Yeah, you ain't normal mate ➜

Want to know if you're better looking than 60% of The Spice Girls? Go ahead and click the link. Vanity and japes aside, this is an alarmingly good demonstration of how far AI has come in terms of facial recognition and the wider applications of its capabilities. Crafted in the style of a personalised presentation it gives an eye-opening display of the array of algorithms processing images of our faces every day; their capabilities and their limitations. If you want to know what age AI thinks you're gonna live to, how old AI thinks you are, or how many of the Spice girls AI thinks you're more attractive than – not to brag, but all of them – best face forward and hit the link. 

Anti vaxxers anger at Santa! ➜

Anti vaxers are unhappy with Santa, well Tesco, technically. The retail giant's ‘This Christmas, nothing's stopping us’ ad, has become the second most complained about TV ad ever. On screen we see Santa brandishing his Covid passport having escaped ‘quarantine’ and thus free to distribute the joy of Christmas. Complaints suggest the ad encourages medical discrimination. As ASA (the industry watchdog) ponders any action, we can only imagine that double jabbed Santa will be bypassing all test and trace procedures too as he traverses the globe. His passenger locator form would make an interesting read. Free FYI – only Paddy Power's ad, offering money back on all bets "if he walks" at Oscar Pistorious 2014 murder trial, has had more complaints.
 

Buy land, they ain't making any more... oh! ➜

It was the entertainer Will Rogers, who coined the phrase ‘Buy land, they aint making any more of the stuff’. Often referred to as America's Cowboy Philosopher, he was a skilled broadcaster, humorist and writer and at the turn of the 1900's, he made that very astute point, which undoubtedly underpinned property empires for decades. However, what Will didn't anticipate back then was the advent of an alternate reality. A bold new world where they would, in fact, be making more land. And almost as quickly as they are making it, people are, taking Will at his word, and buying it. For seemingly insane amounts. This digital plot in Decentraland in the metaverse just sold for $2.43m!! RIP Will – and the reality you rode in on.

Branding distilled! ➜

You'll sometimes catch us banging on to clients that their brand isn't just their logo, font choices or colour palette. Of course these play an important part in their identity design, but establishing a brand involves understanding: its mission, purpose, values, vision, outlook and culture – the very things which make it unique. Going through a full branding process can be time consuming and challenging, as the answers are rarely aligned across teams or especially easy to extract, but this shortcut technique c/o Joie de Vivre (US hospitality chain) and their Phoenix Hotel, may be one we'll pinch ourselves when client time and/or patience is in short supply.

The Drumbeat Drop is our candid take on the weird, wired, wonderful world we work in.


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