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

  • 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…

  • Experience Stacks and the End of Quests

    My search for a 22-year-old comic book series led to a realization about where satisfaction comes from… or doesn’t. A quick word about Experience Stacks before we move on to our top story. Experience Stacks are the different contexts that a customer, user, or audience brings to a product or story. People improvisationally shift from context to…

  • Our Best Friends

    Mark Zuckerberg thinks our BFFs will soon be AIs. He’s wrong. They’re still dogs, and that’s never more clear than when our dogs die. I have two distinct (but oddly connected) topics this post. AI Gone Weird The number of stories continues to increase about people surrendering all common sense when it comes to AI.…

  • The Unbearable Complexity of Drug Pricing: My Ozempic Journey Continues

    Regular readers know that I’ve been taking Ozempic for the last few months because I have Type 2 Diabetes and also have struggled to lose weight. I’ve shared My Ozempic Journey from time to time (this issue is one of those times) and also talked about the Center for the Digital Future’s research about Ozempic Disruption generally. Since…

  • How Bad was Elon Musk’s Week REALLY?

    Regular readers know that I’ve been skeptically covering Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (and other unhealthy decisions) for years. For both Musk admirers and detractors there has been a lot to follow lately: and… Analysis If you look at Tesla’s stock over the last 5 months, it resembles the EKG of a man with a bum ticker…

  • Are You Better Off…

    …than you were 97 days ago? Ronald Reagan’s 1980 question revisited. Last Monday, I posted “Are you better off than you were 91 days ago?” The vast majority of the friends who engaged said no. Today it is 97 days since Trump’s second inauguration. You have to be of a certain age or a U.S.…

  • Scammer Spotting: Little Tips and Big Worries

    Online scams are a $500B annual “industry.” Here are a few ways to protect yourself from being the next victim. There’s a thin line between paranoia and sensible precaution. When it comes to online scams, it’s hard to see the line because it’s squiggly, jagged, dotted, and looks like the EKG of somebody on a…