I love your work Zoe, but subtly positioning brands as the key to solving our loneliness epidemic is dystopian and kinda wild to me. For me, it’s the hypocrisy I can’t tolerate, when e.g. dating app brands (the very facilitators of commodified high-churn dating culture and fickle behaviour like ghosting) are now doing “community events”. In the name of connection and bringing people together.
Totally hear you. When the arsonists start offering fire safety workshops, it’s hard not to roll your eyes. And without the voice-over, that context and critique can get lost.
There’s a real danger in brands trying to position themselves as the fix for a problem they helped create, especially when it's done with a glossy veneer of “community” that lacks any real substance or accountability. Dating apps throwing singles mixers doesn’t undo the years of gamified detachment they engineered.
That said, I’m less interested in brands redeeming themselves and more interested in whether they’re willing to use their platforms (and budgets) to rebuild actual connective infrastructure, not just perform community, but enable it. That takes humility, long-term thinking, and often, less credit.
Most won’t get there. But some might. And we need every inch of progress we can claw back.
I do this in my voice over - "In 2023, the surgeon general published an 81-page warning about America's "epidemic of loneliness," comparing its health effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
But here's what the surgeon general missed - this isn't about loneliness. Not really. Loneliness is supposed to be a biological alarm bell, pushing us off the couch and into human contact. The crisis isn't that we're lonely, it’s that we're ignoring the alarm.
Day by day, hour by hour, we've actively chosen this way of life - its comforts, its ready entertainments, its easy escapes. We haven’t just changed our habits. We reformed the basic patterns of human connection. And we handed this new normal to an entire generation.
The Solitude Generation. The first generation in history to inherit a world where isolation is the norm, connection is synthetic, and being alone is a choice we're actively making."
Incredible work, thanks for shining a light on this important issue. There’s so much to unpack here and the deck is not only visually stunning but also powerfully impactful. Well done!
I think you nailed the tension here Philip and Zoe's response below underscores just how challenging this is. In my brief experience in corporate innovation in London, we had a "social impact" team of genuine brilliant folks who had great ideas for how companies might straddle this delicate line. But the team never got the oxygen it needed. The innovation firm claims to care about social impact, but you live and die by your clients and most clients don't care. That's the bottom line and has been so since creative, well-intentioned people sold out to advertising in the first place, because, like, what else are you going to do?
The core problem hasn't changed and it's about the toxicity of the profit motive, and the modern human desire for convenience over commitment.
I'd love to hear from Zoe who are the companies she thinks are really listening and trying to fight the good fight.
I love your work Zoe, but subtly positioning brands as the key to solving our loneliness epidemic is dystopian and kinda wild to me. For me, it’s the hypocrisy I can’t tolerate, when e.g. dating app brands (the very facilitators of commodified high-churn dating culture and fickle behaviour like ghosting) are now doing “community events”. In the name of connection and bringing people together.
Totally hear you. When the arsonists start offering fire safety workshops, it’s hard not to roll your eyes. And without the voice-over, that context and critique can get lost.
There’s a real danger in brands trying to position themselves as the fix for a problem they helped create, especially when it's done with a glossy veneer of “community” that lacks any real substance or accountability. Dating apps throwing singles mixers doesn’t undo the years of gamified detachment they engineered.
That said, I’m less interested in brands redeeming themselves and more interested in whether they’re willing to use their platforms (and budgets) to rebuild actual connective infrastructure, not just perform community, but enable it. That takes humility, long-term thinking, and often, less credit.
Most won’t get there. But some might. And we need every inch of progress we can claw back.
I think it’s important to distinguish solitude from loneliness. They’re definitely not the same.
I do this in my voice over - "In 2023, the surgeon general published an 81-page warning about America's "epidemic of loneliness," comparing its health effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
But here's what the surgeon general missed - this isn't about loneliness. Not really. Loneliness is supposed to be a biological alarm bell, pushing us off the couch and into human contact. The crisis isn't that we're lonely, it’s that we're ignoring the alarm.
Day by day, hour by hour, we've actively chosen this way of life - its comforts, its ready entertainments, its easy escapes. We haven’t just changed our habits. We reformed the basic patterns of human connection. And we handed this new normal to an entire generation.
The Solitude Generation. The first generation in history to inherit a world where isolation is the norm, connection is synthetic, and being alone is a choice we're actively making."
Incredible work, thanks for shining a light on this important issue. There’s so much to unpack here and the deck is not only visually stunning but also powerfully impactful. Well done!
I think you nailed the tension here Philip and Zoe's response below underscores just how challenging this is. In my brief experience in corporate innovation in London, we had a "social impact" team of genuine brilliant folks who had great ideas for how companies might straddle this delicate line. But the team never got the oxygen it needed. The innovation firm claims to care about social impact, but you live and die by your clients and most clients don't care. That's the bottom line and has been so since creative, well-intentioned people sold out to advertising in the first place, because, like, what else are you going to do?
The core problem hasn't changed and it's about the toxicity of the profit motive, and the modern human desire for convenience over commitment.
I'd love to hear from Zoe who are the companies she thinks are really listening and trying to fight the good fight.
Would love to read it too Zoe but can’t see the link in the post
Click on either image and it'll take you to the deck.
Doh. Got it now thanks
dumb question Zoe, how do I actually listen to the prezzie?
Click on either image and it'll take you to the deck.