Your ATTN Please || Monday, 3 November

It’s officially November and you know what that means…

Mariah Carey’s emerged from wherever she hides between January and October. TikTok girlies are about to start unboxing their advent calendars that cost more than my mortgage. And the rest of us are sprinting toward December 31 like our asses are on fire. Between whipping out campaigns for Black Friday, holiday specials, and end-of-year sales, we’re also supposed to remember it’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yep, Q4 chaos is here, but so is your YAP marketing survival guide.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Phone-free bars pop off, TikTok can share data with US gov & Pitchfork adds comment section

These bars are banning phones. And people love it.

Imagine sitting at the bar of a lounge on D.C.’s famous H Street Corridor, warm and hazy from a couple negronis, listening to the sound of sweet jazz, and playing Uno. Not a phone in sight. At Hush Harbor, this is a reality.

As Washington Post put it, it’s “notable only for what it lacked: people looking down.” Chills. Take my money. And my heart and soul while you’re at it. Apparently, walking into the establishment feels like stepping through a portal back to 1995, when the whole point of going out was to, you know, socialise irl.

This is increasingly becoming a thing. In today's digitally saturated world, zoomers and young millennials are seeking spaces where they can go phone free, since we all kind of realised being constantly connected in the digital world actually makes us less connected in the real one.

TikTok won’t say if it’s giving ICE your data (so, it probably is?).

I can’t say I’m surprised. But I also am consistently shocked at the timeline we’re living in. When the dancing app is in cahoots with the “regulatory authorities,” you know we’re cooked. Which is exactly what it quietly changed its policies to allow for earlier this year. The app negotiated with Trump that it would be able to stay running in the U.S. as long as it added language to its policies that covered sharing data with law enforcement.

Now, TikTok has repeatedly declined to answer questions from Forbes about whether it has shared or is sharing private user information with the Department of Homeland Security or its investigative arm, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

I don’t know what part is scarier, the fact that this is probably exactly what it sounds like, or the fact that the policies were changed early this year to accommodate the unlawful sweeps of undocumented workers across the country, meaning it’s been a plan. Yikes.

Pitchfork is testing comments and reader scores on album reviews.

Maybe it will be like the Letterboxd of music. Pitchfork started posting album reviews nearly 30 years ago. The entire time, two things have never been present on the site: a comment section, or a second opinion. Until now.

“Coming in 2026, as Pitchfork celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re finally planning to add a comments section to all of our album reviews. That’s over 30,000 pieces of music criticism on which you’ll be able to leave your own Pitchfork review for the very first time. We can’t wait for your takes to be on our website.”

And I can't wait to read them lol.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

DEEP DIVE

How to survive the Q4 marketing spiral

It starts innocently enough.

A pumpkin spice latte here, a decorative skeleton there. But before you can say “boo,” the shelves have transformed into a glittering shrine to capitalism. Halloween bleeds into Black Friday, which collapses into Christmas, which then dissolves into the existential dread of Q1 planning.

It’s the definition of “blink and you’ll miss it.” And marketers know this season all too well. It's the Q4 time warp, when campaigns overlap, timelines compress, and every brand is screaming for attention like toddlers at a birthday party.

It’s the part of the year that feels both hyperactive and slow-motion, like you’re sprinting through molasses.

And yet, beyond the spreadsheets and seasonal KPIs, there’s something deeper going on. The chaos of Q4 isn’t only logistical, it’s cultural. The holiday marketing machine has become a mirror of how we live now: overstimulated, overextended, and desperately trying to make meaning out of consumption.

Every year, the calendar creeps forward. Christmas decorations arrive in stores before the Halloween candy has even gone half-price. Black Friday now lasts roughly 40 days, and “end of year sales” start before we’ve even finished November.

We used to have holidays. Now we have sales events dressed as holidays.

This accelerated loop isn’t just the product of marketing ambition; it’s a symptom of a cultural time collapse. Social media has already trained us to live in a constant feedback loop: our desires, fears, and interests reflected back to us in algorithmic real time. Q4 just cranks that mirror to maximum intensity. Every ad, “final deal,” and perfectly staged brand moment reflects the same question: What do you need to buy to feel okay right now?

In other words, the year-end rush isn’t about selling us stuff. It sells us emotional regulation disguised as retail therapy.

Why it feels like you’re losing your freaking mind.

For marketers, this stretch of the year is uniquely punishing.

Campaigns overlap like you’ve never seen before. Consumers are exhausted. Teams are burnt out, but still expected to produce their best creative work of the year and then pivot straight into next year’s strategy before the champagne goes flat.

A few forces make it especially brutal:

• Calendar compression: Deadlines collapse in on each other. Time stops behaving like time.

• Consumer fatigue: Everyone’s inbox is already screaming. The average person sees 10,000+ ads a day and by December, they’ve checked tf out. As have we.

• Emotional dissonance: We’re supposed to be merry and connected. But most people are tired, broke, and quietly melting down from the pressure of being merry and connected.

• Workplace pressure: Q4 is the grand finale of the capitalist circus, and marketers are both the ringmasters and the clowns.

What makes it worse is that marketing, at its best is supposed to be emotionally intelligent. But Q4 often rewards volume over value and urgency over empathy. It’s a perfect storm of good intentions and bad timing.

If you zoom out, the Q4 marketing frenzy is less about brands and more about the stories we tell ourselves as a culture.

We treat consumption as connection. We perform generosity through transactions. We equate “a good year” with hitting arbitrary growth targets, even when everyone’s running on fumes. The holidays, once a ritual pause, have become a productivity checkpoint.

That might sound bleak, but it’s also revealing.

This end-of-year mania exposes something tender underneath the cynicism: people are desperate for meaning, belonging, and renewal. Marketers are simply the translators of that collective longing, turning it into campaigns, copy, and colour palettes.

The question isn’t how to stop the machine (little late for that lol), but how to work within it without losing our minds, or our humanity.

The survival guide

Okay, deep breath. And another. And give me one more.

Here’s how to make it through the Q4 vortex with your sanity, strategy, and hopefully sense of humour intact.

1. Pick your battles. You don’t need to jump on every trend or event. Choose one or two seasonal moments that align with your brand’s values and audience, then go all in. The rest? Let it go.

2. Slow your audience down. Everyone else is shouting. You can win attention by whispering. Offer calm, clarity, or usefulness instead of urgency. People remember the brand that made them feel less frantic, not more.

3. Make space for non-selling moments. Not every piece of content needs a call to action. Sometimes, a note of gratitude, humour, or reflection lands harder than another discount code.

4. Protect your team. The best campaign ideas don’t come from people on the edge of burnout. Push for realistic deadlines, enforce rest, and stop pretending December 20 is a good day to launch anything.

5. Think inclusively. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Not everyone wants to see snowflakes and Santa hats. Remember the cultural and emotional diversity of your audience. Generosity looks different everywhere. And not everything is for everybody.

6. Plan for the hangover. January will come. Prep campaigns that transition gently out of chaos mode, focus on grounding, resetting, or reflecting, not just rebounding and diving straight back in (pleaseee.)

The truth is that this time of year will always be messy.

The machine is too big, the stakes too high, the timelines too short. But surviving it doesn’t have to mean surrendering to it.

The end of the year has always been a mirror, showing us how fast we move, how much we want, and how little time we give ourselves to breathe. Marketers might be the ones fuelling the frenzy, but we’re also the ones capable of shifting its tone.

Maybe the real Q4 survival strategy isn’t another campaign or calendar hack. Maybe it’s just remembering that time is still ours to slow down.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

"Ohh...umm…umm… Muhammad Ali"

Today's trending sound is brought to you by the one and only Kamala Harris.

Back in 2019, during an interview with Ari Melber on MSNBC, she was asked a series of "lightning round" questions. The first? If you could have any running mate, living or dead, who would you choose? Harris umm-ed and ahh-ed for quite a while before finally landing on "Muhammad Ali." Pretty unexpected answer if you ask me, but there you have it.

Now, TikTokers are using this soundbite as a way to describe those times where you're totally caught off guard and have no idea what to say. Some of my fave examples:

• When someone catches me at In-N-Out after the gym

• When the guy I flirted with all night for free drinks asks if I know his name

• POV you take off work to observe the Jewish holiday and your boss asks you what that entails

How you can jump on this trend:

Think of a situation where you've been at a total loss for words. Use this as your OST. Film yourself lipsyncing to the sound, which goes, "Ohh...umm...umm… Muhammad Ali." Make sure you're looking a bit fidgety and frantic as you deliver the line.

A few ideas to get you started:

• POV your manager wants to hear what progress you've made on your 2025 goals

• When my intern asks me what naming conventions we use for organising our content

• When the client asks when their video will be ready but I actually completely forgot about it

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: Deeply Unsettling Standing Man
❤How wholesome: Cat Cuddles (singles beware of heartbreak)
😊Soooo satisfying: Satisfying cloth simulation?
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Ropa Viieja Empanadas !

ASK THE EDITOR

My posts have totally flopped recently. How do I keep being consistent when I'm not getting engagement? -Doris

Hey Doris!

Totally get where you're coming from. It can be hard to keep posting when you aren't getting much engagement. But the only way to improve your content is to keep posting (sorry!.

I'd encourage you to keep posting every day, paying attention to your analytics. Experiment by changing up your hook, images, and post style. Don’t be afraid to change up your format and see how it lands with your audience. The bottom line is, you'll figure out what works way faster by continuing to post than stopping!

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Not going viral yet?

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.

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