ecosia, browser Mozilla, consumer brands like The Good Store and Thankyou, and more. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also announced plans to donate a controlling stake of his company to a trust that will continue to fund Bloomberg Philanthropies after his death.
As President and CEO of a 100% for Purpose organization, Ive begun to hear more and more from businesses that are looking to follow in our footsteps.
Why this move?
You may ask: Why would philanthropically minded business owners and founders give their company away versus just selling the business later on, and creating a foundation with the proceeds?
The short answer: Its a great way to cement your legacy, preserve the company, and maximize giving.
Lets imagine your business makes $10M in profits and you sell it for $50Mcongrats! You can then choose to manage a foundation endowment and give away $2.5M a year (5% as per the minimum distribution rule). Or you spend it down, giving away $10M a year for five years.
Compare these options to giving your company away to a foundation (like Newmans Own Foundation) or a trust (like Patagonia). The company and its employees stay in place, and continue to generate $10M annual profits, which can then be given away to good causes year after year.
You have created a philanthropic annuity. But more than that, you have given your business, employees, and customers a gift as well. Every product they make, sell, or buy is now a product whose profits go to support good causes.
And for those starting new business, it may not be a fair comparison today, but Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner put in $40,000 of their own funds to get Newmans Own started back in 1982. That could have been a one-time gift but instead, Paul and Newmans Own have since given away over $600 milliona 15,000x philanthropic return!
A range of models
How do you get started on the 100% for Purpose journey? Here are a few models to consider, from simple to more advanced:
Give Your Profits Away Today: You can do so with an existing corporate structure. Paul Newman did this at first with Newmans Own as the Foundation was established years later. Thats also how Cummings Properties and The Good Store got started. Depending on your jurisdiction, there are more or less tax-friendly ways to go about this, and if you dont already have an existing foundation, you might find a Donor-Advised Fund an easy way to get started.
Donate your Business to an Existing Foundation or Non-Profit: Why re-create the wheel when there are already close to two million 5013(c) organizations in the U.S.? Id venture to say theres at least one among these that aligns to your value and your giving priorities, and that they would welcome a profit-fueled philanthropic annuity.
Establish your own Foundation and Donate your Business to it: You want to be more hands on? Establish your own foundation. When Paul Newman died in 2008, he gifted the food company to Newmans Own Foundation, but that was actually not legal at the time. The IRS granted us an exception to be able to continue operating until the Philanthropic Enterprise Act was passed in 2018. This new law allows foundations to own profitable companies outright, versus in the past, being limited to no more than 20% equity stakes.
Split Voting Rights and Economic / Profit Rights via a Perpetual Purpose Trust: Perpetual Purpose Trusts are also relatively new in the U.S.: the first on record dates back to just 2018, but their European equivalent, steward foundations, including Novo Nordisk, Ikea, and Rolex, have been around for decades. Purpose Trusts offer flexibility, for example allowing you to keep some or all voting rights of the company while giving away the economic rights to your foundation, a non-profit, your employees, or a mix of all these. This is what Patagonia chose to do, with a HBR case study on the details for the legal aficionados among you.
Giving Tuesday is almost upon us, and while I dont expect people to make such a decision in one day, I want to invite current business owners and future founders to think about joining the 100% Purpose movement.
Giving a business away is still considered a radical move, but it offers business owners, their employees, and their customers something a traditional sale never can: legacy.
In early 2022, the meal delivery company I founded, Tovala, went out to raise $100mm from venture capitalists. Our business could not have been hotter. Wed crossed $110mm of revenue, growing over 100% YoY. We had retention that was 34 times better than other meal delivery services. We had low awareness, lots of room for product innovation, and a seemingly clear path to an IPO.
Then the war broke out in Ukraine, and capital markets started to get spooked. All of the sudden, fast-growing, unprofitable consumer businesses were out of vogue. We managed to raise $32mm, not a small sum, but it felt like a failure.
It ended up being the best thing that ever happened to us.
A new game
That struggle made us realize the game had changed. Investors no longer wanted to fund unprofitable growth. In fact, they might never fund unprofitable growth in our category again. So we had to find a way to stretch that $32mm as far as possible.
That was easier said than done. In 2021, we burned $26mm. We had to change how we operated Tovala. Fast.
This was more than just cutting some costs. It meant a complete shift in mindset of every team member. For years we had been focused on scaling as quickly as possible. For example, for our operations team, that meant thinking about how we could safely fulfill an increasing number of meals every week and, in their spare time, figuring out how to improve our margins. We had to flip that mindset on its head. And instead of thinking about rapid scaling, think about where we could find efficiencies in the business.
We started to repeatedly pound the drumbeat of profitability. We talked about it at every company all hands, and most importantly, we helped everyone understand why it mattered. We celebrated wins as small as a slight reduction in our AWS fees and as big as launching new product offerings. We got much more disciplined with hiring and performance management, pushed every team to identify margin wins, and we scrutinized our P&L for any waste. We found big levers on pricing and marketing spend and small levers in renegotiating many contracts. It all mattered.
Focus, focus, focus
What most surprised me during this period was not just our teams ability to execute. It was the value of focus. Wed built a company culture that was frugal and yet, when the team was tasked with finding waste and inefficiencies, it was everywhere. With the benefit of hindsight, its clear to me that it is not realistic to prioritize growth, (which the team had been doing for several years), while simultaneously having real rigor on minimizing all waste and inefficiency.
We ultimately achieved our goal. We havent raised a single dollar since that $32mm fundraise. Weve been profitable for two years. And weve built a culture that can operate in the chapter were now in: one defined by growth and profitability.
In a perfect world, my job wouldnt exist. I’m a consumer privacy advocate, which means I spend my days fighting for something that should be automatic: your right to control and protect your own personal information.
Unfortunately, we dropped the ball. In the era of social media and hyper-targeted ads, we didnt build the right privacy infrastructure to protect ourselves. Instead, we let tech companies sell us the story that knowledge is power and data is the price.
Yes, knowledge is power. But dataa dry, emotionless word for who and what we are as humansshould be our super power. It should be ours to control and use to improve our lives, not just something companies profit from while leaving us vulnerable to harm.
Now, AI is making this dynamic worse. As we enter the AI Age, our datawho and what we arehas become more valuable, and more vulnerable, than ever.
Weve got OpenAIs CEO dreaming of a day when every conversation youve ever had in your life, every book youve ever read, every email youve ever read, everything youve ever looked at is in there, plus connected to all your data from other sources. And your life just keeps appending to the context.
Weve got tech companies building wearable devices to track our emotions claiming that the only way AI can be effective is if it can know how were feeling in real time. Were rapidly entering a future where wearing smart glasses on our faces capable of recording and having AI process everything around us will be normal.
Weve got AI chatbots passing themselves off as real therapists to get people to share their deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings. Some of those people have died by suicide after long conversations, fed by deeply personal data, that spiraled out of control.
In the AI Age, personal data isnt just a record of who we are. Its our actions, transactions, locations, conversations, preferences, inferences, and vulnerabilities. Its our identities, our intimate selves, our hopes, dreams, fears, and flaws. And in a future full of AI friends, AI therapists, and AI agents, this data wont just reflect who we are: it will help shape who we become. Leaving all that in the hands of companies with questionable ethics, or governments with shifting priorities, is a dangerous bet. We need better options.
A deliberately oversimplified history of privacy
Before we look ahead, it can be helpful to remember how we got here.
In Biblical times, privacy was a nope. God was all-seeing, and surveillance was divine. Take Hebrews 4:13 for example: And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
The Middle Ages didnt offer much privacy either. People often lived on top of each other and were literally all up in each others most intimate business. The Renaissance rolled around and privacy burst onto the scene, thanks in large part to the printing press. Give people access to more books, and, it turns out, they tend to go off by themselves, silently read, and nurture internal private thoughts.
The Age of Enlightenment saw the concept of personal privacy start trending. Private thoughts, notions of personal property rights, even the idea that your mail shouldn’t be read by strangers started becoming normal.
The Industrial Age brought more than factories, trains, and booming cities. Personal privacy rights started getting written into law. The US Bill of Rights gave people the right to be protected from unreasonable search. British Common Law gave us protections against harms like defamation (privacy for your reputation) and trespass (private property).
In 1890, the right to privacy was born. In an essay of the same name, lawyers Samuel D. Warren and Louis Brandeis argued that people have the right to be let alone. It wasnt just peoples property that should be protected from intrusion, they wrote, but also their thoughts and emotions. Privacy as a civil liberty starts to take shape.
Then the Technology Age comes along, and things get complicated. Telephones mean wiretapping. Cameras mean surveillance. World Wars I and II saw the rise of government intelligence agencies. The Cold War brought with it many spy vs spy vs spy games. Governments learned to love snooping. George Orwell wrote 1984. Privacy gets kicked in the teeth.
In response, people decided they needed laws to better protect them from government surveillance. Germany adopted the worlds first data protection law in 1970. The US passed the Privacy Act of 1974
The Internet Age clicks on and things go downhill for privacy real fast. Social media, targeted advertising, cookies tracking us all around the web, phones pinging our locations everywhere we go, the rise of big data: privacy begins to enter a death spiral.
The definition of privacy swings from the right to be let alone to something called contextual integrity. This is the idea that our personal information will be collected, but will only be shared with those we choose, and only when we want it shared, based on context and consent.
But his definition of privacy fails miserably because it turns out that our personal information is quite valuable. Over time, it became the norm for companies to bury consent in terrible privacy policies and behind Click to Agree links.
There are some legal data rights, if you live somewhere lucky enough to have them. Laws like Europes GDPR or Californias CCPA give you the right to know whats collected about you, to delete it, or opt out of having it sold. But even with those protections, todays most stringent privacy rules and systems are struggling to kep up with the social media age, let alone whats coming next.
Now were entering the AI Age and the Grim Reaper is standing right there, glaring at privacy, ready to usher it to the eternal hereafter.
AI could doom privacy or it could save it
These days, its not just what were watching or buying that is being surveilled. Its every single aspect of our existence: our facial expressions, the thoughts in our language. The potential abuse of this technology for privacy is staggering. And were helping.
Performing real time facial recognition on the missed connection on the train so you know where they live? Check. Granting access to our email, our calendar, our credit card info, our hopes and dreams to an AI agent to help order groceries, book flights, or make our lives a little easier? Check. Pouring our hearts out to our AI therapist or girlfriend because were feeling lonely or too shy to share these thoughts with a real person? Check. (The top self-reported use case for AI in 2025 is therapy and companionship.)
What does privacy mean in an era of AI therapists and companions and agents that work in ways no one quite understands? We dont know how these AI models work, yet were being told to give them all our very intimate, personal information so they can work better for us? The idea of privacy in the AI Age feels like its come full circle, like were returning to those Biblical times dominated by some kind of all-seeing, all-knowing entity. But even if some people are becoming convinced it is, AI isnt God. AI is a mix of code and algorithms and human decisions, often with the goal of building power and making profits.
But theres some good news. AI could help save privacy too.
Its time for the next printing press
To reclaim privacy in the AI Age, wed be wise to borrow a page from the past.
Six hundred years ago, the printing press cracked the world open. It turned knowledge from something hoarded into something accessible. People could now carry ideas into the forest, read them in private, and come back changed. That one invention would later help spark the Enlightenment, a revolution in how people thought about power, truth, and freedom. People could read in private. Think in private. And eventually, demand the right to live in private. The printing press helped transform thinking and innovation, because it gave birth to the very idea of individual privacy.
Today, we need a new printing press: a system that gives us control over the story of our livesour dataand, perhaps, sparks our next advances.
Let me introduce you to a scrappy, overlooked right called data portability. At its core, this dry-sounding term means something radical: that you can easily and securely move your data where you want, when you want, and actually use it to serve you, not just companies.
But theres a big gap between that vision and our reality. Too often, data portability tools are buried and convoluted, or completely nonexistent. Ever tried downloading your data and ended up with a giant, unreadable zip file youre not sure what to do with? Thats not empowerment; thats a digital paperweight.
Data portability is the underdog of privacy rights. Barely known, rarely prioritized. But if developed and backed with intention, it could reshape the future.
Imagine a world where your data isnt trapped in distant data centers. Instead, its close to homein a secure data wallet or pod, under your control. Now imagine pairing that with a loyal personal AI assistant, a private, local tool that lives with you, learns from you (with your permission), and acts on your behalf. Your AI. Not theirs.
Heres a simple example: period tracking. It doesnt get much more intimate than that. And in places with abortion bans or restricted healthcare, it doesnt get much more dangerous, either. Right now, millions share that info with apps owned by companies that can sell it or hand it over to law enforcement under subpoena.
But imagine if that data lived only in your data pod, controlled only by your AI, to predict symptoms, suggest care, flag concerns, or automatically order chocolate and Advil. With data portability, you can take your data, transfer it to your AI, and use it to benefit you. Thats the difference between being surveilled and being served.
And thats just the beginning. Local, controlled AI plus portable, personal data could potentially help us address huge problems like healthcare, climate change, job loss, financial precarity, and unlock services we havent even dreamed of yet.
Will it be easy? Nope. The technical and regulatory infrastructure to do this doesnt existyet. Some people, including the founder of the World Wide Web, are working on solutions that could lead there.
The incentives to do this the right way arent obvious to everyoneyet. The companies that could help build this infrastructure dont want to prioritize thisyet. But neither did the wealthy and powerful want the printing press.
Were at a turning point. If we dont push for systems that give people control over their data, well sleepwalk into a future far more dystopian than divine. But if we doif we build the next printing press for the AI Agewe just might write ourselves into a better story.
Control your data, and you control your destiny.
Yes, that sounds grand. But once so did the idea of ordinary people owning books. And look what came next.
Jen Caltrider is Director of Research and Engagement at the Data Transfer Initiative and formerly led Mozillas Privacy NotIncluded initiative.
After more than 70 years, the Ford Motor Co. finally has an architectural centerpiece.
The automaker’s new global headquarters has officially opened in Dearborn, Michigan, just outside Detroit and within eyeshot of some of the main facilities that have sustained the company for more than a century. Covering 2.1 million square feet and designed by the architecture and design firm Snhetta, the new building sprawls across four circuitous stories. Getting from one side to another is a trek.
During a two-hour walking tour of the building, a week ahead of its official opening, I traversed at most a quarter of the overall space. This immense size is the building’s strength, as it allows the company to bring much of its executive, engineering, design, and fabrication teams under one (very large) roof for the first time. About 2,000 Ford employees work there now, with around 4,500 expected by 2027.
Jim Dobleske, CEO of Ford Land, the company’s real estate arm, says the headquarters was designed to enable collaboration and a more flexible approach to office worktwo post-pandemic prerequisites. More importantly, the building is meant to streamline how different arms of the company work together, using proximity, shared resources, and the simplicity of a single building to break down historic silos.
“It’s not just a building,” Dobleske says, walking through its airy front lobby. “It’s a tool.”
The Ford of 2025 is a different company than its mid-20th-century self, then still heavily influenced by the top-down approach of founder Henry Ford, even years after his death. Still, there are strands of the corporate DNA that have carried through over the company’s 122-year history. Ford has historically been a deeply stratified corporation, with a longstanding emphasis on command and control. Today, its evolving architecture is a reflection of a company that’s reconsidering its approach and priming itself for a particularly dynamic era in the history of automaking.
[Photo: Ford]
The new building sits 2 miles away from Ford’s former headquarters, a 12-story modernist box known as the “Glass House,” which has been the buttoned-up main office for 2,000 of the corporation’s higher-ups since it opened in 1956. Located on the other side of a highway cloverleaf and moated by a wide belt of lawn and parking lots, the building was emblematic of Ford’s corporate architectural sensibility, as well as its corporate structure.
The “Glass House,” Ford’s former headquarters. [Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images]
The new building is designed as the new hub of an increasingly concentrated campus of Ford buildings, situated within walking distance to an estimated 14,000 Ford employees, each of whom can use the building’s common spaces, bookable meeting rooms, and 1,000-seat food court. That includes staff at the product development center, engineers from the recently renovated Ford Engineering Lab across the street, and researchers in its components laboratory.
“It’s the most horizontally and vertically integrated building I know of,” says Craig Dykers, cofounder of Snhetta and architect of the building. His firm also created the campus master plan that has reshaped the corporate landscape of Ford.
During the tour, Dykers stood near a window and pointed out the buildings and facilities in the area that are all part of the Ford machine. “We took a lot of facilities that were spread all over and pushed them together,” he says.
[Photo: Ford]
[Photo: Ford]
Inside the HQ
A few finishing touches remain before the project is officially complete in 2027including parking garages that will be tucked beneath additional performative landscape that’s able to divert and clean stormwater and building runoffbut the building is already humming with activity.
From the outside, Ford’s new headquarters is a gleaming spaceship of a building, with scalloped edges covered by flat and subtly shaded glass. The building’s plan, seen from overhead, is of three hexagons arranged into a kind of triangle, with spaces cu out from their centers to create large internal courtyards.
[Photo: Ford]
Walking through the building, its sheer size is hard to fully grasp, and parts can feel disorienting. But there are even more places where a corner is turned, or a stairway is climbed, to reveal a view down a corridor that resets the internal map. Glimpses can often be seen of the four accessible courtyard spaces, each of which has been designed by Snhetta to reflect a different regional habitat. The largest courtyard, inspired by the Great Lakes, features cascades of stone, two bookable meeting canopies, and large sliding doors that connect to seating in the building’s dining area.
[Photo: Ford]
This area is accessible to any Ford employee, even those not working within the headquarters building. Jennifer Kolstad, global design and brand director at Ford Land, says it’s part of the company’s effort to rethink its global real estate portfolio and make more spaces more accessible for different types of work, be it a lunch meeting or a heads-down cram session in a private booth. It’s a far cry from the culture of desks that long reigned at Ford, she says.
[Photo: Ford]
The design, informed by Kolstad’s deep experience in interior architecture and hospitality design, is intended to create a human scale. “The challenge of this is 2.1 million square feet at human scale,” she says. Working closely with the architects at Snhetta, Ford’s design team integrated hotel lobby-style seating across the building, as well as grand staircases that double as seating for informal meetings or large gatherings.
[Photo: Ford]
The right amount of transparency
With so many parts of the company situated in this one building, including highly sensitive operations like the development of new car designs, there was a challenge in making the building accessible without completely blowing the doors open. One solution has been the creation of 14 “arrival areas” outside the secured doors of specific business functions. These are café-like seating areas and meeting spaces where people can gather for coffee or a meeting without having to navigate through secured parts of the building.
[Photos: Ford]
This attempt at openness extends to the architecture itself. Walking through the straight spine that runs between the three hexagons of the building, Dykers points up at a narrow atrium that runs through the top three floors of the building. A skylight pours light down, and people on each floor can get glimpses of what’s happening elsewhere, even if they don’t have the badge to get them through the door.
[Photo: Ford]
There are four different levels of security in the building, according to Ford Land’s Dobleske, including one for the top floor where there are several design studios that often move full-scale car models and properties across the building’s 22-inch-thick concrete floors. A corporate spy’s dream, these concepts and nascent designs are cleverly obscured behind frosted glass and partitions, while still allowing the skylight and atrium to spread light and views to the floors below. “We still want people to be able to see people and properties moving through the building,” Dobleske says.
[Photo: Ford]
But there’s a limit to that spirit of transparency, especially when it comes to product development. The design studios are located on the building’s two top floors, including spaces along window-lined edges of the building that could potentially offer views to prying eyes outside.
[Photo: Ford]
To allow light in while maintaining privacy, the glass that wraps the entire building has been treated with a specially designed frit patterning that obscures the view. In a nod to Ford’s famous logo, the frit is made up of millions of tiny ovalsblack on the interior side of the window and white on the exteriorto help manage heat inside while also preventing design secrets from spilling out. “It took us over a year to develop that,” Dykers says.
[Photo: Ford]
The design studios are also directly connected to an even more useful space: a large exterior courtyard where scale models and concepts can be given a good look in natural daylight. Elisangela Previte, global business operations manager for Ford Design, says the space makes it much faster for designers to vet their design choices, moving a model out of the controlled environment of the modern design studio and into the harsh glare of the sun. Though there are minor concerns about the potential for drone surveillance, the bigger concern is the geese that are trying to use the courtyard for their nest. Previte says they’re still trying to figure out the right way to keep the geese out.
[Photo: Ford]
A quick ride in a freight elevator can bring a new model down to the building’s other prize space, a large domed showroom equipped with 10 in-floor turntables to slowly rotate cars, a large overhead light that can emulate light from any time of day, and a large conference room for executive meetings and new car reveals. The showroom also connects to its own courtyard, allowing those formal car design reviews to occur under natural light, and with the benefit of view lines that can stretch 180 feet. It’s the kind of space where the final approval for a new car model can come through or an emerging concept can be doomed to the archives.
Each stepfrom a design concept to a full-scale model to a new car approved for productioncan feasibly all happen within this new headquarters building. It’s a radical concentration of abilities for Ford, marking a new approach for a company that can feel steeped in its own history, both for good and for bad. Given the pace of automaking, it will take time for consumers to see what impact all of this has on the cars that Ford produces. But for now, the building itself is a big indication of how the company sees itself evolving in the near term.
New locker rooms. Rows of seats removed. Every last Real Madrid sign hidden from sight. These are just some of the measures the National Football League took to transform one of the world’s most iconic soccer stadiums for a matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders. On November 16, the two teams will compete on the field of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, though the pitch won’t look anything like its usual self.
To get the field ready, the NFL spent $2.32 million on a series of temporary renovations. The most fundamental change was to the playing surface itself. Since soccer pitches are shorter than American football fields, the playing field had to be extended from 115 yards to the official NFL length of 120 yards. To make this happen, entire rows of seats in the stadiums North and South Stands were physically removed.
[Photos: Victor Carretero/Real Madrid/Getty Images, courtesy of the author]
The fact that this could be done at all is a testament to the clever modular work by L35 Architects; von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) Architects; and Ribas & Ribas Architects, who designed the stadium. Also important is the stadium’s patented, retractable pitch, which is divided into six sections and can be moved horizontally and vertically using electric motors and hydraulic systems. The sections are stored in an underground chamber called the Hypogeum, where the grass is attended to. The Bernabéu’s unique retractable pitch system makes it arguably the most versatile large-scale entertainment venue in the world; it can transform to host soccer, football, tennis, basketball, concerts, conventions, or almost any other event you can imagine.
The logistical needs of NFL teams also forced significant, albeit temporary, structural changes. The locker rooms were expanded to handle the 53-man rosters and their extensive support staff (more than double Real Madrid’s 25-man soccer squad). Because the traditional central tunnel used by soccer players was unsuitable for so many people to go through in a timely, organized manner, new access points to the locker rooms were created in the corners of the bench areas. The league also installed a new, separate press room to meet its specific media protocols.
[Photo: courtesy of the author]
Unlike soccer, where teams occupy designated benches, NFL teams are positioned along the length of the field. The narrower NFL field width meant the front rows of the side stands did not need to be altered, but the home and visitors team boxes had to be removed to make space for the halftime-show stage.
[Photo: courtesy of the author]
The NFL even tried to fix the stadium’s noise problems, which became known worldwide thanks to Taylor Swift (and, months later, caused Real Madrid to cancel all future music concerts until a solution to the acoustic pollution is found). That in itself is remarkable. And necessary: While Real Madrid games cause extraordinary noise for 90 minutes, the NFL game will cause a lot more because of its halftime show. The NFL installed noise-absorption panels throughout the stadium, probably hoping to avoid the PR backlash that would have ensued (and still might) without them.
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Wow
As someone who lives close to the Bernabéu, I’ve been watching the transformation closely. I went to the stadium to see all the changes just before writing this article, and the most shocking thingat least for a Real Madrid fan like mewas to see every trace of my club erased. All club shields and branding are either covered up or removed entirely. Signs for the NFL, the Commanders, and the Dolphins are everywhere, just as they are throughout Madrid, thanks to the regional government, which spent about $3.5 million to promote the event.
During the game, the stadiums 1,120-foot, 350-degree screenwhich is the spectacular ever-present visual frame for every Real Madrid home matchwill display the flags of Spain, the United States, and the NFL, plus all the sponsors and game information. Even the clubs public-facing commercial spaces have been repurposed; the Bernabéu museum, which displays all the trophies and historic memorabilia of FIFA’s Club of the Century since its 1902 foundation, ceded space for a temporary NFL museum. The official team store also gave up a large portion of its retail area for a merchandise shop selling gear from all 32 NFL franchises.
Everyone in Spain is betting on this being worth the money and the effort. Certainly, it will be for fans and curious people: About 84,000 will fill the stadium after the initial sale window saw 700,000 different devices attempting to purchase tickets. The regional government estimates that the game will bring in approximately $81.2 million in revenue.
[Photo: Eduardo Parra/Europa Press/Getty Images]
It is yet to be seen whether it will be worth it for football itself. While the NFL is the highest-grossing sport in the U.S., it pales i comparison to the globally popular game of soccer. According to Deloittes 2024 fiscal year report, in Europe alone the soccer market generated revenue of $45.1 billion compared to the NFLs $23 billion.
Still, all of Madrid has seemingly been swept up by the current spectacle. Just yesterday, my son and I were amazed to see a giant double-decker bus for NFL fans decorated with Miami Dolphins colors. All around the city there are flags and bus stop ads announcing the game. According to NFL executive Jon Barker, bringing football to a wider audience is generational work. “I dont think at this point that we have any idea 100 years from now what football is going to look like on a global scale,” he told The Washington Post.
The league views this game as a pivotal moment for its expansion into the Spanish-speaking market. A flashy show, for sure. A mini Super Bowl of sorts. But the NFL has an uphill battle if it wants to make a dent in the markets where real footballthe one you play with your feet, not with your handsis the undisputed king.
Outdoors brand Yeti dropped its new holiday commercial, and it has a lot of what youd expect from a seasonal spot. Bad Idea outlines all the reasons you probably shouldnt get a Yeti for someone you care about: Dont get them a Yeti, says the voice-over, as a ribboned cooler flies out the back of a pickup truck. Unless you like dogs that are always wet, eyebrows that are still growing back, and sand in places sand should never be.
By the end of the commercial, its clear that the brand is aiming at people who are obsessed. It could be surfing, fishing, camping, golf, whateverits about those chasing the dream wherever it leads them.
But for all its charming predictability, this is more than just another ad for Yeti; its a major shift in the way the company approaches marketing and advertising. Thanks to a partnership with Wieden+Kennedy, this commercial is the first piece of advertising Yeti has made with an outside agency, and it signals a new era for a brand that has been staunchly self-made.
For the past 19 years, Yeti has largely created all its own marketing and advertising, including ambitious projects like its ongoing series of short documentaries under the Yeti Presents banner. Thats why my ears perked up when Yeti CEO Matt Reintjes announced the W+K partnership on his companys November 7 earnings call. This came amid outlining how revenue was up 2% year over year but profits were down slightly by 2%, which the company credited to higher tariff costs. International revenue was up 14%.
Mixing strong in-house creative cultures with big-name agencies is rare, especially today, as more brands build out robust in-house teams to replace or reinforce their long-standing relationships with agencies. When the two do mix, one typically emerges as the alpha.
When I spoke to Reintjes recently, he told me that teaming up with the same agency as Nike, Ford, DoorDash, and McDonalds is a reflection of Yetis ambition and expansion into mainstream sports, backyards, and yoga studios around the world.
We’re incredibly proud of the team that we have at Yeti and the way this brand has come to life with their vision and creativity, he says. We saw an opportunity to take the power of the in-house creative and content we have at Yeti and pair it with an incredible partner in Wieden+Kennedy and their global scale and global brand storytelling experience capabilities.
Its also an opportunity to redefine how a world-class creative marketer can coexist and thrive with a world-class creative shop.
The Great In-house Debate
Over the past 15 years or so, there has been an omnipresent tension in advertising between the role of in-house creative departments and ad agencies. Many in-house agencies were created to save a brand money by not having to outsource all of its creative work. It was also about control, the theory being that an in-house team would know the brand better, and it would be able to produce work faster to keep up with the pace of culture as social media exploded.
The reality is that brands were also fed up with unnecessary fees and bloated holding company bureaucracy. So they started to build out their own teams. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) publishes an in-house report every five years. Its 2023 report said that 82% of its members had an in-house agency, up from 78% in 2018. Some estimates now put that figure closer to 90%, though the trade groups next report wont be published until 2028. Each brand has its own model.
Almost all brand work from Airbnb, Squarespace, and Liquid Death comes from their in-house teams. Patagonia, another heavyweight in outdoorsy film content, produces all of its marketing in-house, too. In the past three years, Kraft Heinzs in-house agency, the Kitchen, has expanded its work from 4 of the companys brands to 19, and grown its team from 35 to more than 135 across two offices. PepsiCo has three different in-house agenciesSips & Bites for bigger projects, D3 for PepsiCo Foods in the U.S., and Creators League, which is focused on beverages. All told, its a major investment for these companies.
Ad agencies began to feel threatened. Every project or creative win by an in-house agency could conceivably have been theirs. Trade group In-House Agency Council reported last year that external agencies did 70% of the workload in 2021, but by 2023 that dropped to just 30%. Some execs estimated that 30% to 40% of revenue had bled from the traditional creative agency model through in-housing.
Yet Krafts most high-profile (and awarded) work still comes primarily from partner agencies like Rethink. When Pepsis in-house agency made the infamous Kendall Jenner ad in 2017, many ad agencies not-so-quietly celebrated the blowback.
What makes Yeti and W+K unique is their chance to reset this narrative and show what two incredibly strong creative entitiesin-house and externalcan achieve together.
Irrational Commitment
Last year, Yeti released a short film called All That Is Sacred. Directed by Scott Ballew, the 34-minute film is a portrait of Jimmy Buffett and his group of friends in Key West, Florida, back in the late 1960s and 70s. It shows the balance between the work and leisure life of writers and musicians, including Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, Guy de la Valdéne, and Richard Brautigan, and their shared obsession with fishing.
No ad agency on earth wouldve made this. Or let e rephrase: No client would likely buy this idea from an agency. Not because ad agencies lack the creative talent. Ad agencies can, and do, make great, unexpected creative work. Even if we just stick to films, look no further than The Seat on Netflix (Modern Arts for WhatsApp), award-winning short doc The Final Copy of Ilon Specht (McCann for LOréal Paris), or waaay back to Pereira ODells role in Werner Herzogs 2016 feature doc Lo and Behold for Netscout.
But All That Is Sacred is ambitious even by Yeti standards. Most of Yetis best work has a direct tie to the brand, typically telling a personal story or chronicling an adventure of one of its many ambassadors. This is none of that. The tie to the brand is less direct, and more about vibes. That can be tough for an agency to push from the outside.
To use a Yeti-appropriate metaphor here, as a piece of brand content goes, its not just out in the wildernessits fully off-grid, to a point that would make most marketers feel naked and afraid. But its beautiful. And it fits. It fits in a way that only a brand so fully confident in itself and its point of view could.
That point of view has been the backbone of Yetis overall brand strength. Pierre Jouffray, Wieden+Kennedy executive creative director, says the agency worked with the internal Yeti team to really crystallize what that point of view is. After talking to all the brands ambassadors, one thing stood out. There’s something that is so true about their product, about the ambassadors, about the people, and about the way we would work together, which is this idea of irrational commitment, he says. Thats something that you can really connect with no matter what your pursuit is.
For Reintjes this isnt about taking a weird left turn for the brand. This isn’t about doing something different; it truly is additive, he says. It’s almost like a layer cake. We’re just adding another layer on top of the incredible work that our team does from the most grassroots, endemic, connected, authentic audiences across social media and different platforms. We look at this as augmenting and a partnership in and how we scale this brand for a really long time.
Bad Idea is a great start, blending what both companies do incredibly well. Its even narrated by musician and actor Ryan Bingham (Yellowstone), who hosted a Yeti show called The Midnight Hour in 2020.
The real test will be to build up the global brand work that truly taps into that idea of irrational commitment while still connecting and creating with the audiences who built this brand in the first place. Just Yeti It.
