Timothée Chalamet’s Cringe Mountain & Selling Nostalgia

Hey Climbers. This Week — Timothée Chalamet’s Cringe Mountain, selling stuff with nostalgia, and how to honour your creative voice in the face of a heartless algorithm.

Timothée Chalamet’s Cringe Mountain

We’re now in the age of celebrities who grew up online. The best thing about it? They have a digital footprint.

From doing the Soulja Boy (relatable) to having a rap alter ego named Timmy Tim (less relatable) Timothée Chalamet’s does not disappoint.

Cringe, but also pretty endearing?

Climb faster and smarter with a sherpa

Need some help along your climb? I’ve had two spots for 1:1 consulting open up on Fridays and I want to give Cringe Mountain readers first dibs. I’ll be taking two new clients through my program:

Basecamp to breakthrough: The 30 day plan for founder-led businesses to start climbing Cringe Mountain and build an iconic brand on TikTok.

This is for you if:

• You’re a service or product based business

• You know you have what it takes to be iconic, but you’re struggling to get past the ‘cringe’ of posting regularly on Tiktok

• Have at least 2 hours free per week

I’ve helped major national brands make creative content that consistently impacts culture, and I can help you do the same, if you’re ready.

Climber thought of the week

Did you see the Walmart ad that is essentially a Mean Girls remake blow-up online this week? Like every other 30 year old white girl, I lapped it up. But it also got me thinking about the selling power of nostalgia… and whether it’s a cop-out.

These days, it seems like every brand is wheeling out some long-forgotten pop culture person or moment to sell their product.

Selling stuff is all about getting people to feel something. And nostalgia is a highway to the heart.

When I was in radio, the talkback segments that most lit up the phone lines were nostalgia-based. People love - like love love - reminiscing.

The engagement was almost addictive. I was like, should I just do nostalgia content all the time?

But for some reason, I always felt a little hollow afterwards.

Nostalgia vs Values

More and more, consumers are expecting businesses to stand for something.

And according to Forbes, value-driven companies are more profitable, too - achieving a ‘5x return advantage over the S&P 500 index and a 3x premium over leading peers.’

Values are impactful. Compelling. Emotive.

But they can also be divisive. And for big, old companies, standing for something can be really scary.

In my opinion, nostalgia is a safe & lazy way for these companies to still get reach, but avoid having to stand for something.

But it’s not a long-term strategy.

I see it like this: nostalgia is past focussed. Values are future focussed. Both get high engagement, but only the latter is sustained.

Don’t get me wrong, Nostalgia is a great engagement tool. But, like me with the radio segments, it can leave us feeling hollow.

If you’d like to experiment with nostalgia for short-term strategies, you’ll probably see results. But to build longterm, enduring brands that people engage with deeply, I think it has to be done on a foundation of real, future-facing values.

Creative inspo of the week

You make something you’re really proud of. You post it. It flops.

If you’ve ever struggled with the tension between your creativity and catering to a mindless, heartless algorithm, watch this talk by director Karen X Cheng.

She talks about how to stop your art from being corrupted by the algorithm. And I think it’s pretty important.

karenxcheng

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Til next time,

Keep climbin’

Eri out xox

www.ericamallett.com