Explaining tech's 'taste washing' strategy from @var.aunevik
The creator analyzes the recent trend of Silicon Valley companies becoming obsessed with 'taste,' a phenomenon she calls 'taste washing.' She contrasts the industry's previous 'nerd' image with its current focus on merch and aesthetics, providing examples from companies like Anthropic and Palantir. She argues this is a deliberate marketing strategy to soften the threatening nature of their AI and automation products by borrowing the aesthetics of craft and slowness, concluding that controlling aesthetics is a way to control public perception.
Creator: @var.aunevik on Instagram
Transcript
Why is Silicon Valley suddenly so obsessed with taste? Tech dudes used to be seen as hoodie wearing energy drinking nerds who rarely left tier dark room when glowing keyboards. But now tech companies are dropping merch, starting clothing brands and tweeting, taste is the new core skill. Both days and a new Yorker just 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 c
Topics: Tech, Culture, Marketing, Sociology
1,217,568 views