Brita wrote a song. It's weirdly amazing.
Plus: Puresport made big CPG look bad, and CeraVe has a new goat mascot.
Morning,
A few things happening before we dive in! I’m stoked to be on stage at SXSW in less than two weeks. I’m chatting with the CEO of Rapha. June 5th. 10:35. Truman Brewery Stage 2. Come join us!
We’re also hosting GOOD DRINKS in LONDON Monday, June 2nd, 5pm in Shoreditch. RSVP here. Would love to meet you in person.
We’re going a private LONDON TOUR, similar to our GOOD THINKING NYC TOUR. Anywhere we must go? Of course, I’ll share a recap. Stay tuned.
Finally, my friends at Brands & Culture are hosting R2 of their fabulous villa at Cannes this year. The program is packed. Apply here! And should we meet up in Cannes?
If you only read one thing in this letter I recco: F&B is fun this week.
As always, the lens of this letter is a best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What I’m dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands.
Let’s dive in!
CULTURE
PLUSH LOVE // Our obsession with mascots and characters is not backing down. Cartoon character birth announcements are making it into Complex’s feed. Ellie’s so big that I no longer need to give context for who she is. People are losing their minds and their savings, stockpiling Labubus (I’ve also seen a lot of tattooed Labubus in my feed). Brands are so keen to get in on the love that they are inventing mascots. CeraVe has a new goat mascot called Sarah V (because people call them the GOAT of skincare). Hotels.com has a new character called Bellboy. McDonald’s China tapped Eva Cremers to make new characters (that are v cute). Jack Box, Jack-In-The-Box’s mascot, has been going all out. He recently hosted a birthday party with Chain. John Legend performed. Mascots can be a great strategy, for reasons I’ve shared before, but like most things, once everyone is doing it, you have to watch out. Establish while you can.
OPEN TO POVS // Jony Ives, designer behind the iPhone, has sold his device startup, io, to OpenAI for $6.5B. Ives will be taking on product, creative, and design as OpenAI hopes to roll out a ‘smartphone replacement’ sometime next year. 1) Obviously, Ives is a legend. And say what you will about Altman, but at the very leas he is a force. 2) But, we MUST discuss the incredibly bizarre, clearly AI-generated, headshot and video they made for this announcement. It’s cringe on a scale I haven’t seen in a long time. And does zero for my faith in the future of this endeavour. 3) As Google has learned many times over, hardware is a difficult ballgame. Ives is a master, but there have been countless Apple-inspired AI smart devices and they have all flopped. Sleek design won’t be what wins here, this will require something so seismic that it changes our behavior. If these leaked prototype rumors are true, I’m not sure we’re there yet. I don’t want a lanyard. 4) Meta is pushing glasses. Google is ramping up its AI eyewear with new Gentle Monster and Warby Parker partnerships. The arms race is beginning, and OpenAI wants to lead with the “coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen.” Only time will tell.
F&B
BWITA FUN //
suggested brands ‘Write an original song” in her Post Formats To Try this week. Alone, this is fun. This John Deere one is brilliant. But it was Brita’s that stood out. Not just because the song is hysterical, but for their overall strategy. They are misbehaving, like so many brands, and it’s solid entertainment. While the comment section of this post is packed with health hazard concerns, it taps into the viral tiramisu drawer in such an on-brand way and is pure comedy. But it was this post that told me they get it. It’s much smarter to play with consumer truths than push products. Not every brand needs to jump on the unhinged trend, but without a doubt, those having fun are winning. This second-hand car ‘ad’ is another excellent example.WATER LEMONS // Puresport, a British brand that makes supplements, electrolytes, and, of course, creatine, found itself in a situation this week. Typically, the brand pops up with these ‘fuel stations’ at sporting events. But, at a recent ½ marathon, a big CPG brand and title sponsor forced the brand to not serve drinks. So they pivoted. They served slices of watermelon (their new flavor) and served it with ‘a pinch of salt’ (aka electrolytes). It was a hit. Love a tale of brand resilience. This should also be a good lesson for big CPG. Small brands are scrappy. Be careful what you wish for.
DRUGS & BOOZE
HAPPILY DELAYED // Stella Artois released a new series of ads in airports showing live delayed flights. ”The 4:30 Chicago flight is fortunately delayed.”—fun. Stella’s ads often try to force-feed their latest tagline, ‘Worth More,’ into the creative (never a great strategy). And while they infused ‘worth more’ into the hashtag, this approach felt less reliant on it in the tagline in a really nice way. When this brand has fun, like this moment at Wimbledon, it’s great. Here’s hoping they unleash themselves more often.
SILVERS, ALPHAS & ZS
TWIN ME -> AfterSchool // Generation Lab, a consumer research company, launched a new company, Verb.AI, that lets people (specifically Gen-Z) monetize their social feeds and purchase behaviors. For $50/month, participants allow the AI to track their feeds, purchases, etc. And then Verb.AI creates a digital twin that businesses can query to understand the behaviors between. Very similar to some other consumer research tools I mentioned last week. People didn’t like it when business stole their data and made money off it. But put that money in their pocket, and they are totally game.
HEALTHY HOME -> Good Is the New Cool // Traditional herbal medicine brand, Saishunkan Pharmaceutical, has unveiled Positive Age House. The home is designed to enhance “the body's self-healing capabilities”. Features include a circadian lighting system to maintain biological rhythms, textured 'ripple flooring' that stimulates foot pressure points, and deliberate floor height differences that compel residents to exercise their joints as they move from one space to the next. Our expectations for eldercare facilities are leveling up.
RETAIL
FORCED EFFORT // This week,
at Puck called Quince a “the direct-to-consumer destination for just-good-enough dupes of slightly more expensive brands—Jenni Kayne, Clare V., Everlane, Naadam, Freda Salvador.” Hysterically accurate. She was talking about the brand’s masterful ability to dupe, not just competitors' clothes, but their best-performing ad creative. With no ability to compete on price, Quince is forcing other brands to up their game, brand and messaging. This might explain why Everlane’s latest ads are using the tagline ‘Clean Luxury. Better For You,’ alongside campaign assets that read a little Jacquemus inspired. I don’t hate where Everlane has been heading aesthetically, but the oddball vibe of the campaign feels out of left field. (A Merit Uniforms-style campaign would have been better). But regardless, much like Zara and Uniqlo have been raising their game to compete with Temu, we’ll see a lot more brands trying to be more distinctive this year.CUTE AND SWEET // Tory Burch has partnered with the ultra-popular Swedish candy shop, Bon Bon, on a new collection. The collaboration is cute. They made charms of Bon Bon‘s best-selling candies. And doing a marshmallow-inspired puffed version of their signature shoe, the Miller is pretty clever. I have collaboration fatigue, but this is good.
CHINESE COMP // This is a great piece by
, on Chinese ‘luxury’ jewelry brand, Laopu Gold. For a long time, the sentiment in China was that homegrown brands were subpar. But that sentiment is changing. And while China has yet to deliver a Hermes-level luxury brand, mid-tiered brands like Laopu Gold are doing well. Much like Anta and Chagee are starting to push stateside, assuming trade talks move in a better direction, as these brands level up, we’ll soon see more Asia-based brands flowing into the West, which will be an interesting shift of currents.TECH
VIBE STORE // Shopify has launched an AI-powered online store builder and a no-code block generator. The site now lets you simply type what you want the site to look like/do and it does the rest. Given that Shopify is notoriously annoying to custom-code, this will be a welcome change for brands. But I can’t help but think about all the designers and developers who helped make Shopify what it is, being left out in the cold.
SPORT
CHANGING THE GAME // Sportswear and fashion have been in a deep love story for years, but things are getting really fun now. Love the look of this new fashion/sports magazine, Players. Then look this collab between the LA Golf Club and Din Tai Fung. Even two years ago, this would not have been considered ‘course appropriate.’ But now there’s a huge appetite for more interesting sportswear/gear. And then we have this collab between the NBA and Maison Labiche. Fan apparel used to be pretty standard fare, but now brands are figuring out it’s a huge market (with a big female audience, too) with lots of room for improvement. Fun times.
WELLNESS & BEAUTY
BRAIN MASSAGE // Rituals, the skincare brand, is rolling out a new series of spas that go way beyond typical offerings. They have a new location opening in London (I want to go), that will offer ‘brain massages’ that use breathwork, light therapy, 4D sound, and ‘brainwave entrainment’ to help you enter a theta state (deep meditation) that is equivalent to the rest gained from a 3 hours nap. Told you wellness is getting hardcore.
OURA OF ANXIETY // On the pod this week, we mentioned that there’s a growing backlash against the wellness space that’s growing (and getting even louder with the advent of this ‘propaganda’ trend on TikTok). People are starting to question if it’s all causing more problems than it’s solving. The NY Times interviewed a bunch of Oura ring users who have severe anxiety from all the stats and reminders to ‘reduce stress’. Mark my words, drinking wine, staying up late, trusting your intuition, and not worrying about any of it is about to make a comeback.
TRAVEL
AIRPORT CACHE // Airport retail can be brutally expensive. Some say it can break brands. But the founder of Rotten, the candy company, says that while it was costly, it was a great investment. Why? It gave them an illusion of omnipresence. Which changed how retailer and investor perception. I do a lot of brand discovery in airports. And apparently I’m not the only one.
FUN FOR THE WEEK
This new live translation feature for Google Meet is wild.
Dr Jart's pop-ups are always cute. And very sad I missed this Song of Skin 'Hotel'
Burberry partnered with Flamingo Estate on some custom soaps.
I like this refillable deodorant packaging with a gemstone-of-choice roller.
Netflix gets it. They will now stream Sesame Street. And still make it free on PBS.
Somehow I missed this Range Rover installation at Milan Design Week. Not bad.
A swim or SPF brand should work with this person.
This Chuck Bass throwback by Lancôme is fun.
This review of the new Levi’s Pride collection is not good.
Aldi is selling £30 ice baths. That’s how you know something has mainstreamed.
This backgammon cafe in NYC looks cute.
This satirical pharma ad is funny. And was made for $500.
That’s all, folx.
-Chris
If you read this and liked it, that little heart is there for that. The algo and I appreciate it.