BradBerens.com
Thoughts about where our real and digital worlds collide.

  • Experience Stacks, Romantasy, and Harry Potter Fanfic

    A terrific NYT article explored a new genre of big books emerging from online fan fiction and missed a few things along the way. On Wednesday, August 20, The New York Times ($) ran a fascinating article: “Why Magic, Dragons and Explicit Sex Are in Bookstores Everywhere: Romantasy is propping up the fiction market. Thanks to a…

  • The Paradox of No Choice

    An odd VENN diagram of tariffs and AI are narrowing our choices as customers. Will this change be permanent? What are the implications for products and retailers? Note: this piece takes its title from Barry Schwartz’s famous and terrific book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. In 1985, Wendy’s ran a memorable, minute-long spot,…

  • Escape the Digital Cocoon

    The only way to reduce polarization is to talk with people in real life. Here’s one way to do just that *and* find a seat at a coffee bar. A while back, I was thinking about how our behavior would change as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) became common. (This still hasn’t happened.)…

  • The Distraction Button

    What Sydney Sweeney and Jeffrey Epstein have in common, plus why it’s time to revive the word “Ridiculous.” For the Dispatch readers who aren’t compulsive media watchers, a summary: a scandal of the week involves the actress Sydney Sweeney in a new ad campaign for American Eagle jeans. The campaign’s tag line is “Sydney Sweeney has great…

  • What Folks Are Missing About “South Park”

    The first episode of season 27 of the iconic animated series lit up media last week, but in the tumult over profane political satire pundits only got part of the picture. “Take heed, sirrah—the whip.”  —Lear to his Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear   It was a terrific water cooler week for people who follow the…

  • AI Double Agents

    With all the talk about Agentic AI, there’s an important question that people aren’t asking: who are these agents working for? In last week’s main piece, I explored how Agentic AI will be bad for brands because, in a world where digital servants take over trivial everyday decisions, we human deciders will be less vulnerable to…

  • The Precipitous Decline of Brands

    …and the rise of generics because of AI agents and other things. (Issue #173) In a recent issue of my newsletter, I mentioned a wide-ranging conversation about AI with my friend Louis Jones of the Brand Safety Institute. Louis and I spent a chunk of time talking about the rise of AI Agents, how they will impact…

  • A Marketing Win

    Since so much of the news is dyspeptic and terrifying, here’s a story about how 1-800-FLOWERS creates happiness and profit at the same time. My last piece was grim, so I wanted to explore something smart that 1-800-FLOWERS does that drives business and profit while also making its customers happy. 1-800-FLOWERS.com owns Harry & David as…

  • A Scary Time

    Four shorter pieces this time: the so-called L.A. riots, the middle east, more on AI, and what would we call a third party? I’m not generally anxious, but the news of the last two weeks tested that. Here are reflections about two major news stories, one unsettling NYT article that deserves more attention, and my…

  • Mission Implausible

    Tom Cruise’s new movie has amazing stunts, a ludicrous plot, and doesn’t understand Artificial Intelligence. Here’s my snarky review.  “Thank you for saving my marriage.” That’s what I said to my friend Jeff when we exited the IMAX theater at 10:30pm on Wednesday, having taken in the 7:00pm Mission Impossible: the Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise’s eighth…