Your ATTN Please || Friday, 7 November

If you don’t have smart glasses, you’re about to be a f%&king idiot. -Zuck

Ok, I might be paraphrasing (but only slightly). Because Mark Zuckerberg’s take is that Meta Ray-Bans are just the beginning of a full takeover of tech you wear on your face. But what’s been branded as something that’s “the future” and tech we “need to get on board with” comes with some pretty prickly questions around privacy and surveillance. And the fact that Ray-Ban is happily putting themselves in the middle of the conversation is interesting, to say the least.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

PRESENTED BY ONSHOUT

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But what if there was a way to not just get what you'd really like for the holidays, but make buying gifts for others more meaningful, too?

OnShout is a new social wishlist platform that takes the guesswork out of gifting.

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No more "thanks, I love it" while inwardly sighing. Gifting just became simple (finally) 👇

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Pinterest is killing it, Kim K gets trolled with a milk jug & U.S. bans AI companions for minors

Pinterest reaches 600M users.

That’s 22 million more than the last reporting period, with places like Brazil and Mexico seeing significant growth. The platform also posted a 17% year-over-year increase in revenue in Q3. Good news, I’m sure, for a platform that was struggling to stay afloat just a few years ago. But, also unsurprising, as it’s literally the go-to discovery platform for so many people, me included.

Why was Scott Disick carrying that giant milk carton all around LA?

At the golf course, on his Hot Girl Walk, by the pool, basically anywhere he was, so was this milk carton? Turns out the TV personality wasn’t just low on calcium; he was trolling his ex-sister-in-law. The sightings came just days after Kim K appeared on the latest episode of Call Her Daddy, telling host Alex Cooper she has no idea how much she spends on glam, and also the cost of milk. "I don't have a concept of what, like, certain simple things cost," she revealed. “I'd like to know a little bit more about what like a milk carton costs." Uh, must be nice.

Anyway, this is where it gets hollyweird. Remember that episode of KUWTK when Scott was caught with a GLP-1 pen in his fridge? Well, he’s tapped into both of these viral moments and combined them to create this insane campaign for MilkPEP and its agency of record, GALE. Basically, it’s a $1,000 limited-edition collectible milk carton with a space for a GLP-1 pen. Crafted for discretion, refrigeration, and high-quality protein – which you need lots of if you’re on the Ozempy. Watch the hilarious vid here.

U.S. Senators announce bill to ban AI chatbot companions for minors.

F*cking finally. Because idk how many suicide headlines I had left in me. Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal said they are announcing bipartisan legislation on Tuesday to crack down on tech companies that make artificial intelligence chatbot companions available to minors. The announcement follows an emotional congressional hearing last month where parents delivered testimonies about the loss of their children to suicide by chatbot.

“More than seventy percent of American children are now using these AI products,” Hawley said. “Chatbots develop relationships with kids using fake empathy and are encouraging suicide. We in Congress have a moral duty to enact bright-line rules to prevent further harm from this new technology.” Couldn’t agree more.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Hey, do you like YAP?

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DEEP DIVE

How Meta made Ray-Bans uncool

Those are actually cool. Too bad Meta makes them.

This one comment perfectly sums up the collective ick around Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban glasses.

Once a timeless symbol of rebellion and style (James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, The Blues Brothers), Ray-Bans now conjure up the image of a guy silently filming you in a café.

The collaboration with Meta was supposed to fuse fashion and innovation.

Instead, it fused two very different reputations: cool and outright fkn creepy. Because when you partner with a company like Meta, you’re not just borrowing their technology. You’re borrowing their baggage. And Meta’s baggage is heavy af.

Data scandals, privacy lawsuits, and a CEO who once described users as “dumb f***s” for trusting him. The same CEO who, in a recent earnings call, said that in the future, people without smart glasses will be at a “pretty significant cognitive disadvantage.” Translation: if you’re not wearing a camera on your face, you’re basically a dinosaur. A slow one. With learning disabilities.

Not exactly a great sales pitch for the privacy-conscious among us.

So, it’s no surprise Ray-Ban is experiencing a somewhat "collapse of coolness."

Ray-Ban built its reputation on timelessness. They were sunglasses that looked good on everyone, in any decade, with zero effort. They were shorthand for confidence, rebellion, and taste. But now, thanks to Meta, they’ve become shorthand for surveillance.

The vibe shift is real. The moment a brand like Meta touches something, it stops being chic and starts being… unsettling.

No matter how sleek the design or how subtle the camera, you can’t separate the product from the company that powers it. And in Meta’s case, that means you can’t separate the innovation from the history of exploitation.

You can almost hear the collective sigh online amongst forums and articles.

Brand partnerships used to be about shared aesthetics and market expansion.

Today, they’re about shared ethics. Consumers often don’t just purchase a product. They’re buying into the values behind it. Which means that when Ray-Ban teamed up with Meta, it merged trust issues.

We’ve officially reached a point where reputation functions like second-hand smoke—you don’t even have to light it to get poisoned by proximity.

And this isn’t just about bad optics (pun intended).

These glasses are part of a much bigger shift: the normalisation of wearable surveillance.

We already live in a world where every digital step leaves a footprint. Our phones track our movements, our conversations are mined for ad data, and our faces unlock everything from bank apps to airport gates. But now, with cameras that can record anyone, anywhere, without consent, we’ve crossed into a new, eerily casual phase of surveillance.

The examples are disturbing:

• A woman noticed her aesthetician wearing the glasses during a Brazilian waxing appointment.

• A Border Patrol agent was spotted using them during an immigration raid.

• Two college students hacked the glasses to dox strangers using facial recognition.

• Most recently, people used them to film and harass massage parlour workers for online clout.

Meta’s response? An etiquette guide that basically says, “Don’t be a jerk” and a tiny LED light that’s supposed to indicate recording. The same kind of light that’s easily covered with a sticker, or worse, disabled with a $60 mod.

It’s the corporate equivalent of saying “We trust you to be responsible” after handing everyone a loaded freaking gun.

Meta insists these glasses are a step toward “the future of AI assistants,” where we seamlessly interact with technology through voice and vision.

But here’s the thing: most people don’t want to live in a world where “seamless” also means “constantly watched.”

And why should they trust Meta to get it right? This is the same company that quietly updated its privacy policy to remove the option to stop storing voice recordings on the cloud. The same company still paying out Cambridge Analytica settlements.

When the architects of the digital panopticon tell you that the future of computing lives on your face, it’s fair to be sceptical.

The Meta–Ray-Ban partnership reveals something bigger about our culture: surveillance is no longer something we tolerate; it’s now being sold to us as lifestyle.

We’re being told it’s aspirational, wearable, and “smart.”

It’s easy to forget that convenience always comes with a trade-off, and the bill is usually (always) privacy. These glasses aren’t some fun shiny new gadget for tech nerds and dads. They’re a sign that the boundaries between public and private life are collapsing, one recording light at a time.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

Describe your job without saying…

This one’s for the ones wanting to be more relatable and funny, while pulling the audience in for a little guessing game.

It’s part engagement bait for new followers, and part inside joke for those in the know! The trend uses two photo slides:

• Slide 1: a selfie with on-screen text that says “Describe your job without saying…”

• Slide 2: another photo (either work-related or totally random) with oddly specific quotes or phrases you say or overhear at work.

It works because it’s simple, gamified, and deeply relatable! Especially when the quotes are just niche enough to make people think, “wait… what job is that?”

My favourite examples include:

• Nursery nurse… I think?

• Your guess is as good as mine

• Definitely a content creator/influencer

How you can jump on this trend:

With the audio (“Mama Do The Hump”... by... Rizzle Kicks??? yea idk them either), pick two photos of yourself: the first one a casual selfie, the second a more “vibes” shot. The goal is to make people guess, not tell them. The more obscure your second slide is, the better!

A few ideas to get you started:

1. “Can we hop on a Teams call?”

2. “Just put it through a CapCut template.”

3. “I POSTED IT ON THE WRONG ACCOUNT-"

-Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😂 Yap’s funniest home videos: How hard did he throw that ball?
❤How wholesome: Cat and Puppy videos 5ever
😊Soooo satisfying: This is a reminder to do your dishes properly
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Pork Schnitzel!

ASK THE EDITOR

What tips do you have for staying consistent with posting content? - Jackson

Hey Jackson!

There's no magic formula to staying consistent! At some point, you just have to carve out time and get it done. But one thing you can do to make that a bit easier is to come up with an easily repeatable content style. At TAS, we call this ERC. This is a content style that is easy to produce, and, ideally, one you can create in bulk. It should also be something you can do over and over, only changing one factor for each video.

This should fit your niche, but could be something like street interviews, simple games, reaction videos, or answering FAQs about your industry. When you've got this content style, you'll no longer need to reinvent the wheel every time you need to create content. You're essentially taking 90% of the thinking out of it, which makes it much more likely you're going to post more regularly. Then, remember that done is better than perfect. You will learn as you go, and that's ok.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Not going viral yet?

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