Well, nothing. Crickets. Nada. Usually, June (aka Pride Month) is full of rainbow-themed brand activations, colour-fied company logos, and Pride social posts. But this year, it’s eerily quiet. Almost like brands are afraid to take a stand or something (oh wait…). While in years past, companies have sponsored huge parade floats and have put rainbows everywhere with, well, pride, this year they’re opting for quiet allyship instead (or doing nothing at all).

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

(btw - If you’re already using Claude Code or Cowork daily, scroll on by bc this isn’t for you)

But if you’ve just dabbled in using AI, maybe you’re using ChatGPT to help you look up recipes, write basic emails, or attempt to diagnose that insect bite you just got, stay with me for a sec.

When it comes to AI, there’s a lot of “bro you’re so behind” messaging out there. When, in reality, within just a couple hours, you can learn how to use AI better than 95% of people you know. And this why we put together the Beginner’s Guide to Claude AI course.

It’s a 4-week cohort where you learn how to go from using AI as a glorified Google to getting it to actually help you with the sh*tty admin (life or work) you hate doing every day.

We kick off our second cohort on 22 June, so if you want to go from feeling behind to using AI to make your life better, this is for you 👇

I’ve already written about the gross commodification of every facet of human existence and all of our experiences, particularly when it comes to our love lives. But this headline from Vogue this morning almost sent me off my rocker:

It’s a Hot Divorcée Summer. How Can Brands Tap In?

The article is filled with sh*t like “often wine-fuelled and documented with abandon on Instagram,” and “It’s embodied by big, buggy sunglasses, medallion necklaces, wide-brimmed hats and semi-sheer organza dresses worn in combination to deliver maximum drama.”

So not only are we now peddling bad behaviour, but there’s also a uniform for it. Apparently, it’s represented by Belle Burden’s “bestselling, breakup-with-your-husband memoir Strangers.” Which is, no doubt, another way to sell your personal crisis back to you.  Booooo. Predatory marketing at its finest.

Anyway, the news that Google employees send each other memes about how its AI sucks cheered me up after that Vogue mess. Because while CEO Sundar Pichai proudly touts that 75 percent of all new code at the company is AI-generated, internally it’s nothing but a giant joke. He’s just not in on it.

The memes are shared to an internal Google message board called Memegen. And 404 Media had an exclusive peek at the dozens of them.

Their source estimated that the number of anti-AI memes shared inside Google in the last year is in the high hundreds, even thousands. And that the number “spikes when there’s product announcements, or model updates, or Jetski (Googles internal AI coding tool) breaks down or something.” Lol.

Lastly, I’m not quite sure how to explain this phenomenon. But if you’d like to fall down a rabbit hole deeper than Brock Hampton this weekend, I present you with this: The YouTube LEGO drama, aka Bricks & Minifigs scandal, which, according to 404 Media, “is tearing apart the LEGO community, is one of the most popular things happening on YouTube right now, and appears to have become the most important local news story in a small town in Utah called American Fork.”

In the most basic way possible: The Bricks & Minifigs controversy centers on a disputed $200,000 consignment, a viral investigation by creator Reckless Ben, and subsequent corporate action. This culminated in a public standoff with Patreon and police.

Here’s the main parts:

Idk. Just go dive in yourself. You’re welcome. Or I’m sorry. Maybe good luck? Anyway bye!

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The corporate world is 100% staging a tactical, synchronised retreat from Pride Month. Kinda crazy, since the corporate marketing playbook for June has always been aggressively simple:

Step 1: Slap a rainbow gradient on your logo.

Step 2: Sponsor a multi-million-dollar parade float.

Step 3: Cash in on the "pink dollar" while pretending your laundry detergent cares about Stonewall.

According to executive tracking data from Gravity Research in 2025, an astonishing 39% of major brands dialled back their public Pride efforts. The financial fallout for event organisers was a total bloodbath:

Because like, what happened to all that undying corporate love? Put simply: marketing executives are utterly f*cking terrified.

Ever since federal and corporate policy shifts began aggressively dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates, corporate compliance teams have been in a state of absolute paranoia. Federal contractors are petrified that a loud diversity campaign will jeopardise their lucrative government contracts.

Add to that the lingering ghost of the 2023 Bud Light boycott, and you get a marketing landscape entirely driven by cowardice. Corporate crisis rooms have basically all decided that corporate silence is the safest strategy. Because allyship is a fantastic marketing aesthetic. Right up until it requires an ounce of actual friction – you know the thing, that every human rights movement needs to push past the oppressor?

The moment an angry comment section threatens a quarterly earnings call, the rainbow flag gets stuffed right back into the storage closet.

Fearing the public eye, some brands are attempting what they call "quiet allyship." They’re moving their money from public parade floats to internal operations. And on paper, it sounds noble. They are shifting funds into:

Is this internal work better than a performative corporate float? Absolutely.

But let’s call it what it really is: a convenient way for brands to do the right thing only when nobody is looking, avoiding any risk of a conservative boycott.

It’s a paradox. Corporate legal teams think they are mitigating risk by staying quiet. But they are actually falling into The Trust Gap.

We all know by now that Gen Z and Millennial consumers do not just buy what you sell; they buy who you are. When a brand only shows up for a community when it is highly profitable, and vanishes the second the political temperature rises, it signals that your corporate values are entirely transactional.

That kills long-term brand equity faster than any boycott ever could (just FYI).

Ironically, grassroots organisers are calling this a healthy correction. It finally strips away the exhausting, performative era of rainbow capitalism and forces the festival back to its community-led, protest-driven roots. But it also keeps a space for those doing nothing to, well, keep doing nothing.

If your brand alignment is so fragile that it cannot withstand a spicy comment section, do not launch the campaign in the first place.

Stop trying to win the parade and win the workplace. Ground your brand in actual policy, support communities quietly but fiercely, and let your internal actions do the talking. True attention is built on being real. Not safe.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The day is gone. The moment has passed. I guess we accept this now...

The sound comes from a behind the scenes moment captured in Miley Cyrus's 2013 MTV documentary "Miley: The Movement." Her grand VMA arrival had a whole plan: transfer from an SUV into a police car, then pull up to the red carpet in style. Her driver missed the police car entirely and pulled straight to the arrivals line. Miley, understandably, lost it. "It's been ruined, so f*ck it. Let me just get out of the car." How on earth was that 13 years go btw??

People are using it for any moment where something gets derailed SO badly the original plan just stops mattering:

Use the sound and put your ruined plan on screen.

A few ideas to get you started:

-abdel khalil, brand & marketing exec

😂Yap’s funniest home videos - Slip & fall
❤How wholesome - Baby Fever
😊Soooo satisfying - flame & gunge
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight - 15 minute stir fry noodles

Hey Rhea!

It's great that you're getting some good interaction with your content. But for the algorithm to push it to more people, you need to get your viewers to not just interact with the video, but watch to the end. The best way to do this is to use the storytelling structure we always talk about: setup, conflict, and resolution.

If you're telling a good story, viewers will get hooked and want to watch the whole thing. So focus on crafting a compelling narrative that makes viewers think, "I've got to see how this ends!" That's how you'll boost those view numbers and create more meaningful engagement.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

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.