Stupefy: Travis Scott and Cultural Laziness

I'm not a tween, teen, "youth" or member of Gen Z.

But I understand Fortnite. It's not that hard. It's a video game. I played it a few times.

For people in media, advertising and marketing, though, trying out what the kids are doing is apparently too tall a task.

This week, those who are paid to understand the connection, entertainment and expression of young people turned to Travis Scott to wheat paste over their laziness.

One sentence made me moan louder and longer than Kid Cudi.

Gerrick D. Kennedy, in his hilariously glowing profile of Scott in GQ, wrote of Scott that "he's one of the few people alive who understand the particular predilections of those vast millions of young people populating Fortnite's outstretched provinces."

Connection
Sentences like the above, which is laughably hyperbolic, and the long tail of adulation for Travis Scott's Fortnite concert illustrate one thing.

Travis Scott isn't the only one who gets youth culture. Creative professionals are the only ones who don't get youth culture.

How could he be the only one? By definition he's not. If millions of people hang out in Fortnite, Roblox, Warzone, Minecraft, Animal Crossing or wherever, does this mean those people don't understand each other?

People in advertising and media think that knowing that Travis Scott did something in Fortnite is a replacement for actually knowing what kids do in Fortnite.

If they point to Travis Scott's Fortnite event enough, they might be thinking, maybe they don't have to actually visit Fortnite.

Entertainment
Those trying to understand young people's entertainment habits didn't fare better this week when it comes to pure laziness.

On Saturday, Warner Bros. dropped the longest trailer yet for the new Christopher Nolan movie "Tenet," set to be released on Sep. 3 after multiple delays.

The twist? Travis Scott has been inserted as the cultural ambassador and mascot for the whole thing, providing the soundtrack to the trailer and a merch collection in collaboration with the film.

Notice the song Scott made for the film is a "Yeezus"-era Kanye soundalike.

Notice the studio is trying to pass off the lyric "tenants" as "tenet."

Notice the merch is a low-effort pastiche of 90s sci-fi vintage t-shirts and A24 maximalism.

It's all so obviously rushed. My guess is Nolan pushed hard to release the film ASAP. The studio marketing department probably freaked out when buzz died after so many delays. Insert last-minute Travis Scott-ness.

Even the picture Nolan and Scott took together for Scott's contractually obligated Instagram post is blurry, like the person with the phone was mid-post before they were done even taking the picture.

Expression
But nothing was a bigger whiff than the news of a supposed McDonald's collaboration with Scott.

Reading between the lines of a leaked memo published by Business Insider, the collaboration will probably include some apparel or products aka merch, with some to be worn by McDonald's staff.

Merch from Travis Scott and McDonald's would suggest that someone thinks kids want to dress like they work at McDonald's.

They don't. They want to dress like Travis Scott. And if he keeps getting paid to dress like any brand with the money to pay him then they won't much longer.

How many people did it take to come up with Travis Scott x McDonald's merch?

"In the memo, [McDonald's CMO] Flatley thanks agency partners including WKNY, The Narrative Group, Alma, Burrell, Loud and Live, Walton Isaacson, Boden PR, The Marketing Store, Publics Groupe, OMD, Native Tongue, Admerasia and IW Group."

That's a lot of people doing very little to understand "the youth."

Travis Scott and Cultural Laziness

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