Hi there,

Welcome back to another week of Brand Matters. This week, we're diving into why polish is losing and authenticity is winning—how the shift toward imperfection is reshaping content strategy across every platform.

Also in today's issue:

• Brand Wars: Duolingo and Babbel go head-to-head on language learning; unhinged chaos vs polished professionalism

• Ad of the Week: 1X Technologies launches a $20,000 home robot shot in vintage Super 8 film

• The Drum ranks the world's 50 best out-of-home ads ever—from Nike to Apple

• OpenAI's browser could upend how publishers monetize attention in the AI era

Let's get started.

That Crack in Your Content Is Exactly What People Want

While some brands chase perfection, audiences are choosing what's real.

You know that Super Bowl ad Kanye dropped last year? The one that looked like he shot it on his phone in a parking lot, with zero production value and a direct-to-camera ramble about Yeezy?

It cost nothing. It looked like shit. And it got 2.4 million views in the first hour—outperforming every polished Super Bowl spot that year.

Meanwhile, brands spent $7 million for 30 seconds of perfectly polished, agency-approved content that everyone forgot by halftime. That's not a fluke. That's a signal.

It made me wonder: what if we've been thinking about content quality completely wrong? That question kept nagging at me, especially after finally watching "Perfect Days"—Wim Wenders' film about a Tokyo toilet cleaner living a life of zen-like contentment. The film has one of the best soundtracks ever (Nina Simone, Lou Reed, the Animals), and it taught me that Tokyo public toilets are legitimate art pieces. But what really struck me was its slow cadence and delightful simplicity—qualities so alien to how we create content today.

Both the Kanye ad and Perfect Days point to the same truth: we've hit a tipping point where polish reads as fake, and imperfection reads as honest.

Each day brings more AI-generated copy, more copy-paste designs, more "shot on iPhone" content trying to look like Netflix. It all feels too automatic, too artificial, too perfect. And audiences are rejecting it.

Most companies have walked the safe path, spending loads of money to appear flawless. Only a few have embraced the other path: showing their cracks and acting like living organisms made of human stuff.

This is about why embracing imperfection isn't just acceptable anymore—it's essential. And how an ancient Japanese philosophy can give you the language (and permission) to make braver creative choices.

@bars

Who saw this air during the Super Bowl⁉️😭 #bars #raptv #music #hiphop #rapper #kanyewest #ye #superbowl #superbowlcommercial

Our thing with perfection

You see it everywhere in content creation. How many times have you stared at a LinkedIn draft, rewriting the caption for the fourth time, waiting for it to feel "ready"? Meanwhile, someone else posts something rough and real, and it connects immediately.

TikTok rewards reality—raw phone videos, imperfect lighting, people talking without scripts. When perfectly produced content shows up there, it sticks out. You can feel the committee behind it.

Every industry has its version of perfection to chase. A couple of decades ago, it was the perfect slim body; now, for Gen Z, it's perfect skin. McKinsey expects the beauty industry to hit $590 billion by 2030—an entire economy built on the idea that you're not enough as you are.

So how can brands contribute to a new vision where imperfection becomes an asset, not a flaw? Wabi Sabi teaches us everything we need to know.

Wabi Sabi: The Art of Imperfection

In the Western view, beauty depends on symmetry, ideal proportions, and structures that last forever. Walk through Paris, Athens, or Rome, and you'll see this approach everywhere. It's our heritage.

In the East, beauty standards work differently. Wabi Sabi captures this perfectly.

Legend says Wabi Sabi began around the 12th century with Zen Buddhism's arrival in Japan. More than an aesthetic, it's a living philosophy.

Wabi means embracing simplicity and accepting things as they are. Being content with what we have and who we are, beyond perfect ideals. As Nakamoto Forestry defined it: "Wabi is the beauty that can be felt from natural imperfections and shortages rather than something artificially crafted."

Sabi is about seeing beauty in the passage of time. Zen teaches that everything is always changing. Rust, cracks, broken objects—they hold more beauty than our efforts to make things last forever.

Unlike Western ideals, Wabi Sabi values the imperfect and fleeting. It suggests that true beauty lies in what is temporary—in things that don't fight time.

Four principles for content that connects

1) Make it simple

A Siegel+Gale study found that 61% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands that provide simple experiences. Think of Apple, Uber, Netflix—their success comes from keeping promises in simple ways.

For content: one camera angle, one take, one clear idea. You don't need a shot list and production schedule. You need something worth saying and the willingness to say it simply.

We love making documentaries and films. High production value has its place. But spending six months on one perfect video isn't better than consistent content that works all year.

Before posting, ask yourself: "What's the one thing someone should remember?" If you can't answer in one sentence, the idea isn't clear yet.

2) Show vulnerability

People are beginning to see past the performance. They want connection beyond polished messaging.

Here's the truth about posting on LinkedIn or Instagram: so many of us freeze up, waiting for the perfect post. The perfect caption. The perfect lighting. And the reality? Nobody cares as much as you think. They're scrolling fast, looking for something human.

Being vulnerable as a brand means showing the real story behind your work. The struggle, the fuck-ups, the pivots. When you embrace this internally, your content naturally reflects it. People can feel it and trust it.

When Patagonia published "Don't Buy This Jacket," they weren't being perfect—they were being honest about the environmental cost of consumption, even their own products. It was vulnerable and simple. It worked because it was true.

3) Accept impermanence

That video you spent three weeks perfecting? Forgotten in three days. That scrappy post you threw up in ten minutes? Might be the one people remember.

Maya Angelou said it best: "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and expect anything in between."

Stop trying to create "evergreen" content that lives forever. Start creating content that's alive right now. The Kanye ad worked because it felt ephemeral and urgent. TikTok works because it's designed to be consumed and forgotten, not archived.

This is liberating. If nothing lasts forever, you can stop agonizing over whether something is perfect enough. Set a deadline, then ship. Create a rhythm, daily posts that take 30 minutes, or weekly pieces that take three hours. The consistency matters more than any single piece being flawless.

4) Meet people where they are

Brands have the power to embrace people as they actually are, not sell another impossible ideal.

Don't show only success—show the messy middle. Don't only feature your happiest customers—talk to the ones who struggled first. Don't pretend your product solves everything.

More brands are realizing they're more than transactional entities. They're champions for change, protectors of community, spaces where people genuinely belong—cracks and all.

The magic happens when you show both aspiration (where you're going) and actuality (where you are now, what's not working yet). Most brands only show aspiration. That contrast creates trust.

The real shift happening

Since the 20th century, advertising has sold perfection. These ideals drove growth for some, but left audiences perpetually dissatisfied.

Now people are changing what they value. Trust gravitates toward brands that embody once-overlooked qualities: vulnerability, accountability, sincerity—even imperfection.

The brands that will lead aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or most polished feeds. They're the ones willing to show up as they actually are—using whatever resources they have to genuinely serve their people.

Think back to that Kanye ad. It worked not because it was well-produced, but because it was undeniably him—raw, unfiltered, real. That toilet cleaner in "Perfect Days" found beauty in his daily work not by making it perfect, but by accepting it exactly as it was.

The crack in your content—the imperfection you're worried about—isn't the flaw you need to fix.

It's exactly where the light gets in.

Brand Wars: Language Apps

Duolingo

A language learning app where the mascot—a green owl named Duo—regularly threatens bodily harm if you miss your Spanish lesson. Their TikTok is absolute chaos. Duo doing thirst traps. Duo showing up uninvited to users' homes. Duo engaging in increasingly unhinged behavior that has nothing to do with conjugating verbs.

They don't give a shit about looking professional. The owl has public beef with Duolingo's own CEO. It flirts with other brand mascots. It's horny, threatening, completely absurd. And it works. Duolingo's TikTok has 13 million followers. People who've never opened the app know who Duo is.

They've turned language learning—something usually marketed as worthy self-improvement—into entertainment that feels like your chaotic friend bullying you into productivity. Not because learning German will advance your career. Because a cartoon owl will show up at your house if you don't.

Babbel

Polished campaigns about the joy of learning. Professional content featuring real language experts. Clean design, educational blog posts, testimonials about career advancement. Their marketing talks about scientifically proven methods and expert-designed courses.

Everything is well-produced, informative, and incredibly safe. Their social media looks exactly like a language learning company's social media should look. Helpful tips. Language facts. Motivational quotes about bilingualism. It's all correct. All professional. All the personality of beige wallpaper.

Babbel is doing everything right—demonstrating value, building credibility, being the serious choice for serious learners. They've built a solid business. But they're not breaking the internet. They're not getting millions of organic views. Nobody's making memes about them.

Ad of the Week: 1X Technologies

NEO - The Home Roboto

1X Technologies just launched NEO, a $20,000 humanoid robot that does your laundry and serves you coffee. This product launch is terribly frightening and incredible at the same time. If we hadn't already entered the world of Black Mirror, here we are.

They could have gone full sci-fi. Sleek white labs, perfect lighting, that clinical AI aesthetic every tech company defaults to. Instead, they hired Eli Russell Linnetz and shot the whole launch video in Super 8 film. Grainy, warm, nostalgic—like someone's home movies from 1975.

You're watching a robot with tendon-driven actuators and an AI brain fold towels, and it looks like footage your dad shot on vacation. The juxtaposition is brilliant. Future tech wrapped in vintage aesthetic. It makes this advanced piece of robotics feel less like an invasion of your home and more like it already belongs there.

Whether you want a robot in your house or not—and that $20,000 price tag is debatable—from a creative point of view, the product launch is nailed. While every other tech company races toward higher resolution and more polish, 1X went low-fi. They made the future feel familiar.

Sometimes the most futuristic thing you can do is make it look beautifully imperfect.

Lento Vibes

A bit of random inspo from around the grounds:

• $2B Basketball Ad Boom: A new EDO report finds that $2.3 billion was spent across the NBA, WNBA and NCAA, with nearly 1,000 brands in play—and measurable ROI to match. 👉 Read the full story

• World’s 50 Best Out-of-Home Ads: The Drum ranks the top 50 OOH ads ever—from Nike’s “Write the Future” to Apple’s “Shot on iPhone.” A nostalgic look at the craft and power of outdoor. 👉 See the list

• Publishers Step Into Brand Marketing: Reuters is launching only its second ever brand-campaign in its 174-year history—part of a wider trend of publishers shifting into brand marketing rather than just editorial. 👉 See the shift

• Browsing Enters the AI-Era: OpenAI’s new browser project presents a sea-change for media and publishers: if AI becomes the gateway to the web, how do they monetise audience and attention? 👉 Explore what it means

• Meta Returns to Its Roots: Meta Platforms resurfaces its human-connection focus with its first major brand campaign in four years—reminding users of what Facebook once stood for. 👉 View the campaign

• Agencies Mis-read Design Reality: As agencies rush to open in-house design studios, they’re overlooking a key flaw: design often gets marginalised—not integrated. 👉 Read the critique