What can a pair of pants tell you about leadership? Much more than you think.
How do you feel when you pull a pair of non-stretch jeans straight from the dryer? Theyre stiff. Way too tight. The waistband digs into your belly. Now picture trying to work an eight-hour day in them. That discomfortand sense of restrictionis exactly what it feels like to work for a micromanager.
On the other end of your closet are those oversized sweatpantstheyre comfy, but theres no shape (or direction) to them at all . . . kind of like a workplace where everyone might like the manager, but no one has any idea whats actually expected or where theyre headed.
Between those two extremes sits the gold standard of workplace comfort: cozy joggers. Stretchy. Supportive. They move with you, not against you. If youve ever worked for a leader who gives you the right balance of support and freedom, you know exactly how good that kind of fit feels.
Because managers not only usually fall into one of these categoriestight jeans, oversized sweatpants or cozy joggersbut their teams respond accordingly. Heres what those leadership styles look like, why they matter and how to move toward the cozy joggers approach that gets the results that every style of leader is looking for.
The Tight Jeans Manager: Restrictive, Rigid and Always Tugging at the Seams
We all know that managerthe one who wants to sign off on every sentence, join every meeting and get updates so frequently you spend more time summarizing your work than doing it. Tight jeans managers often dont mean to restrict their teams. In fact, they usually come from a good place: they care deeply about the work and want to maintain high standards.
But like those freshly washed jeans, this style leaves no room to move.
How to spot a tight jeans manager:
They jump in to fix work instead of guiding.
They insist on approving even the smallest decisions.
They monitor progress constantly.
They prefer their way over any new approach.
They struggle to let go of tasks they used to do themselves.
And the impact on the team is real. People feel stressed and stuck. They stop speaking up or trying new things because theyre afraid of getting it wrong. Meetings turn into long status updates instead of actually solving problems. Everything slows (way) down because nothing can happen without the manager weighing in on every little thing.
To loosen the metaphorical waistband, tight-jeans leaders can ask themselves:
Is this about quality, or is it about control?
Whats the actual risk if I step back?
If I never delegate, am I prepared to own this forever?
Micromanagement might feel productive in the moment, but it turns leaders into bottlenecks and employees into order-takers. Great managers recognize when theyre clinging too tightly and intentionally make space for others to stretch.
The Oversized Sweatpants Manager: Comfy but Directionless
If tight jeans restrict movement, oversized sweatpants eliminate shape altogether. These are the managers who pride themselves on being hands-off, but in their quest to avoid micromanaging, they end up providing almost no guidance at all.
Once again, the intention is usually goodtrust your people, give them room, empower thembut empowerment without clarity quickly turns into ambiguity.
How to spot an oversized sweatpants manager:
They assume teams will figure it out.
They dont have regular 1:1 meetings, just find me if you need me (but never seem to be available).
They dont set clear expectations or deadlines.
They rarely give feedbackunless something goes wrong.
They avoid hard conversationsso the team ends up side-texting about it.
At first, this style can feel freeing, especially for high performers. But after the initial cozy comfort wears off, people get frustrated. They arent sure what good looks like. They dont know how decisions are being made. They cant get any (much-needed) help. Even top talent needs an idea of the what, how, and why.
To add structure without sliding into micromanagement, these managers can focus on:
Clear expectations: What does success look like?
Lightweight checkpoints: Not every project needs a meetingbut a text, Slack message, or short huddle goes a long way.
Actionable feedback: Not looks good, but This direction works because . . .
Its not about controlling every moveits about making sure everyone has what they need.
The Cozy Joggers Manager: Flexible, Supportive, and Built for Real Work
The magic of cozy joggers is their blend of stretch and structure. They hold their shape, but they dont hold you back. Theyre comfortable without being sloppy. Theyre supportive without being stiff.
Cozy joggers managers operate the same way.
They encourage autonomy while offering guidance. They give direction but dont dictate. Theyre not hovering, but theyre not disappearing. Theyre reliable, predictable and consistentthree qualities that transform team culture (and dont require any extra budget).
Signs youre working with a cozy joggers manager:
They communicate expectations clearly, including context (not just instructions).
They ask questions instead of giving orders.
They check in without it feeling like surveillance.
They help employees grow instead of doing the work for them.
They trust their teamsand their teams trust them back.
Most importantly, these managers create environments where people feel both supported and capablethe real sweet spot of leadership.
Managers who want to move into this style can build three simple habits:
Communicate the why: Great managers explain the purpose behind the work. It builds alignment and better decision-making.
Replace answers with questions: Guiding questions help employees think critically instead of relying on the manager for every answer.
Build autonomy gradually: Start with more structure and intentionally pull back as confidence grows.
This is leadership thats effectivebecause it builds your people up instead of adding more to their plates.
You Wont Be Cozy Joggers Every DayBut You Can Always Adjust
Managers are human. We all have tight-jeans days when stress makes us hold on too tight, and oversized-sweatpants weeks when were stretched thin so we cant be as present. The goal isnt to be perfectits to be aware and make the small adjustments that matter.
The question every leader should ask is: What does my team need from me right nowstructure, space, or a blend of both?
Effective leadership is about finding that in-between spacegiving enough support to guide without taking over, and offering enough autonomy without disappearing. Your team doesnt need perfect; they need steady, clear, human direction and room to do their best work. Because in the end, leadership is a lot like what we wear: The right fit changes everything.
Some studies show that the interview process can take up to six weeks. But there are ways that might help speed up the process and get those final hiring managers to land on you as the one they offer the job to.
Just under a year after the rebirth of the Kickstarter favorite Pebble smartwatch, the founder of that tech gadget is debuting the company’s next product.
The Pebble Index 01 is a smart ring of sorts, but instead of focusing on health data or sleep cycles, the sole purpose of this ring is to help wearers remember thoughts that bolt out of the blue during the middle of the day.
“Do you ever have flashes of insight or an idea worth remembering? This happens to me five to 10 times every day,” Eric Migicovsky, who shepherded Pebble from Y Combinator to an angel investment of $375,000 to the record-setting Kickstarter campaign, wrote in a blog post. “If I dont write down the thought immediately, it slips out of my mind. Worst of all, I remember that Ive forgotten something and spend the next 10 minutes trying to remember what it is. So I invented external memory for my brain.”
While some gadget hounds might balk at the Index’s singular focus, they can’t grumble at the price or battery life. RePebble (the company’s new operating name) says people who preorder the Index 01 will pay just $75and the product will cost $99 when it ships in March 2026. As for the battery life? Forget recharging. Migicovsky said it lasts for years.
When the battery does reach the end of its life, the Pebble app will alert users and ask if they want to order another ring. (There’s no charger, as Pebble believed people were more likely to misplace the charger before they needed it.)
[Screenshot: Eric Migicovsky]
Worn on the index finger, the ring has a button you can click with your thumb to record your thoughts to internal memory. If your phone is within range, that recording is automatically sent over and converted to text on the device. A large language model (LLM) will then select the appropriate action (which could be anything from creating a note to scheduling an appointment). And if there’s wind or loud background noises, you can listen to a raw audio playback to recapture your thought.
The ring itself is water-resistant up to 1 meter and doesn’t need to be removed when showering or washing your hands. Unlike some digital assistants, it’s not listening to anything you do if you’re not pressing the button. There’s no monthly subscription fee either.
“Initially, we experimented by building this as an app on Pebble, since it has a mic and Im always wearing one,” Migicovsky wrote. “But, I realized quickly that this was suboptimalit required me to use my other hand to press the button to start recording (lift-to-wake gestures and wake-words are too unreliable). This was tough to use while bicycling or carrying stuff. Then a genius electrical engineer friend of mine came up with an idea to fit everything into a tiny ring.”
The Index 01 comes in three colorspolished silver, polished gold, and matte blackand in U.S. ring sizes 6 to 13. While the point of the ring is to do one thing well, Migicovsky said Pebble is leaving the door open for users to customize it and create additional functionality.
Pebble was one of the first smartwatches, raising $10.3 million on Kickstarter in 2012. From 2013 to 2016, having a Pebble on your wrist gave you instant geek street cred. But in December of 2016, the company announced it would shut down, as it struggled to find a mainstream audience and competition increased.
Migicovsky resurrected it earlier this year, changing the name to rePebble, after Google released the Pebble operating system (OS) as open-source software. With this new product, the company is hoping to show it has learned from its past mistakes.
Pebble Time, the second watch in the Pebble’s original incarnation, was largely responsible for the company’s collapse. The company didnt market the new watch properly, basically dropping it in stores and expecting it to sell, based on the Kickstarter success. Pebble failed, for years, to hire a head of marketing, and any promotion decision the company did make was not necessarily one it stuck with.
Things are a bit different this time around. RePebble has been working on the Index 01 in the background while developing its new Pebble watch, and it is using the same partner factory. There will be a wide alpha test of the product in January before rePebble launches mass production.
Every December, something strange happens inside companies. Decisions that were stuck for months suddenly fly through. Projects get approved. Budgets get finalized. People stop debating and finally choose.
Leaders usually chalk this up to year-end energy or the holiday push. That is an easy story, but it hides what is actually going on. December forces leaders into a tighter frame. There is less time to overthink, fewer acceptable choices, and clearer expectations. In other words, the environment is designed in a way that produces commitment instead of delayeven though for complex, novel strategic bets, the calendar alone is rarely enough.
This isnt holiday spirit. Its design and a great lesson in influence. If leaders learned how to design decisions the way December does, they would get clarity, alignment, and speed all year, and not just when the calendar runs out.
The idea is simple. When options shrink, focus increases. When criteria are explicit, choices become easier. When time is clear, commitment accelerates. The research backs this up. The boardroom stories back this up. And anyone who has lived through a December sprint knows it.
The question is not why December works. The question is why leaders tolerate the opposite for the other 11 months.
What science tells us about too many choices
Executives like saying they want openness. They want to consider every idea, hear every viewpoint, and keep options flexible. In reality, although valuable, this often destroys momentum.
The most cited work on this comes from social psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper. Their study showed that people presented with fewer choices were far more likely to act. A small, curated set of jams led to dramatically higher purchase rates than a large display. That study has been replicated and expanded for two decades. The principle holds in various settings: When options multiply, action collapses.
It is tempting to think that leaders are different because they have more experience. The evidence says otherwise. Cognitive load does not care about job titles. When executives face too many similar options, they pause, delay, or default to whatever feels safest. In large organizations, the safest option is inaction.
If you want leadership teams to move, reduce the choices they must consider. Curate the field before it gets to the table. Eliminate the noise. Present two or three viable alternatives instead of 12. You will not only speed up decisions; you will improve them.
Why heuristics make or break decision quality
Once choices are reduced, another dynamic kicks in. With limited time or limited information, people rely on heuristics. These are not shortcuts for the unskilled. They are the mental tools that allow experts to move quickly.
Studies on bounded rationality and dual-process theory show that when decisions must be made under constraint, people shift from slow, analytical processing to faster, more intuitive judgment. This is how high-pressure environments function.
The problem is that most organizations leave these heuristics to chance. No criteria. No risk filters. No anchored recommendations. The result is inconsistent, political, or painfully slow decisions.
If leaders want high-quality decisions, they need to supply better heuristics. Give people a clear view of what matters most. Define the nonnegotiables. Make success criteria visible and simple. Present recommended options, not loose collections of ideas.
Heuristics are not the enemy of good thinking. They are the structure that allows it to happen at speed.
The actual role of time pressure in executive decisions
Time pressure is usually treated as a threat to decision quality. The research is more nuanced. Experiments published in academic journals show that time pressure can improve consistency and speed in certain types of tasks. In familiar or lower-risk decisions, moderate time pressure helps people filter distractions and commit.
However, tackling highly complex or ambiguous problems while you’re rushed hinders performance, and studies warn that time pressure can increase risk-taking or reduce perceptual accuracy. But for the majority of decisions that leaders face, especially operational or moderately strategic choices, clear time frames increase action without sabotaging quality.
There is a reason why year-end deadlines work. Not because the clock is ticking, but because the clock forces prioritization. It becomes obvious what matters and what does not.
The real reason December feels productive
December works because it removes the environmental factors that slow leaders down. The constraints create clarity. The deadlines force prioritization. The limited choices reduce noise. People are not more motivated in December. They are simply less confused.
Leaders dont need more time or better slides. They need to design decisions the way December doeswith clearer choices, specific criteria, and no place for indecision to hide.
Leadership influence is not about having the loudest voice in the room. It is about shaping the room so people can finally decide.
Any office party can be challenging, but holiday office parties are particularly stressful. After all, the season brings a set of demandsincluding the need to be merry and bright when you may not feel that way. To survive this end-of-year event (and to use it to advance your career), here are three strategies that will work wonders.
1. Use Holiday Parties as a Chance to Get to Know New People
There are good reasons to circulate broadly at your next holiday party and not to hang out with people you already know.
Clustering with friends can lead to excessive drinking, and with that comes danger to your health and safety. Staying with your pals or people you work closely with also means you wont broaden your circle of colleagues and that you just might miss an opportunity to get to know someone who could influence your career.
Hanging out with people you know often leads to banter about how terrible the party is and how much you dislike these holiday events. This grumbling does not become you or your pals.
Instead of staying with your inner circle, use the gathering as an occasion to get to know new staffers or people you may not come in contact with during the workweek. If you do, you will be showing leadershipfor it is a mark of a leader to know how to build relationships.
And by seeking out unfamiliar faces and befriending them, you will show that you have the ability to help people who may be feeling holiday anxiety or loneliness. Indeed, a study by the American Psychological Association shows that 54% of American adults feel isolated, 50% feel left out, and 50% say they lack companionship. All these signs of loneliness peak during the holidays.
2. Talk to People Who Might Be Able to Help You Advance Your Career
You will find influential people at holiday parties, so seek them out. They could include your boss or the head of your department or invited guests. Approach them and have something warm to say, without feeling that you are kissing up.
For example, if someone outside your department is attending, you might say, It is great that you could join us. Your opening to your boss or department head might simply be a positive statement such as This is a great party. Then, go on to say what a good year it has been for the company or the department. The point is to create a positive, upbeat message that will appeal to someone senior in your department or in your company.
Another approach is to compliment this individual regarding something he or she has done. For example, you might say, I thought that was a strong speech you gave to our team last month. It raised some interesting goalsones we will have to work hard to achieve. Or you might mention that you saw your department head at a conference, and ask whether he or she enjoyed the two-day event.
People at all levels like to know that they are liked and respected. So, focus your remarks on what theyve accomplished or situations in which theyve done something impressive.
They will be more interested in you if you show appreciation for them.
The point is also to move the discussion toward something you can offer to support the more senior person. So, for example, segue from something impressive theyve done to something you can do for them, or simply share your thinking that dovetails with something they said. There is no ideal length for this conversation. But end with some kind of action or follow-up.
3. Talk to Customers
Some holiday parties are company affairs held in honor of customers. In these cases, be sure to make a fuss over them. Dont chitchat with your colleagues and ignore your firm’s customers.
I attend lavish holiday parties each year that are hosted by our investment firm. These events have lots of good food and music. But the thing that I like most is when the principals of the company come over to talk to my husband and me, ask pointed questions about our family, and show they care about us.
The secret to customer conversations is to be warm. So you might begin with Its a pleasure to see you or So glad you could make the party. Ask good questions. For example: Do you have family plans for the holidays? or How is the family? Beware of questions about business or questions about health. Keep your questions broad and do your best to make sure they lead to positives. You will be strengthening your companys relationship with its customers if you initiate a discussion that shows you care about them and their families.
In the tournament of pop culturean arena increasingly obsessed with charts, data, and stat linesTaylor Swift has, by most measures, already emerged the victor.
In her nearly two decades in the public eye, she has become a billionaire by engineering one of the most dependable fan bases on the planet: a legion willing to buy every vinyl variant for her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, and generate such collective frenzy at her 149-date Eras Tour that it registered as seismic activity.
Swift has become something like an institution, around whom various rituals and practices have formed, whether the exchanging of friendship bracelets or sharing easter eggs with fellow Swifties. In an age of fragmentation, Swift remains one of the last reliable captains of the monoculture within popular music.
Her latest album rollout for The Life of a Showgirl makes clear how deliberately she continues to extend her reach, as she now angles toward new terrain and one of the largest mass audiences on the planet: football fans. As with the rest of her album rollouts, the effort for her 12th album has been planned meticulously. So it was not for nothing that she announced the record in August on New Heights, the podcast hosted by her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Her appearance became the podcasts most viewed and listened-to episode by an order of magnitude, peaking at 1.3 million concurrent livestream viewers, compared with the podcasts previous record of 141,821. The crossover continued in her music video for her standout single The Fate of Ophelia, which included a series of sports-related gestures that would register only to her ever-attentive fans. She catches a football; she mimics Kelces touchdown celebration; and the numbers 13 (for her December 13 birthday) and 87 (his jersey number) glide into frame. Together they total 100: a tidy metaphor for the merging of sports and pop culture.
Swift is now taking keen advantage of this convergence, plugging her own romance-led narrative into an arguably more durable mass spectacle: NFL football. Kelces domain remains one of the last functioning monocultures in Americabesides Swiftthat’s capable of reaching tens of millions of homes at once. Its an opportunity Swift has no interest in wasting.
The pop star attended her first Chiefs game on September 24, 2023, right around the time her relationship with Kelce became public knowledge. Immediately after, she received attention from corners of sports media that had scarcely covered her before. The NFL itself was wise to take full advantage of the moment, briefly updating its Instagram bio to read: Taylor was here. The alliance helped score a 20% surge in sponsorships, as well as more than a 50% increase in 12- to 17-year-old girls tuning in to games.
Much has been made of these gains for the NFL, but curiously, little attention has been paid to what the league has done for Swift. Entering this sphere has given her access to a new (previously Swift-averse) vertical: male, suburban, middle-American, multigenerational households that tend to organize their week around Sunday broadcasts.
Her regular high-profile appearances at Chiefs games have boosted her own social media followers and Spotify music streams. Immediately after her first game appearance, Swifts Spotify monthly listeners increased by 2.25%, and she gained a 1.12% follower increase on Instagramand most significantly, a 5.37% jump on TikTok. Streaming analytics database Streams Charts tracked a 3,000% spike in Swift listenership after her New Heights appearance, with a large influx of first-time male listeners.
If I’m Taylor Swift, and I want to take over the world, then how better for me to break into the 49% of the population than through sport, which is traditionally a masculine bastion, says David Rowe, professor emeritus at Western Sydney University in Australia and author of Sport, Culture, and the Media: The Unruly Trinity.
As this happens, it highlights the growing overlap between sports and music, fueled by the same data-driven logic that now governs modern fandom. With music listeners adopting the analytics-driven habits of sports fans, and NFL teams embracing social-media storytelling to court younger audiences, both worlds are collapsing into a single superfandom-driven entertainment economy. That shift has primed sports fans to receive Swift differently, and her visible integration into this masculine stronghold has turned her relationship with Kelce into an opportunity to capture an audience that once dismissed her.
Music borrows the sports playbook
Sports and music have a large range of formal similarities that have long gone underappreciated. Each are shapers of identity, with their range of rituals; sets of language, chants, and symbols; and paraphernalia and merchandiseall of which enhance a sense of community and belonging.
Something that I think the music industry has tried to adopt over time from the sports industry is the ability to rally people around fandom, because of a deep connection to it, and it being part of who they are, says Tatiana Cirisano, VP of music strategy at entertainment analysis firm MIDiA Research. “In a lot of ways, I think sports has done a better job of taking advantage of fandom than music has.
Both sports and Swift, in particular, inspire a highly emotional investment that can easily be monetized. You can connect them in strategic and organized ways, as part of a total entertainment package. And by having this convergence, you help connect across the gender divide, Rowe says. Swift and Kelces relationship, he adds, is a sublime marriage in more ways than one.
Swift is hardly the only pop star moving strategically into the sports arena. For years, artists have performed during the Super Bowl halftime show for free because the exposure is worth more than the check. And in 2025, Beyoncé has become a familiar presence at Formula One races, her fandom for the Grand Prix becoming all the more visible; Tems joined San Diego FC as a club partner through her company, The Leading Vibe; and high-profile musicians including Ed Sheeran, ASAP Rocky, Jay-Z, and Drake, have all taken stakes in professional teams to solidify their alliance with the sports world.
For these artists, sports offers a constant visibility that the music industry rarely facilitates. Seasons are long; games recur weekly; and broadcasts, stadium screens, and league-affiliated podcasts create more touchpoints than a standard album ccle. Sports organizations also sit on vast amounts of audience data and are largely considered brand-safe, giving entertainers a controlled environment in which to expand their reach.
Data makes music into sports
The similarities between sports and music are only continuing to blur in the age of algorithms and datafication.
While analytics were once top-down, now theyve become accessible to everyonewhich is why theyve become so central in music fandoms today. Now, thanks to real-time streaming dashboards, chart-tracking accounts, and analytics sites that update hourly, everyday listeners can see these numbers in a way that was unimaginable a decade ago. says Nicole Santero, a fan culture researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Sports betting, Cirisano says, has infiltrated pop culture, too. Now fans are betting on who they think will win the Grammys, she says. (Due to the August 30 cutoff date, Swifts latest album, released in October, is ineligible for the upcoming Grammys. At press time, Kalshi betters were 40% behind Bad Bunnys Debí Tirar Más Fotos to win album of the year.)
This fairly recent fan focus on data and analytics was pioneered in the early 2010s by K-pop artists and fandom, who have increasingly inspired Western pop acts, Swift included. K-pop showed that being a fan can feel a lot like being part of a team, UNLV’s Santero says. Instead of just listening to music, fans get pulled into a whole system where their actions matter. When a group has a new album or song, it isnt just a release; its almost like game day. Fans make streaming schedules, coordinate worldwide voting pushes, and keep track of charts the way sports fans keep track of stats.
Unlike sports, music once had no victor. Now, with a keener focus on metrics and statistics, a quantifiable winner emerges. Swift continually smashes records, consistently beating out her rivals. Fandom in sport and in music has always been defined by what you don’t like as well, says Rowe of Western Sydney University. “Its structured into sport. You have the enemy, the other teams. And there has always existed a similar dynamic in popular music: Beatles versus the Rolling Stones, Blur versus Oasis, East Coast versus West Coast rap, among many others. Tribalism and anti-fandom has only increased in this age. Its a rivalry Swift has always made a fine point of in her music, whether her references to Katy Perry in 2014s “Bad Blood” or Charli XCX in Life of a Showgirls “Actually Romantic.”
Whats new about this moment, and which has heightened the convergence between sports and music, is a necessary cross-pollination across forms. We’re at this point where the competition for attention has reached an all-time high. And if you’re an artist, you’re no longer just competing with other artists; you’re competing with the latest show on Netflix or a sports broadcast, says Cirisano of MIDiA Research.
Football fans open their minds
Swifts efforts to grow her audience through her visibility within sports are coinciding with sports leagues embracing the methods by which the rest of culture is building its audienceshareable content.
[The NFL] was once defined by traditional broadcasts and highlight reels, but its now transformed into a full-fledged digital entertainment machine, Santero says. Teams now treat social media platforms like their own storytelling studios. They share a ton of micd-up moments, behind-the-scenes footage, and even meme-able posts that feel designed for TikTok and Instagram.
This crossover has opened the door for sports fans to meet Swift halfway, priming them to receive her differently as she moves into their territory. Alex Folck, a die-hard Denver Broncos fan and former Swift hater, admits hes changed his tune since Swifts game and New Heights appearances.
I learned how weird she is, and it made me like her a lot. Her authenticity doesnt feel forced, Folck says. Swift has charmed many previously Swift-skeptical men with her bashful, self-deprecating, andwhat they interpret asauthentically unguarded demeanor during her sports-related appearances.
On camera, she seems relaxed and unrehearsed. If theres one thing male sports fans want to see in their spaces, its more of me, she joked on New Heights. That attitude has persuaded several male fans to reconsider her.
Writer Kasey Symons, a lecturer of communication at Deakin University in Australia, believes its a little more calculated: Swift is incredibly smart regarding her positioning and understanding her place in culture as a woman, no matter if that is pop music or sport, she says. And she is incredibly aware of her impact in sport, and will be strategic about how she uses it.
That strategy is resonating with fans like Folck. I definitely had a negative opinion of her beforehand, so I think seeing her in an NFL context had a positive effect, he says. Part of his change in attitude stems from the sense that she looks like shes genuinely really into it when she attends games. His preferences are emblematic of a familiar American male demographic: indifferent to pop music and deeply invested in sports. I follow games like the news, he says. Last year, he and his friends even threw a Swift-themed Super Bowl party.
Sports and music fans are now beginning to converge around Swift in ways that upend familiar gendered assumptions about each fandom. Women are joining fantasy football leagues at much higher rates, often choosing Swift-referential team names. Men, meanwhile, are placing Swift-themed bets: If the Chiefs win, rival fans must write elaborate essays about Swift and her music. Folck himself was subjected to this ritual after the Chiefs beat his team for the 16th consecutive time; he has since produced 200 pages on Swift this way.
With men finally on boardbegrudgingly or notSwift is inching closer to total media ubiquity, and football fans are inching toward masculinity (Taylors version). Guys still rolling their eyes at Taylor Swift are the same dudes who can’t enjoy an appletini or an ice cream cone, Folck says. Once the performative barriers come down, there’s plenty to enjoy that used to feel off-limits.
Theres a statistic thats been making the rounds for the better part of a decade that says the average person is exposed to about 10,000 ads every day. This has always sounded a tad suspect, as it amounts to an ad every six seconds of our waking day (it has since been debunked).
But maybe the reason its persisted this long is because it really feels true.
Our feeds are saturated with ads. The airwaves, TV broadcasts, sports sidelines, team jerseys, and our streamers are full of them. Now artificial intelligence is threatening to make that 10,000 ads a day statistic a reality.
Agency Genre.ai has made AI-generated ads for IM8, Popeyes, and Qatar Airlines, as well as the viral Kalshi spot that aired during the NBA Finals. When Soras latest version dropped back in October, agency founder PJ Ace posted on X, Brands will need to make an ad every other day to stay relevant.
Kill me.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Philip Ho, the founder of the appropriately named AI video production company Absurd, told the TBPN podcast that his company is getting asked for as many as 1,500 videos a month from single clients.
Just set me on fire.
All due respect to Ace and Ho, but the version of commercial culture theyre selling sounds like an AI-generated fever dream in which were all forced to remove our own eyeballs with rusty shrimp forks. Even legislation is starting to agree.
Drowning culture in a sea of sameness isnt good for our eyeballs, nor is it a good investment for brands. If you watch the ads Aces company has produced, and compare them to McDonalds’ recent AI ad (which just got pulled off the air in Europe), or even Cokes AI holiday ads, they all have that same . . . vibe. The people and scenes all appear to be using the same filter. It feels oddly homogenous. Now take that and increase the number of ads by tenfold. Pure unfiltered nightmare fuel.
If every brand is pumping out a new AI-generated ad every single day, lets consider what actual differentiation looks like. In 2026, brands should be finding new ways to utilize scarcity, anticipation, and fandom communities to that end. You could call it the less is more approach, but I prefer the STFU Brand Strategy.
The STFU Brand Strategy isn’t about being quiet, it’s about being more strategic in both how and when you talk to your audience. It is the pursuit of work or experiences that are enthusiastically passed around, as opposed to having AI slop fire-hosed down people’s throats every waking moment.
Award-winning ad agency Johannes Leonardo was one of the best practitioners of the STFU brand strategy this past year through its work for brands like Adidas and Oscar Mayer. Cofounder and creative chairman Leo Premutico is a firm believer in the idea that differentiation will come in the form of interesting ideas that real people share with other real people.
There’s no way that volume is the answer, says Premutico. This whole idea that the more AI is generating crap that it is then itself learning from, is just going to snowball to the point where, what are we even looking at? The last thing we need is more quantity. It needs to be something else.
The types of ads and content initially being produced en masse by AI are the social media video equivalent of banner ads. Performance marketing churn baiting us to click to find out more or shop now. Reports for years have pegged banner ad click-through rates at less than 1%.
Now, AI-generated ads are reportedly performing much better than banner ads ever did. But this is not how brands are built. Or rather, it’s not how long-lasting brands are built. Brands with a very healthy upper funnel utilize these tools to keep the lower funnel wheels turning, but it is (or should be) purely supplemental or supportive of the primary brand work.
At the very moment were seeing industry capitulation to AI as a sacrifice to the gods of efficiency (read: cost savings as AI replace humans) were seeing this steady drumbeat of audience backlash to AI advertising. Think about that: The very thing people routinely say they hate (ads!) is something they dont want despoiled. The brands and agencies that creatively heed that call will be the ones to forge the most meaningful connections with consumers.
Pump down the volume
First of all, this is not a revolutionary or particularly unique viewpoint. Let’s take one modern example. The entire streetwear and sneaker economy is built upon scarcity. Limited editions and surprise drops, combined with a very specific point of view, elite communication, and taste have built rabid fanbases. Brands like Supreme, Palace, and Corteiz are not churning out AI slop.
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London-based Corteiz is arguably the hottest streetwear brand on the planet. Its founder communicates directly with its audience on social, and its Instagram page was initially private. Its pop-ups are often one-day-only, with the location announced just hours before the event. Its ethos is reportedly real life only. Last year in New York, the brand invited fans to exchange other brands of denim for a pair of Corteiz, limited to just 250 pairs. The result of this restraint? Rabid fandom.
The focus on specific moments, and using them as a flywheel of ad materialcapitalizing on user-generated content around that moment, producing additional content from itworks to reinforce a brand’s cultural relevance. Take, for example, racing giant hot dog cars in front of 100,000 people.
Earlier this year, Premuticos agency created the Wienie500 for Oscar Mayer, in which they raced five of the brands famed Wienermobiles against each other at the Daytona 500. It streamed live on the Fox Sports app, getting 150 million total views; media coverage and social media attracted nearly seven billion earned impressions. Oscar Mayer saw its biggest Memorial Day sales lift in years.
I think the opportunity and the way to build a brand today is figuring out how each time you do something that captures people’s imagination, attention, and participation that it’s feeding into something bigger, says Premutico. It’s feeding into that brand equity so that it’s not a one-off online thing and then disappears.
Anti-slop algorithm
Asking brands to STFU isnt some Luddite plea. That ship has sailed. The good ship Sloppipop is here, and its never going awayjust like all the programmatic ads that follow you around trying to sell you the shoes you already bought a goddamn week ago. Despite how much we hate those ads, the programmatic ad tech firms are still rolling in billions.
Rich doesnt mean good. But it could mean better. Instead of using this technology to flood our feeds, brands should be using it to refine them.
Brand strategist and consultant James Kirkham wrote in his newsletter back in October about cracks in our obedience to the algorithm, that a second age of algorithmic culture may be upon us, defined “not by blind submission, but by conscious negotiation.” Well still use the machines, but well start interrogating their taste a bit more because we want to know whos feeding the feed. He said taste is becoming the new trust.
If the first age of algorithms was about eery prediction, the next will surely be about permissin, writes Kirkham. Those who build tools that help us understand rather than merely consume, and who restore agency, authorship, and flavor to our choices will own the decade ahead.
This is consistent with what multiple studies and trends have been telling us: As AI threatens to turn up the volume on the number of ads we see online, more people are seeking ways to avoid the algorithm and have more unique experiences. Studies show that 81% of Gen Z wish it was easier to disconnect from devices, and 54% prefer no AI involvement in creative work. Meanwhile, 84% of ads reportedly go unnoticed or simply arent remembered. They are effectively invisible. And now TikTok is giving users some control over how much AI they see in their feeds.
Ive talked to Yeti CEO Matt Reintjes about the dangers of overexposure, and how his brand’s growth strategy, while ambitious, has always favored depth over breadth. Obviously the outdoors gear brand advertises extensively, but its brand-building workthe stuff that gets people excited, like its films and involvement in sportsis very carefully and strategically built over time.
Back in 2023, he distilled it down to this: Brands face multiple points in their journey where they can be deep and relevant, but at the expense of growth and expansion, or they can chase growth and they forget about the depth of connections that they had already built, said Reintjes. Over time, you erode brand value, you erode uniqueness, you erode support and passion for who you are. And so weve been really thoughtful about how we drive breadth, adding on more communities, bringing in more consumers domestically, growing the brand internationally, all while also keeping those deep and connected roots all the way back to our earliest communities.
Participation value
When any brand can fake content, testimonials, or “viral” moments at an infinite scale, the only real measure of true value may become actual human participation.
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Nike is doing it with its soccer work lately. Witness its Manor Palace community space collab with Palace in London, or the latest stop of its Toma El Juego street soccer tournament event series at Art Basel in Miami last week.
But real human participation can also extend to content. Just look at State Farms Gamerhood series. Part game show, part reality show, featuring gaming creators like Kai Cenat, and its latest season has more than 27 million views.
One of the best examples of this past year was how Adidas effectively became the sixth member of Oasis for the bands massive reunion tour last summer. The omnipresent merch, retail events, and even an adcreated by Johannes Leonardothat ran at the start of every show.
Premutico says that creative marketers can no longer be asking themselves, “What content do I make?” but “What community do I build?” with the challenge of creating ideas worthy of consumer participation.
We need to create an outcome for a brand that is bigger and better than the outcome that’s going to be guaranteed by the algorithm, says Premutico. That’s our central challenge as a creative industry.
CNBC and its sister networks, including USA, Golf Channel, and E!, are spinning off from their former parent company Comcast NBCUniversal to form a new publicly traded company called Versant. As part of the new company, some of the brands in the portfolio have to rebrand to get rid of NBC’s iconic Peacock mark, CNBC included.
CNBC’s new logo, which goes live December 13, might take viewers some time to get used to.
CNBC’s logo evolution, 1989present. [Images: CNBC]
The financial news network’s new logo was designed in house to easily match the preexisting visual assets it uses on air. The typography of the mark based is on the network’s font, Gotham, and it shows a triangle cutting into the letter N and floating just above the wordmark. That triangle, which the network calls an arrow, matches its on-air graphics package.
The triangle shape has been used by CNBC since 2023. It’s shown next to stocks to indicate which companies are up in green and which are down in red, and it appears as an icon displayed next to on-air chyrons like “Earnings Report.” The colors used in the new logo match the the dark “Broadcast Blue” and light “Neon Blue” already used in the network’s primary color palette.
The new logo is meant to reflect a modern, streamlined identity, CNBC says, but the initial reaction online to the new logo hasn’t exactly been positive. In one Reddit thread, complaints ranged from “generic” and “corporate-looking” to being bothered by the triangular notch at the bottom of the N and B. “The triangle represents a guillotine blade, killing the brand,” one wrote. On X, a commenter asked if it was a joke.
Though the peacock is gone, CNBC is betting that by sticking to its arrow and wordmark it will be able to maintain the strength and recognition of its name brand with its audience even with a new look.
Like many of you, I grew up watching Its a Wonderful Life on television every holiday season. Frank Capras beloved film was a comforting part of our holiday tradition, often playing in the background while my family wrapped presents, cooked, or otherwise made merry.
Although the film was made in 1946, its lessons about money, power, and community seem remarkably relevant (and more poignant than ever) in 2025. Despite the passage of nearly 80 years, Americans are still facing many of the same issues that the citizens of Bedford Falls dealt with.
Rewatching George Bailey regain his hope can offer us a modern blueprint for handling these timeless economic woes.
Invest in each other
As a small child, I was fascinated by the bank run scene that occurs just as George (Jimmy Stewart) and his wife Mary (Donna Reed) are leaving town for their honeymoon. The citizens of Bedford Falls get spooked that Georges Building & Loan may fail, and so they show up to withdraw their money.
This scene was how I learned what a bank run isand also how banks handle our money. Because George offers a masterclass description of how his business works. He tells the frightened customers the following:
You’re thinking of this place all wrong, as if I had the money back in a safe. The money’s not here. Well, your money’s in Joe’s housethat’s right next to yoursand in the Kennedy house and Mrs. Maitland’s house and 100 others. You’re lending them the money to build, and then they’re going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now, what are you going to do, foreclose on them?
This scene helped me understand that money deposited in a bank doesnt (all) stay there. The bank lends it out so the money can grow.
But theres more to this scene than just how banking works. Because George Bailey doesnt run a bankhe runs a Building & Loan. Building & loan associations were cooperative mutual aid organizations that gave members borrowing privileges and dividend rights. These associations made home ownership accessible when mortgages were more difficult to get. Because building & loan associations were cooperative, they had to rely on their members trust and investment in each other to stay afloat.
Thats why George ends this scene with this plea to his customers: Now, we can get through this thing all right. Weve got to stick together, though. Weve got to have faith in each other.
How to apply this lesson in 2025
Building & loan associations largely went defunct not long after Its a Wonderful Life came out, while savings & loan organizations, which work in a similar way, have been thin on the ground since the S&L crisis of the 1980s. This makes it a little more difficult to offer economic solidarity to our friends and neighbors the way the people of Bedford Falls can do through Bailey Brothers Building & Loan.
But there are many other ways to invest in each other and in our communities, George Bailey-style. Consider the following:
Shop locally
Consider opening an account with a local bank or credit union
Attend concerts, fairs, games, etc.
Sponsor local youth sports teams
Volunteer
Visit your library (maybe you’ll see alternate-universe Mary!)
Offer to help your neighbors
Set up a little free library in your yard
Join your neighborhood Buy Nothing group
Know your worth
At Georges lowest point, his Uncle Billy has misplaced the Building & Loans $8,000 cash bank deposit (approximately $133,000 in 2025 dollars). The loss of this money will destroy the business and could lead to Georges arrest.
In desperation, George appeals to the films villain, Henry Potter, for a loan, using his life insurance for collateral. Mr. Potter scoffs at Georges request and tells him this:
Look at you. A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds, nothin’ but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy. You’re worth more dead than alive!
This cruel comment prompts George to consider suicide. He stands on a bridge, thinking that his family would be better off if he jumped, because at least he would be worth more money.
It takes the intervention of Angel, Second Class, Clarence Odbody to convince George that there is far more to his life than money. While It’s a Wonderful Life makes it clear that George does know his worth is greater than money under normal circumstances, he cant quite recall that when he is so stressed, overwhelmed, and unhappy after his desperate interview with Mr. Potter.
How to apply this lesson in 2025
Considering the number of changes to benefits such as SNAP, Social Security disability insurance, and federal student loans, many modern viewers can probably relate to Georges feelings in Mr. Potters office. We, too, may feel as though we need to show that we are worthy by providing a balance sheet of all our securities, stocks, and bonds. Otherwise, we are being told were not worth feeding, supporting, or educating.
Unfortunately, the collective action necessary to ensure these benefits remain accessible is slow work. But knowing that you are worthwhile can be much faster. You dont have to wait around for your personal Clarence to tell you so.
Remember that the money that Mr. Potter and his ilk place so much emphasis on doesnt really exist. But your worth does. And just like George makes an enormous difference in his world, you make an enormous difference in yours. Whereas money is just an idea we all share.
Have patience
Although its a beautifully written, prfectly cast film, Its a Wonderful Life flopped at the box office in 1946, before slipping into obscurity. Then, in a clerical error worthy of Uncle Billy, someone neglected to renew its copyright protection in 1974, which meant the film lapsed into public domain.
No one expected what happened next.
Television stations began showing Capras film during the Christmas season throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was a free programming option when TV stations couldnt afford to put on expensive holiday shows. And the once-obscure story of one bankers life in a small town became the most beloved yuletide movie tradition of all time.
How to apply this lesson in 2025
Im a sucker for art that takes a long time to find its audience. Because sometimes works of genius simply arent appreciated until long after theyre released. Frank Capra created a masterpiece, even though it wasnt immediately recognized as such. He did everything in his power to create a fantastic movieand what happened next was out of his hands.
This is something I personally need to remind myself of. The work I do today may not bear fruit tomorrow or next week or 10 years from now. But that doesnt make my actions meaningless nor does it mean my work will never result in positive change. It just means I dont know what will happen, I should exercise some patience, and I should have faith in the process.
Do your best work today, whatever that work may be, and have the patience to accept that it will make its mark when the time is right. Its what George would do.
Helping angels get their wings
If youre a sobbing mess by the time George finds Zuzus petals in his pocket, youre not alone. And thats the entire point. Its a Wonderful Life reminds us that we are not alone.
We are stronger together, but we must invest in each other to ensure that we keep that power. We are all worthy, but have to reject any thinking that reduces our worth to our bank balance (or any other number). And what we do makes a difference, but we have to have patience that the change will come, but not necessarily when or how we expect.
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During the Pandemic Housing Boom, from summer 2020 to spring 2022, the number of active homes for sale in most housing markets plummeted as homebuyer demand quickly absorbed almost everything that came up for sale and sellers had ultimate power.
Fast-forward to the current housing market, and the places where active inventory has rebounded to 2019 levels (due to strained affordability suppressing buyer demand) are now the very places where homebuyers have gained the most power.
At the end of November 2025, national active housing inventory for sale was still -6% below November 2019 levels. However, more and more regional markets are surpassing that threshold.
This list is growing:
January 2025: 41 of the 200 largest metro area housing markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
February 2025: 44 of the 200 largest metro area housing markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
March 2025: 58 of the 200 largest metro area housing markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
April 2025: 69 of the 200 largest metro area housing markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
May 2025: 75 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
June 2025: 78 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
July 2025: 80 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
August 2025: 80 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
September 2025: 81 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
October 2025: 84 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
Now, at the latest reading for the end of November 2025, 90 of the 200 markets are above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
While this list of housing markets back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels was growing through much of the year, it has stalled a little recently. The reason? Inventory growth has slowed in recent monthsmore than typical seasonality would suggestas some home sellers in soft and weak markets in the Sun Belt have thrown in the towel and delisted (more on that in another piece).
This next table helps you see what the inventory picture in these same 90 markets looks like now and what it looked like last year.
Among these 90 markets, youll find lots in Sun Belt markets like Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado.
Many of the softest housing markets, where homebuyers have gained leverage, are located in Gulf Coast and Mountain West regions. Some of these areas were among the nations top pandemic boomtowns, having experienced significant home price growth during the pandemic housing boom, which stretched housing fundamentals far beyond local income levels.
When pandemic-fueled domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates spiked, markets like Cape Coral, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, faced challenges as they had to rely on local incomes to sustain frothy home prices. The housing market softening in these areas was further accelerated by the abundance of new home supply in the pipeline across the Sun Belt.
Builders in these regions are often willing to reduce net effective prices or make other affordability adjustments to maintain sales. These adjustments in the new construction market also create a cooling effect on the resale market, as some buyers who might have opted for an existing home shift their focus to new homes where deals are still available.
In contrast, many Northeast and Midwest markets were less reliant on pandemic migration and have less new home construction in progress. With lower exposure to that demand shock, active inventory in these Midwest and Northeast regions has remained relatively tight, keeping the advantage in the hands of home sellers.
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Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic levels have experienced softer/weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 36 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 36 months.
ResiClub PRO members can find our latest inventory analysis for +800 metros and +3,000 counties here, and our latest analysis showing why the 2019 inventory comparison remains insightful here.
