Five Things to Know This Week:
Spider Noir is Releasing in Black & White (and Color)
Nick Cage’s Spider Noir will release on May 27 on Prime Video in 2 versions:
Authentic Black and White
True Hue Full Color
It’s the same show, released in two formats. The viewer gets to pick which version they watch. It’s meant to build an appreciation for classic noir films (or at least that’s what Nicolas Cage claimed was the point). I guess you also get to brag about it if you watched it in black and white and resisted the urge for color?
The Brand Play: The dual-format release creates somewhat of a template/question: what would it look like to release the same thing in 2 versions and let the audience choose? A long version and a short version. A BTS version and a polished version. An audio version and a visual version. The choice could be the engagement…
Brands Are Hiring Illustrators Because They’re Afraid of Looking Like AI
Hermes replaced product photography with hand-drawn illustrations by French artist Linda Merad (on their website). GAP hired a human illustrator for their Sandy Liang collab.
The Anti-AI aesthetic subculture is having a moment, and (for now) a luxury positioning strategy. It’s all about proof of craftsmanship. More.
The Brand Play: This is not about whether your brand should use AI. (That convo is happening in slack and will never end). This is about what your visual identity communicates to someone who is seeing other frictionless, soulless, algorithmically smoother imagery on their feed. A hand-drawn element in your next campaign isn’t a creative choice, it’s a signal of trust. It says that a real person has touched this. If you’re a smaller brand without the budget for Hermes-level illustration, commission a local artist to do your next social series.
The MET Gala’s Most Expensive Night Was Also Its Most Conflicted
The 2026 MET Gala raised $42 million. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez paid $10 million to co-sponsor it. Protesters left bottles of urine outside. Amazon workers and delivery drivers held a counter event in Meatpacking (called the Ball without Billionaires). Mamdani boycotted and celebrated NYC’s garment workers instead.
The Brand Play: Being associated with this event was a bad look for attendees and brands that showed up in the co-branded space with Amazon. It was tone deaf (but the MET Gala always kinda is). If you really want to tap into fashion, art, and culture, I would urge brands to look into Mamdani’s photo series. If you want to create art and culture, meet it where it is.
Pennsylvania Just Sued Character.AI for Practicing Medicine Without a License
A Character.AI chatbot called “Emilie” claimed to be a licensed psychiatrist, provided a fake license number, and started diagnosing users with depression. Character.AI says its bots are “fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying.” Pennsylvania says that they’ve left the realm of fiction/roleplay. More.
The Brand Play: If your brand uses any kid. of AI-powered customer interaction it might be worth reading this lawsuit. The arguement Penn State is making is simple: if it talks like a professional, advises like a professional, and the user reasonably believes it’s a professional, then any disclaimer at the bottom doesn’t matter. I would audit your AI touchpoints now. You may have a few liabilities hanging around.
READ THE ROOM: The Iran War Ended Again, Or Something.
On May 5 Marco Rubio announced the Iran War had ended. It didn’t. Nothing changed.
The Brand Play: I would normally tell a brand to tread lightly, but this is not letting up. Watch the news, I guess.
If you’re new here, I write a monthly serialized novel called Everything is Advertising, about a burned-out Creative Director and his cynical team that accidentally create QAnon through a viral marketing campaign. If you like that kind of thing, you can start at Part One and catch up from there.
Every Wednesday, Open Woods tracks the cultural moments worth paying attention to. Curated weekly for brands that want to move first.
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Every Sunday, Above the Fold breaks down what’s running in advertising, what’s landing, and what’s a total disaster.