What’s Hot? 12/02

In this, our Valentine’s Day edition of What’s Hot, we’re thinking about Love in the Age of Google, Rose dancing in Titanic, Hollywood crossovers, perfect couples and… cross-platform posting. Sorry, we can’t make everything romantic.

The one we can’t get enough of: That Super Bowl meme

The Weeknd’s Super Bowl performance this week gave us some truly fantastic screenshots as he appeared to be lost and alone in a hall of mirrors (?). The mixed look of fear, confusion, and heartbreak is easy to spot and hits too close to home. The flashbacks to losing your mum in Tesco as a child were hard to cope with, but collectively, we got through it.

Some brilliant memes were shared across Twitter instantly, with a particular highlight being the Weeknd and Rose from Titanic dancing, which then spurred Rose and Matt Hancock dancing.

The content to re-consider: Cross-platform posting

We’ve all seen it – an Instagram or Reel that doesn’t look quite right. Slightly lower res, dimensions a bit off, TikTok’s watermark splashed across the middle. A recycled, cross-platform post.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re totally behind making content work for multiple platforms. Working with a TikTok influencer? Why not edit the content for Reels. IGTV running a little wrong? Let’s work on some funny outtakes for stories. But we don’t love recycled content that’s literally saved from one platform then uploaded on another. It’s lazy, it’s not tailored, and let’s be honest – it looks a bit crap.

That’s why we’re pretty pleased to hear that Instagram plans to intervene and prevent this happening, limiting the distribution of Reels that appear recycled, looking for low-res video quality and watermarks. Sorry everyone – but it’s for the best.

The Hollywood crossover we didn’t expect: Paul x Blake

In the USA, when you think Hollywood, you think glitz, glamour, red carpets, celebrity couples… That sort of thing, right? In the UK, we also think this, but we have another famous Hollywood – Paul.

We saw a crossover of the two this week, with actress Blake Lively tagging Paul Hollywood in a unicorn cake she baked, claiming she deserved a handshake, with Paul resharing and saying he’ll see Blake in the tent ?

The meme more brands need to jump on: xxxx gf, xxxx bf

If you haven’t seen the perfect couple memes, you’re missing out. The best examples (from our POV) of this meme cover Emily in Paris, coffee orders, and Mr Brightside.

We can’t help but wonder, could we create some branded perfect couples? Here’s our starter for ten:

• Anthropomorphic chocolate caterpillar cake gf, Anthropomorphic chocolate caterpillar cake bf
• Heinz beans gf, Weetabix bf (bravo Weetabix by the way, what a week for our fave wheat-based breakfast cereal)
• Purring seductress in green gf, worried Dan Levy is going to eat him bf

The Valentine’s poem you needed: Love in the Age of Google

Look, everyone knows that we love tech. There’s no hiding it. But we also love poetry – is it even a brainstorm if you haven’t had a spoken-word idea thrown into the mix? Sadly, in our locked down world, attending any form of spoken-word event is currently on hold, so we’re having to make do with old-school written poetry. So millennial.

This week, Tweeter Brian Bilston shared a poem from his latest collection, “Alexa, what is there to know about love?” This poem, entitled “Love in the Age of Google”, shows the auto-completed search terms Google offers in response to various love-related searches.

Our personal highlight?

“Can love last forever
Can love break your heart
Can love2shop vouchers be used online”

Read it and weep – happy Valentine’s Day, y’all.