191: Redefining mediums
RIP Sly Stone; 2025 One Show Awards; 27th annual Twin Cities Jazz Fest
Just watch this.
It’s 4 minutes and 9 seconds of Sly Stone demonstrating why he’s Sly Stone. (And the fact he’s backed up by Will Lee, Hiram Bullock, Steve Jordan and Paul Shaffer doesn’t hurt. The ‘83 Letterman band was killer.)
We all think we know Sly Stone. He’s Sly Stone! (RIP brother. Sly passed away June 9 at age 82.) But there’s a much deeper story behind the façade.
“I played Lord Buckley, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Lenny Bruce on an R&B station… I explained to ’em that there ain’t no Black and there ain’t no white…”
Sly got his name working as a DJ on FM radio, where he wasn’t just about playing songs, he was trying to convey a message through his curation. He wanted to change things.
Sly was an artist, like you and me, searching for more.
He created an amalgamation of style, of band members, of himself. He was always a work in progress. Sly Stone didn’t arrive as the character we know him by now; he was a cumulation of mistakes and effort, of exploration and cultural serendipity, and especially of patient family and friends.
If you’ve got more than four minutes, and don’t mind podcasts, I strongly recommend this two-part chronicle from A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs:
1️⃣ Song 175: “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone — Part 1, Different Strokes For Different Folks
2️⃣ Song 175: “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone — Part 2, “My Own Beliefs Are In My Song”
His venue might have been music, but ideal was much bigger.
“I wanted everyone to get a chance to sweat. By that I mean… if there was anything to be happy about, then everybody’d be happy about it. If there was a lot of money to be made, for anyone to make a lot of money. If there were a lot of songs to sing, then everybody got to sing. That’s the way it is now. Then if we have something to suffer or a cross to bear — we bear it together.”
If Sly makes anything clear, it ain’t easy being an artist.
But he kept going. He saw something just up ahead.
We should all be so lucky in our own journeys.
2025 One Show Awards
And then there are spreadsheets that redefine spreadsheets.
We talked about how this idea won a ton of accolades in last year’s Cannes Ad Fest. This year, Spotify’s Spreadbeats (case study via agency FCB New York) won Best of Show at the 2025 One Show. Spreadbeats also won a Black Pencil and three Yellow Pencil’s at the most recent D&AD Awards. Yes, award show timing is a weird dynamic. While not an example of AI, it points at a kind of idea we’ll see more of—how code unveils an artistic experience in an otherwise non-creative (seeming) environment.
Imagine the courage it took to initially share this idea: “Uhh, we’re going to code personalized video inside Excel—using the code of Excel—to persuade media buyers to buy more ads on Spotify.” How they did it is fascinating. But the insight—media planners live in Excel, let’s do something with that—is bold.
Anyway, this feels like Year One of AI categories showing up in the major advertising competitions.
I applaud One Club CEO Kevin Swanepoel and his board for providing context for evaluating and understanding what it means for AI to be a part of an idea, never mind its execution. I’m glad to see the 2025 Creative Use of AI Discipline had only few winners. It tells me the judges remain a bit uncertain. How would you define “creative use of AI” when ChatGPT can create an entire ad with a prompt? It’s simply not enough of a lift just using AI to execute an idea; the idea itself must be impossible without AI.
Virgin Media O2’s DAISY vs Scammers hits that mark, and won a Gold Pencil for a brilliant idea: Use the never-ending capability of AI to waste phone scammers’ time.
The Innovation in AI award went to Cheil Spain, madrid, Somos 5 and client Samsung Spain for Impulse—a haptic speech application using AI to help address stuttering. It’s a complex technology; the story could have been cumbersome. Kudos to the marketer and agency team for elevating the outcome of AI-integration.
Leilanni Todd, creator of Floam World, won the Pioneering Award for an Individual. She earned it. Her body of work leveraging AI is incredible.
The Coca-Cola Company won AI Brand Pioneer for the its 110 different AI holiday ads from 2024. We’ve talked about it before. The work might not be conceptually stunning, but you have to credit the brand for collaborating with its agency partners in identifying and leveraging the opportunity AI presents.
There’s a ton of insightful work in this year’s One Show awards site. (And you can listen to my recent interview with One Show CEO Kevin Swanepoel here via Spotify, Apple or YouTube.)
🎺 The 27th Twin Cities Jazz Festival is June 20-21 in downtown St. Paul, MN
Speaking of creativity, next weekend welcomes the 27th year of the entirely FREE Twin Cities Jazz Fest—two days of amazing music, outdoors in downtown St. Paul (Mears Park). It's an incredible outpouring of culture, civic pride, music, food and beautiful energy. As a board member of the TCJF I want to strongly encourage you to be there! I’m excited to witness:
Friday 6/20
4pm - the Adi Yeshaya Jazz Orchestra
6pm - Doreen Ketchens’ Jazz New Orleans - She’s an amazing clarinetist and band leader
8pm - the legendary pianist Emmet Cohen and his Trio with special guests The Four Freshmen. Live from Emmet’s is an amazing series of performances.
Saturday 6/21
12pm - MacPhail Center for Music youth performances. I’m excited to see the Fusion Ensemble featuring Eli Brunelle on bass!
6pm - L.A. Buckner & BiG HOMiE are going to blow your mind
8pm - Vocalist Catherine Russell and pianist Sean Mason will close out the Festival with their Grammy-nominated sounds
I hope to see you there!
🤖🚨 Announcing “AI in Action: A Hands-on Workshop for Marketing and Creative Leaders”
I’ll be leading a fast-paced, two hour, very limited seating workshop on Thursday, June 26 for the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association. Register here.
🤖 🍁 This Fall: AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs (online)
From August 25 - December 12 I’ll be teaching a wholly revised, very in-depth, asynchronous curriculum for MCAD. You can register for it. Of course, I’ll be writing about all of this as the summer moves on.