– Your Bright Brothers Team
David Romako / Josh Yeager /  Brandi Walsh

The Gestapo did it. The Cold War-era Secret Police did it. Just about every government today does it, but also apps? Yes, apps. Our beloved social media apps spy on us in an effort to stamp out hate speech, harmful discourse or even to develop sophisticated machine learning about language patterns. But how far is too far?  And when communities resort to using coded language, euphemisms and alternate vocabularies to evade the algorithms, it can be a slippery slope. Case in point, as this WashPo article points out, (and we know of myriad personal examples from our friends in the creative, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities), alternate language is often necessitated by a need to not be silenced. While we have constitutionally protected “freedom of speech” here in the U.S., that doesn’t mean that voluntary usage of apps applies. Consider the indie LGBTQ maker who’s struggling to survive and needs the vibrancy and reach of platforms like Instagram or TikTok to promote and sell their goods. Then only to have anything deemed inappropriate by the algos shut down, shadow-banned, or even suspended  — for selling artsy t-shirts with “questionable imagery” or having your post not appear because you used the words gay, lesbian — or even try to speak out about sexual assault. From a linguistic standpoint, this is fascinating, but also scary. Once the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no going back, and online sharing collectives aimed at beating the algos, will soon become obsolete, because, well….the internet. If you’re a “saltine”, spicy eggplant” or a “le dollar bean”, trying to keep one-step ahead of AI is crucial, and the struggle is real. And we “opposite of love” that about the algos.

In our last edition, we explored the societal pressures of social media on our youth. In the opposite direction, and this is evermore imperative as our population ages and greys, more brands are showing older women in ads. It’s not all that surprising, considering that the “Me Generation” of post-war America were the first to put an emphasis on youth culture in such a strong and impactful way. As these women age, and now many with healthy disposable incomes, the advertisers are going to follow. Age-neutral representation is something we’re going to continue to see more of, and as creative director Sarah Baker predicted that, “age representation in advertising would become ‘table stakes’ in the next few years,”. But as they say, “the future is now”, so we’re curious to know if our “women of a certain age” (as the French so eloquently put it), are seeing the positives. Do you feel represented in media, and does it make you want to spend more with companies who show familiar, and in some cases, beautifully aged faces in their media and adverts? Tell us whatcha think!

…that the U.S. is shrinking in three ways?  Yep!  It’s the same three ways we could be growing as well, except we’re not. According to this piece by The Atlantic, “The U.S. population grew at the slowest pace in history in 2021,” according to census data released in late March 2022. The three metrics that account for a country’s growth or decrease are simple: immigration, deaths and births. And our country is collapsing. We’ve all heard about America’s trend of downsizing when it comes to reproduction. And then we’ve had a marked increase in deaths, with an additional 1 million dead due to COVID-19 (sadly, the majority of those after the announcement of vaccines). Lastly, we have an immigration problem in this country. It’s not that too many people from other parts of the world are invading us (as some politicians would like you to believe), however just the opposite. We’re actually experiencing a precipitous drop due to multiple factors (like growing economies in Latin America, and more). So what does this all mean? The implications are far reaching from brain drain to stagnant economies, starving colleges and more. Unless things change soon, we’re all going to have to get a whole helluva lot craftier in our jobs and do more with less. 

Photo credit: Mick Haut, Unsplash

Like many industries, urban planning leans heavily towards the skewed perceptions of white men. Writer Marion Roberts posits that a “socialist-feminist approach” helps to balance the needs of all of a city’s constituents. “Experiences of sexual harassment and violence intersect with other social inequalities, especially those of class, race, disability and sexual orientation,”. Roberts believes that, “techniques and tools such as gender impact assessments, gender auditing and gender budgeting,” are imperative for today’s urban planner. Globally, cities like Vienna and Mexico City are leading the way with a socialist-feminist approach. Case in point, “In Mexico City, a programme entitled ‘Safer Streets, Safer Trails’ targeted at women has introduced better lighting, security cameras and alarm buttons over 200 kilometres of streets and paths. Combined with other improvements to public spaces, this has reduced street crime against women by 29 per cent and raised perceptions of safety in the period 2018-2021 by 40 per cent,” notes Roberts.  How many of your city’s planners are women, and to what extent are their voices guiding equality in development?  We’d love to hear from you.

Photo credit: Ashely Piszek, Unsplash

We all love a good placemaking success story, right? Colorful and fancifully painted crosswalks have become a staple in our industry, but perhaps not for much longer. That’s a show-stopper for cities like London, England, Billings, Montana, Kodiak, Alaska, and Niagara Falls, New York (the latter three of which all received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies “Asphalt Art” projects). The reason why? In the U.K. several organizations representing differently-abled people maintain that, “colourful crossings pose safety and accessibility concerns for individuals who are visually impaired, neurodivergent, or are living with dementia,”. The groups also criticized fanciful crosswalks for failing to engage the disabled community, and argued that the new crossings would prevent disabled persons from using public space. The solution may be to separate murals from crosswalks altogether, although the debate remains open ended for now.  What’s your take?

Photo credit: Cory Woodward, Unsplash