Culture, Code, Colour
· Pick your nose · The bubble that must not be named · Culture, Not Code ·
This is The Colour Bar- like a friend in the industry who reads widely so you don’t have to.
Culture, Not Code: Mixtapes or memes, the same instincts drive youth trends, and their influence.
▶️ Curated/Cuts: What do you think of picking your nose in public? And do you enjoy a colourful dance?
AI and our jobs: Channel 4 pulls off a clever stunt in a new show.
AI Aye Sir: Across AI quickies-the bubble, Oatmeal’s take on AI Art, and pushing back.
➕ Netflix x Spotify; Netflix x Warner Music; Apple x F1; AppleTV, no Plus; the business of Indian sport.
🎧 Busy? Lazy? Multitasky? Click play above and let me read this to you, or on Youtube.
Culture, Not Code
Video games! text speak! emojis! stickers! memes! brain rot!
“Kids these days…”
We tend to look at how young people speak and interact with some combination of indulgence, mirth, frustration, despair.
We market to youth culture, but so easily mock its native expression. Sometimes, what often looks like chaos or frivolity is actually cultural fluency, forming before our eyes. Tone, timing, humour, irony, depth are shaping the feeds and being shaped by them, building narratives.
Talking about generational divides comes easily. They help us slot ourselves and others into eras. Yet, I too often see a sense of looking down on how young people interact. As if language and meaning are static, that evolution in tone somehow means decline in depth.
It’s harmless or amusing, till it’s patronising. And, we underestimate the real sway behind young people’s lingo, at our own risk.
“Aesthetic as argument, humour as survival, memes as shorthand policy.”
This was brought into focus when I read Adrija Bose’s excellent piece in Decode. It looks at how youth culture blended with defiance brought on the recent political upheaval in Nepal.
The country’s youth wielded their cultural currency of memes, pop culture, community humour- and yes, aura farming!- to topple a government (then install the next).
“Nepal’s youth have shown us that democracy can be hacked — not with code, but with culture, community, and connectivity.”
I was reminded of Pepe the Frog, a few hours eastwards. In Hong Kong circa 2019, he became an emblem of dissent amidst the protests at the time. (Pepe, a harmless ordinary sorta cartoon figure born on the internet in the early noughties, now has entirely different connotation in the USA, which is another story entirely).
Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Myanmar have seen young people finding solidarity through what became known as the Milk Tea Alliance. An internet meme evolved into a dynamic multinational protest movement against authoritarianism. Protesters inspired by MTA in Myanmar, for example, dressed up in costumes ranging from Power Rangers to Harry Potter. Many held up the three-finger salute from the Hunger Games as an act of defiance.
My point- and what made me think so much on this- is beyond politics.
Brands try so hard to ‘speak youth’. Sometimes they manage it; often we don’t. (I will resist diving into the Pepsi 2017 Kendall Jenner misstep, that glossy, opportunistic imitation of protest culture.) Indeed, the point is not only about protest culture, though that does form a powerful mirror. But in times when we speak so much of tech and algorithms shaping the narrative, influence remains less about technology, more about who can harness tone, format, and connection. Or at least, there is an equivalence?
This is in many ways heartening. Yet, seeing it positively needs optimism, a belief that young people are ‘sorted’, or will be. We just may not understand it at first (nor, maybe do they).
As someone who has worked in, with, and for youth culture in different personal eras of my own, across college campuses and boardrooms, I found this a fine reminder that cultural literacy, not technical, is key. Culture, not just code, shapes influence.
Nepal’s story showed this perfectly: humour, design, and community were wielded as weapons of agency. Instinct, not calculation. Mixtapes or memes, the same instincts drive youth to birth trends, find meaning, to remix, to rebel.
Each generation reinvents how it speaks truth to power. The surprise is not that they do… but that we’re still surprised.
🎬 Curated/Cuts.
1. Rangoli got Rhythm
For the Indian festival of Diwali / Deepavali, Apple collaborated with howareyoufeeling studio for a colourful riot of rangoli. Through dance, music + of course the iPhone17 Pro, and working with 30 dancers, lantern cyclewaalas (cyclists), and phoolwaalas (flower vendors).
Directed by Doyel & Neil · Shot by Himanshu L · Choreography: Aneesha G, Somya K and Tanuj F
*The 8x zoom in the phone was used for some CUs, and also the top angle wide frame shot from 45 feet above the ground.
“Our project explores how art, community, and devotion intersect in everyday Indian life. In India, rangoli made from colored powder, flower petals, or grain is more than decoration; it is an offering. It is created at dawn, at thresholds, as a gesture of gratitude and welcome. It feeds ants, pleases gods, and greets guests as a quiet act of connection that turns beauty into seva (service).”
Behind the scenes
2. How do you spell Olgabasha?
Do you like radish in your salad ?
What is your take on nose picking in public?
How do you spell Olgabasha?
Answers to such fundamental existential questions, in this weird and odd and off-putting and compelling spot.
I liked that opening. “No radish in the salad”. Has nothing to do with anything, but lingers long enough to pull me into what is likely going to be a rather odd space.
Directed by: Matias & Mathias · Jake Agger · Epoch Films · KNUCKLEHEAD ·
Don’t Worry, AI Will Take Your Job.
In an effort to “show just how convincing artificial intelligence has become,” Channel 4 pulled off a clever stunt with the latest episode of Dispatched, ‘Will AI Take My Job?’
The show explores AI automation reshaping the workplace. To do this, it pits humans against machines in real-world tests across medicine, law, fashion and music. Their twist is saved for the end, when the show reveals that the person who has presented the entire show, reporting from different locations, was entirely AI-generated.
“Not only did it get to show off its swanky new toy, but it also got to tut-tut at the technology that created her. What an ingenious trick.” _Stuart Heritage
Louisa Compton, Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs, said the broadcaster won’t be making a habit of using AI presenters. “Our focus in news and current affairs is on premium, fact checked, duly impartial and trusted journalism– something AI is not capable of doing.”
Its provocative, kinda clever, but really- that presenter sure doesn’t look all human to me. I’d wager though, its entirely likely someone casually watching the show (possibly second-screening), will not think twice.
AI Aye sir
I revisited Matthew Inman, cartoonist and author of Oatmeal & Exploding Kittens fame, after a long while. This time, for his take “Let’s Talk About AI Art”.
“Strategically, there is only one approach traditional entertainment should take - forget short term greed, reject the position that “it’s inevitable and you can’t fight it,” repudiate AI altogether, and go to war in the courts and the hearts and minds of the public. I suspect they won’t do that - but if they don’t do it now, they won’t have the opportunity to later.” Simon Pulman while reacting to talent agencies only now talking about an AI threat.
I concur- not holding my breath for such powerful repudiation.“The real economy is being propelled by hundreds of billions of dollars of spending on data centers and other AI infrastructure. Undergirding all of the investment is the belief that AI will make workers dramatically more productive, which will in turn boost corporate profits to unimaginable levels. On the other hand, evidence is piling up that AI is failing to deliver in the real world.”
Rogé Karma in The Atlantic analyses the ’capability-reliability gap’ and asks, Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be?
”Generative AI would not be the first tech fad to experience a wave of excessive hype. What makes the current situation distinctive is that AI appears to be propping up something like the entire U.S. economy.”
➕ Quick hits:
Netflix x Spotify: Under a multi-year licensing partnership, video versions of Spotify-owned The Ringer and Spotify Studios podcasts will stream simultaneously on both platforms. Starting in 2026, this will also see video versions of the shows removed from YouTube. US only, but expected to expand to other markets and shows.
Warner Music x Netflix: looking to lock a deal to bring a premium storytelling approach to their catalog and artists.
Indian Sport: “Capital is flowing, franchises are multiplying, and participation is widening. But the pathways from graseroots to podium are under construction.” Indian journalist Venkat Ananth’s new newsletter on the business of sports, kicked off with an Indian view. His first (free) piece, ‘The $40 billion Reset’.
Apple quietly drops the + sign from AppleTV. IMHO it is not that big a deal. There was never much separation between the device and the streaming service. Many streamers who have ridden the + naming bandwagon could eventually drop it. Once the primary brand product is the app, there will be no need to distinguish it from the ‘tv channel’ it was born of. This was, in fact, a familiar debate when brands considered employing + in the first place.
Apple x F1: Apple also announced it will bring F1 to US audiences from 2026. This is a five year deal worth reportedly ~$750m. To many, this has been years in the making.
Did curiosity kill the cat? Or just send it down another rabbit hole?
In my other Substack newsletter, Coffee & Conversations, I explored the world of quizzing.
It’s a biweekly space for eclectic, curious storytelling. Go on, have a look.
Back with you next week, with more collisions in creativity, content, brands and tech!
I resonate with what you wrote about cultural fluency; it makes me think how even in my Pilates classes, new expressions emerge and evolve so naturally, which is truly insightful.