You know, the one where women joke about being "good at the blue store" (hardware stores, electronics shops) so their boyfriends will reward them with something from "the pink store" (Sephora, Ulta, any beauty retailer.) It's framed as cute relationship content. It's actually weaponised helplessness marketed as aspirational femininity. And it's part of a much bigger pattern of women infantilising themselves in the presence of partners to exaggerate traditional gender roles. The marketing implications here are actually f*cked up. Y’all need to cut it out. [Here’s why]

-Sophie Randell, Writer

What about “above the line” or “omnichannel”? Can you name the four P’s? If so, congratulations, you’re smarter than 54% of American marketers. According to Adweek, we’re in a profession that has “normalized ignorance of its own fundamentals.”

When journalist Mark Ritson worked with the global market research firm Ipsos to measure marketing knowledge in the U.S., he surveyed a sample of American Marketers. Ritson asked participants ten simple undergraduate questions. Ten questions so basic, the Ipsos team told Ritson they were too easy. And yet, the results were cooked. All told, two thirds would fail the most basic test of marketing knowledge. Before we focus on AI or “authenticity” we should maybe learn the basics, y’all. Just a thought.

There are many brands focusing on AI right now, just, not in the way you’d expect. They’re virtue signalling, taking a stance against slop of tech gimmicks. Not small brands either, big players; Aerie, Equinox, Almond Breeze, Dove, BMW – the anti-AI sentiment is accelerating. As AI fears grow, and the tech receives more and more backlash, or “botlash”, over job displacement, environmental impact, data privacy, slop, and lack of RAM, you’re either on one side of history or the other. Brands are deciding to make that known now.

Lastly, Leonid Radvinsky, who build the adult entertainment giant OnlyFans, dies at 43 after losing his battle with cancer. The mogul leveraged the social media and influencer economy to revolutionise the p*rn industry – but what happens now? Radvinsky is survived by Yekaterina Chudnovsky, a mother of four who enjoys philanthropy, giving back to others, and walks on the beach. She now has full controlling interest through a family trust in the London-based adult content site. In other words, she plays a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that values their family stake at $5.5bn, albeit controversial.

“It’s a machine. It’s bigger than the owner,” says media analyst Claire Enders. “Investors are looking at this as a tech darling that makes a huge amount of money rather than an adult site." Who knows what the future holds, but I'm sure there's a lot of money involved.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Stay-at-home girlfriends gloating about doing nothing but going to the gym while their partners are at their "big boy jobs."

Sarah De Leeuw went viral on X after posting about her boyfriend putting his credit card in a handmade magic wand and taking her on a shopping spree…while she wore a literal tiara…to celebrate her 26th birthday.

Becca Bloom laminated her husband's credit card inside a magic wand in January and hit Chanel, Neiman Marcus, calling it her "RichTok lifestyle."

This content markets dependence and self-infantilisation as aspirational. It presents financial reliance on men as the ultimate lifestyle goal. It reduces grown women to children who need to be rewarded for tolerating hardware stores with pretty purchases from beauty retailers. YOU ARE 26 YEARS OLD. PLEASE.

Hypergamy, or seeking provider partners with more wealth and status than you, has been building for years. Shera Seven, the "sprinkle sprinkle lady," has been telling women to laugh if a date suggests splitting the bill and cheat on broke men since 2023. Tradwives like Nara Smith and Hannah Neeleman started blowing up in the early 2020s representing the idea that women should handle domestic labour while men bring home the bacon.

Look, I'm not entirely against every aspect of this. Women choosing to be stay-at-home partners? Fine. Sh*t, I’d love to. Women wanting partners who can financially contribute? Totally reasonable. Traditional division of labour working for some couples? Not my business, do what suits you, baby!

What I am against is marketing this as THE aspirational model for young women. Presenting financial dependence as cute. Framing weaponised incompetence as relationship goals. And making self-infantilisation seem like a viable f*cking life strategy.

And that dependence is an incredibly slippery slope to abuse and coercion. Trust me, I’VE BEEN THERE and experienced it firsthand. When you have no financial independence, you have no leverage to leave. When you've built your entire identity around being provided for, walking away means losing not just your partner but your entire lifestyle. When you've marketed yourself as helpless and dependent, where do you go when the relationship turns toxic?

The "good at blue store" framing specifically bothers me. Because it presents basic adult competence as something women don't naturally possess. You need a reward for existing in a hardware store? For tolerating electronics shopping?

The underlying message is that women are inherently incompetent at anything masculine-coded and should be compensated for the trauma of pretending otherwise.

I'm starting to see brands quietly poke at this narrative and it makes me nauseous. Beauty brands amplifying "treat yourself" messaging that implies you need male financial support to access their products. Luxury retailers leaning into the "spoiled girlfriend" aesthetic. Finance apps softening language around financial dependence.

The RichTok influencers doing magic wand credit card content are creating an aspirational template that regular people can't achieve but will try to emulate anyway. Young women seeing this content absorb the message that financial dependence is glamorous. That infantilisation is cute. That competence is less desirable than performed helplessness.

For the right to have credit cards in their own names and access to economic power that didn't depend on male approval. And now y’all want to voluntarily give that up for tiara birthday shopping sprees and aesthetic TikToks. Be sooooo for real.

The conservatism we're seeing across culture—quiet luxury, modest fashion, traditional gender roles—is bleeding into economic relationships too. And marketing is amplifying it. Because dependent consumers with wealthy partners spend differently than independent ones.

Financial abuse is real. Coercive control is real. The inability to leave toxic relationships because you have no independent resources is real.

The "good at blue store" trend, the magic wand credit cards, the stay-at-home-girlfriend content, all of it markets female dependence as aspirational lifestyle choices.

Please, before you go and post some bullshit like this, think about your responsibility as a human being; young women are absorbing these messages. They're internalising that financial dependence is cute. That weaponised helplessness is relationship goals. That performing incompetence gets rewarded with shopping sprees at Ulta for crying out loud.

And if brands start actively marketing to this trend instead of just passively benefiting from it, we need to call it out loudly. Because we are literally setting women back decades. And that cost is higher than any tiara shopping spree could ever be worth.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Take former Flint City Council member Eric Mays, who passed away in 2024 and is remembered for his profanity, criminality and lack of f*cks to give. During a council meeting several years ago, a woman speaking at the stand accused him of being distracted by his phone. Mays pushed back on this, retorting into maybe the most sensitive microphone of all time:

"What you playing on your phone?" "No I'm not playing on my phone, I'm taking care of business."

Mays' comeback alone is hilarious. But his crackly, booming his voice caused by his faulty mic makes it even better. Recently TikTokers have taken this audio and applied it to times when they were told off for "playing" on their phone, when in reality, there was serious "business" to take care of, such as looking at the restaurant menu you've already memorised, seeing what North Korea looks like on Google Maps or cyberbullying Chris Brown.

Take this sound, put the camera on yourself and lip-sync with Mays' part of the audio (you'll know which part - you can't not hear it). Then, add onscreen text describing a time you were accused of goofing off on your phone when you were really addressing matters DEFINITELY of the utmost priority.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Devin Pike, Copywriter

😲WTF: Definition of WTF
✨Daily inspo: Hard work is the key to success
😊Soooo satisfying: Teleport me here
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: We have Italian at home

Hey Nev,

I know it's tempting to pick apart everything about this brand you've just bought. But before you burn it all down and start again, I'd ask why you want to rebrand. If you just think it would be cool to have a new logo and colours, there's nothing wrong with that. But I'd be careful about pouring too many resources into that right now.

Instead, I'd focus on a strategy for building the brand beyond its visual elements. Because while a lot of people think "branding" is your logo and colour scheme, it's actually the entire experience of your brand. Your values, messaging, and how you show up on your website, socials, etc. are way more important than your logo. So sure, get a new one if you want. But spend the majority of your efforts on the aspects of branding that will actually make a difference.

- 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.