Explainer on tech's 'tastewashing' trend from @var.aunevik
The creator explains the recent trend of Silicon Valley companies becoming obsessed with 'taste,' a phenomenon she calls 'tastewashing.' She contrasts the old 'nerd' image with the new aesthetic-focused branding, providing examples like tech merch and tweets, and argues that this is a deliberate strategy to soften the threatening reality of AI and automation by borrowing the aesthetics of craft and human curation to control public perception.
Creator: @var.aunevik on TikTok
Video format
Talking Head Edit
Video outline
- Pose intriguing cultural question
- Contrast past vs. present
- Provide rapid visual evidence
- Define the core concept
- Reveal the hidden motive
Narrative framework
The Cultural Exposé
Narrative framework logic
To identify a new, subtle cultural trend, give it a name, and expose the hidden psychological or political motivations behind it, positioning the creator as an insightful cultural critic.
Topics: Tech, Culture, Marketing, Brand Strategy
Concepts: Breakdown
Formats: Talking Head Edit
Elements: B-Roll Cutaway, Image Overlay, Title Text Hook
Account types: Personal Brand
Transcript excerpt
Why is Silicone Valley suddenly so obsessed with taste? Tech dudes used to be seen as hoodie wearing energy rank nerds who rarely left our dark room when glowing keyboards. But now tech companies are dropping merch, starting clothing brands and tweeting best is the new core skill. Both dazed and a new Yorker best dropped articles about this. Anthropic opened a pop up cafe and gave out hats that said thinking. Palantir, a surveillance tech company with horrible values, just dropped a chore coat. So what is happening? The New Yorker called it tastewashing as a play on brainwashing. AI companies need to associate themselves with best because their tools aren't cool. They're threatening to jobs, to futures, to identity. So they're borrowing the aesthetics of craft, of slowness, of human curation no make you forget that what they're selling is the automation of all of that. And it's working because when you see a tech bro talking about taste, you think, oh, they get it. But what they actually get is that aesthetics have always been political. And if you can control the aesthetics, you can control how people feel about tier thing underneath.
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