Capitalism can’t solve the energy crisis but it can help, AI as an ally not adversary, and the brand void in America's fading soft power
Shift Notes 02 - April
Sorry we dropped the ball last month. We got busy launching a new 33_Zero website which you'll find here. To make up for it, we've tried to resist the allure of shiny new technology stories (or at least shunted these down the page) and instead lead with something interesting for all our climate-committed readers. It's a topic we've wanted to cover for a while but, in all honesty, has been a difficult and complex one. Energy isn't the sexiest but it is perhaps the biggest climate question. So, we're asking why can't consumer energy brands do more?
#1/ Zero Culture
Sustainability pressures reshaping consumer values and markets
Why is cheap renewable energy so difficult? And how do we get there?
We all cheer the charts that show solar panel prices falling by 99%, infographics depicting how much UK energy demand is met by wind. How so, then, that no argument on the logic of future energy sources ever seems satisfactorily resolved and bills only rise?
Brett Christophers' recent book 'The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet' has an answer but you won't like it. Turns out that falling production prices don't mean falling prices per se. That's not price-gouging 101, in fact it is a mind-bogglingly complex story of upfront investment barriers, hidden costs of energy transmission, integration, and backup generation. Of price volatility (exacerbated by the timing mismatch between renewables generation and consumer demand) that introduces costly risk to suppliers. Fundamentally, our current electricity system still requires conventional generation for reliability, and the overall system costs don't decrease proportionally with renewable generation costs.
Do most of us understand this? Doubtful. Can we and should we bother to try and get our heads around it? Probably, yes, but it's far from easy and the goalposts are constantly moving. But surely we all agree it is an end worth fighting for if it results in a cleaner, more socioeconomically stable planet.
"Turns out capitalism genuinely can't save the planet, there's no getting around it - we'd explain but it'd bore you," isn't what we want to hear. But what if retail energy brands actually engaged their customers in a discussion of the issues? After all, we pay the bills, might we not want to understand where this money is going and how soon we might see investments yield progress towards a renewable energy transition?
Shift Insight
Marketing wisdom that tells us Octopus, OVO, E-On and others are commodities, selected on price alone has been challenged before, as the ‘purpose’ and ‘green’ circles overlapped in a more naive Venn diagram. There may still be truth in this idea. Whether we like it or not, energy is one of the most consequential purchases any of us makes, yet we have so little power over the decision. A progressive brand, willing to engage us in the complexities of transition, might:
Cut through polarisation with honest dialogue about challenges and trade-offs
Make complexity accessible without binary oversimplification
Innovate with pricing models that align consumer interests with renewable abundance
Advocate for governmental solutions while taking its own meaningful actions
The renewable energy transition is not just a technical problem - it's also a communication challenge. Brands should treat consumers as intelligent stakeholders rather than passive bill-payers and bridge the gap between individual consumers and system-level change.
Links
Why capitalism can't solve the climate crisis - Podcast discussion with Mark Blyth on The Rhodes Center Podcast
The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet - Book by Brett Christophers
Fast Takes
Green New Deal Rising is holding a one-hour "Communicating Climate" masterclass on May 29th, where Hannah Martin will share insights on climate justice advocacy, UK political landscapes, and effective campaigning strategies in the context of their "There's No Growth on a Dead Planet" campaign - designed specifically for communications professionals in the climate sector. Challenging UK Climate Politics with Green New Deal Rising - Book your place
#2/ Acceleration Gap
AI and tech transformation reshaping business and culture
Is AI replacement blinding us to the real story: AI-enhancement?
A piece from RethinkX earlier in the year was aimed at waking us from complacency about the speed at which AI and robotics are going to transform labour markets. They challenge the myth that 'there are uniquely human jobs no machine will ever be able to do' and warn that 'disruptions don't take 50 or 100 years - they take 15-20 years.'
Their evidence draws on adoption curves for automobiles, electric lighting, and digital photography - flawed analogues for a technology with the cross-category impact of AI. Yet despite thin grounding, it's a useful provocation. We can neither bury our heads in the sand nor simply anticipate a labour-free utopia where we all pursue our potential untroubled by income concerns (remember Keynes and Russell got the 15-hour workweek wrong).
Shift Insight
Business has to take a position here, beyond simply reducing headcount for profit. Yes, AI can do things cheaper, but brands must demonstrate how it does things 'better'—and what entirely new possibilities emerge when brilliant humans work in harmony with computational power. Will Spotify finally crack the paradox of choice that plagues infinite music access by using AI to understand what moves each listener? Somehow, it seems more natural for us to think about AI enhancement in a public sector context (say, hospitals handling diagnostics with AI so healthcare professionals can return to the human connection of healing).
Those using this technology daily are struck not by what it automates and imitates (its weakest capability—it can't write this newsletter for me), but by how it elevates human skills. At 33_Zero we’re passing this value to clients through increased project scope and deeper strategic insights, not simply taking more profit.
Our challenge to brands then: frame AI as empowering human potential rather than replacing it. Help us navigate a richer future rather than hastening our redundancy.
(NB. If robotics and AI are coming for the boring stuff, can we just acknowledge the absurdity of a US president imposing tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs precisely when the economy should be preparing for the inevitable transformation of factory work?)
Links
The Painful Truth about AI & Robotics - RethinkX
Fast Takes
AI continues to chew into organic web traffic, happily rendering crummy link-stuffing SEO redundant and throwing the onus on brands to provide the best content in their categories. Now, the FT reports on the growth of software that identifies how frequently brands appear in responses on chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT. “This is about recognising large language models as the ultimate influencer," Brandtec's Jack Smyth explains. The real peach comes in the comments section, where a reader muses, “[W]hat maybe no one wants to say, is that this is an epistemic land grab. Everyone wants their version of the truth embedded in the machine. The irony? The more they try to steer it, the more the machine learns about them.” Brands target AI chatbots as users switch from Google search - FT
LinkedIn continues to flap about AI taking over from creative agencies. Now, digital trends influencer Tom Goodwin pitches in with an article in The Drum that looks at the likely evolution of AI in advertising. Obviously, he doesn't suggest that AI will ever be better than the brilliant folk in advertising agencies but he does acknowledge that a future could exist in which "marketing will become more imaginative and less operational, more about magic and less about implementation." Yes, AI will redefine marketing -- but not the way you'd expect - The Drum
"Generative Ghosts" might sound like a phrase likely to crop up in a self-conscious 00s music blog about wispy dubstep records, but in 2025 you can be sure it's a real thing likely to show up on a computer near you. Next week. Exponential View reports that “AI, trained on a lifetime of texts, voice notes and video, can already sculpt interactive replicas of deceased individuals.” These are AI that can perform agentic actions on behalf of the deceased, going beyond traditional digital memorials or simple chatbots. AI MRI & agency; production capital; life after death; robots in homes, US munition & cars++ - Exponential View; Generative Ghosts: Anticipating Benefits and Risks of AI Afterlives - Essay via Google DeepMind
#3/ Media Shift
Algorithmic culture and creator economies
Will the first CEO to stand up take the advantage?
With America in retreat from its role as global stabiliser and imposing aggressive tariffs against all comers, US soft power is literally melting away. We often talk about smart brand positioning as a form of cultural advantage—what has Nike's advantage been if not a commercial equivalent to 'soft power'?
While Fortune 500 CEOs seem capable of barely a whimper as their supply chains face demolition, Scott Galloway points to a moment here in which Nike could leverage their American heritage and creative firepower to articulate what's truly American about fair play and competition:
"They have a history of being unafraid around politics, they were very smart around capturing a moment with Colin Kaepernick. If they weaponised Wieden + Kennedy, some of the most creative people in the world and said, 'there's something about America and competition and fair play and having people from different backgrounds and power of immigrants who become American and in sport,’ they could come up with something really moving that highlights what's going on here is not American."
Links
Trump and the end of American soft power - Financial Times
Prof G Markets podcast (discussion at around 18mins)
About 33_Zero
33_Zero works with brands large (AWS, Oxfam) and small (Agronomics, Ivy Farm) on brand and comms. Our clients recognise that unprecedented change needn't be a threat but an opportunity. We help your brand show up and participate in this new reality.
Email jamesp@33seconds.co or subscribe and DM us here to find out more.