Is HBO Behind "Mob Wife Aesthetic"?

Plus my social idea for Josh Cellars, three accounts that write great captions, and more.

Hi! First, some very exciting news….Thursday’s interview is with the person behind @elmo! It’s one of the most delightful interviews I’ve ever done. There are quotes like “A daily question I ask myself is, ‘what would Elmo do?’” and “I probably watch more Elmo content than a whole preschool class combined, but I am not learning my ABCs and 123s, I am learning comedy, character traits, and so much more that all goes into the work I do.” It’ll be available to all subscribers on Thursday morning.

In other news, I spent the entire weekend at home because my dog Pepper had surgery late last week. It went well, but it’s basically a full time job making sure she doesn’t play with our other dog (who is her daughter!) Nancy. When I wasn’t playing dog referee, I was diving deep into the TV show that is @veronika_iscool’s TikTok. She’s basically created a sitcom on her account, where viewers are extremely invested in the “lore” of whether or not she’s dating her roommate Kyle. Her audience refers to TikToks without Kyle as “filler episodes”, posts with Kyle are littered with comments like “this is my favorite TV show”, and this post has almost 3.5M views because, as one commenter put it, it feels like the “last episode of the season”. There are also fan edits.

I think there’s a lot that brands can learn from this series when it comes to treating TikTok like TV. It doesn’t mean putting up full episodes of a professionally-shot series (like what Walmart did here)—it’s about entertaining editing, slow-but-steady character development, and recurring themes. I’m invested.

Comments on various posts from @veronika_iscool’s TikTok.

In today’s newsletter we are going to cover:

• An investigation into Mob Wife Aesthetic and whether HBO is behind it

• The common thread for brands that are still loving Threads

• Josh Cellars responds (plus what I would have done)

• Every creator Burberry has worked with on TikTok

• Make something fake, shoot it like it’s real

• RIP Lynja

• 5 things I am reading/thinking about in the world of social

• Reminder to always listen to your videos before posting

• Three accounts that have really, really good captions

• Weird jobs posts as marketing