Welcome to the next edition of On The Record, thoughtful analysis on culture, entertainment, tech, fashion, music, sport, and brands. Here’s a round-up of key conversations and campaigns that caught my attention this week.
📱 TikTok Accused of Backtracking on Safety Commitments
📌 TikTok faces political and public backlash as it plans to cut hundreds of moderator roles from its London office, part of a wider “trust and safety reorganisation”. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) claims the platform is replacing skilled UK moderators with lower-paid overseas workers and AI-based systems — a move critics say undermines its user safety promises. Dame Chi Onwurah MP has demanded clarity from TikTok by 10 November, questioning its ability to protect users from harmful content as it reduces human oversight.
TikTok says the restructure aims to “increase the speed and efficacy” of moderation and rejects claims it is weakening safety standards. Yet the move raises questions about the limits of AI moderation, especially as governments tighten scrutiny over online safety compliance.
Around 400+ UK moderation jobs reportedly at risk
TikTok also reducing roles in Dublin and Berlin
Open letter from the TUC warns of “poverty pay” and “gruelling conditions” for outsourced staff
💡 The clash spotlights a growing tension between AI efficiency and ethical responsibility in content moderation - a fault line brands will need to navigate as automation expands. 🤖
👟 Nike and Palace Open Manor Place, a London Hub for Sport, Creativity and Community
📌 Nike and Palace have unveiled Manor Place, a new free, public hub in South London blending sport, creativity and community. Set in a restored 1895 building, the space features three zones – The Park and The Cage (a skatepark and underground football arena), The Front Room (a cultural gallery and pop-up space), and The Residency (studio spaces for emerging creatives). The initiative reimagines brand collaboration as civic contribution, offering open access to sport and culture six days a week.
By combining Nike’s global sports infrastructure with Palace’s London skate and streetwear roots, Manor Place positions itself as a blueprint for community-led brand spaces. It’s designed not just for consumers but for creators – reflecting a wider shift towards brands investing in long-term cultural ecosystems rather than short-term campaigns.
Free, open-access community hub at 33 Manor Place, London – opening 11 November
Includes skatepark, underground football cage and rotating creative residencies
Launch coincides with Nike x Palace’s first product line: the P90 collection
💡 Brand collaboration is evolving from hype drops to civic infrastructure – where community, creativity and culture meet. 🏙️
👔 Olivier Rousteing Departs Balmain After 14 Years
📌 Balmain and creative director Olivier Rousteing have officially parted ways after 14 years, marking the end of one of fashion’s most defining creative eras. Appointed in 2011 at just 24, Rousteing transformed Balmain into a global powerhouse of modern luxury, digital-era visibility and inclusive casting. Under his leadership, the house bridged couture and pop culture – from Beyoncé and Rihanna to the “Balmain Army” - blending French heritage with global reach.
Balmain confirmed a “new creative organisation” will be announced soon, signalling a potential shift in direction under CEO Matteo Sgarbossa. Rousteing, one of the few Black designers to head a major European house, leaves behind a legacy of representation and commercial reinvention that reshaped the modern maison model.
Appointed at age 24 - youngest creative director in Paris since Yves Saint Laurent
Transformed Balmain into a social media-era fashion icon
Successor or new creative structure yet to be revealed
💡 Rousteing’s exit closes a chapter in fashion’s influencer-driven era – and raises fresh questions about what the next generation of creative leadership will look like. ✨
🍗 NFL Players Driving Stadium Concession Menus and Buzz
📌 NFL players are teaming up with concessionaire Levy to co-create and promote new stadium foods across the league. From the Atlanta Falcons’ “Dirty Bird” turkey leg and peach cobbler parfait to Detroit Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs’ “Spin, Dash Smash(burger)” and Carolina Panthers’ Xavier Legette’s “Masked Bandit” sandwich, athletes are lending their personalities to the menus - and the marketing.
The collaborations are proving a hit both online and in-stadium. The three player-led campaigns have generated over 5 million social views and 60,000 engagements, with specialty items often selling out before kickoff. For Levy, the initiative merges fandom, culinary creativity, and athlete influence to elevate the gameday experience and drive new revenue opportunities in stadium food culture.
5M+ views and 60K+ engagements from three campaigns this season
Items such as Gibbs’ “Smash(burger)” have sold out at every game
Levy operates concessions in over 250 sports and entertainment venues
💡 Fans crave connection as much as consumption - player-driven menus turn stadium food into storytelling fuel. 🍔
⚽ NWSL Takes First Step Into Federal Lobbying Arena With Hogan Lovells
📌 The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has formally entered the federal lobbying space, hiring global law firm Hogan Lovells for “government relations advice” led by former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman. The league has paid $130,000 since May for the firm’s services - marking its first-ever lobbying disclosure. While filings show no direct lobbying yet, the move signals a strategic step toward political engagement and policy preparedness amid a shifting cultural and regulatory landscape.
Hogan Lovells already has deep ties to NWSL investors and franchises, advising on recent deals including the Denver expansion and San Diego Wave sale. The timing also follows the league’s 2024 settlement with multiple state attorneys general over player abuse investigations, and comes as it faces scrutiny on gender participation policy and social issues tied to sport governance.
$130,000 paid by NWSL to Hogan Lovells since May 2025
First time the league has registered in a lobbying capacity
Firm previously advised on NWSL franchise sales and ownership transitions
💡 As women’s sport scales commercially, political literacy becomes brand protection - lobbying is the new playbook for legitimacy. 🏛️
🎤 SXSW London 2026 Opens Submissions Amid Calls for Cultural Recalibration
📌 Submissions are now open for SXSW London 2026, inviting creators worldwide to apply as speakers, performers, or curators. Yet the announcement arrives against a backdrop of industry critique following the festival’s debut earlier this year. While SXSW aims to position its London edition as a global hub for music, media, and tech, many UK professionals have questioned its pricing, programming depth, and cultural integration.
Feedback from across the creative sector cited a £1,560 delegate pass, short 30-minute panels, and a brand-heavy atmosphere as barriers to genuine creative exchange. Critics argue that SXSW London must collaborate more closely with established UK festivals such as The Great Escape and Sound City, recalibrate accessibility, and prioritise authenticity and local context to earn long-term cultural legitimacy.
£1,560 delegate pass criticised as inaccessible to independent creators
Panels averaged 30 minutes with limited depth of discussion
Industry calls for stronger integration with existing UK creative festivals
💡 Cultural capital isn’t franchised - for SXSW London to matter, it must sound like London, not Austin. 🎶
🤖 Google Experiments with AI-Driven Ad Formats
📌 Google confirmed it’s testing new ad formats within AI Mode, designed for how users naturally interact with generative search. According to VP of Product Robbie Stein, people ask questions nearly three times longer in AI Mode and often engage in multi-turn conversations — giving Google a richer picture of intent. Under the hood, AI Mode “does Googling” by breaking queries into dozens of related searches, using this structure to serve more contextually relevant results. While Stein emphasised that AI results remain organic, visibility signals are shifting. Mentions in credible publications and public rankings now play a key role in how AI identifies trusted brands and sources.
Average query length in AI Mode is 3x longer than traditional search. (Google)
Each user query can generate dozens of related sub-searches through Google’s “query fanout” technique. (Google)
AI-powered search sessions are increasing dwell time by up to 40%, reflecting deeper user engagement. (internal testing cited by Section event materials)
💡 AI Mode is turning “search” into a conversation - and credibility, not keywords, is becoming the new currency for discovery. 🔍
🪧 The World’s 50 Best Out-of-Home Ads Ever – Curated by The Drum
📌 The Drum has unveiled its ranking of the world’s 50 greatest out-of-home ads of all time – a mix of nostalgia, cultural landmarks, and creative reinvention. The list spans decades of billboard brilliance, guerrilla genius, and digital innovation, featuring icons from Nike and Guinness alongside newer classics like Adidas’ liquid billboard and Channel 4’s diversity-led campaigns. Together, they chart how OOH has evolved from static spectacle to interactive storytelling – and why it remains a powerful mirror of culture in public space.
The global OOH market is projected to reach $45.6 billion in 2025, up 5.2% year-on-year. (WARC)
72% of consumers say they notice OOH ads more since the rise of digital billboards. (Ipsos)
Creative effectiveness for OOH campaigns has grown by 23% since 2019, driven by brand storytelling and data-led placements. (Kantar)
💡 OOH continues to prove that in a scroll-driven world, the biggest impact still happens offline. 🏙️
https://www.thedrum.com/news/worlds-50-best-ever-out-of-home-ads-did-we-get-it-right
🧵 The X Effect: Sky News’ Investigation into X’s Political Bias
📌 Sky News’ Data and Forensics team conducted a nine-month investigation into whether X’s algorithm amplifies right-wing and extreme content. By creating nine UK-based test accounts and collecting around 90,000 posts from 22,000 accounts, the team uncovered a consistent skew towards right-wing political content across all user types. More than half of the political content shown to new users came from accounts categorised as “extreme”, with the majority of that content right-leaning. The findings raise serious questions about how algorithms shape political debate – and who benefits from the imbalance.
60%+ of political posts shown came from right-wing accounts, 32% from left-wing, 6% non-partisan.
Right-leaning users saw only 14% left-wing political content, while neutral users saw twice as much right-wing content.
Over half of political content surfaced to new users came from “extreme” accounts; of that, 72% was right-leaning.
When Elon Musk engaged with certain politicians’ posts, their engagement rose by around 5x across views, likes and retweets.
💡 For brands, platforms, and politicians alike, the algorithm is now the arena – and neutrality is no longer guaranteed. 🧭
Source: Sky News Data & Forensics investigation, November 2025
🗳️ Receipts, Not Rhetoric
Should politicians be allowed to post whatever they like - and then hide the truth when voters reply with facts? We’ve normalised something deeply undemocratic.
Politicians can stand on digital soapboxes, beam their slogans into millions of phones, and then quietly scrub away any comment that challenges them - even when it’s factual, respectful, and sourced. That’s not public debate. That’s content management for democracy.
We’re told social media “gives everyone a voice.” But if those in power can silence the factual, the inconvenient, and the uncomfortable, what we really have is a curated reality - one where truth is optional, algorithms pick sides, and democracy is reduced to an ad campaign.
Let’s be honest: the comment section is the new public square. It’s where citizens test claims, call out contradictions, and hold politicians accountable in real time. When parties hide that scrutiny, they’re not moderating abuse - they’re moderating democracy.
Key stats to know:
73% of UK adults now get political news primarily through social media platforms. (Ofcom, 2025)
61% of voters say they’ve seen misleading or false claims from politicians online in the past year. (Reuters Institute, 2025)
42% of political social posts analysed in a 2024 Demos study had deleted or hidden comments. (Demos, “Digital Democracy Audit”)
8 in 10 Gen Z voters believe politicians should be legally required to keep factual replies visible on their official pages. (YouGov, 2025)
The average politician’s Facebook page hides 12% of audience comments, typically those including external links or fact-check citations. (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2025)
If power gets a megaphone, citizens deserve a microphone that can’t be switched off. Because democracy doesn’t die in darkness anymore – it dies in the comments, quietly hidden by the page admin.
🎙️ BRANDED - Episode: “Inside the Attention Economy: MTV, Build-A-Bear & the Price of Feeling”
🧠 The Attention Economy Is Back — But With Feeling
Why brand emotion has become the new competitive advantage
In the latest [BRANDED] episode - “Inside the Attention Economy: MTV, Build-A-Bear & the Price of Feeling” - host Ben Kaplan explores something we’re all feeling but few are articulating clearly:
We’re not competing for eyeballs anymore - we’re competing for emotion.
💡 The insight: Brands that master emotional resonance - nostalgia, joy, belonging, self-expression - are outperforming those chasing pure reach or visibility. The episode uses two fascinating case studies:
MTV’s legacy as the original “attention brand,” and how social media cannibalised its formula.
Build-A-Bear’s 2,000% stock surge, powered by emotional nostalgia and storytelling - not new products.
📈 Why it matters for brand leaders now:
“Attention” is no longer scarce - meaning is.
Viral mechanics alone don’t build equity; emotional connection does.
The next generation of brand strategy will be built around feeling metrics, not just engagement metrics.
🔥 For marketers in culture, fashion, music, or sport: This episode reframes how we should think about partnerships, athlete brands, fandoms, and drops. Whether you’re activating a campaign or evaluating cultural impact, the core question is shifting from:
“Will people see it?” → to → “Will people feel it?”
🎾 Nitto ATP Finals – Turin, Italy – 9–16 Nov Season-ending tennis showdown featuring the world’s top eight men’s players.
🎷 EFG London Jazz Festival – Various venues, London – 14–23 Nov Major annual celebration of global jazz culture and live performance.
🎤 Jazz Voice (Opening Gala) – Royal Festival Hall, London – 14 Nov, 7:30 pm Signature concert launching the EFG London Jazz Festival with UK and international talent.
📚 Being Human Festival – UK-wide (London hub) – 6–15 Nov National celebration of humanities research through talks, performances and exhibitions.
🧊 Skate at Somerset House – London – from 12 Nov Iconic seasonal ice rink opens, signalling the start of London’s winter culture season.
🎬 Film Africa Festival – London – 14–23 Nov Showcasing African and diaspora cinema through screenings and Q&As.
🎺 Melbourne International Jazz Festival Showcase (EFG LJF) – Barbican Centre, London – 15 Nov, 4:30 pm Special collaboration spotlighting Australian jazz excellence.
📖 aja monet: Live Reading & Q&A – Barbican Centre, London – 13 Nov, 8 pm Celebrated poet and activist performs and discusses her work.
💬 Cory Doctorow in Conversation with Sarah Wynn-Williams – Barbican Centre, London – 15 Nov, 3 pm Author and tech critic explores AI, capitalism, and creative rights.
🌿 Writing Ecologies – Barbican Centre, London – 16 Nov, 1 pm Talks and readings on literature, environment, and climate narratives.
🖼️ Wright of Derby: From the Shadows – National Gallery, London – ongoing Major exhibition illuminating the drama and innovation of 18th-century British art.
🎨 Enthoven Unboxed: 100 Years of Collecting Performance – Victoria and Albert Museum, London – ongoing Explores a century of stage design and performance archives.
🌙 Tate Modern Lates – Tate Modern, London – 14–15 Nov (evening) Extended-hours access with music, talks, and curated tours.
🎻 Stravinsky & Marsalis (NY Philharmonic) – David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City – 13–16 Nov Classical meets contemporary jazz in a high-profile orchestral programme.
🏛️ Divine Egypt – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC – ongoing Blockbuster exhibition exploring the influence of ancient Egypt on global culture.
🌍 Sounds Right: When Nature Becomes the Artist
🎵 Overview Launched in 2025, Sounds Right is a global music initiative that recognises Nature as an artist in her own right. Created by the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live alongside leading environmental and creative partners, the campaign invites musicians to collaborate with the sounds of the natural world. Every track featuring “Feat. NATURE” directs streaming royalties and donations to global biodiversity conservation.
💡 Why it matters
It reframes value and creativity by giving Nature official credit and compensation as a creator.
The campaign bridges culture and conservation, using music’s universal reach to turn listening into tangible climate action.
Global artists lend their platforms to highlight the urgency of protecting biodiversity while connecting environmental action to fans’ daily behaviour.
The message is poetic yet practical: when you listen, you give back.
🌱 Impact
The initiative is projected to raise around US $40 million for conservation through streaming and artist collaborations.
Funds are already being channelled to high-impact ecosystems such as the Tropical Andes, with oversight from environmental experts and Indigenous representatives.
Crucially, Sounds Right is not a one-off: “Nature” will continue releasing music, ensuring long-term engagement and sustained funding.
✨🎧 A campaign that literally gives Nature a voice - and royalties.
📊 Top Stats & Facts of the Week
🔥 80% of Gen Z say they prefer brands that reflect their personal values. (GWI)
🧠 AI-powered search sessions on Google are increasing dwell time by up to 40%, signalling deeper user engagement as search becomes conversational. (Google internal testing via Section)
🎮 Over 90% of UK teens now list gaming as their main form of entertainment, making it the dominant youth media channel. (Ofcom)
💬 More than 60% of political posts surfaced on X to new users come from right-wing accounts, with 72% of “extreme” content skewing right-leaning. (Sky News Data & Forensics, Nov 2025)
🏟️ Player-led concession campaigns at NFL stadiums generated over 5 million social views and 60,000 engagements across just three activations this season. (Levy)
💰 The global out-of-home advertising market will reach $45.6 billion in 2025, up 5.2% year-on-year as brands return to real-world storytelling. (WARC)
🌿 The Sounds Right campaign aims to raise $40 million for global biodiversity through streaming royalties credited to “Nature” as an artist. (Museum for the United Nations - UN Live)
🪩 SXSW London 2026 delegate passes are priced at £1,560 – a figure sparking debate about accessibility and cultural inclusivity in the UK’s creative industries. (Industry feedback, 2025)
🗳️ 73% of UK adults now get political news primarily through social media platforms. (Ofcom, 2025)
⚠️ 61% of voters say they’ve seen misleading or false claims from politicians online in the past year. (Reuters Institute, 2025)
🧾 42% of political social posts analysed in a 2024 Demos study had deleted or hidden comments. (Demos, Digital Democracy Audit)
📢 8 in 10 Gen Z voters believe politicians should be legally required to keep factual replies visible on their official pages. (YouGov, 2025)
🔍 The average politician’s Facebook page hides 12% of audience comments, typically those including external links or fact-check citations. (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2025)