We all just wrote what we thought they wanted to hear.

Now a robot writes it for you, and somehow it’s even less convincing.

So what does it actually take to prove you care in 2026?

-Abdel Khalil, Brand & Marketing Exec (typed this myself)

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of the recent hiring crisis at Dumb.co. But their response has been genius. Let me explain.

For the uninitiated, Dumb.co is a progressive lifestyle and media brand built entirely around the philosophy of “dumb living”, a deliberate counter-movement that champions analog hobbies, offline gadgets, and a conscious decoupling from the digital noise of the modern web.

Naturally, when the company opened up applications for its upcoming internship cohort, they expected to attract a community of like-minded, tactile purists who shared their passion for a slower, more intentional reality.

Instead, their hiring portal was inundated with a tidal wave of synthetic fluff.

The company’s leadership team released a statement revealing that they received a “startling number” of cover letters that appeared, at least in part, to be generated by AI. Think about that for a second: applicants were unironically using a predictive language model to automate a personal letter explaining how deeply they care about escaping automation. It is a masterclass in failing to read the room.

But instead of giving up and letting their hiring metrics be dictated by corporate tracking software, Dumb.co decided to execute a low-tech pivot: they banned typed cover letters completely.

The new directive was beautiful and simple: if you wanted to work at Dumb.co, your cover letter had to be written entirely by hand. Obviously the company wanted to filter out the noise and ensure that applicants had a genuine interest in their mission.

They didn’t want the most polished applicant, but the one who cared enough to pick up a real pen.

The results were fascinating. Out of 900 initial applicants who expressed interest, a staggering 70% actually followed through and submitted handwritten letters.

Even more surprising? Nearly 300 of those individuals didn’t just upload a scanned PDF of their handwriting, they bought a stamp, walked to a physical mailbox, and mailed their physical letters directly to the company’s office.

By introducing an intentional layer of analogue friction into the conversion funnel, Dumb.co successfully weeded out the casual click-spammers. They whittled the pile down to 60 interviews, ultimately hiring 10 interns with undeniable commitment to the brand’s core values.

Here we can see a large shift occur across both recruitment and consumer branding. For the past three years, generative AI has been marketed as the tool for corporate liberation, that automating copy, cover letters, and standard correspondence would save us time and streamline our operations.

But when the cost of generating a document drops to nothing, the market value drops right along with it.

When every applicant can submit a perfect cover letter with the click of a button, it starts to lose meaning, becoming a baseline commodity that triggers skepticism and judgement.

Employers and consumers are suffering from an acute trust deficit. We are entering a landscape where a slight smudge of ink, an irregular margin, or a visible flaw on a piece of paper communicates more effort and authority than a beautifully formatted digital file. Human error is transforming into the ultimate flex.

Look for ways to introduce tactile, un-fakeable friction back into your customer and community touchpoints. Stop trying to make everything as fast and seamless as humanly possible. Sometimes, forcing your audience to slow down, pick up a pen, or interact with a physical artifact is the only defensible moat you have left to prove that your substance is real.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

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.