W014: Notes
Hunny - Your Box Is Showing (Capitalism Breeds Innovation Memes and The Rising PR Struggles of 'The Rich And Famous'), The Office Siren's are Getting Fired, Something To Consider
Hunny. Your box is showing.
Capitalism Breeds Clones and The Rising PR struggles of 'The Rich And Famous'
Continuing from my last Substack about our desire to escape freedom and how we put ourselves and others into boxes—I’m glad to see more people noticing our cultural obsession with compartmentalisation. Martini Feeny, a virtually unknown creator recently posted this video calling out NYC influencers for being carbon copies of one another. Her word of choice? Boring! (I tried to embed the video here, but Substack refused.)
To her surprise, the post blew up. And with only 200 followers, the virality clearly came from what she said—not who said it—it hit a nerve. “The influencers” were pissed. One in particular, along with her sister and their eerily similar-looking influencer crew, launched a full-blown hate campaign against her… despite the fact that she never named anyone.
And how did they even know it was about them? Maybe because they matched the description a little too well: pilates classes, matcha lattes, Revolve outfits, and a feed full of sponsored content. Their box was showing.
And Martini Feeny is right. There are specific influencer archetypes that have been copy-pasted across the globe. In Manhattan, she’s the matcha-sipping, Alo-wearing, Reformation-shopping, pilates-obsessed, perfectly manicured, slender, wealthy, white girlie, tapping her nails through yet another sponsored beauty routine and walking you through the same “day-in-the-life” script we’ve seen a thousand times. As Martini Feeny said — Boring. And yet they still manage to rack up millions of followers. How does this work?
It’s because this sameness ins’t accidental — it’s industrial. It’s strategy disguised as personality. We are looking at a product, a marketing tool — not self expression. These influencers (or let’s call them Sales Channels) are carefully crafted — in an influencer factory. In the case of the above mentioned influencers, the factory by Shana Davis-Ross’s called Ponte Firm who “manufactures algorithmically coveted manhattan lifestyles”.
This article goes deeper on Ponte and 'The Internet Anthropologist’ below has done a great video on this topic.
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Martini Feeny’s post revealed three things to me. First, like the Met Gala Digitine, the Blue Origin PR disaster, and countless other recent moments in between, we’re growing increasingly disillusioned with these curated, exclusive displays of excess and luxury. Yes, as I explored here, the use of these vehicles still work a charm—but the cracks are showing, and change never happens all at once.
Second, the reaction of the influencers to Martini Feeny’s post was swift, brutal, and petty. They attacked her, mocked her and publicly berated her. It was embarrassing and telling. Was it just arrogance? A tone-deaf “you can’t sit with us” response? Or—like Blue Origin’s so-called “astronauts” reacting similarly to criticism—is this type of response also rooted in fear? A fear that the power and relevance of the influencer and the celebrity class is under threat.
Third, that capitalism doesn’t breed innovation, lol.
Influencer marketing still works — yes. But for how long? Feeny’s post went viral for a reason. It’s another clear signal that the tide is turning—and as marketers, we’d be foolish not to pay attention. It’s this very shift that Katy Perry, Gale King and Blue Origin (undoubtably expensive) comms teams have been ignoring, despite the mounting evidence. It’s baffling to me that none of their pricy consultants prepared them for the backlash each of us “normal people” could have predicted.
Just like those influencers clearly occupy their (algorithmically designed) box, the Blue Origin crew is embarrassingly showing theirs. Out of touch, elitist celebrities who can no longer connect to what’s real. ”Have you been?” No Gale, we haven’t been. Perhaps it’s time you (and the rest of the celebrity class) start paying someone to tell you why your response is fuelling this mass rejection.
The Office Siren’s are getting fired
What happens when the persona you’ve carefully crafted online doesn’t translate well in real life?
Today, everything is an aesthetic and there are hundreds of styles to choose from. In the town I grew up you basically had two options—you were either with the alternative skaters or part of the preppy hockey crew. We simply chose our aesthetic and felt a sense of belonging and grew from there.
But today, social media spins an ever-changing wheel of aesthetics: mob wife, tomato girl, office siren… It makes me think, perhaps identity is no longer something we grow into—it’s something we curate, one TikTok trend at a time.
“Just be yourself!” They say. But as I wrote in my last piece, that’s a freedom far too daunting. Instead, we pick a box and perform within it. We don’t find who we are, we select it. But what happens when the persona you’ve carefully crafted online doesn’t translate well in real life?
Let’s explore, The Office Siren. I saw this aesthetic float by last year but I figured it would have passed by now. It hasn’t. It’s worse. Today, women are getting pulled into HR meetings, and some are even losing their jobs.
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Aesthetics can be a powerful tool—especially for young people trying to figure out who they are. Aligning yourself with a look or a tribe can be comforting, grounding. But this particular trend reveals something deeper: our growing need to be admired, desired, noticed. A need that is so intense that some are willing to risk their income and career for a few hours of feeling “special”—or for the potential online clout that comes from filming a defiant encounter with HR and uploading it to TikTok.
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I’m currently reading The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. Lasch explores how capitalism transformed us from a collective culture into a hyper-individualistic one. Life used to be about our ancestors, our descendants, — we had a place in something larger. Now, especially in the West, it’s all about ‘me’. (And he wrote that in 1979, well before social media further deepend our obsession with the self.)
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The Office Siren isn’t concerned with distracting her coworkers—she wants the looks. It’s not about the work she’s paid for, or her colleagues trying to focus on their projects; it’s about the aesthetic she’s performing within. Making copies, bending to pick up a pen, walking to her cubicle—every move is curated, performed, and possibly filmed. Her HR meeting? Anticipated, invited even. She might get fired—but if the clip goes viral, maybe she won’t need the job anyway.
But here’s where it gets tricky. Before we reduce the Office Siren to a narcissistic trope, it’s worth pausing to ask: who decides what’s considered “appropriate” in the workplace anyway? The line between self-expression and professionalism has always been murky—especially for women, and even more so for women of colour.
In 2024 Doyin Adeyemi wrote “I know there are ‘safe’ hair choices that make certain spaces easier. I also know this pressure is not one I am alone in feeling. Many of my friends who are Black men and have locs have chosen to cut them to conform to this unspoken standard.” And just 10 years ago, Nicola Thorp was sent home from her receptionist job at a corporate accountancy firm after simply refusing to wear high heels.
Although I agree “The Office Siren” look feels overly self indulgent and inappropriate in an office setting… I still ponder: when is it okay to police what women—or anyone—looks like and wears at work? When does fashion simply change and generational differences clash? At the same time, when is it okay to ignore coworkers’ complaints when they say your outfit is distracting or inappropriate? When are we thinking about the collective? — When are we simply thinking about ourselves? And when are we purposefully excluding some from the collective to maintain an imaginary—and potentially biased—form of social order? …What does it mean to express yourself freely in a culture obsessed with performance?
Looking for office siren inspo that I am into? Check out this girl.
