tThe next time you’re sitting in a company-wide meeting, half-listening to a leader talk about updates or product launches (and hoping they don’t announce layoffs or budget cuts), remember this: at least they’re not. tapping
That’s what happened at Canva Create, a summit held in Los Angeles last week, honoring Canva, a graphic design company known for helping non-designers produce brochures good enough to advertise a garage sale or a high school talent show. In Los Angeles, Melanie Perkins, co-founder of the $40 billion Australian brand, speak to attendees on “brand building, maintaining a strong company culture and expanding operations,” according to Variety. (Something he knows a lot about: Disney CEO Bob Iger, who also spoke at the summit, is an investor and board member of the platform.)
After the usual talks and debates, the team decided to put on a show. Two hosts, and a cast of backup breakdancers, all of whom surely regretted their respective life paths at the time, performed a “rap battle” that they used to describe the updates the tech company made to the app. design.
Sample bars included: “You can redesign your work / Canva got that shine / We redesigned everything / From scratch.” On the topic of AI being known to steal art from real human workers, one artist said: “We don’t train your work without your permission / Safe and secure if that’s what you want.”
As many online commentators have done he pointedthe fool, Hamilton-style delivery Shame personified.
This is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s fault pic.twitter.com/5uXCFo0mXG
— gianmarco (@GianmarcoSoresi) May 26, 2024
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“Call 911. I’m having an embarrassing overdose,” said YouTube and Twitch streamer Finn McKenty, aka Punk Rock MBA. wrote on X. “There’s no project important enough to spend a long weekend watching Canva the Musical,” comedian Katrina Davis. aggregate.
Canva aims to help users create simple, aesthetically pleasing graphics – words no one would use to describe song and dance.
The Canva bust comes shortly after Apple released a much-maligned ad for its iPad Pro, which showed a series of objects including pianos, books and a classical bust being crushed by a mechanical press. The brand was intended to show how the latest iPad compresses all the world’s creativity into a single device, although many people saw it as a metaphor for technology’s potential to destroy culture as we know it. (Apple later apologized for the ad.)
It wasn’t always like this. Every once in a while, a video goes viral showing the Windows 95 launch party, where Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, dressed in Dad Dockers and polos, awkwardly and enthusiastically dance to the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up. It’s cheesy, but potentially cute, because it lacks the effortless nature of Canva’s big-budget music revue.
To be fair, it’s difficult to organize an enjoyable corporate event – no one likes being stuck in an auditorium with their co-workers and industry peers when they could be off-duty. “The problem is that the people who create it want to be innovative and modern and at the same time relate to the brand or the industry, and it doesn’t always work out,” said Rich Libner, president of MCP Talent, a company that plans corporate projects and private events. “They are usually not modern and overcompensate with an excessive focus on branding. It looks messy and inauthentic.”
Gianna Cardinale Gaudini, former Google event planner and author of The Art of Event Planning, added: “People are intuitive, emotionally motivated beings who can detect authenticity or lack thereof. There is a fine line between evoking nostalgia or wry humor and failing, and brands take a big hit if they miss the mark.”
Gary Ferrar is a magician and mentalist who performs at these types of events. Recently, a client texted him a script for what to say at the beginning of the set: “Welcome (REDACTED) crew members! Today is about celebrating YOU, because in (REDACTED), you matter! I hope you enjoy this special session designed just for (REDACTED) team members. “Now let’s get started.”
“I tried really hard to convince them that this openness conveys the complete opposite of ‘you matter,'” Ferrar said. “Attendees know where they work and don’t need to hear the company name three times in three sentences.”
But senior management won, and Ferrar had to deliver those lines “as sincerely as I could.”
Ultimately, both tech companies and Silicon Valley titans simply don’t know how to communicate meaningfully with the rest of us. In recent years, Mark Zuckerberg has traded in his geek-chic hoodie and jeans for clothes from designers like Alexander McQueen and Rahul Mishra, plus a statement-making chain necklace, presumably. intended to communicate a cheerful loot.
The same goes for Jeff Bezos, whose newfound interest in fashion sparked a friendship with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (both are noted Union destroyers, so presumably they have a lot to talk about).
Despite their billions, both men struggle to look truly cool; in fact, they dress as if directed by an algorithm.