A woman sitting blissfully on a vibrating laundromat dryer. A faked pregnancy test to dump a bad boyfriend. In 2019, the internet was abuzz about bizarre ads for a mobile game called Lily's Garden. The ads were only about 15 seconds each, but they evoked a whole universe of drama amongst a cast of zany characters that inspired countless YouTube videos and copious internet chatter.

The thing is... the story in the ads had almost nothing to do with the story in the game. In this episode of Endless Thread: creative differences, the wilderness of mobile games, and where the Lily's Garden game-world and the ad-world diverged.

Show notes:

• Lily's Garden on the App Store
• Lily's Garden on Google Play
• "I hate Lily's Garden and her teeth" (PewDiePie, YouTube)
• How Tactile Games made marketing and diversity core to Lily’s Garden’s $500 million success (Pocket Gamer)

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Note: This episode describes sexual situations that are non-consensual.

Sharing a photo of yourself online has always carried some risk. But things got a lot scarier this year when users began using Grok, X's generative AI chatbot to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children. Iona Fyfe, Scottish folk singer and activist, was one of the people who had an image altered and manipulated by Grok. Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson talk to her about her experience.

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Some rare folks are born with the perfect music taste. But most of us have to look elsewhere for a tune that sparks a shoulder shimmy or two. Hosts Ben and Amory spend some time jamming to obscure music from Reddit. They also explore how a TikTok original became Dr. Pepper's catchy new jingle.

And "baby, it's good and nice."

Show notes:

• I wasn't sure on this one at first, but you can't beat the messaging. (Reddit)
• Boko Yout [9-2-5] (Reddit)
• Molly by Ecca Vandal
• Theme Song for Dr. Pepper: Let's Collaborate! (TikTok)
• Dr. Pepper's Viral Jingle Moment Has Everyone Pitching Songs to Brands (Atlanta Black Star)
• Beautiful and unique music. Hope someone an share details about her and the music (Reddit)
• everyday_naturalist
• christycoysh