1. Art Basel's gift to the internet: billionaire robots.

Art Basel always delivers something absurd to talk about. A few years ago it was a banana duct-taped to a wall selling for millions (and then eaten). This year, Beeple brought robot dogs wearing hyperrealistic silicone masks of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol that wander around, photograph visitors with AI, and then literally defecate printed images. It's called Regular Animals, and every single $100,000 robot sold out immediately.

The satire is sharp: these figures shape how we see the world through algorithms and platforms, so Beeple put their faces on robots that process reality and produce output. The dogs don't create meaning: they circulate images, mirror crowds, and spit out content. Each has a programmed three-year lifespan, after which they "die" and their memories live on the blockchain. The irony is that wealthy collectors immediately bought the very robots designed to satirize wealth and power. The art market absorbed the critique and turned it into commodity, proving Beeple's point better than any artist statement could. Sometimes the best cultural commentary gets consumed by exactly what it's commenting on.

2. Spotify says you listen like your grandparents.

It's December, which means millions of people are about to overshare their music taste like it's a personality trait. Spotify Wrapped returned this year with 200 million users engaging in the first 24 hours, a 19% jump from last year and the fastest Wrapped launch ever. The 2025 version draws from mixtape culture of the '80s and '90s, back when sharing music meant decorating burned CDs with Sharpie. New features include Listening Age (which gave Grimes a listening age of 92), Top Albums finally making an appearance, and audiobooks getting officially integrated.

But Wrapped's genius isn't really the features. It's how Spotify transformed a year-end stats dashboard into mandatory social content. The campaign extends beyond the app with massive installations like Chappell Roan's hair takeover of the New York subway and Lady Gaga's monster claw on Copacabana Beach. Spotify's team spends an entire year crafting an experience that feels personal enough to share but universal enough to spark conversation. The result is an annual ritual where listening habits become identity, playlists become personality tests, and everyone participates in collective oversharing without questioning it.

3. Iceland confirms puffins aren't robots (probably).

Some corners of the internet are convinced Iceland is too good to be true. The landscapes are just too perfect, the puffins too adorable, the Northern Lights too cinematic. Clearly it's all fake. So Icelandair made a campaign about a conspiracy theorist who flies there to prove it's AI-generated. The film follows him dismissing everything: "Icelandair" is suspiciously named, the plane never really took off, the scenery is "a big green screen," and the puffins are "cute little robots." His sister drags him around trying to convince him it's real.

The campaign, created with Danish agency Kubbco, speaks the language of online culture: playful, self-aware, and slightly unhinged. It builds on their 2021 "Icelandverse" campaign that trolled Meta's metaverse by pointing out Iceland is an actual place you can visit. Instead of fighting conspiracy theories with facts, they used humor that makes people curious enough to see for themselves.

Bonus curious thing: what starting your own agency actually looks like.

I sat down with David Hampian on Run The Play to talk about what starting Dawn actually looked like: the unglamorous parts, the mindset shifts, the loneliness founders don't mention, and why I launched at version "0.5" instead of waiting for perfect. If you've ever daydreamed about going out on your own (or are currently terrified about it), this one's for you. Full episode below.