Don Draper in Shorts

Mad Men made me want to be a marketer. I watched Don Draper sell me a career every Sunday night for years. And it worked. The show came at a very formative time for me. It taught me about how to dress, how to pick up a vice, and how to posture yourself toward the world.

Mad Men sold me Don Draper.

Flash forward 20 years, and Your Friends & Neighbors is selling me something very different. It's the same actor. But time has changed everything. The suit is now a quarter-zip. The Manhattan ad agency is now a cul-de-sac. We see Don Draper in shorts. 

Jon Hamm has aged in front of our eyes. He's like a real-time preview of what's coming. And honestly, it just feels sort of sad.

Everything that was cool and sexy about Mad Men is so depressingly absent in this new Apple series. We're still being sold. It's just nothing we want. The show is trying so hard to capture the things that worked in the original -- the face, the voice, the pitchman cadence -- but the magic is gone. Hamm still makes you want things... but everything he is describing is stuff he is stealing. The magic was when he was selling you something that wasn't tangible. Not an object. But a feeling. Now he's just reading off specs and price tags. Same delivery, but completely soulless. The other Mad Men ingredients are here, too. The premise that you can rewrite who you are. The sex, the drinking, the loneliness of being good at things that don't love you back. None of it lands the same. The entire show feels like a cheap imitation of Mad Men with a much bigger budget.

But, if I completely ignore how bad the show really is... It is sort of poetic that the suburbs Don Draper ran from are where John Hamm ended up.

Or maybe the show isn't bad. Maybe I'm just watching myself age and don't like it. 

 🎶 Kris Kristofferson — Sunday Mornin' Coming Down

Vuh-cation

California will always be our place. If we could figure out how to move there, we would. Until then, we visit at least twice a year. Always going to the same places — The Ranch in Laguna Beach or Santa Barbara. In some cases, we were able to swing both in a single trip.

Rarely would I link a standup comedy special, but this is so insanely batshit crazy and unique that I had to share. Jack Tucker 1-hour Comedy Special is literal art. It's like nothing you have ever seen before. Truly wild. A true snapshot of where we are at as a country — a quiet commentary on American culture, our attention spans and the absolute absurdity that is 2026. So good. Watch it.
[big shout out to Rayna and Colin for the recommendation]

Project Hail Mary was VERY good! I highly recommend going to the theatre to see this one. So nice to have an optimistic, fun sci-fi movie. Next to Dune II, I can't remember a movie I enjoyed this much in a theatre. 

This AI shit is getting so lame. 

Everyone is incessantly talking publicly about AI as some sort of twisted means of self-preservation. Complete theatre. 

i use ai!

oh yes i mos' defiiiiiinitely use ai!

you been usin' ai? cause i am all day everyday!

building agents to do everything for me!

wake up and my agent tells me about the people i'm meeting!

agent telling me who's who in the invite! 

ai, very good very good yep using it very good

Thom Yorke Live at Sydney Opera House

 

 Opens with an accoustic version of Let Down. So good.

 🎶 Bush on NPR Tiny Desk — “Glycerine” still an all timer!

A24 Visit

Terrain and A24 hosted a private screening of Marty Supreme last night for a small group of marketers, agency heads, and designers.

This is the exact type of IRL experience more companies need to emulate. The formula is pretty simple:

entertainment + exclusivity

(a small group of industry peers, a shared experience, good conversation).

It works.

Thanks Willem Van Lancker for the invite 🏓