The Monday Media Diet with Beth Bentley

Beth Bentley (BB) is a strategist, writer and advisor. She grew up working at Wieden and I have an kinship with most strategists I know that have worked there. Check some of her writing on brand and am happy to have her with us. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

Brand strategist/writer/advisor. I have four babies: two actual little kids; my strategy studio Tomorrowism (we work mostly across the fashion system); and my Substack Pattern Recognition, which is about deciphering the chaos of consumer culture…the things we don’t say, but probably should. Although I don’t like that word: consumer. I never say it in my work or writing. It’s dehumanising. Location-wise, I’ve spent most of my adult life in East London, but I’m Welsh. I grew up (literally) at Wieden + Kennedy.

Describe your media diet.

Day-to-day, I read/watch/listen to anything from Lauren Sherman, Cathy Horyn, Alexander Fury, Robin Ghivan, Rachel Tashjian Wise, Dana Thomas, Vanessa Friedman, Tim Blanks, Katie Grand, Lie Edelkoort, Sean Monahan, Matt Klein, Faris Yakob, Jessica DeFino, Dr. Grant McCracken, Dr. Ana Andjelic, Jia Tolentino.

Radio: BBC Radio 4 and 6, Ibiza Sonica and Worthy FM in the summer. Podcasts: Lauren’s Fashion People, Brendawareness (I mean, that title), The Modern House, and long ones like Rick Rubin’s Tetragammatron and Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis. The best thing about TikTok is Cedric Grolet, the pâtissière. On the telly, Have I Got News For You is worth the license fee alone and Slow Horses is the best thing I’ve watched in ages.

My inbox is overflowing, like everyone else’s, but I make time for a good amount of Substacks - I can’t pick, but if you look at who I recommend on mine you’ll see some bangers.

What’s the last great book you read?

I recently re-read Valley of The Dolls during a work trip to NYC. So good. Do other people match their reading to their location??

What are you reading now?

Upstairs: Chris Hayes’ The Siren’s Call which just came out and is great so far. I wish I’d had this before I wrote my recent investigative series on Meh-ification (about the influence of the meh-gorithm on so many aspects of life in the meh-cade of the 2020s).

Downstairs: The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This was a present from my husband. It’s so epic and ambitious, but the story behind it is so sad: the two Davids worked for years on it, then one passed away just as they reached the final draft.

On my desk: System Mag issue 23

In the car: Dr. Marcus Collins’ For The Culture is currently in the middle bit along with some sweets. He ran strategy at W+K NY, I did in London, so you can imagine I full-body-yes to so much of this book.

On my Kindle: I’m in the final throes of Intermezzo.

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

If it’s the Weekend FT, first I pull everything apart and rearrange all the sections in order of how interesting they look that week. Always keeping How To Spend It for dessert.

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Usually I would say read/look at other people’s feeds. Friends, partners, people you think you know well. Honestly. It’s illuminating and weird.

But right now I think George Orwell’s tiny little book Why I Write. It takes no time to read, but might affect how you express yourself forever. I was given this (by the best boss I ever had) on my first day as a strategy advisor in Whitehall (British government at Westminster) – a job I did for a couple of years in hopes of broadening out my scale of thinking re strategy, culture and behaviour change. That job - and she - opened my eyes wider than I could have expected. (BB)