Issue 8: Sweatpants anniversary

One year of working from home and the slow panic of a global pandemic

Happy sweatpants anniversary, everyone! Can you believe it’s been one year since most marketers took an average of 1 hour each day commuting to and from work, wore anything that needed ironing, or paid $14.50 for a sad lunch salad?

Accurate GIF of me waiting for the bus in Seattle (via Giphy)

Well, the year of staying in is nearly Over, they say. Are you ready? I’m with Anne Helen Peterson on this one: I’m not ready:

You’re probably going to feel exhausted when you want to feel exhilarated, panicked when you thought you’d feel safe, combative when all you want is to feel soothed. Your social skills have atrophied and you’re probably going to get in some big fights that will seem like they’re about nothing but are actually about everything. You’re going to crave some of the parts of quarantine life you swore you never would. You’re probably going to over-plan and over-schedule and feel an alarming and unexpected need for solitude and have to pull back and re-evaluate. It’s going to feel periodically awful in new ways, and it’s going to be a continuing struggle, but it’s also going to be amazing.

What habits will you keep - and shed - as soon as you’ve got your arm pokes and it seems OK to go outside? Who will you trust to share air with, and which businesses will you #support and #save because if anything the last year’s taught you, is that you shouldn’t take advantage of your favorite spots and spaces? Responsible spending, buying with a purpose is problematic yes, as it points out that the institutions meant to protect us don’t really do so; but supporting places we love is something we should do. It’s something chef David Chang talks about a lot in his podcast, which I love (though yes, not perfect).

Will you do your best Gatsby impression? Play-act like you’re the wise crone that remains a hermit in the scifi movie in which the plague is solved but has scarred the ones that remember what things were like before? Or have we numbed all our trauma and stress with a steady stream of Netflix originals and funny TikTok videos? And don’t worry - you’re not imagining that weird brain feeling after you’ve realized more than an hour has passed since you started watching those short and funny videos - the app really does hijack your brain.

As marketers, as communicators - we have to understand the confusion is coming. That joy is coming. And that we must be gentle with the people we serve. Genuine over saccharine, and not afraid to question when our tone might not quite be right.

After all, we have to live up to this lovely quasi-viral tweet that went up a couple of weeks ago:

I happen to agree - many companies do underinvest in PR in that they choose performance marketing and immediate results over the slow burn and hard work of intentional, genuine storytelling. Most companies don’t want to put real skin in the game - to show uniqueness, vulnerability, to invest in initiatives that go beyond surface-level trumpeting of a new product. But, with investment should come a conscience. The ability to push and nudge that company to make a difference. And that doesn’t mean just story count - though gosh, Airbnb, 500,000 articles in a year is a lot - and I’d gander not all of theme were positive or educational.

So yes, invest. But invest well. Volume isn’t everything - if it were, we could just write some code to solve for that, couldn’t we?

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Interesting PR roles

• Aqua Security, Director of Communications

• Splunk, Director of Communications