All About April

ART

Content Courtesy of: apollo-magazine.com

Written by: Art News Daily

The week in art news – museums in Germany prepare to reopen

Peter Beard (1938–2020) | Sue Davies (1933–2020) | MoMA PS1 lays off 70 per cent of staff | Myriam Ben Salah appointed executive director of Renaissance Society | Met lays off 80 employees | Notre-Dame construction site to reopen next week | Serpentine Pavilion commission postponed to 2021 | Howardena Pindell sues former gallery

Peter Beard (1938–2020) | On Sunday, the photographer, artist and wildlife enthusiast Peter Beard was found dead after having been missing from his home in Long Island for nearly three weeks. He was 82 and had been suffering from dementia for some time. Best known for his book The End of the Game (1965), which documented manmade destruction to wildlife in Kenya and Uganda, Beard was also known for his fashion photographs, society friends, and being the subject of several paintings by Francis Bacon.

Sue Davies (1933–2020) | On Monday it was announced that Sue Davies, the founding director of the Photographers’ Gallery in London, had died at the age of 87. Davies was director of the UK’s first independent space dedicated to photography, which had its original home in Covent Garden, from 1971 to 1991.

MoMA PS1 lays off 70 per cent of staff | On Tuesday it was reported that MoMA PS1 had furloughed 47 employees, more than 70 per cent of the institution’s staff. In her letter to employees, Kate Fowle, director of MoMA PS1, said that the museum was facing its ‘most serious financial crisis’ ever. Staff will be paid until 1 May and have their health insurance covered until 31 July.

Museums in Germany prepare to reopen | On Wednesday, smaller museums in the state of Brandenburg opened their doors observing new guidelines outlined by the Brandenburg Museum Association. It was also reported by the Art Newspaper that museums in Thuringia (28 April), Berlin and Saxony (from 4 May) are set to reopen. Dresden museums are also planning to open on 4 May, although a spokesperson for the State Art Collections has said, ‘Probably not all of our museums will open that day.’ More details are expected next week.

Myriam Ben Salah appointed executive director of Renaissance Society | Also on Wednesday, it was announced that the Renaissance Society in Chicago has appointed Myriam Ben Salah as its new executive director and chief curator. Part of the University of Chicago, the contemporary art institution was founded in 1915. Ben Salah, who was a curator of special projects at the Palais de Tokyo and was the editor of Kaleidoscope from 2016–19 takes over from Solveig Øvstebø who has been appointed director the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo.

Met lays off 80 employees and predicts greater financial losses | On Thursday, it was reported in the New York Times that the Metropolitan Museum of Art is laying off more than 80 members, of staff, particularly in visitor services and retail, and cutting executive pay by 20 per cent and more. The museum now predicts losses of $150million (up from the $100million forecast in March). Daniel Weiss, president and chief executive of the Met, said, ‘While we are not immune from the impact of this pandemic, the Met is a strong and enduring institution and will remain one.

Notre-Dame construction site to reopen next week | Also on Thursday, Le Figaro reported that on Monday (27 April), an exploratory party including France’s chief architect, Philip de Villeneuve, will visit the cathedral to prepare for the return of about 50 construction workers on 4 May. The first objective of the work when it restarts is to dismantle the 500 tonnes of scaffolding on the site.

Serpentine Pavilion commission postponed to 2021 | It was announced today that this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, which was to have been designed by Johannesburg practice Counterspace, will be built in 2021 instead and the accompanying programme of performances and talks has also been postponed. In the meantime, Counterspace and the Serpentine are working on a series of off-site and online projects, yet to be announced in detail.

Howardena Pindell sues former gallery | Artnews has reported that Howardena Pindell is suing her former gallery, G.R. N’Namdi, which has locations in Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Birmingham, Michigan. A lawsuit filed by the artist in New York in January claims that N’Namdi provided ‘misleading and inaccurate’ information about her sales. She is seeking $500,000 in damages and the return of various artworks including 12 works from her Autobiography series. Pindell is now represented by Garth Greenan in New York and Victoria Miro in London.

Content Courtesy of: apollo-magazine.com

Written by: Art News Daily

Getty postpones all public events until after end of August

Plus: Christie’s to pay $16.7m fine for uncollected tax in New York | Charleston farmhouse launches emergency crowdfunding appeal | and New York court rules that Call of Duty game is art

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Getty postpones all public events until after end of August | The Getty Trust has announced that public programming will not resume at either the Getty Center or the Getty Villa until after 31 August. Both sites were closed until further notice on 14 March due to Covid-19.

Christie’s to pay $16.7m fine for uncollected tax in New York | The office of the Manhattan district attorney announced last Thursday (9 April) that Christie’s will pay a fine of $16.7m, having failed to correctly collect sales tax in New York between July 2013 and January 2017. The fine relates to private sales worth $189m, made by offices in other locations but delivered to clients in New York. A spokesperson for the auction house said that, since 2017, the company has ‘reviewed its advice and internal processes to ensure compliance with relevant tax law. This settlement agreement brings the matter to full resolution.’

Charleston farmhouse launches emergency crowdfunding appeal | Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex, formerly the home of Bloomsbury group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, has launched an appeal for emergency funding of £400,000 to offset the financial impact of Covid-19. Since it opened as a public museum since 1980, Charleston has been managed by an independent trust, with no public funding and no endowment.

New York court rules that Call of Duty video game is art | A judge in New York has ruled that the video game Call of Duty can be classified as ‘art’, and is therefore protected under the First Amendment from legal action brought against its makers, Activision, by the military vehicle company Humvee over its use of their brand. District Judge George B. Daniels stated in his ruling that ‘If realism is an artistic goal, then the presence in modern warfare games of vehicles employed by actual militaries undoubtedly furthers that goal.’

ARTnews in Brief: Getty Releases Art Generator for Animal Crossing Game—and More from April 17, 2020

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: THE EDITORS OF ARTNEWS

Getty Releases Art Generator for Animal Crossing Game
The Getty in Los Angeles has created a new tool for the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With the Getty’s Art Generator, users can give their avatars clothes, homes, and other surroundings emblazoned with artworks from the museum’s collection. Players can also create their own exhibition using the works available in the game, which include Vincent van Gogh’s painting Irises along with pieces by Monet, Renoir, Rembrandt, and more artists.

Art Brussels Cancels 2020 Edition
Art Brussels said that it would no longer plan to hold the 2020 edition of its annual fair. This year’s fair was originally scheduled to take place from April 23 to April 26, and was originally postponed until June after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancelation of numerous mass gatherings around the world. The news came as the Belgium government announced that no large-scale events could take place in the country through August 31. Among the work that was to be shown at the fair was Bill Viola’s installation The Dreamers (2013), presented by financial services firm Degroof Petercam. The work is confirmed to be shown at the 2021 edition, which has been scheduled for April 23–25 of that year. Unlike other art fairs that have been forced to cancel their in-person gatherings, Art Brussels has not yet announced plans for a virtual iteration of the fair for this year. —Maximilíano Durón

Taipei Biennial Reveals Participants for 2020 Edition
The Taipei Biennial, which was postponed until November 21 due to the pandemic, has named the 39 participants from 18 countries showing work in its 12th edition. Co-curated by Bruno Latour and Martin Guinard, the exhibition is titled “You and I Don’t Live on the Same Planet” and will focus on environmental and ecological themes. Among the artists in the show, which will run through March 14, 2021, are Aruwai Kaumakan, Cemelesai Dakivali, Mika Rottenberg, Jonas Staal, and Su Yu Hsin.

Thursday, April 16

Coronavirus Relief Fund for New York City Nonprofits Has Distributed $44 M.

The NYC Covid-19 Response & Impact Fund, which was created just under a month ago with $75 million from a consortium of 18 foundations, said that it has already issued $44 million in aid to 276 New York City–based nonprofits in the arts and the social sciences. The money is to help offset lost revenue from canceled programming and closures, as well as to help with operating expenses, payroll, and to the help organizations continue to reach their audiences virtually. Organizations that have received funds, which range from $8,000 to $250,000 for a grant and from $100,000 to $3 million for an interest-free loan, include Art21, Artists Space, BRIC Arts, El Museo del Barrio, the International Center of Photography, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, the New Museum, Perfoma, Performance Space New York, and the Socrates Sculpture Park. The fund, which is administered by the New York Community Trust, also announced that it had raised an additional $20 million since its March 20 launch, bringing the total available funds to more than $95 million. Among the initial foundations to contribute to the fund are Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. —Maximilíano Durón

Wednesday, April 15

Sobey Art Awards Alters Prize Structure in Face of Coronavirus
Each year since 2002, the Sobey Art Awards has recognized one Canadian artist under 40 with a $100,000 prize, with additional funds given to shortlisted artists and those on its longlist. This year, in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has threatened the livelihood of many artists, the award’s facilitator, the National Gallery of Canada, said it would instead give $25,000 CAD to each of the 25 artists it had selected from its longlist from a pool of 100 nominations. Artists receiving the funds include Sara Cwynar, Lou Sheppard, Caroline Monnet, Zadie Xa, and Joseph Tisiga. The award cycle each year also includes an exhibition of the work of the five shortlisted artists, a gala, and a residency for the winner, all of which have also been canceled for this year. In a statement, the National Gallery’s director Sasha Suda said, “By altering this year’s program, the 2020 Sobey Art Award is contributing to the short and long-term preservation of Canada’s contemporary art ecosystem in the face of the unknown.” —Maximilíano Durón

Tomm El-Saieh Is Now Represented by Luhring Augustine

Two years after appearing in the 2018 New Museum Triennial, Miami-based artist Tomm El-Saieh has joined the roster of New York’s Luhring Augustine gallery, which also represents Lygia Clark, Ragnar Kjartansson, Pipilotti Rist, Christopher Wool, and others. El-Saieh creates abstractions that refer to the artist’s Haitian heritage, and he will continue to be represented by Miami’s Central Fine gallery.

Tuesday, April 14

Art Paris Cancels 2020 Edition

After hoping to stage this year’s edition, the Art Paris fair announced that it would cancel the 2020 iteration, which was to bring together 150 galleries to the French capital. It had originally postponed its early April run until the end of May as the new coronavirus concern forced governments around the world in March to prohibit large gatherings of people. In a statement, the organizers said that they had considered a further postponement until July as a way “to keep our hopes up until the very last minute,” and as a way for its exhibitors to be able to “meet their collectors after a spring period of complete standstill.” Art Paris said that it will offer an online version of the fair in the coming weeks, and that it plans to return as an in-person event in April 2021, this time to the temporary Grand Palais structure while the original one undergoes renovations for the 2024 Summer Olympics. —Maximilíano Durón

Monday, April 13

Portland Art Museum Places 168 Staff Members on Unpaid Leave
Due to financial fallout precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon will put 80 percent of its staff on unpaid leave. According to a report by the Oregonian, the 168 staff members who will be impacted will be allowed to use sick days and vacation leave to continue receiving pay and health benefits during the pandemic. The institution’s director, Brian Ferriso, and other senior leadership will take pay cuts.

Getty Postpones All Public Programming Through August 31

The J. Paul Getty Museum—comprising its two locations, the Getty Center in L.A.’s Brentwood neighborhood and the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades—said that all of its public programs and events scheduled through the end of August have been postponed. In a statement, the museum said it called off months of programming because of uncertainty over when bans on large social gatherings in California would be lifted. The two spaces have been closed since March 14, and the museum has not yet announced any layoffs. (Earlier this month, the affiliated Getty Trust established a $10 million relief fund to help sustain other L.A.-based arts organizations through their temporary closures.) The Getty also said that it is unable to make decisions about its exhibition programming, including whether current exhibitions might be extended and future ones postponed, until it can determine a reopening date. —Maximilíano Durón

Roberts Projects Now Represents Wangari Mathenge

Roberts Projects gallery in Los Angeles has added Chicago-based artist Wangari Mathenge to its roster. Mathenge is best known for bold, emotive paintings which foreground the black female experience. In 2019, Roberts Project staged a solo exhibition of Mathenge’s painting, titled “Aura of Quiet.” Her second solo show at the gallery is scheduled to take place in 2021.

Berlin’s Humboldt Forum Assesses Damage After Fire Last Week

The Humboldt Forum, a soon-to-open museum in Berlin that will bring together ethnographic objects from throughout various German state collections, said that a fire that broke out last week at its construction site had not impacted its planned September opening. According to a report in Monopol, as of now the main damage seems to be in the ceiling of a passageway, which would mostly like have to be replaced. The fire broke out at 10 a.m. on April 8 when two containers with poured asphalt caught fire and exploded. Two workers were injured in the fire and one has returned to work. The damaged area is still closed off for an internal investigation, but local authorities announced at the time that they do not believe foul play caused the fire.

ADVERTISING

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: David Cohen

Facebook’s Newest Ad Shows How Groups Are ‘Still Going Strong’ During Covid-19

The Facebook app’s More Together campaign continues, with a relatable update

Facebook continued to put its promotional muscle behind its groups feature with Still Going Strong, the latest spot in its More Together campaign.

Facebook’s Creative X team created the spot in partnership with Wieden + Kennedy London and Portland.

Groups moved up Facebook’s priority list with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s declaration that “The future is private. This is the next chapter for our services,” at the company’s F8 2019 developers conference last April, where a redesign of its website and flagship applications was unveiled with groups in a prominent location.

More Together, Facebook’s first major brand campaign, kicked off in May 2019 under chief marketing officer Antonio Lucio, and the company’s first-ever Super Bowl spot, featuring Sylvester Stallone and Chris Rock, was part of it.

The company said in January that 1.4 billion people use groups each month.

The message conveyed by “Still Going Strong” is that despite people being confined to their homes by Covid-19, they continue to embrace their passions.

People in Facebook groups covering topics including camping, cooking, crafts, creativity, dogs, gardening, parenting, rock climbing, skateboarding, surfing, women in technology and yoga are featured in the spot.

Facebook wrote in its description of the video on YouTube, “We might be apart outside, but in Facebook groups, there is still creativity, bravery and kindness. People are still sharing, still caring, still goofing about and still doing their thing, together.”

CREDITS:

Client: Facebook

Project name: Still Going Strong

Client contact: Chloe Bower, Kyle Christensen, Gianna Pisano

Wieden + Kennedy Portland

Global creative director and chairman: Susan Hoffman

Co-president and chief creative officer: Colleen DeCourcy

Account team: John Rowe, Hannah Hewitt, Samantha Lam

Media/comms planning: Lisa Johnson

Business affairs: Amber Lavender, Rylee Harper, Tara Allender

W + K London

Creative director: David Dao

Creatives: Katy Edelsten, Rachel Clancy

Executive creative directors: Iain Tait, Tony Davidson

TV producer: Anna Neilson

Account team: Francesca Yeates, Marlon Ge, Eldar Chen

Strategic planning: Indiana Matine, Rachel Holden, Lauren Ivory

Comms planning: Anjali Patel

Creative producer: Ross Dunstan

Design director: Aaron Skipper

Designers: Adam Hunt, Jonny Isaacson

Motion graphics: Jon Harris

Business affairs: Helena Tomas

TV Production

Production company: Knucklehead

Director: Maceo Frost

Managing directors: Matthew Brown, Tim Katz

Head of production: Francis Mildmay-White

Production designer: Joey Jenkins

Costume designer: Melanie Mildmay-White

Editorial

Editor: Andreas Arvidsson

VFX

VFX company: Time Based Arts

Partner/executive creative director: Mike Skrgatic

Grade: Lewis Crossfield

Senior VFX producer: Jo Gutteridge

VFX lead: Luke Todd

2D artists: Jamie Crofts, Ollie Ramsey, Bernardo Varela, Tom Robinson, Stephen Ross

Animation: Dan Lowe

Might Be the Remedy for Overcoming Videoconferencing Fatigue

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: Ian Zelaya

Project from Leo Burnett creates 30-second looping videos to sneak out of meeting calls

People who work from home these days might be experiencing a bit of videoconferencing fatigue. Coors Light is offering a solution for folks who need a break from meeting calls and virtual town halls but don’t want their team to know they ditched.

The beer brand teamed with agency Leo Burnett to launch the Coors Light Clone Machine. The project, available on a custom microsite, invites people to record 30-second looping videos of themselves acting engaged in a conversation.

The recording coaches users on how to look attentive with tips for nodding, acting like you’re taking notes and making “good point” gestures. Coors Light encourages people to download their recordings and upload them as videoconferencing backgrounds in place of themselves, encouraging them to enjoy a beer instead. Fans can also share the looping videos on social media.

Liz Taylor, global CCO at Leo Burnett, said the idea was sparked by a cultural insight that workers are suffering from Zoom fatigue after two months of working from home during the pandemic.

“Coors Light is all about bringing moments of reprieve and chill,” Taylor said. “This seemed like the perfect moment for the brand to help people dealing with Zoom overload and offer some levity.”

Leo Burnett worked with marketing and tech agency Digitas to create the recording feature on the site, which will be available indefinitely.

For those nervous about whether or not you can trick your coworkers, it really depends on how convincing you make your digital clone. Adriano Matos, evp and ecd of Leo Burnett, said his background managed to go unnoticed for about 10 minutes in a production meeting this week.

In addition to the humorous project, Coors Light also launched its frank “#CouldUseABeer” campaign in April, which acknowledges the time we’re living in simply sucks. The promotion encourages fans to nominate friends or family to receive a free six-pack.

Ikea’s Quarantine Campaign Offers 6 Ways to Make Furniture Forts

A guide to keeping kids occupied from Russian agency Instinct

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com/p>

Written by: Sara Spary

Whether you’re in quarantine with kids who are increasingly desperate for entertainment or you’re simply longing for a time when life was safer and more innocent, Ikea Russia has you covered.

The retailer’s newest campaign for the quarantine era perfectly captures that yearning sense of nostalgia by bringing old-fashioned childhood adventure into modern home.

Created by agency Instinct, the campaign includes a series of Ikea instructions for parents on how to make tents and forts indoors to create a sense of adventure for children cooped up at home as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The “easy-to-follow” instructions (though if you’ve ever assembled an Ikea product before, your opinion may vary) show how every day items like blankets, bedspreads, chairs and stools can be transformed into a new hideaway.

Ikea Russia is also asking people to share their creations on social media with the hashtag #StayHome.

CREDITS:

Client: Ikea Russia

Anna Fokina, marketing communication manager

Olya Belyaeva, communications leader

Yulia Prygunkova, social media leader

Agency: Instinct

Creative directors: Roman Firainer, Yaroslav Orlov

Creative group heads: Antonina Pirogova, Evgeny Golovan

Creative designer: Elena Kravchenko

Client service director: Marina Vershinina

Group account director: Irina Gornov

BUSINESS

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: T.L. Stanley

As the Meat Industry Stumbles, Here’s How Plant-Based Brands Are Stepping Up Their Game

Exclusive: Faux-meat marketers are keeping it positive, but expanding their footprint aggressively

Key Insights:

Covid-19 has rattled the supply lines of meatpacking and put the industry under a microscope.</p.

Alternative meats are a clear winner in quarantine, with sales up 454%.

For these brands, giving back to those in need is ‘more important than ever.'</p.

Plant-based proteins are nearing the $1 billion mark, but meat is still a $50 billion dominator.

Covid-19 outbreaks have shuttered meatpacking plants throughout the American Midwest, spurring a perfect storm of negative chatter around the meat industry. In addition to highlighting short-term meat shortages and higher prices, news reports are exposing the industry’s harsh conditions for workers and animals.

Such a moment could be a perfect time for plant-based protein marketers to tell the American consumer, “We told you so.”

But the biggest players in the faux meat world, namely Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, have no plans to go for the jugular with PETA-style attacks against the meat industry. In fact, they’re taking the marketing equivalent of the high road, emphasizing their stepped-up availability via grocery stores and restaurant delivery, at a time when it might be tough to get a burger at Wendy’s.

Rather than highlighting the ominous debate around the supply lines of beef, chicken and pork, the meat-alternative brands are leaning into their charitable programs and promoting their original content, virtual events, new family-sized retail packages, direct-to-consumer channels and just-launched discounts. They’re still emphasizing their meat-like flavor, but pushing their earth-friendly and nutritional messages further to the fore amid rising consumer interest in those priorities.

The meatless marketers’ light-but-still-aggressive approach isn’t entirely magnanimous. They also don’t want to appear to be capitalizing on their competitors’ misfort

But they do have plenty of their own gains to tout, which includes skyrocketing demand that Nielsen pegs at a 278% increase in sales of plant-based meat substitutes since this time last year.

Some recent quarantine periods have seen even more dramatic boosts for the sector, per Nielsen: In the week ending March 21, sales of meat alternatives grew 454% compared to a 100% bump in real meat sales.

As Zak Weston, foodservice expert at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, puts it, faux meat marketers don’t need to talk about animal mistreatment, Covid-19 cases among slaughterhouse workers or rising beef prices. Every major news outlet is taking the lead there, as the White House has declared the meatpacking industry an essential business and tried to send workers back to factory floors.

But plant-based protein brands as varied as Tofurky and Dr. Praeger’s can use this backdrop, with its meat shortages and retail rationing, to tell their stories to a more broadly receptive audience.

We’re seeing the inherent fragility of the conventional animal protein chain laid bare,” Weston says. “That’s presenting unique opportunities for plant-based brands to show their advantages and the ways they can compete with the big players in animal protein.

Some recent quarantine periods have seen even more dramatic boosts for the sector, per Nielsen: In the week ending March 21, sales of meat alternatives grew 454% compared to a 100% bump in real meat sales.

As Zak Weston, foodservice expert at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, puts it, faux meat marketers don’t need to talk about animal mistreatment, Covid-19 cases among slaughterhouse workers or rising beef prices. Every major news outlet is taking the lead there, as the White House has declared the meatpacking industry an essential business and tried to send workers back to factory floors.

But plant-based protein brands as varied as Tofurky and Dr. Praeger’s can use this backdrop, with its meat shortages and retail rationing, to tell their stories to a more broadly receptive audience.

“We’re seeing the inherent fragility of the conventional animal protein chain laid bare,” Weston says. “That’s presenting unique opportunities for plant-based brands to show their advantages and the ways they can compete with the big players in animal protein.”

Impossible Foods expands into Kroger, debuts first cookbook

As a mover-shaker in the space, Impossible Foods had been riding high on its Burger King deal for the hot-selling Impossible Whopper, as well as alliances that continued to stack up over the past few years for its faux beef, pork and sausage lines with Red Robin, Little Caesars, White Castle and other chains. (This, after starting its consumer journey at tony eateries like David Chang’s Momofuku and Michael Symon’s B Spot cafes.)

All those channels have suffered because of the Covid-19 lockdown, sending Impossible and other restaurant suppliers scurrying to make up the difference.

The brand had already set its sights on supermarkets (traditionally the stronghold of competitor Beyond), launching its faux ground beef last fall in specialty retailers like Gelson’s.

Now Impossible is taking its grocery presence to a new level with its just-announced partner: Kroger, which will stock the brand in 1,700 stores. Having started the year with about 150 stores, Impossible is on a distribution roll (2,700 doors and counting), expecting to “expand more than 50-fold in 2020,” says Jessica Appelgren, vp of communications for the brand. Combined with a fresh $500 million funding round and partnerships with DTC apps like Cheetah, the retail growth is expected to help make up some of the loss from closed restaurants.

Facebook Acquires Giphy, Which Will Become Part of Instagram

The GIF platform’s library and APIs will continue to be available to ‘the wider ecosystem

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: David Cohen

Facebook has acquired Giphy, and will fold the a GIF library and creator platform into its Instagram team.

Neither company would confirm financial terms of the deal, reportedly worth $400 million, according to Axios.

Giphy said the majority of its team will join Instagram, and senior director of communications Natalie Vegel added, “For those employees who will not be joining Instagram, we’ve taken extra steps to provide them with generous severance packages in order to ensure as much of a smooth career transition path as possible.”

The Giphy staff making the move will eventually relocate to Instagram’s offices in New York (Giphy is also headquartered in the city), but the timing has yet to be determined.

“By bringing Instagram and Giphy together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct,” said Facebook vp of product Vishal Shah in a Newsroom post. “Both our services are big supporters of the creator and artist community, and that will continue.”

Already, 50% of Giphy’s traffic comes from Facebook’s group of applications, with Instagram alone accounting for 50% of its parent company’s overall traffic, Shah said.

Giphy’s library will remain widely available, as will its application programming interfaces and software development kits for third-party developers and partners. The library is extensive: Since making its debut in February 2013, Giphy has grown the database to “several trillion” GIFs.

“[F]or our API/SDK partners and developers: Giphy’s GIFs, stickers, emojis, etc. aren’t going anywhere. We will continue to make Giphy openly available to the wider ecosystem,” Giphy said in a blog post, Snapchat and Twitter declined to comment on whether their relationships with Giphy would be affected by the transaction.

Twitter integrated Giphy into its tweet composer in February 2016, enabling users to add GIFs to tweets, while Snapchat did the same in February 2018.

“We’ve had a lot of fun teaming up with Instagram over the years; Giphy’s stickers were the perfect fit for layering on Instagram Stories, while our GIF search allowed everyone to capture that perfect emotion in Instagram’s DMs,” Giphy said. “Based on the success of those collaborations (and many others), we know that there are exciting times ahead of us.”

At the beginning of last year, Giphy had planned to ramp up its advertising capabilities to compete for digital ad dollars with the likes of Google and its now-parent company Facebook.

“No one’s been able to figure out an intent-based marketing platform,” Giphy founder and CEO Alex Chung told Adweek at the time

TECH

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: BRENDA STOLYAR

Apple Maps can now help you find COVID-19 testing sites across the U.S.

UPDATE: April 28, 2020, 4:01 p.m. EDT Users in the U.S. and Puerto Rico can now use Apple Maps to find Covid-19 testing locations.

A couple of weeks ago, 9to5Mac reported that Apple Maps was in the process of adding a feature that allowed users to find Covid-19 testing sites from within the app.

On Tuesday, 9to5Mac reported that the tool is now officially live in both the United States and Puerto Rico. Anyone using Apple Maps can now search for where they can get tested for Covid-19 and view nearby locations on the map.

Approved testing locations appear on Apple Maps with a red medical glyph icon. Towards the bottom of the display, the location is specifically labeled as a Covid-19 testing site.

You can see all the standard details of the testing site like its address, phone number, and website, as well as directions on how to get there.

But you can also see additional details like the type of site (drive-through, parking lot, or building), along with whether you’ll need an appointment or referral.

Apple is currently allowing healthcare providers, hospitals, and other businesses to submit an application for their specific testing locations. Once a location is approved, it’ll appear right on Apple Maps.

The portal to fill out an application is currently live. All providers need to do is download the application, fill it out, and email the file to Apple for review.

With the coronavirus outbreak still growing and testing sites popping up little by little, it’s tough to keep track of exactly where to access a test. So hopefully, this feature will expand to a lot more countries very soon.

LG’s ‘Velvet’ phone is the start to the company’s revamped design strategy

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: BRENDA STOLYAR

It’s getting tough to tell new smartphones apart from the old ones based solely on the number in their titles. Which is why LG is ditching the concept entirely by naming its latest phone the LG Velvet.

In a press release, LG explained the Velvet is the first device that will launch as part of its new branding strategy. Specifically it’s “moving away from alphanumerical designations in favor of familiar and expressive names,” and emphasizing design instead.

I’m glad all of this is coming from a company that named their last phone the LG V60 ThinQ. It’s something that I avoid saying out loud at all costs because it’s truly a mouthful.

But the new design strategy also means any plans for the LG G9 ThinQ have clearly been scrapped. The new phone was supposed to be a follow up to last year’s LG G8 ThinQ, which was part of its G-series lineup of devices.

According to Korean news site Naver, the G9 would’ve been a midrange device rather than a flagship like the G8 as it’s apparently supposed to include the Snapdragon 765 chipset complete with 5G connectivity.

Now, these specs are reportedly reserved for the Velvet instead. Which also means it’ll have an affordable price tag.

The phone will also have a minimalistic design that’s a lot different from what we’ve seen from LG recently.

For starters, LG is introducing a “3D Arc Design”, which means the edges of the display are symmetrically curved to allow for a more natural and comfortable grip.

On the back of the phone is something called a “Raindrop” camera. The triple cameras and LED flash are stacked on top of one another in descending order from largest to smallest, which is supposed to mimic the look of falling raindrops.

LG says the main camera sits “slightly” above the surface while the other two camera lenses are kept under smooth glass. That way, there’s no annoying camera bump.

We saw a somewhat similar design back at CES this year, when OnePlus debuted its Concept One phone with disappearing lenses. Like the LG Velvet, the camera sensors also sit beneath the glass.

Essentially, the raindrop camera module is supposed to take up less space while also providing a smoother feel and sleeker look.

LG remains tight lipped on any specs and features though.

The launch date remains a mystery as well. But Naver reports we could see the phone revealed on May 15, which isn’t that far away.

CULTURE

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: NANDITA RAGHURAM

‘SNL’ Zoom call spoof highlights hilarious pains of video conferences

We’ve all been in this Zoom call.

In this Saturday Night Live sketch, highlighting a piece of technology that has quickly taken over our lives, Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon play two incompetent receptionists. Bryant brings her laptop into the bathroom while McKinnon turns off the camera and switches to an avatar of Wayne Brady.

Both eventually start crying. “We ruined the Zoom,” McKinnon sobs.

It’s at once relatable — and completely ridiculous

Food

Amazon Created A Waitlist For Grocery Deliveries Because Demand Is So High

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: ALEX Perry

Crushed by the massive increase in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon is making some big changes to its grocery delivery services.

In a blog post published over the weekend, Amazon laid out some of the changes it’s making at Whole Foods stores in order to meet increased demand for deliveries and pick-ups while most of America is stuck at home.

On the consumer end, the most noteworthy change is that new Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods delivery customers need to sign up for an invitation to get food delivered.

In other words, if you haven’t already been using those services, you’re going to be put on a waitlist. Amazon said it’s letting new customers in each week, so monitor your email inbox if you’ve signed up.

The Amazon Fresh home page will display available delivery windows each day for anyone who’s able to actually use the service. In normal times, you put together your cart and just choose the time that is most convenient for you. Now, you’ll have to choose a delivery time first, and you’ll only know when one is available by checking the website that day.

Whole Foods workers will also see some changes. Store hours are being adjusted to allow for increased restocking and some stores are actually going to focus exclusively on online deliveries. One store in Woodland Hills, California, for example, will only serve online customers on a temporary basis.

Amazon also noted the safety protocols it has implemented in the wake of the coronavirus, such as glass shields for cashiers and gloves and masks for retail workers. Whole Foods workers went on strike two weeks ago to demand better protections from their parent company. That followed a similar strike by Amazon warehouse workers, who felt the company was lax in its response to the fact that several of them tested positive for the coronavirus.

6 ways to reduce food waste, even during a pandemic

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: SIOBHAN NEELA-STOCK

By now, you’ve probably seen photos of people panic buying groceries and shelves laid bare. In mid-March, you might have even been one of these panic buyers; I certainly was. But weeks later, as pounds of beans and rice lay unused on shelves, many of us may be thinking “what am I going to do with all this food?”

Panic-buying, like the type that can occur during a pandemic, can prompt people to purchase perishable items that they aren’t able to consume before they go bad, which can ultimately lead to food waste, says Brian Lipinski, a researcher on food waste at the World Resources Institute.

Moreover, many of the country’s largest farms are throwing out fresh food that they’re unable to sell due to restaurant, school, and hotel closures, according to the New York Times.

Even in normal circumstances, it’s easy to waste food. In the U.S. about 30 to 40 percent of our food goes to waste, according to estimates from the USDA’s Economic Research Service. What’s more, Americans waste about one pound of food per person every day, according to a separate study conducted by USDA researchers published in 2018.

“It seems like such an obvious thing, don’t waste food. It’s something we learned growing up. So it seems like it should be a no-brainer to stop it,” explains Lipinski.

It’s not that simple, though. We often don’t realize we’re getting rid of food and it’s easy to dissociate spoiled food from its edible origins.

“Once you take out the moldy piece of bread or the gross, mushy carrot from your fridge and have to throw it away, you’re not thinking of that as something you can eat or really that you were ever going to eat,” explains Lipinski.

WATCH: Turning your ugly vegetables into beautiful works of art

With than in mind, it’s time to rethink your food habits. The pandemic provides good opportunity to make the most of our food since we want to avoid frequent trips to the grocery store, says Lipinski. Limiting trips to potentially crowded places like the grocery store can help minimize the spread of coronavirus and reduce food waste.

Mashable spoke with experts to get tips on how we can all put our food to better use.

Track what you waste

Tracking exactly what you throw in the trash and rinse down the sink will help you realize what kind of food and how much of it you waste, says Beth Gingold, the founder of Recycle Leaders LLC, which works with organizations to help them recycle and reduce their waste (including food).

“A lot of waste happens just because we’re not paying attention to it,” explains Gingold.

Once you know your “waste patterns,” you can be more strategic about what you buy. When Gingold did this, she learned she bought too many onions. Ultimately, she was able to change her shopping habits and now wastes less.

All you have to do is record how much food you waste per day for about two weeks (or longer if you can keep that up), says Gingold. This duration is based off of the EPA’s Food: Too Good To Waste Toolkit, which teaches people how to waste less food. Gingold is leading Recycle Leaders’ Team Up on Food Waste @ Home remote competition, which encourages people to reduce their food waste at home.

Recycle Leaders only requires participants to measure their food waste for seven days, which is enough time to get someone in the habit of thinking about what they are throwing away, Gingold wrote in an email. That said, ideally people would collect this data for longer as a seven-day period doesn’t necessarily reflect all the food purchased and discarded during a week, she explains. Additionally, people don’t necessarily throw away food on a daily basis as they may clean out their refrigerator once a month.

The good news is you don’t need any fancy equipment to measure your food waste. Measuring cups, empty food containers or jars work well, says Gingold.

You can also take photos. When Anne-Marie Bonneau, who writes the zero-waste cooking blog Zero-Waste Chef, went plastic-free in 2011, she had her daughter take photos of the plastic they accumulated every week. It made them both more aware of what items they were buying with plastic.

“Keep a diary of what you’re wasting, and then you look at it and you go, ‘oh wow, I had no idea’…and then you can come up with a plan,” says Bonneau.

Lists, lists, and more lists

Before you head to the grocery store, do an inventory of what food you have and try and cook something with it,” suggests Bonneau.

“You’ll not only reduce food waste, you’ll also make fewer trips to the store,” says Bonneau.

You can also make a list of the perishable food items in your refrigerator and tape it to the door.

“That way, we don’t end up shoving some lettuce or carrots to the back of a drawer and forgetting about them,” says Lipinski.

Once that’s done, break out a pen and paper (or your phone) and make a food list before going to the grocery store. It seems like a no-brainer, but not doing so may lead to buying — and ultimately wasting — food you don’t need.

“Hopefully, you’ll avoid some of the temptations of walking through the store and being like, ‘oh, I need 10 packs of ramen, eight apples, and three loaves of bread,'” says Lipinski.

Understand food labels

Food date labels can be really confusing for consumers, as there are a ton of different phrases that all mean something different. People are understandably concerned about eating something past the listed date, even if it’s not an expiration date, says Lipinski.

Below is a break down of terms you’ve probably encountered. We pulled examples of commonly-used food date labels and their definitions from the USDA’s website to help you avoid throwing away something that’s still edible.

  • Best if used by/before: indicates when a product will be of its best flavor or quality. But it doesn’t tell the consumer when they should buy or eat it.
  • Sell by: tells the grocery store how long to display the food for sale. But it doesn’t mean you have to eat it by that date.
  • Freeze by: indicates when food should be frozen to maintain its highest quality. But it doesn’t mean you have to buy or use it by that date.
  • Use by: indicates the last recommended date to use the food while it’s at its peak quality but it doesn’t need to be consumed by that date (except for infant formula).

If any of that is confusing, don’t worry. You can rely on your senses when it comes to any potentially spoiled food, says Lipinski. Food can go bad before its listed date or last beyond that depending on how the product has been packed and stored. You should look out for signs of spoiled food, such as if there’s an off odor, flavor, or texture, according to the USDA’s website. So don’t be afraid to sniff your milk if you suspect it’s gone bad.

Both Lipinski and Gingold also recommend the website EatorToss, if you’re unsure if food is safe to eat. About once a week, EatorToss posts a photo of food (such as a raw potato with black discoloration) with a science-based explanation if you should eat or toss it, according to the website.

Use refrigerators and freezers wisely

There are a few things you can do with your refrigerator and freezer to cut down on food waste.

First, ensure your refrigerator is at its recommended temperature setting to help food stay cold enough, says Lipinski. The FDA recommends setting your refrigerator at or below 40° F. You can refer to your user’s manual to find steps to maintain that temperature.

“The back of the fridge tends to be cooler than the front because every time you open the door more cold air escapes from the front,” explains Lipinski. So place any highly-perishable food like milk and meat toward the back to help it stay fresh for longer. You can place less-perishable foods like condiments on the door. That said, if you have a fridge with ice-making compartments up top, it’ll be coldest there, according to BBC Science Focus.

You should also take advantage of your freezer.

“It’s great to have fresh foods in your life but frozen vegetables and fruit are a great alternative, still very nutritious, and they keep longer,” says Lipinski. Frozen vegetables are usually cheaper too, explains Lipinski. So if you’re on a tight budget due to coronavirus-related layoffs or other reasons, frozen produce might be a better choice.

You can also cook a lot of food at once and freeze it, suggests Bonneau. This can reduce the amount of food you waste as you don’t have to worry about it going bad and makes for a quick meal when you don’t feel like cooking.

Share extra food with neighbors

If you find yourself with excess food that you won’t be able to cook in time before it goes bad, consider giving it to your neighbors, especially those who are elderly or immunocompromised as they’re at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-18, according to the CDC.

But you’ll want to do this in a safe way so you don’t jeopardize their health or yours. To get the word out, you can put up signs in your apartment building or neighborhood along with your phone number so you don’t have to come face-to-face with anyone. You can also try emailing them, if you have that info, says Lipinski. To drop off the food safely, you can leave the food at your neighbor’s door and alert them once you’ve left, he explains.

Put food scraps to use

Anyone who cooks has almost certainly run into the dilemma of having odds and ends they don’t know what to do with or are about to go bad.

There’s a lot you can do with food scraps that you might otherwise throw out. Here are some of Bonneau’s suggestions:

  • Apple scraps: You can turn apple scraps into vinegar. Bonneau explains how to do this here.
  • Unused cabbage: Turn it into sauerkraut with just a cutting board, a knife, bowl, and glass jars. Here’s Bonneau’s blog post that details the process. You can actually ferment any vegetables you’re not going to use before they spoil, explains Bonneau.
  • Kale stems: Chop them up and add to fried rice, stir fry, frittatas, and soup. You can also make them into pesto if you add garlic, nuts, olive oil, salt, and if desired, nutritional yeast or cheese to taste.
  • Broccoli stems: Instead of tossing them, peel and use them just like florets.
  • Leek greens: People mostly use the white part and toss the greens. Bonneau cuts them into small pieces and uses them when she wants a strong onion flavor in a dish.
  • Wilting vegetables: You can try to perk up vegetables like limp celery, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, and some herbs by standing them in a jar of water. And you can shock lettuce and spinach back to life in a bowl of ice water.
  • Cheese rinds: Save these for tossing into soup or broth as they add umami.
  • Whey from making yogurt or cheese: If you have leftover whey, use that in pizza dough, bread dough, soup, or quick breads to add flavor.
  • Citrus peels: Bonneau always keeps some zest in the freezer to add to quick breads and cookies. You can also make an all-purpose cleaner by soaking citrus peels in vinegar for a couple weeks, then straining and diluting the vinegar with water.
  • Stale bread: Turn stale bread into bread crumbs, croutons, or French toast. You can also tear the bread up and toss it into minestrone soup.
  • Leftovers (homemade and take-out): If you can fool your diners into thinking that they’re eating a new meal, they’ll be less likely to turn their noses up at your repurposed leftovers, Bonneau said. If you make chili one night, for example, cook it down until it’s thick, make a pastry, fill the pastry with the chili, and bake it. Now you have a hand pie. Or if you roast vegetables one night, put them in an omelette the next morning. If you cook rice as a side dish one night, make fried rice the next with any vegetables that need to be eaten.

“The beauty of leftover food is you don’t have to start from scratch for every meal. You already have something on hand that can be reincarnated into something new,” Bonneau told Mashable.

A new kind of March Madness!

ART

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: ALEX GREENBERGER

Prized Van Gogh Painting Stolen from Dutch Museum Closed Because of Coronavirus

Vincent van Gogh, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, 1884.

HANDOUT/MARTEN DE LEEUW/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

On Monday morning, an alarm went off at the Singer Laren museum in the Netherlands. When guards rushed over to check what had tripped it, they discovered that something terrible had happened: a prized painting by Vincent van Gogh was missing.

The Associated Press reports that a thief or thieves have made off with the Dutch Post-Impressionist’s 1884 painting The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, which had been on loan to the Singer Laren from the Groninger Museum voor Stad en Lande in the Netherlands. Forensics specialists and experts are currently investigating the theft, which took place while the museum was temporarily closed because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Exactly how the work was removed is still unclear, though local police said that whoever stole the work had to smash a glass door to gain access to the museum.

an Rudolph de Lorm, the Singer Laren’s director, told AP, “It is very bad for the Groninger Museum, it is very bad for the Singer, but it is terrible for us all because art exists to be seen and shared by us, the community, to enjoy to draw inspiration from and to draw comfort from, especially in these difficult times.”

While the work’s value was not immediately announced by the Singer Laren or the Groninger Museum, the van Gogh painting is a valuable one made early in the artist’s career prior to his artistic breakthrough two years later in France. Parsonage Garden, which shows a brushy figure standing in a garden, with a church in the background, was made during a brief period when van Gogh lived in the Dutch city of Nuenen, where the artist’s father served as a pastor in a parish.

Layoffs, Furloughs, and Pay Cuts: A Guide to Major U.S. Art Museums’ Coronavirus Closure Plans

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: ALEX GREENBERGER

The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles laid off its entire part-time staff, with potential plans to rehire workers once the pandemic ends.

Most major U.S. museums have said they will remain closed indefinitely because of the coronavirus. With operations grinding to a halt, institutions are beginning to announce layoffs and alterations to workers’ pay schedules. Below is a guide surveying those announcements.

Last update: 3/31/20, 8:30 a.m.

California

— The Broad: The Los Angeles–based private museum will pay staff members who can’t work remotely until at least April 8.

— Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Officials at one of L.A.’s biggest institutions plan to keep paying all hourly and part-time employees for the whole time the museum is closed.

— Hammer Museum: On March 24, 150 part-time student workers were laid off at the Hammer. The museum said the laid-off workers would receive pay through April 10. (The Hammer is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, which will not hold classes on its campuses through at least early June.)

— Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles: Also on March 24, MOCA laid off its entire part-time staff. With its part-time employees representing 97 people out of its 185-person staff, that means the museum cut its workforce in half. MOCA has said it is hoping to bring its part-time workers back after the closure ends. Laid-off employees are to be paid through the end of March.

— San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Working under the expectation that it will have to be closed through the end of June, the museum plans to lay off 135 on-call staff members on April 8. (These workers have been paid since the museum closed in mid-March.) And, starting on May 1, nearly 200 staff members will have their schedules reduced or will be furloughed. SFMOMA will continue to cover these employees’ health care benefits through June 30.

— Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: The San Francisco museum has made a public commitment to pay its employees for as long as possible.

Massachusetts

— MASS MoCA: Based in North Adams, the museum said it would lay off 120 of its 165 employees. All employees will receive full payment through March 27. After that, until April 10, all workers will receive 70 percent of their normal pay. Laid-off employees will be covered by the museum’s health care plan through July 31.

New York

— Metropolitan Museum of Art: Widely regarded as the role model for institutions across the nation, the Met has committed to paying all of its employees through April 4. At the end of March, the Met extended that deadline for payments until May 2, saying in a statement, “It is the best we can do in a rapidly evolving situation.” As of March 20, the museum was still considering whether it would have to lay off or furlough any employees.

Ohio

— Akron Art Museum: Located an hour outside Cleveland, the museum said it would impose pay cuts—department heads’ wages would be cut by 10 percent, and another 12 employees would receive a 5 percent pay cut. Twelve more employees will be reclassified from full-time to part-time.

— Cleveland Museum of Art: On March 26, the CMA said it would furlough all of its part-timers and cut the wages of all non-unionized staff by 11 percent–15 percent. Any forthcoming projects with contractors were suspended.

Pennsylvania

— Carnegie Museums: The Pittsburgh-based consortium of museums—which includes the Carnegie Museum and the Andy Warhol Museum—said that it would furlough more than half of its employees. About 75 percent of those workers are part-timers.

From Makeshift Studios to Webinars, the Art World Reinvents Itself Under Quarantine

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: ZACHARY SMALL

After abruptly departing New York, where he is in school at Columbia University, M.F.A. student Joseph Liatela set up a makeshift studio in his sister’s garage.

Even though there will probably come a time when the coronavirus pandemic recedes into memory, the economic shutdown caused by it is likely to impact the art industry for years to come. Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment because of the pandemic. Thousands of those Americans work in the cultural sector for museums, galleries, art schools, and other cultural organizations.

Even the wealthiest institutions are struggling to survive. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has projected a $100 million loss in revenue. Last week, the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh said it expected deficits of $1.4 million per month of closure. The consortium consequently announced pay cuts as high as 30 percent for senior staff and a temporary furlough for around 550 employees—just over half its workforce—for the anticipated two-month shutdown.

But most institutions operate on razor-thin budgets, and according to a 2018 survey by Southern Methodist University’s DataArts center, arts organizations have seen a decrease in working capital since 2013—meaning they lack the liquid assets necessary to cover operating costs.

The precarity the industry faces is best exemplified by the people behind it. Last week, ARTnews spoke with displaced artists, laid-off workers, and museum executives making tough decisions about their futures. These are their stories.

Alexandra Ivanova

Former Hammer Museum employee based in Los Angeles

Two years ago, Alexandra Ivanova joined the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as a frontline ambassador. She enjoyed welcoming visitors into the building and assisting with public programs; it was a welcome distraction from her science classes at UCLA that would help pay for graduate school. In September, the 21-year-old student was promoted to museum experience lead. This March, Ivanova was laid off alongside nearly 150 other student employees.

“It’s sad because we know that the museum has the money,” she said, “but for the administration, saving costs seems more important than worker lives.”

Ivanova was especially worried about her immigrant colleagues who no longer have jobs and will not be able to access relief funds from the federal government because of their citizenship status. She estimates that about a third of her laid-off coworkers will be affected. “They don’t know what will happen, if they will be deported, or if they can find another source of income,” she added.

As a graduating senior who is financially independent, Ivanova worries about how she is going to pay rent. She is immunocompromised, which limits her ability to work during coronavirus. She had recently decided to matriculate into a public health masters program at Yale University, but now she might defer because of the costs.

“I want some acknowledgment from the museum of the fact that it’s going to hurt a lot of people,” she said. “You are subjecting people to huge hardships in the middle of a literal plague.”

Michelle Moon

Former Tenement Museum employee based in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Michelle Moon was chief program officer at the Tenement Museum in Manhattan. She would wake up at 6:30 a.m. to prepare for her hour-long commute from New Jersey to the institution, and her high-velocity days there mostly consisted of meetings about how the museum could further develop and collaborate with other organizations.

Now that she’s been laid off alongside 12 other employees at the museum, she’s trying to keep some semblance of the old routine. The mornings are spent surveying the latest news from other museums about closures and layoffs. She interacts with hundreds of her colleagues online, forming webinars and working groups about how the art industry might resurrect after the shutdown.

“I think of the day in chunks and sign up for opportunities,” she said. “It helps to create some normalcy.” She tries to regiment her days of quarantine with workouts and meals. And she remains steadfastly optimistic.

“Museum managers should see that this is an opportunity to rebuild healthier work structures and attempt to make jobs more supportive,” she explained. “Maybe there will be fewer jobs but better ones. More benefits and fuller employment. The pandemic will change the way we work inside our institutions.”

Joseph Liatela
Columbia University M.F.A. student who relocated to San Francisco

Joseph Liatela could see the writing on the wall. He bought a one-way ticket home to San Francisco, leaving behind his studio at Columbia University in New York, where he is studying for his M.F.A. degree in visual art. He stuffed what he could into a luggage bag: silicones, metals, a sketchbook, molds, small sculptures, and other materials.

“My main concern was to be with my family,” the 28-year-old artist explained. “I decided to leave a couple days before Columbia officially closed.”

Back at his studio, Liatela would often spend all his time in the studio, typically arriving there around 9:30 a.m. He would work through the night, arriving back at his apartment usually around 2:30 in the morning. Now isolating on the West Coast, he has created a makeshift studio in his sister’s garage and used this time as an opportunity to work on less laborious projects like videos and research. Online classes for his semester start soon.

“It’s been difficult getting resituated,” he said. “And part of this process is mourning. We need to mourn that this is not how things should be. People shouldn’t feel so much pressure to make, make, make.”

Jessimi Jones
Springfield Museum of Art executive director based in Bellefontaine, Ohio

When Jessimi Jones became executive director of the Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio this past January, she never imagined that her first few months on the job would involve crisis management and a temporary shuttering of her workplace. Like the majority of museums in the United States, hers is a small operation.

“Within the last two weeks, I sat with the board to identify a realistic timeline for the museum,” she explained. “We went line item by line item to see where we will realistically have a shortfall, what expenses we can save, and what the gaps are that we need to fill. Within a few days, our board has given generous donations, but we still have not yet filled all the gaps.”

Her appointment at the museum was supposed to be something of a homecoming after working at the Philbrook Museum in Oklahoma for more than six years. Jones grew up in Bellefontaine, Ohio, about 40 minutes north of Springfield. She now finds herself quarantined at her parents’ house, sharing her childhood bedroom with her husband and daughter. Because the museum doesn’t have full-time security, she finds herself going into the empty museum regularly to check mail and survey the building.

The Springfield Museum has eight part-time employees; Jones made the difficult decision of laying off three staff members at the front desk who each worked a few hours per week. “It’s been particularly challenging and stressful,” she said. “But I feel positive that we are going to use this time to have things ready for when we reopen our doors and welcome people back in.”

No, We Are Not All Edward Hopper Paintings Now

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: ALEX GREENBERGER

A museum visitor looking at Edward Hopper’s Morning Sun (1952).

About two weeks ago, Edward Hopper’s art started enjoying an expected revival—not in a museum but on Twitter. “We are all edward hopper paintings now,” declared Michael Tisserand, a New Orleans–based writer who, in a viral tweet that has since racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, assembled four images of Hopper works featuring lonesome-looking souls in bare indoor settings.

The sentiment struck a chord, with the prominent art critic Jonathan Jones even penning a full-length essay on it for the Guardian. So moved was he by the notion of Hopper’s paintings now that Jones wrote, “We choose modern loneliness because we want to be free.”

But therein lies a difference between Hopper’s forlorn subjects and so many of us right now. They choose to live in modernity and find themselves alienated because of it. We choose to simply try to stay alive in the world today and a pandemic that has so far killed more than 36,000 worldwide is keeping us captive. We are not all Edward Hopper paintings now. If only we were so lucky.

True, Hopper’s late-career paintings capture a moodiness and a melancholy that is distinctly of our moment. They often feature affectless individuals looking out windows or staring into the distance, gazing at nothing in particular. They are rendered in drab, un-showy colors, and many art historians have praised them for their atmosphere. (Even if some during the mid-20th century, when Hopper was in his prime, did not: Clement Greenberg, who famously sang the praises of the Abstract Expressionists, once wrote, “Hopper simply happens to be a bad painter.”)

Hopper’s subjects in stasis were actually always somewhere in the middle of a slow-motion action. He often said the protagonists of his paintings were caught in moments of “moving on,” though where to is not always (or ever) clear. When he shows a woman in a slip sitting on a bed and vacantly looking out at an urban landscape, as he does in 1952’s Morning Sun (now in the collection of Ohio’s Columbus Museum of Art), it is possible that, after the instance in which Hopper has depicted her, she gets up and goes about her day. Even if her depression lingers, at least she leaves the house—unlike so many of the socially distanced citizens of the world right now.

Though it would be hard to describe Hopper’s paintings as being in any way uplifting, one could say they are faintly optimistic. Even his most desolate imaginings are suffused with soul, and many of his daytime scenes pool with sunlight that pours in from windows. That longstanding interest in illumination stems from his childhood, when Hopper would take pleasure in seeing the sun come into the upper level of his family’s house in Nyack, New York.

“There is a sort of elation about sunlight on the upper part of a house,” the artist once said. In that case, let us all make like Hopper paintings and take pleasure in light—the smallest but also biggest of things—for now.

Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist Proposes Massive Public Art Project in Response to Coronavirus

Written by: Tessa Solomon

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the artist director of the Serpentine Gallery.

As many around the world band together to launch coronavirus relief funds, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has revealed his own idea to help foster art-making in the time of a pandemic: a vast public arts project on the scale of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Great Depression–era work-relief programs. In detailing his plans to the Guardian on Monday, Obrist cited cornerstone of Roosevelt’s New Deal—the Public Works of Art Project and its successor, the Works Progress Administration, which employed more than 8 million Americans and is partly credited with launching the careers of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko—as one of his key inspirations.

“With the WPA, they went out into the community: artists got salaries and were able to research and create work during the New Deal era,” Obrist, who serves as artistic director of London’s Serpentine Galleries, said, per the Guardian. “It gave many people their first real jobs and commissions.”

From 1935 through 1943, artists enlisted by PWAP and WPA produced roughly 15,000 public artworks, including murals, motivational posters, and sculptures for government buildings. Pollock and Rothko, working as muralists, were joined by Abstract Expressionists Willem de Kooning and Lee Krasner, who were then at the start of their careers.

“It’s such a fascinating project when you consider where we find ourselves now, both in terms of supporting the economy and the importance of helping and caring about artists,” Obrist said. “The U.K. government should do something like this.”

As of March 30, the U.K. has recorded more than 19,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus—including the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson—and 1,228 deaths. Like many others worldwide, the country has shuttered all nonessential businesses, dealing a financial and creative blow to galleries and museums. Last week, the Arts Council England announced plans for a $190 million emergency relief package which will offer about $25.8 million in cash grants for individual artists and freelancers.

Obrist added that, when the outbreak was finally under control, arts organizations “need to go into communities with art which don’t usually have access to it. In this time of crisis, it’s important that museums think about how they can go beyond their walls and reach everyone.”

ADVERTISING

Digital ad growth will fall to single digits thanks to pandemic: Magna

Content Courtesy of: campaignlive.co.uk

Written by: Rahul Sachitanand

And that’s the good news, according to a Magna Global report, as the crisis hammers spending across all formats.

Global digital advertising is likely to slow down to single-digit growth this year, compared to over 20% per year in recent years, according to a new report from Magna, the centralised IPG Mediabrands resource. However, digital media will likely be the least impacted form of media during the crisis, due to the acceleration of digital media usage and ecommerce during the outbreak.

According to Magna’s report, among linear ad formats, TV will remain relatively resilient due to pre-existing spending commitments and the fact that its core CPG/FMCG clients will be relatively unscathed by the outbreak and the economic slowdown. While TV viewing is reportedly growing as people isolate at home, a shortage of fresh programming and the cancellation of live sports events may ultimately limit overall growth, Magna says.

Radio ad sales may suffer more, as automotive commuting stops for weeks, and OOH media sales will be severely hurt during the outbreak as train stations and highways remain empty. OOH media may recover faster than other media, however, due to its strong performance and client mix (technology).

Early data from China, South Korea and Italy suggests significant increases in TV viewing and digital media consumption.

When WFH rules and quarantines are established on a national scale, linear TV viewing increases over 10% while the audience for news programs and news channels grows by 30% or more. Digital media consumption, especially social media and digital video, also increases by up to 10%, Magna data shows.

Meanwhile, in terms of demand, the agency says it will update its detailed media owners’ Net Advertising Revenues (NAR) forecasts in early June based on media companies Q1 earning reports to be published in April, and reports from local trade organisations. This will also give Magna a clearer outlook on the pandemic and the economic outlook.

Elsewhere, the report report contends that the quarantine and social distancing policies are generating changes in attitudes, social norms (remote work, remote education), consumption (acceleration of e-commerce and online services), and media consumption (surge in TV viewing, OTT usage, and digital media). These shifts are likely to (at least partially) outlast the outbreak.

With COVID-19 now a global pandemic, many industry sectors may decrease marketing and advertising spending this year as a result of slower sales and profits.

Magna expects the impact on revenues to be severe for the hospitality sector, moderate for retail and automotive, mild for consumer goods and potentially positive for ecommerce and SVOD. Magna has made a four-tiered forecast for adspend. The most severe cutbacks, the agency says, will be sectors such as travel, cinemas and other related leisure services, which will see demand for their offerings crumple to zero or near zero and many businesses go under.

The second “significant” category, which will see a strong slowdown and a decent recovery, includes retail (mild impact for grocery shops, severe for department stores, positive for ecommerce) and automotive and beauty businesses. Mildly hit businesses include technology, telecoms, pharma, food, drinks and personal care. On the other hand, some categories will see positive growth in ad spending. These include household goods (some toiletries are seeing a temporary surge in sales), home entertainment (SVOD, OTT), e-commerce and delivery services and cloud computing services.

While the COVID-19 epidemic seems to be slowing in China, which shows that extreme isolation works and curbs the contagion within four to six weeks. Europe and North America are now facing at least five weeks of quarantines and business closures that will hit the economy, before business gradually comes back to normal.

For marketers, this means they are looking at a global recession in the first half (negative GDP growth in Q1 and Q2) to be followed by a recovery in the second half. If so, the global economy may stagnate in 2020, instead of growing by 3% as previously expected.

However, in terms of consumer sentiment, COVID-19 may have significantly accelerated the decline of several economies. Western Europe, where the economy was already slowing down before the outbreak, especially in Western Europe. China has already experienced negative growth in the first quarter for the first time in 40 years, and full-year growth is now expected to be between 3% and 5%, compared to 7% in recent years, prompting muted forecasts there and worldwide.

Publicis Groupe fly people home to be with families amid COVID-19 chaos

Written by: Oliver McAteer

Content Courtesy of: campaignlive.co.uk

The holding company is also accelerating the roll-out of Marcel.

More and more employees of Publicis Groupe are taking the holding company up on its offer to fly them home to be with their families amid the coronavirus disruption.

CEO Arthur Sadoun said he is pleased to learn staff are taking advantage of the invitation as he addressed everyone on Sunday for the third time since COVID-19 took hold of the economy.

The leader said that Publicis is accelerating the launch of Marcel so its employees can be better connected.

“We realized that today we not only need to fight the virus, but also the isolation it is causing,” he said. “Staying strong together in this period is going to be vital. Not only for our business, but more importantly for your well-being.

“This is why we have decided to advance the launch of Marcel. We move fast as there is an urgency to keep us all connected. It will now be available for the entire group by the end of April. We will start in the U.S., where Marcel will be available to 30,000 people there. It won’t be perfect — there will be some bugs — and it will keep evolving. But it will unite us, at a time when we need that the most.”

Meanwhile, 3,000 Publicis leaders will come together (virtually) at the end of this week, with a main theme of addressing client relationships.

Sadoun explained: “When it comes to our clients it is clear everyday that it has never been more important to be on their side. We need to act differently with them today and tomorrow, and I want to make sure we start immediately.”

He added: “I want to thank you all for your courage and the incredible engagement you’ve shown at this time.”

LIVING ON THE EDGE: HOW A SMALL AGENCY TURNED INTERNET SCARCITY INTO A CLIENT OPPORTUNITY

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Lori Bower

Kansas shop proposed WiFi parking lots to broadband provider

To overcome slow rural internet at their homes, Lori Bower and Kim Baldwin upload client projects from a public WiFi parking area in Inman, Kansas, while their children do school work. (Hatches temporarily open for viewer pleasure only.)

Living on the Edge is a weekly series exploring how small agencies have overcome adversity and applied creativity, ingenuity and hard work to solve a business problem. This first installment is about how a Kansas shop helped kids continue learning virtually during the coronavirus outbreak and turned it into a win for a client.

I have a five-person agency called BowerComm in Hutchinson, Kansas (I boomeranged to Chicago agencies and came back 10 years ago to live on the family farm). By Sunday, March 15, we’d decided to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak, so we started that week with a Skype status meeting. Two of us live on farms—17 miles from the nearest McDonald’s, to give you a sense of “ruralness”—and we realized we were going to run out of hot-spot data in short order. And what we have out here is 10-12 mb/sec, at best.

This led us to an idea for our client IdeaTek, a local broadband provider whose mission is to bring better access to rural areas. (Unfortunately, they don’t offer service where I live!) During our status call, we could see an emerging need for drive-up WiFi parking lots. People in our situation were going to need access, and the places that usually offer it (libraries, coffee shops) were closing. So, we pitched the idea to them right after we got done with our meeting—and they started talks immediately about how to implement it.

Little did we know that the next day, Kansas would be the first state to cancel “normal” school for the remainder of the term. School districts—which were mostly all on spring break—started scrambling to take learning online in a place where up to 25 percent of students don’t have home internet access beyond a cellphone.

Our idea, delivered at exactly the right time, meant that IdeaTek was able to host a conference call for the schools and communities they serve on Wednesday. By Wednesday afternoon (March 18) they had a beta parking lot site. And by Sunday they had nine free public WiFi parking lots in five communities. The tally stands at 22 locations as of March 27.

We helped IdeaTek get the word out with a press release, social media and landing page over that first weekend, freeing them to handle the flood of inquiries from schools, businesses and residential customers concerned about having access.

Two days ago, I maxed out my Verizon jet pack 15 GB allotment, meaning it was throttled to 600 kb/s (impossible to send anything at all). Today, I maxed out my parents’ jet pack. Fortunately, no one is at our office, so it appears I will be working from there alone until my data plan resets … assuming my babysitter doesn’t fall victim to COVID-19 quarantine. Clearly Disney+ is out of the picture for entertainment at home.

Do you have a story to tell about how your small shop overcame adversity and came out stronger? Click here to learn more about out new series and to find out to enter our Ad Age’s Small Agency Conference & Awards.

BUSINESS

AMAZON IS TEAMING UP WITH LYFT ON RECRUITING ITS DRIVERS AS RIDE-HAILING DEMAND DROPS

Lyft is also suggesting its drivers install plastic barriers in their vehicles

Written by: Jeenah Moon

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

A Lyft sticker on a vehicle in the Times Square neighborhood of New York City.

Amazon is teaming up with Lyft on recruiting the ride-hailing company’s drivers to deliver packages and groceries as the coronavirus pandemic keeps people indoors.

In an email to Lyft drivers Friday, the company referred them to work opportunities at Amazon as grocery shoppers, warehouse workers or delivery people “as a way to earn additional income right now.” The message from Lyft, which came in response to plummeting demand for rides and economic hardships facing drivers, also indicated that drivers could qualify for compensation in the U.S. stimulus bill.

While Amazon and Lyft have competed for workers in the past, the surge in grocery and package deliveries has reset that dynamic. Amazon said last week it plans to hire 100,000 people and give U.S. workers a temporary $2-an-hour raise in an effort to meet the crushing demand. However, Amazon is under fire for not doing enough to protect its workers, some of whom have tested positive for the coronavirus. The company said it has stepped up cleaning in its warehouses and is giving guidelines to workers about maintaining safe distances.

Declines in the ride-hailing business are sharp. Recent estimates put a drop in fare prices at as much as 11 percent and demand at about 20 percent. Uber, the largest ride-hailing operator, can partly offset the shortfall with its restaurant delivery business, which is seeing an uptick. Lyft doesn’t deliver food.

In the email to drivers reviewed by Bloomberg News, Lyft suggested that in addition to seeking immediate work with Amazon, drivers could sign up to help deliver groceries, COVID-19 tests and other medical supplies as part of future partnership programs. Lyft said more than 100,000 drivers had already signed up.

Lyft urged drivers to follow federal health guidelines and suggested installing a plastic barrier in their vehicles, along with a link to buy such a kit on Amazon.

A Lyft spokeswoman declined to specify the terms of its arrangement with Amazon.

OPINION: COVID-19 WILL CHANGE CONSUMERISM FOREVER

Brands that fail to serve the greater good could lose customer loyalty

Written by: Lyndsey Fox.

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

There’s no question that COVID-19 will transform the world; we might never return to life as it was. For the first time in my memory, we’re not in a situation where change is coming—it’s here. And consumer brands might face the whiplash of this shift more quickly than any other group.

As far back as I can remember during my time in advertising, we told clients that the world is changing and that they need to change with it—or be left behind. That they will see new competitors from tertiary categories, new technologies, new mediums—all leading to new consumer needs not as clear as in the past. We have continually pushed to find elasticity in offerings, to be as relevant as possible and to seek out new markets and optimize the existing. It has always been our job to be not just partners in communication, but to be strategic partners in optimization of consumption at all levels.

But no marketer could ever have imagined how expedited and acute these changes would become through the pervasiveness of COVID-19. And while we’re rightly busy grappling with the virus’ impact on our healthcare system and its devastating economic implications, given what I do for a living I have to ask myself: How will this change our overarching idea of consumerism?

Culturally we find ourselves at a crossroads. Where we once were consumers, we are now connectors and protectors—trying to determine how to sustain our livelihoods. We are worried about and in constant communication with our loved ones who are sequestered by themselves; we fear for their health and for their emotional well-being. We are evangelists of the simplest of practices—staying at home and washing our hands—behaviors that seem so commonplace until they are mandated.

It’s even stranger to consider what’s happening on our social media platforms. Instagram until two weeks ago was a black hole of consumerism, a place where you could never have enough to keep up with the Joneses—not enough things, not enough meals out and certainly never enough followers. Today, in this “shelter in place” world, we find ourselves in a position where—if we’re very lucky—we have what we need and that’s enough. If we’re fortunate, we’re able to finally experiment with making sourdough loaves to feed our families or have a guitar to strum while they sing along. At least, that’s what my Instagram feed tells me.

While the division of wealth and privilege is still quite clear as I scroll, the dichotomy of subject matter and purpose of platform is not lost on me. Instagram and other social media channels innately romanticize all. But when you dig into the purpose of the activities we’re capturing while we’re stuck at home during this crisis, they’re about the protection of our communities, the sustainability of our families’ abilities to support ourselves and ultimately the greater good. We’re planting victory gardens; we’re sewing masks for our healthcare workers on the front lines; and we’re leaving a few eggs on our neighbors’ doorstep when they run out. As the popular meme making the rounds declares: This is wartime and the enemy is the virus. We will overcome it, but the trauma will remain.

We are facing an uphill battle on the trauma inflicted upon us all: lives lost, devastation of healthcare systems all across the world, coping as best they can with what they have. The overnight loss of income and ability to support your family. The enormous sense of loss at not being able to hug a loved one. Trauma like this pervades our subconscious for generations.

This is why I believe that March 2020 marks the end of consumerism as we’ve come to know it. We won’t forget the new practices that helped us through the crisis. “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one) may be our country’s motto, but if these last few weeks have taught us anything it’s that it just takes one to protect the many. Today we become aware through the pervasive spread of this virus just how strong our individual actions can be. That staying home is an effort in saving lives. Once we emerge from this, think about transferring that notion to buying power. Imagine the power of individual action, and the strength it gives every single dollar spent.

What does this mean for brands? It means that they just got a new competitor from a tertiary category: community. How brands choose to use that information is up to them, but my recommendation is that they embrace and react to what consumers will be asking themselves: Why am I spending this dollar? Who am I spending it with? And, what greater good will it serve? It is my belief that only then will any loyalty be gained in this new dawn of consumerism.

Tech

How Covid-19 will impact IT and tech spending for 2020 and beyond

Written by: Louis Columbus

Content Courtesy of: cloudcomputing-news.net

Categories

Collaboration, Research, Software, Storage, Trends

The human tragedy the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on the world is incalculable and continues to grow. Every human life is priceless and deserves the care needed to sustain it. COVID-19 is also impacting entire industries, causing them to randomly move in unpredictable ways, directly impacting IT and tech spending.

COVID-19’s impact on industries

Computer Economics in collaboration with their parent company Avasant published their Coronavirus Impact Index by Industry that looks at how COVID-19 is affecting 11 major industry sectors in four dimensions: personnel, operations, supply chain, and revenue. Please see the Coronavirus Impact Index by Industry by Tom Dunlap, Dave Wagner, and Frank Scavo of Computer Economics for additional information and analysis. The resulting index is an overall rating of the impact of the pandemic on each industry and is shown below:

Computer Economics and Avasant predict major disruption to High Tech & Telecommunications based on the industry’s heavy reliance on Chinese supply chains, which were severely impacted by COVID-19.

Based on conversations with U.S.-based high tech manufacturers, I’ve learned that a few are struggling to make deliveries to leading department stores and discount chains due to parts shortages and allocations from their Chinese suppliers. North American electronics suppliers aren’t an option due to their prices being higher than their Chinese competitors. Leading department stores and discount chains openly encourage high tech device manufacturers to compete with each other on supplier availability and delivery date performance.

In contrast to the parts shortage and unpredictability of supply chains dragging down the industry, software is a growth catalyst. The study notes that Zoom, Slack, GoToMyPC, Zoho Remotely, Microsoft Office365, Atlassian, and others are already seeing increased demand as companies increase their remote-working capabilities.

COVID-19’s impact on IT spending

Further supporting the Coronavirus Impact Index by Industry analysis, Andrew Bartels, VP & Principal Analyst at Forrester, published his latest forecast of tech growth today in the post, The Odds of a Tech Market Decline In 2020 Have Just Gone Up To 50%.

Mr. Bartels is referencing the market forecasts shown in the following forecast published last month, New Forrester Forecast Shows That Global Tech Market Growth Will Slip To 3% In 2020 And 2021 and shown below:

Key insights from Forrester’s latest IT spending forecast and predictions are shown below:

    • Forrester is revising its tech forecast downward, predicting the US and global tech market growth slowing to around 2% in 2020. Bartels mentions that this assumes the US and other major economies have declined in the first half of 2020 but manage to recover in the second half
    • If a full-fledged recession hits, there is a 50% probability that US and global tech markets will decline by 2% or more in 2020
    • In either a second-half 2020 recovery or recession, Forrester predicts computer and communications equipment spending will be weakest, with potential declines of 5% to 10%
    • Tech consulting and systems integration services spending will be flat in a temporary slowdown and could be down by up to 5% if firms cut back on new tech projects
    • Software spending growth will slow to the 2% to 4% range in the best case and will post no growth in the worst case of a recession
    • The only positive signs from the latest Forrester IT spending forecast is the continued growth in demand for cloud infrastructure services and potential increases in spending on specialised software.
    • Forrester also predicts communications equipment, and telecom services for remote work and education as organisations encourage workers to work from home and schools move to online courses

Conclusion

Every industry is economically hurting already from the COVID-19 pandemic. Now is the time for enterprise software providers to go the extra mile for their customers across all industries and help them recover and grow again. Strengthening customers in their time of need by freely providing remote collaboration tools, secure endpoint solutions, cloud-based storage, and CRM systems is an investment in the community that every software company needs to make it through this pandemic too.

CULTURE

Written by: Ruben Natal-San Miguel

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel Is Capturing a New, Silent New York

The day photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel’s exhibition “Women R Beautiful” was set to open at New York’s Postmasters Gallery, the city went dark amid growing concerns over the rapid spread of the new coronavirus (Covid-19). Business deemed nonessential, including bars, salons, art institutions, were among those put on lockdown, which is still ongoing. New York is currently the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak; as of March 26, New York State has reported 37,258 confirmed cases and 385 deaths from Covid-19.

Like those left in the city, Natal-San Miguel takes precautions every time he steps outside: gloves, mask, camera. From his home in Harlem, he ventures by foot, often in the sparse bicycle lane. Over the past few days, he’s taken walks from the Bronx to Broadway and beyond, in what has become a virtual ghost town, shooting images along the way as part of a new series. In one image, taken from the sidewalk, his camera peers into Central Park, which is disturbingly crowded on a recent sunny Saturday.

“I get nervous when I do this, but I do it,” Natal-San Miguel told ARTnews by phone. “It is my responsibility as a documentary photographer to convey what is happening. And with my show at Postmasters closed, this is a way for me to give myself a sense of hope, and therapy, if you want to call it that.”

Natal-San Miguel, who was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, is a self-described “people person,” known for his vibrant participatory portraits. For his Postmasters show, he was to debut a new series that was a contemporary take—and personal revision—of some of mid-20th-century photographer Gary Winogrand’s most iconic images. (The show is accessible in a virtual version while the gallery remains temporarily closed.)

Natal-San Miguel usually keeps in touch with his subjects, trading numbers and sending prints. But for this new, somewhat unexpected project, the subjects are barren blocks and masked New Yorkers scurrying between the bodega and their front door. His long-range camera lens provides a certain amount of intimacy that increasingly feels impossible these days; Natal-San Miguel keeps a distance of between 10 or 15 feet between himself and the passersby his camera captures.

“It’s challenging for us all—for me, the subject,” Natal-San Miguel said. “That personal space and human connection is gone. But still, I try to keep the personality and the dignity.”

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Paras Griffin

DESIGNER FACE MASKS ARE GOING FOR $200 A POP ON EBAY

The high-end masks exist in something of a price-gouging gray area because they’re luxury products by design

Gwyneth Paltrow posted an Instagram photo Monday on her way back from her local farmer’s market. In it, she’s wearing a black dress and a matching black face mask. Her label of choice for the latter is a Swedish company called Airinum AB.

Designer face masks have been around for at least a decade, a niche market catering to the chronically sick along with frequenters of Burning Man and fashionistas in Beijing. Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, they are a coveted accessory for wealthy people around the globe. And for others, they’re a new symbol of inequality at a time when protective equipment for medical workers is in woefully short supply.

Airinum and other popular makers of trendy masks, including Cambridge Mask Co. and Vogmask, typically sell products in an assortment of colors and sizes and tout advanced air filtration and memory foam fitting for the wearer’s nose. Unlike paper masks often used by health care professionals, these can be washed and reused.

The products are normally priced at $12 for a basic black Cambridge mask or as much as $69 for a pearl pink Airinum. But those two companies are out of stock until at least next month. Airinums have sold for more than $200 apiece on eBay in the last week and Vogmasks for about $150 on average.

EBay, Amazon and other online retailers have come under pressure for enabling sellers to price gouge on essentials like masks and hand sanitizers. In response, the companies said they would ban such listings. The high-end masks exist in something of a gray area because they’re luxury products by design.

In the eyes of government officials, though, they’re still masks. San Francisco-based Vogmask manufactures all of its products in South Korea, which enacted an export ban this month on medical masks. Wendover Brown, the company’s co-founder, said 80,000 finished and packaged products are waiting in a warehouse near Incheon, unable to pass through customs. “The product is just sitting there, not helping anyone,” Brown said. Vogmask is now exploring options to manufacture in the U.S.

The global mask shortage is a severe problem for medical staff. Apple and Facebook are among companies helping source and donate masks to hospitals, and officials have urged people not to hoard them. Christian Siriano, a prominent fashion designer, and the French workshops of Balenciaga started producing masks to shore up supplies for health care workers.

It’s in this light that Paltrow’s pandemic glamor shot attracted some outrage. In comments on the post, several people chastised the actress for being tone-deaf and urged her to donate the mask to a health care worker and advocate for others to do so. “Medical staff have been begging people to contribute these,” one person wrote. “These should only be available to those on the front lines.”

A spokeswoman for Paltrow declined to comment. On Wednesday, Paltrow posted on Instagram saying she and her husband had donated to the Frontline Responders Fund, which is raising $10 million to get critical supplies to workers combating the virus.

Food

Coronavirus effects will ripple widely through food sector

Written by: Keith Nunes

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

KANSAS CITY — The unfolding impact of the novel coronavirus on public health and the global economy has been dramatic. Reaction to the virus by public and private entities will have a significant short-term impact on some sectors of the food and beverage industry as it spreads in the United States and to the rest of the world.

Foodservice will be hardest hit as more consumers work from home or practice social distancing to slow the spread of the virus. Many restaurants are expected to lose breakfast, lunch and dinner traffic, and the fall in demand will ripple through to the distributors and manufacturers who serve those businesses.

A recent survey by the market research company Technomic, Inc. found more than 3 in 10 consumers say they plan to leave the house less often and to go to restaurants less often or order food or beverages at away-from-home venues less frequently. And among those who say they will not go to a restaurant as often, 31 percent say decreased frequency will last between one and three months.

In China, Starbucks Corp. closed half of its stores in response to the virus. Most of the stores have reopened, but same-store sales were down 78 percent in February when compared to the same period of the prior year. While a single data point, Starbucks’ experience indicates foodservice recovery may be slow.

Similar supply chain ripple effects will occur as more schools and universities close for undetermined periods of time. Suppliers to the institutional market will see demand fall as schools shift to online learning programs.

Producers and food manufacturers also may be impacted by China’s inability to fully honor its commodity purchasing obligations under the phase one agreement signed Jan. 15. China agreed to purchase at least $36.5 billion in US food, agricultural and seafood products in calendar year 2020, but those purchases may be delayed as the Chinese economy and the global supply chain recover from the effects of the virus.

Technomic sees the coronavirus as a “boon” for the grocery business, as almost half of the consumers surveyed said they will stockpile grocery foods and beverages as a substitute for away-from-home meals. The scenario is playing out in a variety of ways. On March 4, the Campbell Soup Co. said it is increasing production and distribution of soups in regions of the United States where it is seeing a spike in sales thought to be related to consumers stocking up on shelf-stable goods. Costco Wholesale Corp. said its February sales benefited from an uptick in consumer demand in the fourth week of the month. The retailer attributed the rise to consumer concerns about the coronavirus and estimated the impact to be 3 percent over the comparable period a year earlier.

Of additional concern to marketers and manufacturers is how the impact of the outbreak may affect long-term consumer behaviors. The longer the outbreak persists, the more likely it is people will try new products or services, whether in-store prepared foods, click-and-collect, delivery, etc. While the immediate effects of the coronavirus are dramatic, residual changes continuing after the pandemic passes could prove transformational for some sectors of the industry.

Free toilet paper among ways restaurants respond to COVID-19

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by:  Jeff Gelski

Guerrilla Tacos in Los Angeles is offering an “emergency taco kit” during the pandemic that includes all the ingredients for a four-person taco dinner along with four rolls of toilet paper.

GLADSTONE, MO. — The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has hit the restaurant business hard, which is leading to creative ways to keep sales coming in.

“Clearly this is an industry that is — I don’t even want to say struggling — It’s really tragic what’s happening right now,” said Susan Schwallie, executive director of food and beverage consumption for the NPD Group, a market research and consumer insights company.

Data through March 22 showed total foodservice traffic down 36%, she said in a March 27 webinar organized by The Center for Food Integrity, Gladstone. The decline was 34% for quick-service restaurants and 71% for restaurants in sectors like casual dining and fine dining that do not have carryout or delivery infrastructures in place.

Some high-end restaurants, including steakhouses, are sending out meal kits with instructions showing consumers how to prepare the food stored in the restaurants.

“They need to move out their inventory,” Ms. Schwallie said. “They can’t just have that food sitting there. So that’s what fine dining is doing.”

New tactics are showing up as well among restaurants that offer delivery and carryout.

“I’ve seen some delivery advertisements for ordering takeout, and you’ll get a side of toilet paper,” she said.

The number of people ordering delivery differs by age group. Many in Generation Z are at their parents’ homes because colleges are shut down.

“They are hyper users of digital delivery,” Ms. Schwallie said. “They’re just not doing that right now whereas we’re seeing some older consumers that don’t normally participate come into the fray. So it’s a real mixed bag. One thing that is clear is that delivery capacity will not offset the restaurant closures.”

At the retail level, the NPD group is seeing shopping behavior that is a mix of panic and fear, she said. Growing in sales by triple-digit percentages are items like beans, rice, tuna and canned meat.

Ms. Schwallie said, “Those all to me say, “I am preparing to feed my family for an indeterminate time. I got to have shelf-stable things that are basic, that I can cook from.’”

Shelf-stable bread is in demand. So is flour and sugar as more people bake at home.

Growing in sales by double-digit percentages are popcorn, pretzels, potato chips, chocolate, ice cream and pastries, which signifies a “a tremendous amount of comfort food and snacking,” Ms. Schwallie said.

“We’re trying to figure out how to sustain and feed people as well as looking to food for enjoyment, familiarity and comfort,” Ms. Schwallie said.

Americans Avoiding Restaurants, Buying Guns Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Content Courtesy of: usnews.com

Written by: Andrew Soergel

A new report from Yelp suggests the coronavirus has increased demand for survival items while decimating restaurants and certain leisure activities.

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic is upending the U.S. economic landscape and warping consumer behavior as Americans prioritize survival and drop certain kinds of excess dining and leisure spending, according to a new report from Yelp.

The business directory service pooled in-house data to determine which types of shops and industries are suffering most acutely – or, in some cases, seeing the largest surges in interest – as confirmed coronavirus cases spread across the U.S. and a growing number of cities and states enact curfews and close nonessential businesses.

Yelp found that consumer interest in restaurants dropped 54% between March 8 and March 18, though pizzerias and fast food restaurants have seen interest spikes of 44% and 64%, respectively. Yelp measures consumer interest based on user activity such as page views and review postings.

Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Texas are among several states to order the closure of restaurant dining rooms in recent days. Takeout and delivery options remain available throughout much of the country – and, indeed, Yelp estimates such methods were twice as popular as they usually are as of March 15.

But restaurant closures and a lack of consumer interest are decimating the food service industry, as many Americans self-isolate to avoid contracting and spreading the virus. Restaurant reservation company OpenTable estimates that the number of seated in-restaurant diners in the U.S. was down 91% year over year as of Wednesday. As recently as March 8, in-restaurant dining was down only 2%.

From early- to mid-March, Yelp estimates interest in nightlife businesses dropped 69%, while breweries weathered a 61% decline. Consumers appear to be veering away from establishments that draw crowds, such as yoga studios (down 38%) and bowling alleys (down 43%).

Layoffs are hitting the U.S. economy fast and hard. Economists widely expect initial unemployment claim data published next week to be among the worst in modern history. Last week’s one-week jump in unemployment filings already eclipsed anything seen during the Great Recession of the late 2000s.

However, Yelp notes that some establishments have actually seen an uptick in business activity. Guns and ammunition stores have seen a 360% spike in interest, while interest in home fitness and exercise equipment is up 344% as Americans largely remain stuck in their houses.

Separately, a report published earlier this week by Ammo.com indicated ammunition revenue was up 309% between Feb. 23 and March 15, when compared with sales from Feb. 1 through Feb. 22. The site’s traffic climbed 77%. The online seller attributes coronavirus concerns for its “staggering statistics.”

Per Yelp, food delivery services also enjoyed a 59% spike in activity, while grocery stores saw interest climb 160%. Consumers have been buying out grocery store shelves across the country in a wave of panic purchasing. Supermarkets have seen a short-term demand boom, but over the long haul, shoppers are expected to hunker down and burn through their nonperishable supplies of items such as toilet paper and bottled water – reducing demand for such items over the long term.

“While many industries and companies are feeling the impact of supply and demand shock across the country, some industries are doing well, are hiring now or may begin to hire in the coming weeks,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement on Friday, noting that coronavirus-related job cuts have already climbed over 9,000 in the U.S.

“Amazon, which recently announced it was hiring 100,000 new associates, and many grocery stores nationwide are hiring to keep up with demand,” he said, also pointing to health care professionals, research scientists, facilities management personnel and trucking and logistics workers as among those most in need to keep up with demand.

Geographically, Yelp notes that states such as California and New York, which to this point have been hit the most heavily by the coronavirus outbreak, have seen the largest upheaval in local economic activity. Impacts are “more muted” in the Midwest and Southeast, likely due in part to differences in population density.

“Every state, though, now reflects, to some degree or another, the new reality of the coronavirus economy,” according to the report.

Content Courtesy of: money.usnews.com

Written by: Kristin McGrath

Curbside Pickup Options From Restaurants and Retailers

Businesses are responding to the coronavirus spread with low-contact curbside pickup options.

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With social distancing becoming a new norm, it’s difficult to safely buy food and other necessities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In response, some retailers and restaurants are opting for curbside pickup and other contactless pickup options to help ensure the safety of customers and employees. Plus, some retailers have offered curbside and low-contact pickup for years and are continuing to do so, even while limiting the open hours inside their stores.

In addition to the national chains below, plenty of local businesses are also rolling out innovative curbside and contactless pickup options. As many small businesses are struggling now, be sure to check out options in your neighborhood or city. And be sure to tip generously when possible, as retail and restaurant workers are being hit especially hard by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

Note that the availability of these options is subject to change. Be sure to visit the retailer’s or restaurant’s site before placing an order:

    • Applebee’s
    • Books-A-Million
    • Chili’s
    • Dick’s Sporting Goods
    • DSW
    • Dunkin’
    • Potbelly
    • The Cheesecake Factory
    • Target
    • Walmart

Applebee’s

The chain has been offering curbside delivery for years. To use it, place an Applebee’s to-go order online or via the app. When you receive confirmation that your order is ready, drive to the restaurant, park in a designated pickup spot, respond to the order confirmation text (or tap the “I’m Here” button in the app), and your order will be brought to your car.

Books-A-Million

The chain has rolled out a new curbside delivery option. Pace an online order, select store pickup at checkout and wait for the order confirmation. When you receive the confirmation, drive to the store, call the store’s number and ask to have your items brought to your car.

Chili’s

The chain has offered curbside pickup for a while now. If you’re trying it for the first time, it’s easy to get your food without leaving your car. Simply place an order online or via the app. Drive to the restaurant and park in a designated spot with a Curbside Pickup sign. Follow the instructions in your order confirmation or in the app to tell Chili’s you’ve arrived, and the order will be brought to your car.

Dick’s Sporting Goods

The retailer implemented curbside contactless delivery on March 18. Customers can shop online, select the “pick up in store” option, drive to the store upon order confirmation status, call the store and select “0” to tell an employee they have arrived for their order. An employee will then bring the order out to their car.

DSW

Stores shut down for customers on March 17. But those who need to buy shoes can still pick them up curbside. Just place an online order, and select store pickup. When you pull up, an employee will bring your order out to your car. DSW is also currently offering 20% off online orders with code SHOPONLINE.

Dunkin’

The chain is expanding curbside delivery to select locations nationwide. If it’s an option, you’ll see it in the app when you place your order.

Potbelly

The sandwich chain is offering contactless pickup for online to-go orders. Options vary by store. Some locations provide curbside pickup (simply pull up outside and call the store to have an employee bring your order out to you). Others are offering designated pickup stations so that customers can pick up their bags without any human interaction.

The Cheesecake Factory

Curbside service is available for to-go orders placed online. Plus, until April 16, get a free slice of cheesecake when you spend $30 or more on your online pickup order. Use promo code FREESLICE at checkout to get this deal.

Target

Target has offered curbside order pickup for a couple years now via its Drive Up service. Just place an order on the Target app, opt for curbside, update the store when you are on your way and park in a designated spot when you reach the store. Your order will be loaded into your car. Note that certain items, including perishable food, are not eligible for Drive Up orders. Note that Target locations nationwide are also reducing their store hours and are designating the first hour of shopping every day for seniors and others at higher risk for the coronavirus.

Walmart

Walmart has offered curbside grocery pickup for a few years now. To use the service, place your order online, opt for curbside pickup and select an appointment. When you show up at your approved time and park in a designated spot, an employee will load your groceries into your car. If demand for this service is high at your store, you may not be able to get same-day pickup. Note that 24-hour Walmart locations nationwide are closing early.

The ABC’s of February: Art Fairs, the Breakfast Business & Corona Beer vs. Coronavirus

ART

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Maximilíano Durón

Travel-Intensive Art Fairs Respond to Growing Coronavirus Anxiety Around the Globe

The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht, the Netherlands in 2015. The fair said its 2020 edition, scheduled for early March, will go on as planned.
MARCEL VAN HOORN/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

As reports of new coronavirus cases continue to accumulate around the world, well-traveled art fairs with international clienteles have been appraising their plans. The biggest ones in the coming months have said they so far intend to go on as scheduled, while others—including two in Milan—have announced postponements or changes to their schedules.

The Armory Show, a marquee event in New York with VIP previews starting next Wednesday, released a statement earlier this week saying it will go on as planned, while the ADAA Art Show on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is already under way.

The upcoming European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF)—a two-week affair scheduled for March 7-15 in Maastricht, the Netherlands—issued a statement on Thursday detailing “measures TEFAF is taking to provide a safe environment for all exhibitors, visitors, and our staff.” These include increasing “precautionary measures, such as additional all-day cleaning services and distribution and placement of hand sanitizers at the fair,” in addition to working with a first-aid team that will be in direct contact with the Maastricht university hospital.

TEFAF cited a statement from Maastricht mayor Annemarie Penn-te Strake, with whom the decision to continue with the fair ultimately lies: “The mayor is in constant contact with these institutions. Both bodies have, at present, given no advice which would make the Mayor decide to reconsider TEFAF’s Fair. The Mayor will continue to have daily consultations with the relevant health and security institutions.”

One of the next major fairs on the calendar is SP-Arte in São Paulo, scheduled for April 1–5. Though Brazil’s first case of coronavirus was reported earlier this week, the fair organizers said it was too soon to decide on the fate of the fair. In a statement sent to ARTnews, SP-Arte’s founder and director Fernanda Feitosa said, “It is early to tell what the impact of coronavirus in Brazil will be. This is a global concern, and for now we will remain alert. We will, of course, monitor official information coming from the World Health Organization and follow any recommendations they may issue for the region as well as recommendations from Brazilian health authorities.”

In one the most momentous coronavirus-related announcements of late, the Swiss government on Friday declared a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people. In response, the MCH Group—the parent company of the big Art Basel fair in Switzerland and others around the globe—was forced to move its upcoming Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show from an opening in late March until next January.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Art Basel—scheduled for June 16-21—said the plan remains in place and that the fair is “taking the situation extremely seriously” while preparing to “take any necessary measures in order to safely hold the fair.” Art Basel just released its exhibitor list on Wednesday, after being forced to cancel Art Basel Hong Kong, which had been slated for March.

Guillaume Piens, the director of the Art Paris fair scheduled for April 2-5, told ARTnews that, while the coronavirus is “a very serious situation,” his feeling is that “there’s too much hysteria about it at the same time. I’m afraid that the media hysteria around the virus might be worse than the plague.” With a few dozen cases reported in France, Piens said the fair would go on as planned—adding that though exhibitors from South Korea and Italy have been in contact about their participation, they too would still plan to forge ahead.

“A lot of people are mixing all the information,” Piens said. “People are talking about Hong Kong. There were already a lot of political problems before in Hong Kong. It was already a difficult situation that they had to deal with, and the virus was the nail in the coffin. The deaths in Hong Kong are at very low rates. We’re following the situation and monitoring it, and, of course, we take it very seriously. But at the same time we really want to stay calm and not panic.”

Two Italians fairs scheduled to open in Milan—one of the cities hardest hit by a series of outbreaks in northern Italy—have postponed their upcoming editions. The Salone del Mobile furniture fair is moving from April to June, and the MIA Photo Fair scheduled to open March 19 has not yet released new dates.

Other fairs coming soon that have not issued statements of any kind include Art Dubai (March 25–28), PAD Paris Art + Design (April 1–5), Paris Photo New York (April 2–5), Printed Matter’s L.A. Art Book Fair (April 3–5), and the Affordable Art Fair, which has back-to-back editions planned in Brussels (March 20–22) and New York (March 26–29).

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Sarah Douglas

Fake News and Real Sales Arrive in Full Form at the Felix L.A. Art Fair’s Second Edition

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where Felix L.A. is held.
ILPO MUSTO/SHUTTERSTOCK.

Occupying a room on the 11th floor of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, as part of the second edition of the Felix L.A. art fair, is a gallery based in Athens, Greece, called Fomo Haber. The two young men who work there are L.A. locals. One is a musician, the other works for Hauser & Wirth. The proprietors of Fomo Haber had “visa problems,” these two will tell you, and couldn’t make it, so they were hired at the last minute.

In fact, the “gallery” is an installation by Darren Bader, who has faked every aspect of it, from the enterprise (which doesn’t exist) to all the artists on view (who are given elaborate, fake CVs). Bader’s masterstroke may just be those two fellows manning Fomo Haber’s room. This is Hollywood, baby, and they are acting.

Not to be outdone by the star power at Frieze, Felix, a fair also in its second year and spread out among the rooms and cabanas of the Roosevelt Hotel, had some of its own spectacle. One of the special projects put on throughout the hotel—a brand-new section this year, overseen by critic William J. Simmons—is the ground-floor one by Judy Chicago—works picked by none other than Jill Soloway, writer of the TV show Transparent.

The by-invite fair got bigger this year—going from 41 international exhibitors last year to 60—but it is still manageable, not least because the organizers have solved their crowded elevator problem by enlisting the freight elevator.

Hollywood history is as rich at the Roosevelt as it is at Paramount Studios, and galleries in the fair are playing on it. Portland-based gallery Adams and Ollman is debuting three new abstract portraits by Vaginal Davis that are part of her ongoing “make-up” paintings series of obscure Hollywood actresses. There’s Della Reese at the Cine Grill (Reese was an R&B star who performed at the Cinegrill, once a hot club in the Roosevelt, and ended up in a fantasy TV Show called Touched by an Angel in which she played an angel’s supervisor), Carole Lombard (the three-level penthouse in the hotel is named for Lombard and Clark Gable, who once lived there), and Frances Farmer (plagued by mental illness and alcoholism, she was honored there in 1958 before she moved back to Indianapolis), all of them made with materials including hydrogen peroxide, glycerine, food coloring, coconut oil, nail polish, enamel, and hairspray.

These pieces were in the bathroom of Adams and Ollman’s room, and hours into the preview, they’d sold for $1,200 apiece. Davis has lived in Berlin since 2005, but her own life is deeply intertwined with Los Angeles, where she got her start in the queer and punk club scene during the 1970s.

Roberts Projects, an L.A. gallery, has a 2019 painting by Amoako Boafo that sold for $40,000 before the fair opened. The gallery did Boafo’s first-ever solo exhibition in the United States, back in January 2019, well before his residence with the Rubell Museum in Miami. A painting by Boafo meanwhile sold earlier today at Phillips London for £675,000 ($881,000).

The room housing the website A Hug From the Art World sold 123 of 126 of their Eric Doeringer small “bootlegs” of artworks in Eli Broad’s collection—each priced at $1,000.

In Miami, the satellite fair to be at is the one put on by the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA). At Felix, NADA, a membership organization that has year-round programming, teamed up with Pace Prints to produce a limited-edition print by Tomoo Gokita. It’s an edition of just 40—NADA has the odd-numbered prints and is selling 20 as a fundraiser edition, and Pace has the even-numbered prints. Gokita’s work has been hot on the auction market recently, with his painting hitting the million-dollar mark last year ($1.1 million last May at Phillips New York). The record for a print by him, a 2008 one in an edition of 25, is $35,980, achieved last July at SBI Art Auction Co., Ltd in Japan. NADA had nearly sold out by 5 p.m. on opening day of Felix—only one remained, which meant NADA made $235,000. (The first ten prints went for $10,000 each, the next five for $12,000, and the five after that for $15,000.) A nice haul for a nonprofit.

Felix isn’t just for young talent. London gallery Alison Jacques had a new woven piece by Sheila Hicks who, in her mid-80s, is still going strong. A regular on the major fair circuit who last year was promoted to the first floor of Art Basel, Jacques said when she found out she was not accepted into Frieze Los Angeles, she came out to the city this past summer to look at the rooms at the Roosevelt to do a presentation there. She wanted a suite, and found this one on the 11th floor. The walls in one of the rooms were painted in a somewhat unusual manner, the bottom half of them a pale blue. She sent photographs of the room to Hicks, who lives in Paris, and Hicks thought it would work well with her pieces. Jacques paid $10,000 for her space in Felix (a fraction of what a booth costs at Frieze L.A.) and had sold $1 million worth of art, by Hicks and the deceased artist Hannah Wilke, by 4:30 p.m. on the fair’s first day.

The fair, Jacques said, is extremely accommodating in terms of adjusting the rooms. “They bend over backward,” she said. “You can remove huge ceiling lamps if you want.” She also liked seeing the “caliber” of the many museum representatives at the fair.

She said the experience of the Felix fair takes her back to the Gramercy Park Hotel fair in New York in the 1990s, which she visited before she opened her own gallery. What’s old is new again.

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Art Market Monitor

Warhol’s Ali One of Few Heavyweights in Christie’s $72.8 M. London Contemporary Sale

Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali (1977) £4.97 million ($6.46 million).
COURTESY CHRISTIE’S

Christie’s London Evening sale of contemporary art had few star lots—but only one that failed to find a buyer—yet it managed to pull in a total £56.2 million ($72.8 million), down little more than a quarter from the previous year’s comparable sale. Two lots, one by Christopher Wool and one by Glenn Ligon, were withdrawn before the sale, leaving nevertheless an outsize number of lots—56—for the time and venue. Christie’s managed the sale exceptionally well, including convincing the consignor of a Gerhard Richter constellation painting to accept a price two-thirds of the low estimate.

Overall, the sale continues to reinforce the impression that the contemporary art market has compressed toward works in the so-called middle market price band, below $5 million.

The night’s top lots were the late West Coast collector Richard L. Weisman’s commissioned portrait of Muhammad Ali by Andy Warhol, which made £4.97 million ($6.46 million). It was the lead lot among the ten sports figures depicted by the artist at Mr. Weisman’s request. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jack Nicklaus, and O.J. Simpson were also legendary personalities from the series who sold better than their estimates. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Mosque sold for £3.9 million ($5.13 million), falling below its low estimate but still ranking among the most valuable lots of the evening. The same was true of Sigmar Polke’s untitled work, which reached £3.13 million ($4.07 million) while also failing to reach the low estimate. David Hockney’s 2006 landscape Walnut Trees sold well at £3.25 million ($4.22 million), to come fourth among the lots sold by value.

Albert Oehlen’s Mission Rohrfrei (Down Periscope) from 1996 continued the artist’s market run, being the first of the top ten lots to achieve its price through aggressive bidding. The final price of £3.19 million ($4.14 million) reflected a hammer price of £2.65 million that edged slightly above its £2.5 million high estimate.

Several other lots that enjoyed aggressive bidding began the sale with strong momentum; they were all by painters now familiar to the market. Jordan Casteel’s Mom (2013) set a record price for the artist at £515,250 ($669,160), reflecting a hammer price well over the £250,000 ($324,700) high estimate. Another young female artist, Tschabalala Self, surfaced at the start of the sale with lively interest from potential buyers. Six telephone bidders jumped in early, overwhelming the three bidders in the order book held by Jussi Pylkkänen. The initial frenzy raised anticipation but the bidding for Spare Moment petered out over the £120,000 ($155,845) high estimate to sell eventually for a solid but perhaps less-than-hoped-for £170,000 ($220,780) on the hammer, or £212,500 ($276,000) with buyer’s premium. Self’s auction record, set in October 2019, remains substantially higher at $486,461 which in that case reached about five times the low estimate.

Later in the sale, an untitled work by Gotthard Graubner went for £491,250 ($678,000), following the artist’s success last year in a Day sale of a similar monochrome work (that one in gold) that sold for £150,000 ($194,810). In the year prior, another Graubner work sold in a Sotheby’s Evening sale was the first of the artist’s work to come to auction in nearly a decade.

Günther Förg’s untitled series of paintings on lead and wood sold for £1.33 million ($1.73 million), increasing his auction record by several hundred thousand dollars. Earlier in the sale, one of Förg’s decorative works a full 13 feet wide sold at the low estimate for £731,250 ($949,682).

Antoni Tàpies, the Spanish painter, achieved a record with his mixed-media assemblage, Pintura del Cubell, which sold for £851,250 ($1.11 million). The price reflected strong competition for a work that has been held in the same collection since 1988.

Grayson Perry did well with Emotional Landscape, which sold slightly better than his ceramic jar positioned similarly in the previous night’s sale. At Christie’s, the work made £187,500 ($243,510). Also following a strong sale from the previous night was Eddie Martinez, whose Cannibal Eyes made £347,250 ($451,000), over a £180,000 ($233,800) high estimate.

The final strong sale of the evening was Howard Hodgkin’s Like an Open Book from the collection of Jeremy Lancaster, which Christie’s has been selling over the course of several months. That work sold for £443,250 ($575,650), more than double the high estimate, with the buyer’s premium.

ADVERTISING

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Jessica Wohl.

WENDY’S BEGINS ITS BIG BREAKFAST PUSH AND RIVALS ARE READY

Chains from McDonald’s to Chick-fil-A have cooked up ways to entice diners with their own breakfast lineups

Wendy’s tapped McDonald’s former chef Mike Haracz to promote its breakfast on social media and TV. Credit: Wendy’s

Wendy’s is making its biggest attempt yet to snag a bite of the breakfast business, and its competitors are armed with deals that just so happen—OK, were absolutely, totally planned—to coincide with the launch.

Wendy’s officially launches its breakfast menu on March 2, though many of its restaurants are already serving the Breakfast Baconator and other delicacies.

Wendy’s has had limited success in past attempts to crack into the breakfast business. This time, it seems to be much more prepared—although so do its rivals. The fast-food restaurant chain announced its 2020 breakfast intentions back on Sept. 9 and unveiled its March 2 launch date on Feb. 4.

“Since everybody knows there’s a new entrant coming into the breakfast daypart, we would have expected it to be highly competitive, and that’s what we’re seeing,” Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor said in a conference call on Feb. 26.

McDonald’s on Friday said it is calling Monday, March 2 “National Egg McMuffin Day.” It’s offering anyone with its app a free Egg McMuffin from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Monday, which of course is the same day as Wendy’s big rollout. McDonald’s has already been promoting value deals such as 2 for $4 offers on the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, Bacon Egg & Cheese Biscuit, and Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles.

Wendy’s, meanwhile, hired McDonald’s former chef Mike Haracz to promote its breakfast on social media and on TV.

For months, Wendy’s has insisted that it is ready for the stepped-up efforts across the industry.

“Honestly, the louder the fight gets, the better it is for our breakfast business,” Kurt Kane, Wendy’s U.S. president and chief concept officer, said in October.

Wendy’s said on Feb. 26 that it plans to spend about $40 million to $50 million on breakfast advertising, as part of the total $70 million to $80 million dedicated to breakfast advertising this year, with the rest coming out of the ad funds it already gets from franchisees. The increased spending means Wendy’s working media weight will be up about 30 percent this year. The company is in a bit of a breakfast startup mode pointing out it expects to have a loss on its breakfast business in 2020, due to the investments it is making in marketing.

Others are making investments, too. Some Chick-fil-A restaurants, including those in the Chicago area, are offering a free breakfast item each Tuesday in March.

Some Chick-fil-A restaurants are offering free breakfast items each Tuesday in March. Credit: Jessica Wohl

Chick-fil-A for years has been promoting chicken for breakfast and has seen rivals including McDonald’s, and now Wendy’s, try to stake their claim.

“We believe this product easily goes head to head versus the competition and is far greater in terms of the overall flavor profile,” Wendy’s Chief Marketing Officer Carl Loredo said of the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit sandwich at a pre-launch press event earlier this month.

Burger King said earlier this month that it has initiatives planned around breakfast, but didn’t elaborate.

Wendy’s is even taking aim at Starbucks with its Frosty-ccino, pointing out at the press event that the coffee drink has half the calories of a Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccino.

Other breakfast players are making their own moves. Panera this week announced unlimited coffee for $8.99 a month. Jack in the Box, which has offered breakfast items all day for years, is working on a new coffee.

Dunkin’, meanwhile, is now selling bags of bacon meant for “snackin’,” as the company spells it. For those keeping track, there are eight half-slices of sweet pepper bacon in a serving of Snackin’ Bacon, and six strips of Applewood smoked bacon on the Wendy’s Breakfast Baconator. (You’re welcome, cardiologists of America, for the expected increase in business.)

Dunkin’ also brought back its Egg White Bowl and Sausage Scramble Bowl, and added its Sausage, Egg & Cheese Wake-Up Wraps to its Go2s menu, at two for $3, through mid-May.

And for the oddest-sounding item amid all of this breakfast madness, Einstein Bros. Bagels introduced the “Bagelrito” nationwide on Feb. 27, following a five-restaurant test in the fall.

What’s a Bagelrito? So glad you asked. The bagel-meets-burrito concoction is two eggs, bacon, turkey sausage, three kinds of cheese, hashbrowns, salsa and green chilies stuffed in a flour tortilla, then wrapped into Asiago bagel dough and baked.

Einstein’s Bagelrito Credit: Einstein Noah Restaurant Group

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: E.J. Schultz.

CORONA’S OWNER HITS BACK AT A SURVEY THAT SUGGESTED IT’S BEEN HURT BY CORONAVIRUS

It’s extremely unfortunate that recent misinformation about the impact of this virus on our business has been circulating,’ Constellation Brands said in a statement

A worker carries packages of Corona beer, a brand owned by Constellation Brands, as orders are prepared for delivery in the Euclid Beverage warehouse in Peru, Illinois, U.S
Credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Corona parent company Constellation Brands today took aim at a survey put out by a PR agency that claimed people were cutting back on the beer because it shares the same name as the coronavirus. The survey, issued on Thursday by 5W Public Relations, claimed that “38% of beer-drinking Americans would not buy Corona under any circumstances now.”

“It’s extremely unfortunate that recent misinformation about the impact of this virus on our business has been circulating in traditional and social media without further investigation or validation,” Constellation CEO and president Bill Newlands said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. “These claims simply do not reflect our business performance and consumer sentiment, which includes feedback from our distributor and retailer partners across the country.” He added that “our company does not have much exposure to international markets such as China that have been most impacted by this situation.” (Anheuser-Busch InBev controls Corona globally.)

Constellation in its statement cited IRI retail sales trends showing that sales of Corona Extra increased by 5 percent in the four-week period ending Feb. 16, “nearly doubling the 52-week trend for the brand.”

5WPR’s survey of 737 American beer drinkers was conducted by phone on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, according to the agency. The survey also reported that only 4 percent of regular Corona drinkers said they would stop drinking the brand, but 14 percent said they would not order it in a public venue. On Thursday, Ad Age asked 5WPR to clarify they 38 percent stat, in terms of if it included regular Corona drinkers. The agency responded that “the 38 percent of people who said they would not buy Corona under any circumstances now did not describe themselves as previous Corona-drinkers, they described themselves as beer-drinkers, in general.”

The findings, which were released on Thursday, drew widespread media attention. By Friday morning, “38% of Americans,” was trending on Twitter. But much of the social media reaction was more directed at the intellect of anyone who would confuse the virus and the beer. Here, a sample:

BUSINESS

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Bloomberg News.

WALMART DEVELOPING A MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM TO RIVAL AMAZON’S PRIME

New service will be called called Walmart+

Walmart Inc.’s battle with Amazon.com Inc. is going Prime time.

The world’s largest retailer is developing a paid membership program to challenge the internet giant’s Prime offering—which has become the default online shopping option for millions around the globe. The service, called Walmart+, will expand on the retailer’s existing grocery-delivery subscription service, which it introduced last year. Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside will spearhead the service’s development and rollout.

A Walmart spokeswoman confirmed the plans but declined to provide any details. Additional perks could include discounts on prescription drugs and fuel, according to Recode, which first reported the existence of the program.

Developing a broad-based membership program illustrates Walmart’s deep-seated concern that shoppers who defect to Amazon don’t often come back. The idea also runs counter to the ethos of founder Sam Walton, who famously refused to introduce the shopper-loyalty programs that are now commonplace at U.S. retailers. He argued that Walmart needed to treat each and every customer the same.

That said, Walmart has tried to mimic Prime before, testing a program called ShippingPass that it shuttered in 2017 upon the arrival of Marc Lore, who now runs Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce business.

The latest move is more ambitious than previous efforts, though, and aims to counter Amazon’s vise-like hold on the loyal shoppers who pay for the perks associated with Prime, which include free shipping and video streaming. Prime members spend about twice as much as other customers, and their willingness to splurge is a big reason why Amazon captured an estimated 40 percent of all sales growth at U.S. retail in the holiday quarter.

Since its debut in 2005, Prime has helped Amazon compete on price with physical retailers, allowing it to grow from an online bookseller to the largest online merchant of a wide range of goods. The company has tried to keep Prime members, who pay $119 a year for the service in the U.S., hooked with goodies like streaming video and music, and, more recently, free grocery delivery.

Amazon has also taken steps to lure lower-income shoppers into Prime memberships by offering monthly membership rates rather than forcing members to pay annually. Like Walmart, it is also delivering groceries to food-stamp recipients. Such efforts show Amazon is looking to broaden its customer base from affluent shoppers craving convenience to making Prime membership an everyday necessity.

Whiteside, the Briton who’s heading Walmart+, has become a powerful player at Walmart since her arrival from American Express in 2018. Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon has tasked her with courting more upscale shoppers and merging online and brick-and-mortar operations so that customers have a similar experience no matter where or how they shop. She’s also created a so-called product team, led by Chief Product Officer Meng Chee, which is using technology to improve the customer experience.

Using Walmart’s existing grocery delivery service as the backbone of Walmart+ makes sense, as it’s the one business where Walmart has a clear advantage over Amazon, with more than 20 percent market share in the $800 billion category. Walmart already delivers groceries from more than 1,600 U.S. stores and is testing a service that sends employees right into customers’ homes to put the food away in their fridges.

Walmart’s Delivery Unlimited service currently costs $98 a year or $12.95 monthly, and uses a free 15-day trial to entice new members. Customers can also pay a per-delivery fee, with no membership.

TECH

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Jay Peters

Facebook’s 3D photos can now be made using single-camera phones

You previously needed to use a dual-camera device

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook will now let you post 3D photos to your timeline from the Facebook app even if you have a phone with a single camera, the company announced today. In theory, this should make it possible for a lot more phones to take 3D photos — and Facebook says it also means you can use your front-facing camera to take take 3D selfies.

The feature, which was first made available in October 2018, was previously exclusive to phones that had two or more cameras that could take portrait mode shots. Previously, 3D photos relied on using each camera to take an image that Facebook could use to create the “depth” in a 3D picture.

This new single-camera technique uses machine learning to infer the three-dimensional structure of an image to create the 3D effect, according to Facebook. Here’s an animation the company provided of what that depth generation process looks like:

And here’s an example from Facebook of how the tech could look in an image on your timeline:

Facebook says anyone with an iPhone 7 or higher, or “a recent midrange or better Android device,” should be able to use the 3D photo tool in the main Facebook app. However, it doesn’t seem to have fully rolled out just yet — right now, I can only make 3D photos using images taken in portrait mode on my iPhone 11 Pro.

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Makena Kelly

The World Health Organization has joined TikTok to fight coronavirus misinformation

Its first video shows ways people can protect themselves

The World Health Organization launched a TikTok account on Friday as part of its efforts to cut through coronavirus misinformation online. A specialized public health agency of the United Nations, WHO is one of the leading organizations working to contain the spread of the virus.

In WHO’s first video, Benedetta Allegranzi, technical lead of infection prevention and control, describes measures people can take to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus and directs them to the organization’s website for additional information.

“We are joining [TikTok] to provide you with reliable and timely public health advice,” WHO wrote in the description of its first video.

TikTok has been flooded with memes about the novel coronavirus over the past few weeks, with some users pretending to be infected. In one case, a teenager made a video suggesting that their friend was the first Canadian confirmed to have caught the virus. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The launch of the TikTok account is part of WHO’s work to get accurate information concerning the novel coronavirus to people online. According to the MIT Technology Review, WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have spent the last couple of weeks of the outbreak fighting misinformation regarding the virus on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tencent, and TikTok.

Information from WHO already tops Google results for search queries about the novel coronavirus. Facebook users scrolling through their news feeds are also met with messages directing them to visit government websites for information on the virus. Twitter users see a message that says “Know the facts” and directs them to visit the CDC’s website for “the best information on the novel coronavirus” when they search for content related to the virus. TikTok also links users who search for virus-related content to the WHO website.

The coronavirus information partnerships are similar to how platforms reacted to criticism over anti-vaxx content on their platforms over the past few years.

WHO has also made strides to post accurate novel coronavirus information to its other social media accounts like Instagram. The organization’s Instagram feed is filled with infographics outlining how people can protect themselves from the virus.

WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Jay Peters

Apple reportedly releasing an iPad keyboard with a trackpad later this year

It will likely launch with the next iPad Pro, according to The Information

Apple is planning to release a new iPad keyboard with a built-in trackpad later this year, according to The Information. The new accessory is likely going to release alongside the next version of the iPad Pro, said The Information’s source.

Adding a trackpad to an iPad keyboard would be yet another move from Apple to bring functionality typically associated with a laptop to the company’s popular tablet line. iPadOS already has mouse support, but it’s an extension of the iPad’s AssistiveTouch technology and you have to dig into the accessibility menu to turn it on. And the on-screen mouse pointer isn’t the usual little black arrow you might be used to on your computer — it’s a big, semi-opaque circle that has a dot in the middle.

So right now, Apple doesn’t seem to be pushing you to use a mouse on an iPad. But if the company does release an iPad keyboard with a trackpad, it seems possible mouse support could become a more visible feature in iPadOS in an upcoming software update.

And just yesterday, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said, “If you like what you’ve seen us do with iPadOS, stay tuned, we’re going to keep working on it.” So it seems we should, unsurprisingly, expect new iPadOS updates at some point that lean more into the device’s dual purpose as a tablet and PC.

Perhaps Apple has seen positive response to mouse support — my colleague Sam Byford felt it was pretty good — and will make it a more core part of iPadOS along with this rumored new keyboard case. Now, Apple just needs to pull the reverse trick and add a touchscreen to a Mac.

CULTURE

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Jay Peters

Tinder swipes right on ‘Swipe Night’ by renewing it for a second season

The in-app Choose Your Own Adventure-style series returns this summer

Tinder has renewed Swipe Night, its in-app Choose Your Own Adventure-style series, for a second season that’s expected to premiere this summer, as first reported by Variety. The first season debuted last October.

Swipe Night is a weekly series, with each episode about five minutes long. In each episode, you have to swipe to select different options about paths and choices presented to you, and those decisions are added to your profile in the hopes that they can be conversation starters with potential matches.

“Entertainment has always been a human connector,” said Elie Seidman, Tinder CEO, in a statement given to The Verge. “We had a theory that our members would find this completely new and innovative experience natural to their Tinder experience — and they did. We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring a new season of Swipe Night to Tinder this summer and give our members another opportunity to form connections and start conversations.”

“Millions” of people tuned into the first season and helped increase matches by 26 percent and conversation on the app by 12 percent, Tinder says. Karena Evans will return as the director for the new season, and the company also says it will release the first season of Swipe Night internationally on March 14th.

Broomchallenge: Eggs, equinox and misinformation

Content Courtesy of: bbc.com/

Written by: Rozina Sini

It is the social media challenge taken up by thousands but the scientific claims behind it are nonsense.

The #broomchallenge has people all over the world photographing and filming their brooms standing upright without any support.

Many people have cited Nasa as the inspiration to do this, and/or posted claims of gravitational or celestial phenomena as the reason behind the balancing brooms.

“Nasa said today was the only day a broom can stand up on its own because of the gravitational pull,” posted a Twitter user in the US on Monday in footage which has been viewed millions of times and emulated by thousands.

However, the space agency does not appear to have made any public statement about the Earth’s gravitational effect on brooms.

Freestanding brooms have nothing to do with planetary alignments, the full moon, or gravitational pulls, despite the claims of some social media users.

So where has this misinformation come from?

Although the earliest uses of #broomchallenge this year were from users in Mexico around 4 February, one of the first posts to tag Nasa came from a Twitter user in Brazil on 8 February.

Fact-checking website Snopes says the broom challenge was widely circulated before in February 2012, and is another version of an egg-balancing trick which was attributed to the spring equinox.

During an equinox the Earth’s north and south poles are not tilted towards or away from the sun, which also means the duration of daylight is almost the same at all points on the Earth’s surface.

In a TV broadcast in March 2012, now uploaded to YouTube, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers explained it was possible to balance a broom or an egg at any time of the year not just the spring equinox.

“If you set the egg up long enough, the yolk will come down to the bottom of the egg and that will be your centre of gravity down there,” he explained. “Keeping a low centre of gravity makes a fast race car but also will make brooms stand up.”

‘Party trick’

Dr Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist from the University of Oxford, told the BBC she could not believe the misinformation being spread online.

“Broom balancing itself is not that impressive. It’s a good party trick.

“The broom is wide at the bottom and at the right angle can be balanced

“We feel the same gravitational pull at all times of the year, so no matter whether it’s the the spring equinox or not, the way the Earth is tilted would never be the cause of ordinary objects just balancing.

“Not even if the Earth was tilted a huge amount would it make a difference.

“When I saw this today on social media and couldn’t believe what I was seeing in terms of the misinformation that was spreading.

“It highlights the importance of social media verification and using trusted sources from the scientific community.”

As one Twitter user commented: “Your broom is able to stand on its own on any day of the year, and Nasa didn’t say today was special regarding that”

While LA based News 15 meteorologist Cory Smith took a more humorous approach.

He also sees the positive in addressing such misunderstandings.

“While it is discouraging to see people believe a false premise for something like this, it still makes for a fun and easy social media challenge and a nice little experiment to talk about physics and the centre of gravity,” Smith told the BBC.

It is not the first time Nasa has been linked to nonsense on social media. In 2016, 17 million people watched a Facebook video stream supposedly live broadcast from the International Space Station,

However, the agency confirmed the footage was from an older spacewalk.

Nasa have been approached for comment.

TikTok teenager’s video sparks domestic abuse debate

Content Courtesy of: bbc.com/

Written by: Kris Bramwell

A teenager is asking people to be alert to the signs of domestic violence with a video she has created on social media.

Sixteen-year-old Amber uses make-up to gradually cover her face to resemble bruises as she lip syncs to the Lily Allen track Not Fair.

The video has been viewed more than 1.7 million times on the video-sharing platform TikTok and has also been liked more than 196,000 times so far.

The A-level student told the BBC that she was motivated to make the video because a family friend had experienced abuse.

She said: “The message of the video is don’t ignore the signs of domestic abuse. If you have the slightest concern, bring it up with the person.

“I feel domestic abuse is something that should have more awareness.”

‘I’m a survivor’

In response, some women have shared their own experiences of domestic abuse. One user posted: “Been here, came out the other side.”

And Amber has replied offering support. “I’m sorry this has happened to you,” she says. “But it shows how strong you are that you came out the other side.”

Another person said she wished she had known the signs of domestic abuse earlier, and one woman warned people to be aware that abusers “tend to hit where it won’t be seen”.

Amber’s creative use of her make-up has been praised for its impact.

A commenter told Amber: “Thank you for doing this. I’m a survivor.”

“This is so powerful. I’m going through this with a friend now who always makes excuses and brushes it off,” added another viewer.

While other TikTokers have created similar videos, Amber’s appears to have produced by far the biggest reaction.

Some of it has been critical, with people debating whether the content is too dark for the platform or too serious an issue for “pretend” videos.

One user posted that domestic abuse “really does happen to people and they don’t make TikToks about it”.

Amber has responded that the video “is not intended to… bring back memories for survivors”.

Indeed, one person who had experienced domestic violence told her that she had “triggered nothing” with the post.

Amber says: “I didn’t want people to think the video meant any harm. It has a good message and was not created to gain popularity for myself.”

‘Speak up’

According to the Office for National Statistics, an estimated 2.4 million adults aged 16 to 74 years experienced domestic abuse in the year up to March 2019 in England and Wales, including 1.6 million women and 786,000 men.

A man responding to Amber’s video said: “Men go through this as well and a lot more should be able to speak up about it.”

The Home Office has published advice on how to recognise, report and receive help relating to domestic abuse.

The New Decade & A January to Remember

ART

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Tessa Solomon

Top Galleries Release Letter to Art Basel Hong Kong Calling for Concessions Amid Political Turmoil

The entrance of the first Art Basel in Hong Kong.
VINCENT YU/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

Twenty-four galleries, including prominent enterprises such as Lévy Gorvy, Lisson Gallery, and Paula Cooper, have sent a letter to Art Basel global director Marc Spiegler and Adeline Ooi, the fair’s Asia director, expressing concerns over the precarious political and financial situation surrounding the 2020 Hong Kong edition.

“Many people who normally attend the fair have indicated that they will not attend this year,” the letter, first shared with Artnet News, read. “Many of our artists are unwilling to have their work shown at the fair.”

Those artists, the galleries claimed, were hesitant to bring their work to the event, which is slated to run from March 19 to 21, because of a nationwide crackdown on freedom of expression that has resulted in months of bitter protests. The letter concluded that 2020 “is not a good year to hold this fair.”

Despite months of violent anti-government demonstrations in the city, Art Basel organizers have maintained that the fair will not be canceled. “Some of you might be wondering if Art Basel is making an unconsidered decision by continuing to plan on holding an art fair in March amidst the unrest that we are witnessing in Hong Kong,” Ooi, wrote in an email to the exhibitors in November. “The answer is: we are not.” At the time, the fair offered wary exhibitors discounts at Hong Kong restaurants and hotels, in addition to discounted fees for services involved with transporting art to the fair.

It seems that such discounts may not be enough to lure major galleries into holding on to their booths at the fair, however. The letter signatories have called for a number of concessions, including a 50 percent reduction on booth fees, options to reduce their booths’ size without penalty, and an extension on their payment deadline. Additionally, they have asked for options for affordable insurance coverage, which currently is offered through brokers at 20 times the normal rate.

In response, Spiegler and Ooi wrote in a letter to 24 exhibitors at the fair who penned the original letter that “VIP registration numbers are consistent overall with previous years—and especially strong from the Asian region, where we have actually seen an increase in VIP registration from mainland China.” They continued, “We fully acknowledge that this year is not business as usual, and we are thus doing everything we can to support all the galleries coming to Hong Kong.”

Spiegler and Ooi said in their letter that 15 percent of exhibitors, including nine of the letter’s signatories, have already been allowed to reduce their booth size. Art Basel Hong Kong denied requests for a 50 percent booth fee reduction, though the organizers have agreed to “work with exhibitors on alternate payment plans upon special request, and we are very willing to offer extended payment terms.” Currently, 241 exhibitors will participate in March, joined by three galleries soon to be added from the fairs waiting list. Five dealers have pulled out, including Luxembourg & Dayan, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, and SCAI the Bathhouse.

The full list of signatories includes: 303 Gallery, Miguel Abreu Gallery, Alfonso Artiaco, Blum & Poe, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Paula Cooper Gallery, Pilar Corrias, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Thomas Dane Gallery, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, François Ghebaly, Greene Naftali, Herald St, Lévy Gorvy, Lisson Gallery, Matthew Marks Gallery, Fergus McCaffrey, kamel mennour, Metro Pictures, OMR, Nara Roesler, Lia Rumma, and Sprüth Magers.

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Ana Finel Honigman

3 Million People Follow Artist Leah Schrager’s Cam-Girl Instagram Project. In a New Interview, She Explains Why She’s Ending It.

Leah Schrager, Flashburn, 2017.
COURTESY THE ARTIST

In all her artistic guises, Leah Schrager is a beautiful woman. In the tradition of feminist artists like Hannah Wilke, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Katharina Sieverding, and Andrea Fraser, Schrager knows her beauty’s impact when exploring its effects. Whether harnessing her beauty to create art as her Instagram cam-girl identity, Ona; as Sarah White (The Naked Therapist); or under her own name, Schrager confronts the power, privileges, pitfalls, and prejudices of being a sex-positive, confident woman in command of her own sexual pull.

Schrager launched Ona in 2015 as an active cam-worker and conceptual art-project pushing cam-girl aesthetics and the boundaries between sex work and the artists who sell postmodern self-objectification and creative intimacy. Ona nimbly straddles lines between aesthetic and sexual arousal. Her feed is a constantly creative and arousing blend of artful angles, witty captions, seductive expressions, and tantalizing near-nudity. Instagram, as the completely contemporary (not retro) itineration of classic burlesque, is where Ona (alongside other digital sex workers) performs a strip-tease through poses, edited-in digital pasties, and cheeky comments. Her work exists within and comments on the toxic irony of online culture’s relationship with pro-sex empowerment. As she said on Instagram last year, “Sure, it’s trendy to support female empowerment via ‘you go, girl’ and ‘be proud of your body,’ yet a digital ‘art world’ is being built on purified platforms like FB, IG, and Drip that censor out nudity and limit, to a huge degree, how some girls (and artists) wish to express pride, and, yes, even profit off their bodies.” In accordance with her designs, Schrager plans to retire Ona in 2020, having amassed 3 million Instagram followers, recognition in Artforum and Playboy, and insights into online culture’s values, priorities, and changing perspectives.

Ona hasn’t failed; as Schrager sees it, Ona’s audience failed her. Instead of exploring the discomfort she intended to place before them, viewers consumed her without digesting the deeper questions she was raising—notably, is it more unsettling to see Ona enjoying her work or to recognize that she is working via our enjoyment of her? As Eric Sprankle, associate professor of clinical psychology and sexuality studies at Minnesota State University, asks, “What if sex work wasn’t viewed as inherently exploitative work, but viewed as work within an inherently exploitative economic system?”

In October 2018, Schrager launched a different project on her own Instagram feed, which evolved into a captivating extended narrative informally titled Man Hands. Through her teasing, novelistic captions and evocative images, she told a bi-coastal story of working with an unseen powerful male patron. According to her narrative, “MH” committed a serious sum to helping her, Svengali-style, create a SFW/ “female friendly” artistic persona. Over time, in almost daily posts, their dynamic turned turbulent as the inherent power dynamics exposed their individual, and conjoined, vulnerabilities, investments, and aspirations.

While she prepared to show work in “Cam Life: An Introduction to Webcam Culture” at New York’s Museum of Sex (through May 31, 2020), Leah and I curled up on her studio floor to discuss Ona, art, the art world, beauty, and the spookiness of identically placed beauty marks on our cheeks.

Ana Finel Honigman: I know you’ve created Ona as a finite project. She’s set to be retired or reassessed in 2020. What are your thoughts about her future?

A post from Schrager’s Ona Instagram account.
COURTESY THE ARTIST

Leah Schrager: I’m concluding her as a project in 2020. My patron wants me to sell her website, and I’m considering it. When I started her I didn’t think I’d be able to let go of her in 2020. But given the lack of support she’s received from the art world and Instagram (which has recently shadow banned her), I’m honestly tired of fighting and ready to move on. My original goal was to have a big art show presenting her as the conceptual practice she was alongside her visual works, but that’s currently on hold as I wait for someone in the art world to help push it forward. I am, however, considering writing an essay or publishing a book on her and the state of female celebrity today.

How do you define the state of female celebrity today? Celebrity feels like a very different world than five years ago.

Yeah totally! That’s really cool! I’m curious to hear more about how you think celebrity is different from five years ago.

I like that we live in an era where Kim Kardashian is admirably focusing on social justice issues and posting about Congress affirming the Armenian Genocide alongside beauty and fashion advice. Having said that, it is troubling there isn’t more support for Ona on strictly freedom of speech grounds. The shadow ban itself, and the insidious application of FOSTA-SESTA to suppress and starve consensual sex workers, is something I’d think the art world would want to address.

I completely agree. FOSTA-SESTA has been terrible. And I’d think so too, but they don’t seem so interested in sex workers’ rights.

How do you feel responses and reception to your work have changed in recent years along with radically shifting cultural values around beauty, celebrity, inclusivity, sexuality, and authority? You started Ona in a fundamentally different world—or did you?

Honestly, I feel that the world has shifted in a much more sexually conservative way than I was expecting when I started Ona in 2015. Back then I thought there might be a space even for an Instagram celebrity who is sexy-sexy and does music. But what I learned is that no one in the music industry would touch her music because they were scared of how people would react to the sexy vibe. Many of them told me exactly that, saying things like “This won’t sell ‘cause the image is too sexual” and “What about the ladies?” I’ve also found the art world to be similar. If I had known the culture was moving in this direction, I wouldn’t have developed Ona as I did. It turns out her independence and Instagram success canceled her ability to be a mainstream or (at this point anyways) an artistic success.

How would you have developed her differently?

Leah Schrager and Ana Finel Honigman.
COURTESY THE ARTIST

I would not have made her so sexy, which basically means I would have tried to walk the line between appealing to men and women a little more closely. Though that’s a very hard line to walk.

You haven’t been posting under your own name on Instagram recently. Why?

I had a fallout with my patron who was supporting a large part of the project. I decided to take some time off to reevaluate my goals and assess my situation. I am back on it, though.

How did your Man Hands project connect to Ona?

The instigation and message of Man Hands is the idea that men’s hands are around women’s art. Ona was getting a lot of hate from the art world for being pro-sex. If a woman wants to perform, you choose your audience. Ona picked a male audience and there is a lot of male energy. Male producers control and fund the star-making process. It’s not always a bad thing, but the men are mostly invisible. If you don’t want that, don’t consume media. I hoped Man Hands could have created a conversation about funding and producing. I wanted to raise awareness about the invisible benefactors and explore where money comes from. I want to question the notion of “use that patriarchy” and examine that power.

I feel like Man Hands really represented something profound about unspoken power dynamics, vulnerabilities, and routes to empowerment, secretly supporting many artists and women beyond the art world. Are you going to explore that situation further?

Yes, that is right on. I am going to. I’m planning to talk more about this in coming posts.

At its core, wasn’t there a question between you and Man Hands about defining and developing a “female-friendly image”? What did that mean for you and how did that evolve through the project?

Exactly. Basically he thought I should be more female-friendly. That means not sexual or sexy. Which to me also means, just don’t show skin and be more conservative in poses. So it means more clothes, less body, more stillness, less movement, more rules, less freedom. My early training was as a dancer and I quite literally didn’t realize that some things I was doing were inappropriate! I’d say I’ve learned a lot about style and I have a new appreciation for fine goods. I’m also creating images that could be more mainstream-friendly, which has been an interesting new direction and challenge for me. He picked his favorite image from the series because of the composition and clarity. Mine was me at MoMA, but you can’t tell that I’m in it. I love the aesthetics of it. It’s like a digital painting.

How has the history of artists’ relationship with sex work and sex workers influenced the work you create and your ideas about yourself as a woman?

A post from Schrager’s Ona Instagram account.
COURTESY THE ARTIST

My art is heavily influenced by my sex work, but as you know, art history is filled with women whose sexuality forms the basis of their work. However, in my experience the art world heavily stigmatizes artists who use arousal that can be seen as commercial in their work. And this stigmatization makes its way into the work, of course. But the experience of facing it has strengthened my belief that at the core of a strong, independent, artful woman is a mature, open, realized life of free sexuality, and I am happy to live that, to share that, and to transform it into an art practice. I will keep doing that no matter what because I think it’s an important message in these relatively sexless times, when “female empowerment” all too often has an anti-sex bent.

I think pro-sex advocacy is often viewed with greater skepticism and stigma coming from people who embody contemporary beauty standards.

Definitely, absolutely. I am not totally sure how the art world became so conservative. The process of beauty is very complicated. For a while, it had this one route and then we all smashed in to change it. It was seen as hurtful but even that becomes hegemonic. Why not enjoy these things, share these things, and enjoy the connection to other women?

Applying cosmetics is meditative for some women, and that subjective, tactical experience is often overlooked because women are still assumed to be insecure or neurotically obsessed with others’ impressions of us. The process of “beautifying” oneself isn’t necessarily superficial. It is also a very private pleasure.

I’ve just started practicing this. I’m so accustomed to rushing through everything and being constantly in a hurry, but I’ve started taking the time to really experience the process. I also find the whole focus is best when it’s totally subjective. I’ve always found the idea that having stubbly legs makes someone insecure very odd, but I know it does affect people. I was at a web conference and a woman who identified herself as a feminist confessed, with some self-deprecation, that she has hair on a mole and it makes her insecure. I then realized that I have a mole with hair and I never thought about it. It felt like a weird inversion of expectations and focus. I had no idea it was something I should be worried about!

It’s not.

A guy, or whomever you’re interested in, rarely cares about a hair on a mole. It’s about being interested and willing to have fun and make a connection.

I was very lucky that my mother raised me with that exact philosophy. A lot of beauty is the decision to be beautiful, and sexual allure can be inclusive. The French term jolie laide can be lifelong.

A post from Schrager’s Ona Instagram account.
COURTESY THE ARTIST

Where do you feel resentment and antagonism for your work—within and outside the art world—really comes from? Who is most critical and why?

Resentment and antagonism generally come from those who want to keep women demure and only performing appropriately, which is essentially in defiance of the male gaze. Many people hate the idea that a woman would be able to make a complete living off being a sex worker—and I think that’s evident by the stigmatization and complete division between mainstream opportunities and “darkstream” or sex work opportunities that are available to those who are comfortable indulging in attraction play.

The skills needed to survive and thrive as a sex worker—not just aesthetic marketability but aptitude at emotional labor, creativity, business savvy, and genuine empathy—are only marginalized because society refuses to accept that sex work is work. I don’t know if you’ve read Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Juno Mac and Molly Smith, but it’s a great portrait of how sex work is, and always has been, situated on the vanguard of counterculture politics because of its direct recognition of basic human needs and inequalities and its inherent societal critique. Ona, I think, is literally being punished for her success.

Exactly!

Breaking down your audience, where do you get the most support and the most censure?

I get the most support from my Instagram followers. I get the most censure from the mainstream and the art world. Within the art world I’d say the resentment and antagonism come mostly from women. Men aren’t so negative usually and often tell me privately that they like the work but are just too scared to show my art for fear of it destroying their careers. Of course there are exceptions and some women, such as yourself, understand the complexities of female performance and are non-judgmental. I really appreciate these people. They make it all worth it.

Thanks, sis!

ADVERTISING

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Jeanine Poggi and Jessica Wohl.

SUPER BOWL ADVERTISERS POSTPONE MARKETING IN WAKE OF KOBE BRYANT’S DEATH

Kobe Bryant, former National Basketball Association player and chief executive officer of Kobe Inc., was killed when his helicopter crashed in California.
Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Super Bowl advertisers are pausing their marketing efforts in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s death.

At least several brands that intended to release their Big Game creative on Monday are holding back.

Procter & Gamble’s Olay, Pop-Tarts and Avocados From Mexico are among brands postponing their Super Bowl push following the death of the basketball legend and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash Sunday.

An Avocados From Mexico spokeswoman said the company delayed the release of the ad due to the news, while an Olay spokeswoman said it is postponing the full Super Bowl ad “due to the nature of the current news cycle.”

Mtn Dew had also planned to release its ad on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday, but the segment was postponed in light of the show’s coverage of Bryant.

While most Super Bowl creative isn’t expected to be impacted, there’s one brand that had to take a more serious look at how it plans to proceed on game day.

Planters—whose Super Bowl campaign centers around the death of its spokescharacter Mr. Peanut—plans to air a funeral for the fictional legume during the Big Game. Planters received some backlash on social media on Sunday, following the helicopter crash, for promoted tweets memorializing Mr. Peanut, who is being killed off in a car crash.

The company has since paused its online marketing campaign.

“We are saddened by this weekend’s news and Planters has paused all campaign activities, including paid media, and will evaluate next steps through a lens of sensitivity to those impacted by this tragedy,” the company said in a statement.

Planters and the Mr. Peanut character, whose social media accounts were switched to “The Estate of Mr. Peanut” following his fictional death last week, has not posted anything on social media since Friday. The brand’s plans involved the funeral planning. On Friday, for example, Ad Age received a devotional candle with an image of the Mr. Peanut character marking his “life” with the years 1916 to 2020.

There are no plans to change the Super Bowl spot, which will show a funeral for Mr. Peanut.

Contributing: E.J. Schultz

PLANTERS’ ONLINE SUPER BOWL MARKETING HITS PAUSE AFTER KOBE BRYANT’S DEATH

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Jessica Wohl.

Planters says it paused all campaign activities days before the Super Bowl

Credit: Planter’s

Planters paused its Super Bowl campaign centered around the fictitious Mr. Peanut’s death following the deaths of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others in a helicopter crash.

“We are saddened by this weekend’s news and Planters has paused all campaign activities, including paid media, and will evaluate next steps through a lens of sensitivity to those impacted by this tragedy,” the brand said in a statement Monday.

As of Monday, it remained unclear how the brand would proceed with its marketing strategy leading up to the Super Bowl. There are currently no plans to change the Super Bowl spot, which is set to show a funeral for Mr. Peanut.

Planters killed off its Mr. Peanut spokesnut in a pregame ad, “Road Trip,” that first appeared online on Jan. 21. In the 30-second spot, Mr. Peanut was ejected from his Nutmobile along with actors Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh, then let go of the branch the three were hanging onto, plummeting to the ground and exploding, along with his vehicle.

As of last week, Planters planned to air the “Road Trip” ad on TV as a Super Bowl pregame spot, and then follow it up with Mr. Peanut’s funeral in a 30-second spot set to run during the third quarter.

Last week, Planters amped-up its social media outreach with posts including the hashtag #RIPeanut, and sought out and received numerous responses from brands and fans expressing their sympathies for the fictional character. The effort quickly garnered praise as one of the most popular Super Bowl marketing plans released ahead of the game, though some wondered whether killing off the spokesnut was the right strategy for the brand. The PR plans included sending out devotional candles featuring the character.

Now, following the death of Bryant on Sunday, the brand has paused all efforts leading up to the game.

Planters is working with VaynerMedia on its Super Bowl campaign. VaynerMedia also handled the Kraft Heinz brand’s 2019 Super Bowl campaign.

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Jeanine Poggi.

SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS 2020: WATCH ALL THE ADS RELEASED AHEAD OF THE GAME

Facebook, Jeep and Hummer are the latest brands to pre-release their Big Game spots

Credit: Jeep

It seems Super Bowl advertisers are leaving little to the imagination. As of the the morning of game day, 43 brands have pre-released their ads, the latest being Facebook, Hummer and Jeep. That’s up from the 30 ads that were pre-released before the game in 2019.

Below are all the ads released before game time.

Watch every ad that aired in the game, here—and our review of the ads, here.

Hummer

General Motors reintroduces the Hummer as an all-electric, quiet vehicle, in its Super Bowl ad. The commercial, released on game day, looks to change the image of the label, which was known as a gas-guzzler. The spot includes a cameo by LeBron James.

Facebook

Facebook’s first Super Bowl ad features Sylvester Stallone and Chris Rock and promotes Facebook Groups. The ad was released at midnight on game day.

Jeep

Jeep puts a new twist on the classic movie “Groundhog Day.” In the commercial, Bill Murray reprises his role. The company released the ad at 6 a.m. on game day, which also coincides with Groundhog Day.

Bud Light released two ads ahead of the Super Bowl and let social media decide which one will air during the Big Game. The winning ad shows Post Malone walking into a store intent on buying Bud Light until he sees the seltzer. This sets off a fight between two men inside his head who represent his emotions about which one to choose, before a woman weighs in: “Guys, guys, we are incredibly rich. Let’s get both.” The spot, from Wieden & Kennedy New York, was released on Jan. 29 and declared the winner the morning of the game.

Toyota

Cobie Smulders stars in Toyota’s ad promoting its 2020 Highlander. In the spot, released on Feb. 1, Smulders is shown rescuing various people in harrowing situations, like a cowboy in a Western scene.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s commercial stars “Black-ish’s” Anthony Anderson and his real-life mother, Doris Hancox. The spot, released on Jan. 31, shows Hancox using T-Mobile’s 5G network everywhere from the aquarium to the club.

Quibi

The streaming service won’t launch until April, but Quibi will air its first Super Bowl commercial on Sunday. The spot, “Bank Heist,” shows a bank job gone wrong, leaving some time for the robbers to watch a Quibi video, which is no more than 10 minutes in length. The 30-second spot by BBH LA was released on Jan. 31.

Coke

Coke is using its Super Bowl ad this year to plug its new Coke Energy drink. The 60-second spot by Wieden & Kennedy Portland stars Jonah Hill and Martin Scorsese. It was released on Jan. 31.

President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump’s 30-second ad starts with a voiceover saying, “America demanded change, and change is what we got.” It continues by saying Trump has made the country “stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before” and ends with Trump at a rally saying, “And ladies and gentleman the best is yet to come.” The commercial was released on Jan. 30, and there are plans to air a second ad in the game.

Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg’s 60-second spot, released on Jan. 30, spotlights the story of Calandrian Simpson-Kemp, a Houston, Texas mother who lost her son, George Kemp, Jr., to gun violence in 2013 when he was 20 years old. The goal of the ad is to call attention to the national gun violence crisis.

SodaStream

SodaStream created a cinematic epic about a mission to Mars. Directed by Bryan Buckley and created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the ad includes a cameo from Bill Nye the Science Guy. An extended version of the spot was released on Jan. 30.

Olay

Olay makes a direct statement in its spot about the lack of space that’s historically been made for women. An all-female cast of astronauts, including Busy Philipps, YouTuber Lilly Singh and Taraji P. Henson, hops a rocket into space as Katie Couric says during a news broadcast: “Is there enough space in space for women? Who wrote that? Are people really still asking that question?” Created by Badger & Winters, the ad was released on Jan. 30.

Amazon

Amazon’s ad, starring Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, imagines a world before Alexa, the voice-activated assistant. The ad steps back in time, from Victorian England, the Elizabethan times, the Old West and the Middle Ages all the way up to the Nixon era. Droga5 created the ad, which was released on Jan. 29.

Walmart

The big-box retailer is running a super-charged version of last year’s pre-game ad about the convenience of curbside pickup of online orders. The spot, released on Jan. 29, features scenes or characters from a dozen movie or TV shows, including Disney’s “Star Wars” and “Toy Story.”

Doritos

Lil Nas X challenges Sam Elliott to a dance battle in Doritos’ Super Bowl commercial. The 60-second spot from Goodby Silverstein & Partners debuted on Jan. 29.

TurboTax

TurboTax is looking to unite Super Bowl viewers by pointing out something we all have in common: taxes. The company released an extended version of its music video-style ad from Wieden & Kennedy on Jan. 29.

Pop-Tarts

Pop-Tarts’ info-style commercial stars “Queer Eye’s” Jonathan Van Ness and promotes the new pretzel pastries. The 30-second ad from MRY was released on Jan. 29.

Kia

Oakland Raiders’ Josh Jacobs has a conversation with his younger self in Kia’s Super Bowl ad, which puts a spotlight on youth homelessness. The commercial from David & Goliath was released on Jan. 29.

Heinz

Heinz’s commercial features four storylines at once, with ketchup at the center of all of them. The 30-second commercial from Wieden & Kennedy was released on Jan. 29.

Audi

Audi channels Disney’s “Frozen” in its Super Bowl commercial released on Jan. 29. The spot, by 72andSunny, stars “Game of Thrones” actress Maisie Williams, who is stuck in traffic. She then bursts into the song, which is meant to serve as a rebuke of gas-guzzling cars. The spot plugs Audi’s electric vehicles.

Discover

Discover uses iconic “No” scenes from the likes of “Austin Powers,” “Clueless,” “School of Rock” and “Friends” to convey its lack of annual credit card fees. The 15-second spot, released on Jan. 29, is paired with a similar “Yes” commercial for the brand’s acceptance rates.

Discover taps “yes” scenes from “30 Rock,” “American Pie” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in a Super Bowl spot communicating the brand’s 95 percent acceptance rate at merchants across the U.S. The 15-second spot, released on Jan. 29, is paired with a similar “No” offering around Discover’s lack of annual fees.

Snickers

Snickers is looking to fix the world in its Super Bowl ad. These problems include grown men riding scooters, parents naming children after produce, and politics (the political reference was included in an extended version of the ad, but not in the spot that will run in the game). Snickers plans to fix these problems by burying a giant candy bar in the ground. Snickers released an extended version of the spot on Jan. 29.

Pepsi

Pepsi takes a very clear shot at Coke in its Super Bowl ad, which stars rapper Missy Elliott and Grammy-award winner H.E.R., remaking the Rolling Stones classic “Paint it Black.” The 30-second spot by Goodby Silverstein & Partners plugs Pepsi Zero Sugar’s new matte black can. The ad was released on Jan. 29.

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video uses its Super Bowl ad to promote its new original series “Hunters.” The spot was released on Jan. 28.

Little Caesars

Little Caesars’ first Super Bowl commercial looks to show that its pizza delivery is the best thing since sliced bread. The ad, created by McKinney, stars Rainn Wilson from “The Office” as the CEO of Sliced Bread Inc. The ad debuted on Jan. 28.

Google

Google’s 60-second spot is about an elderly man who uses Google search and its AI-powered Google Assistant to help him remember his dead wife. The commercial was created in-house and debuted on Jan. 28.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s 60-second spot tells the story of Katie Sowers, a coach for the San Francisco 49ers, who will become the first woman ever to coach in the Super Bowl. Created by McCann New York, the ad was released on Jan. 28.

Michelob Ultra

Michelob Ultra cast late-night host Jimmy Fallon and pro-wrestler John Cena in its ad to continue its push to position itself as the post-workout beer. In it, Cena urges Fallon to let go of his hatred for working out. The 60-second commercial, from FCB, was released on Jan. 28.

Cheetos

MC Hammer stars in Cheetos’ Super Bowl spot, which shows all the things people can’t touch after eating the snack (due to the red and orange dust that’s left behind on your fingers). The commercial from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners was released on Jan. 28.

Squarespace

Squarespace tapped actress Winona Ryder to help put Winona, Minnesota on the map. The goal of the 30-second ad, created in-house, is to support small businesses and local communities. The ad was released on Jan. 28.

Avocados From Mexico

Avocados From Mexico creates a fictitious shopping network for people who love all things avocados in its Super Bowl ad. Featuring Molly Ringwald, the 30-second ad was created by Energy BBDO and was released on Jan. 28.

Reese’s Take 5

Hershey Co is making its Super Bowl ad debut with a commercial featuring Reese’s Take 5, a lesser-known candy bar. The 30-second spot from McGarryBowen is stuffed with idioms. An extended version of the ad was released on Jan. 28.

Mtn Dew

Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross star in a spoof of the iconic horror movie “The Shining.” The 30-second ad by TBWA/Chiat/Day New York for Mtn Dew Zero reprises the famous “Here’s Johnny” scene. The ad was released on Jan. 28.

New York Life

New York Life’s 60-second commercial explores the different types of love originating in the ancient Greek language. The spot culminates with the most profound type of love, Agape, or love as an action, and shows people doing selfless acts of love, like a wife washing her sick husband. The commercial, by Anomaly, dropped on Jan. 28.

Pringles

Pringles worked with Adult Swim’s animated series “Rick and Morty” for its latest flavor-stacking ad by Grey Group. The 30-second spot debuted on Jan. 28.

WeatherTech

WeatherTech is using its 30-second ad not to promote any of its products but to get people to donate to the animal research at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The spot tells the story of Scout, the WeatherTech CEO’s dog, and how the the university helped save his life.

Hyundai Genesis

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend scoff at symbols of “old luxury” in the first ad for Hyundai’s Genesis nameplate. The goal of the commercial, by Innocean, is to position Genesis as a less stuffy luxury car that’s more suitable for younger consumers. The spot debuted on Jan. 27, but two days later the company released a new spot the cut a scene featuring a helicopter. Hyundai made the decision in the wake of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter, among others.

Hyundai

Hyundai’s commercial from Innocean plays on the city’s notorious accent and promotes its automated parking feature that goes by the name of Remote Smart Parking Assist. But in Boston, it’s “smaht pahk.” The ad stars Boston-linked celebrities: Actors Chris Evans and John Krasinski, comedian Rachel Dratch and Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz. The spot was released on Jan. 27.

Michelob Ultra

Michelob Ultra is using one of its two Super Bowl spots, for its Pure Gold label, to make a plug for organic farming. The 60-second spot, released on Jan. 27, introduces a new program called “6 for 6-pack.” The Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned brew pledges to dedicate a portion of proceeds from every 6-pack sold to help transition 6 square feet of farmland to certified organic land. The ad was created by FCB.

Porsche

Porsche’s commercial, dubbed “The Heist,” features a racing scene in which nearly a dozen Porsche models zip through Germany. An extended version of the ad, created by Cramer-Krasselt, was released on Jan. 24.

Budweiser

Budweiser is using its Super Bowl ad to put a new spin on “typical Americans” with scenes of everyday people engaging in acts of kindness and triumph. Scenes juxtapose negative stereotypes of Americans with images of people doing good. Created by David Miami, the full ad was released on Jan. 23.

>

National Football League

The National Football League tackled the politically charged issue of police shootings of black men with an ad that ran during the conference championship games on Jan. 19. The spot, created by 72andSunny, will also air in the Super Bowl.

BUSINESS

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: Mónica Marie Zorrilla

Bilingual Children’s Media Company Encantos Closes $2 Million Seed Round

Its content is culturally inspired and Emmy-nominated

“Los pollitos dicen pío, pío, pío cuando tienen hambre cuando tienen frío” is a lyric from an extremely popular Latinx nursery rhyme, animated and refreshed by Encantos’ brand Canticos.
Encantos

First conceived as a multicultural nursery rhyme brand (with a heavy Latinx influence) in 2015, Encantos Media Studios has spent the past four years aiming to inspire “21st-century kids to learn 21st-century skills” through direct-to-consumer bilingual apps, sing-along videos, books and other family-friendly content.

Last year alone, one of Encantos’ brands, Canticos, won a Kidscreen Award and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. In March 2019, Encantos named Steven Wolfe Pereira as its CEO, and a couple of months later introduced its newest brand, Tiny Travelers, which focuses on geography, language and culture.

This morning, Encantos announced it has raised another $2 million to continue closing the diversity gap in children’s media. Kapor Capital led the seed round, with participation from Boston Meridian Partners, Chingona Ventures, Human Ventures and MathCapital.

According to Samara Mejia Hernandez, founding partner at Chingona Ventures, Encantos’ successful round is a testament to “its experienced team, purpose-driven brands and powerful vision.”

“As a venture firm committed to investing in diverse founders, Encantos understands that over 50% of today’s kids are multicultural, and their brands are tapping into a huge opportunity within the family entertainment and education industries that is often overlooked,” Mejia Hernandez continued in a statement.

Regarding its investment, Freada Kapor Klein, co-founder and partner of Kapor Capital, told Adweek that Encantos is “creating iconic family brands with their unique approach of entertainment-driven education focused on 21st century skills. They exemplify founders whose lived experience identifies an unmet need in the market, and they have created a high growth, gap-closing business to solve it.”

The company previously raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding from Kapor Capital, MaC Venture Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners Scout Fund.

Several existing and new angel investors also partook in this $2 million seed round round, including Tom Chavez (CEO of Super{set} Startup Studio), Rich Greenfield (partner at LightShed Partners), Lydia Jett (partner at Softbank), Michael Kassan (chairman and CEO of MediaLink) and Antonio Lucio (CMO of Facebook).

Kassan told Adweek that he has “great confidence” in the Encantos team. “I believe the children’s space, particularly the multicultural aspect, is at an important inflection point—Encantos has the right business plan, ideas and the expertise to win.”
The mission behind Encantos

According to Wolfe Pereira, once he and his wife Nuria Santamaría Wolfe (co-founder and current CMO of Encantos) had their first child in 2015, it “hit us like a ton of bricks” that their Generation Alpha son would need to learn a certain set of skills to reach his full potential in this century—and that most of those skills were not taught in the typical U.S. classroom setting.

As Latinos (Wolfe Pereira is Dominican-American and Santamaría Wolfe is Salvadorian), they were also concerned about their son most likely not receiving a bilingual (English-to-Spanish) comprehensive curriculum at school. They were afraid, like many Latinx parents in the U.S., that their child would lose touch with their culture and language.

“It’s kind of crazy that in the United States, when you get introduced to a new language, it’s usually done during middle school in public schools, but you’re more suited to learn another language when you’re about 8 years old and younger,” Wolfe Pereira explained.

While his wife and their two friends and Encantos team members, Susie Jaramillo (president and chief creative officer) and Jaramillo’s husband Carlos Hoyas (chief technology officer), began creating and growing what would become Encantos Media Studios in 2015, Wolfe Pereira was working first as vp of brand strategy and marketing solutions at Oracle, then as CMO and communications officer at Neustar and, finally as CMO at Quantcast, before committing fully to Encantos in March 2019.

Since Wolfe Pereira, who was part of the Adweek 50 in 2016, assumed the role of CEO, Encantos has expanded its digital offerings and has created two new brands (Tiny Travelers and Skeletitos), but has kept its core focus on parents who want to teach their kids 21st century literacy and life skills, but don’t have the time or resources to curate the lessons, develop the experiences and provide the necessary materials.

“Millennials are purpose-driven, and Generation Alpha is the generation of their kids. Millennial parents want something more than just entertainment candy,” Wolfe Pereira added.

What Encantos will do with the seed money

According to Wolfe Pereira, Encantos will continue building its direct-to-consumer business by launching a subscription app as well as a subscription box, which Wolfe Pereira is especially excited for. Encantos also has plans to launch additional brands for other underserved audiences that are disadvantaged by the lack of diversity in children’s media, including Black, Asian and LGBTQ consumers.

“We’re trying to represent what families are looking like today, because Generation Alpha will be the most diverse and digital generation ever. Encantos is not just for Latino parents, it’s for non-Latino parents too,” Wolfe Pereira said.

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: Doug Zanger

Ikea Puts Purpose First in New Campaign Designed to Tell More of Its Brand Story

People know the products, but might not be aware of the retailer’s global impact

Reforestation is a major part of Ikea’s brand purpose.

Celebrating the most inspiring and effective experiential marketing activations of the year – the Adweek Experiential Awards are now accepting entries. View the categories and enter before prices increase on Jan. 27th.

When Ogilvy won the Ikea account in 2010, brands weren’t nearly as open about their commitments to sustainability. Now, the idea of brand purpose is everywhere. While that the concept of responsibility is evolving, Ikea has baked purpose into everything it does since the furniture maker was founded in Sweden in 1943.

Year after year, Ikea’s sustainability report is taken very seriously by the brand and shows a clear direction for the massive retailer. The 2018 report is filled with ambitious plans including becoming “climate positive” by 2030 by investing green energy, reforestation (the brand has planted 2.8 million trees since 1998) and forest protection. Additionally, Ikea is working to lessen the impact of all of its products by using more recycled and renewable materials (60% of the brand’s product ranges use such materials).

Yet, in the U.S., most of the work from the brand and agency has focused primarily on what Shideh Hashemi, Ikea country marketing manager, calls “life improvement,” referring to the more rational benefits of the products offered. With a new national campaign launching this week, Ikea is shifting gears and leaning into its brand purpose commitment.

“Four years ago, we launched our campaign that talked about creating a better everyday life through the American dream and how Ikea can help people achieve that, whatever that version is for them,” Hashemi said. “Now, we’re taking it a step further and talking about who we are as a brand and a company, and how that purpose of creating a better everyday life is in everything that we do.”

Directed by Olivier Gondry, the work hones in specifically on the choices Ikea makes when balancing consumer needs, inclusiveness and global stewardship. The 60-second hero spot covers all of the topics, while 15-second cutdowns focus on issues like reforestation and how Ikea’s practices have helped lower the costs of one of its most popular items, the Billy bookcase.

“I think every step that we’ve done [with the work] has gotten us to this moment,” said Della Mathew, Ogilvy group creative director. “We went from a product-focused, more functional space to more of how are we impacting people’s everyday lives.”

The timing of the campaign, according to Mathew, is in line with the current trend of consumers being much more conscious of how brands impact the world, and this marks the first time that Ikea has been as overt about how it approaches its business.

“Consumers are much more aware,” she said. “They’re much more interested in ethical decisions, how brands treat their employees and the planet. People now have a chance on their own to dive in, compare companies and learn how different brands approach these values.”

The creative came about from several Ikea stakeholders, including its sustainability team, HR and sales, according to Hashemi. Getting a dense message into 60 seconds to make an impact has several challenges, but getting input helped bring the concept to life. Moreover, the message appeared to resonate in testing.

“We saw a greater consumer interest in the work than we expected,” Hashemi said. “This is a sign that they are more interested in understanding more about the companies they choose to engage with on an ongoing basis. We explored several different ways to tell our story, and I was pleasantly surprised that [the work] resonated with consumers.”

“We were also pleasantly surprised that we can talk about the emotional connection and values set,” added Mathew. “The tone of the message is matter-of-fact and to the point. We took out a lot of the fluff, and people responded very well to that.”

In the end, the new campaign is a departure from some of the brand’s more high-profile, quirky and impactful advertising. Yet, with consumers’ changing understanding of brands and their impact on the world, it’s one that the brand and agency are bullish on.

“It’s been quite some time since we’ve done brand work quite like this,” Hashemi said. “In that sense, it does feel like a reintroduction. To many consumers, this is the first time that they’re seeing us in this way.”

CREDITS:

Client: Ikea USA
Christine Whitehawk – US Communications Manager
Marques Davis – External Communications Specialist
Charlene Tea – Interior Design Specialist
Jaclyn Van Wert – Interior Design Specialist

Agency: Ogilvy New York
Vicki Azarian – Executive Creative Director
Della Mathew – Group Creative Director
Monica Apodaca – ACD Art Director
Andrew Chisholm – ACD Copywriter
Claire Morris – Managing Director
Zac Rosenberg – Account Director
Tillie Fell – Account Director
James Sullivan – Assistant Account Executive
Leslie Stone – Director of Strategic Services
Dan Brenikov – Director of Strategy, Customer Engagement and Commerce
Executive Producer – Jenna Gartland
Producer – Josh Kornrich
Producer – Meg Dibley
Sr. Business Affairs Manager – Sean McGee
Executive Producer, Music– Michael Freeman

Production Company: Partizan
Director – Olivier Gondry
Executive Producer/Managing Partner – Lisa Tauscher
Line Producer – Russell Curtis

Editorial Company: Whitehouse Post
Editor – Jessica Mutascio
Assistant Editor:Alejandro Villagran
Executive Producer: Caitlin Grady
Producer: Malia Rose

Color: The Mill
Colorist: Mikey Rossiter

VFX: Carbon
Executive Producer: Nick Haynes
Executive Creative Director: Liam Chapple
Senior Producer: Alex Decaneas
VFX Supervisor / Lead Flame: Matt Reilly
Flame: Chihcheng Peng, Chris Wiseman, Joe Scaglione
GFX: Max Benjamin

Audio Record / Mix: Sonic Union
Engineer: Mike Marinelli

Music: Storefront Music
Producers: John “Scrapper” Sneider & Adam Elk
Vin Alfieri — Composer

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: David Griner

Google Celebrates ‘The Most Searched’ to Set the Stage for Black History Month

Grammys ad highlights the highly sought, from Beyoncé to MLK

Beyonce’s 2018 Coachella appearance is the most searched performance in Google’s history, the search giant says in a new ad.
Google

Counting down to the Challenger Brands summit. 2 Days. 12 tracks. 750+ brand marketers and industry executives. 0 sales pitches. Attend the summit for brands disrupting the status quo. Passes going fast – secure yours before it’s too late.

Can you quantify greatness? Can a major brand crown someone as a superlative and actually back it up with data?

During Sunday’s Grammy Awards, Google potently showed that it’s up to the challenge.

In an ad announcing a Black History Month project called “The Most Searched,” Google raised the curtain on some of its search data—dating back 15 years—to show how many African Americans have dominated public fascination, admiration and curiosity on the internet.

On an accompanying website, Google explains the methodology behind the project and offers links to help visitors learn more about the people and movements featured in the ad, along with several that weren’t.

The title of “most searched” was given to each person, group or cause that had been searched for more often than any other in the category, per Google Trends, since Jan. 1, 2004, which Google says is the farthest back its U.S. search data can go.

Oprah Winfrey, for example, was the most searched talk show host name over the 15-year period analyzed by Google, though admittedly her search volume dropped off notably after she ended The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011:

The ad kicks off by highlighting that Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella appearance was the most searched performance in Google history, and her song “Countdown” then provides the soundtrack to the rest of the spot.

While Prince is shown in the ad as “most searched guitar solo,” Google’s website for the project explains that the honor is not for any one song, but rather that Prince’s guitar solos have been searched more than those of any other artist.

The Civil Rights movement is widely represented across the project’s findings, with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the Greensboro sit-in, the Montgomery bus boycott and Malcolm X’s biography all ranked as top searches.

While many of the project’s other featured names, such as LeBron James, Misty Copeland, John Legend and RuPaul, are cultural icons of recent years, “The Most Searched” also honors Katherine Johnson of Hidden Figures fame as the most searched NASA mathematician. In addition, Google notes that “U.S. search interest for ‘women in STEM’ has also increased 2,300% in the past decade.”

On the project site, Google reiterates its $25 million pledge, announced in 2018, to help create career opportunities for black and Latino students. This includes a $3 million grant to the NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, known as ACT-SO.

“Growing up, I saw firsthand how the NAACP ACT-SO program inspired young black talent to believe in and showcase their brilliance,” Justin Steele, director of Google.org, said on the site. “We know that 65% of students will work in careers that don’t even exist today, so programs like ACT-SO that are preparing, recognizing and rewarding African American students are important to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to be innovators and culture makers.”

TECH

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: Ronan Shields

Google Kills the Cookie, Leaving Digital Media Companies Craving a New Way Forward

The industry is racing against a 2-year countdown

Phasing out support for third-party cookies will affect everyone in the digital media industry.
Sources: Google, Getty Images

Talking points:

  • Dropping third-party data is not without precedent for web browsers, but the stakes are higher this time.
  • Publishers are eyeing the pivotal change as a potential turnaround in what has been a difficult digital transition.

Some are calling it the “cookie-pocalypse.” Others see it as a new dawn for the $565 billion global ad industry. What’s certain is that Google Chrome’s decision to phase out support for third-party cookies will affect everyone in the digital media industry.

While the move was not unexpected, at least among industry insiders, most will be preoccupied with it during the two-year window to overhaul and replace what has been one of the key tenets of digital media trading since its inception.

Marketers wary of the industry’s reliance on Google will have to figure out how they can adapt their first-party data strategy as some of the de rigueur marketing tools of recent years are rendered redundant in most internet browsers. These include third-party data and data management platforms, and multitouch attribution providers, all of whose days would appear to be numbered (at least in their current guise), as third-party data has been a critically important part of how marketers shape their communications strategies with consumers for close to 25 years. For instance, Procter & Gamble, one of the industry’s largest-spending advertisers, this week effused over its frequency capping efforts at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

However, identifying audiences online will be significantly more difficult (albeit not impossible) after 2022 within Google Chrome, which currently accounts for more than half of all installed web browsers, according to W3C.

Advertisers aren’t angry with Google, just disappointed

The tone some of the industry’s leading trade bodies took in their responses to the news reflected the scale of the challenge ahead. “It may choke off the economic oxygen from advertising that startups and emerging companies need to survive,” read a joint statement from the ANA and 4A’s.

The statement continued: “We are deeply disappointed that Google would unilaterally declare such a major change without prior careful consultation across the digital and advertising industries. In the interim, we strongly urge Google to publicly and quickly commit to not imposing this moratorium on third-party cookies until effective and meaningful alternatives are available.”

Meanwhile, Jordan Mitchell, online identity and digital privacy lead at IAB Tech Lab, made his preference for collaboration known as Google looks to develop ad targeting and measurement tools in its Privacy Sandbox.

Historic precedent

The rollback of cookie support by some of the industry’s major cookie providers is not without precedent. In April 2017, Apple began rolling out intelligent tracking prevention in its Safari web browser. Shortly thereafter, Mozilla implemented similar measures in Firefox.

Andrew Casale, CEO of Index Exchange, told Adweek this has affected publishers in Germany, one of the world’s biggest media markets, where Firefox use is much more prevalent than in the U.S.

“We haven’t seen a recovery in CPMs on either platform,” Casale said. “So, if the same events occur in Chrome with the same results, then there is a significant concern that there will be a reduction in budget toward publishers.”

Paul Gubbins, global programmatic strategy lead at Unruly, highlighted the potential impact Google’s decision could have given Chrome’s vastly superior footprint to the other two browsers.

“With the value of first-party data going up drastically following this announcement, I suspect many publishers today will be seriously reevaluating their authenticated data strategy rather than waiting for a multitude of device graph sales pitches in the coming months,” Gubbins said.

Both Casale and Gubbins separately told Adweek that many publishers have avoided asking users to register their data (effectively meaning sign in to their websites), but that may change as 2022 approaches. Casale predicted that publishers across the globe will look to emulate a countrywide sign-in initiative in Germany, where media owners have attempted to reduce their reliance on cookies for ad targeting.

‘The nail in the coffin for the cookie’

Peter Spande, CRO at Insider Inc., told Adweek that reductions in yield from Apple’s and Mozilla’s targeting restrictions have prompted some publishers to double down on their first-party data strategy.

“This is the nail in the coffin for the cookie,” Spande said, adding that it will make bidding on inventory in open marketplaces less appealing to advertisers.

Spande also predicted that advertisers may look to identify solutions provided by Google within its Privacy Sandbox, potentially providing publishers with scaled first-party data solutions an opportunity to capitalize over the next two years.

Wake-up call

For Mathieu Roche, CEO of ID5, the next two years will be characterized by “madness and transition” as the industry devises an entirely new infrastructure.

Roche believes that while the industry’s demand-side and supply-side platforms will continue to exist beyond 2022, the majority will have to work in harmony to foster an industrywide alternative to the cookie.

In the interim, however, advertisers will likely invest even more of their ad budgets in the walled gardens, which are much less reliant on third-party cookies for audience targeting.

“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,” Roche said.

Meanwhile, Joe Root, CEO of Permutive, Google’s announcement is a wake-up call for ad tech’s buy-side, as such outfits will begin to feel the pain publishers have felt since the dawn of digital advertising.

“Privacy is causing a massive issue for them,” he said. “The big questions more generally [for the industry] is do we accept the truth that identity is disappearing because it’s privacy unsafe, or do we work to maintain identity?”

Exclusive look at Cruise’s first driverless car without a steering wheel or pedals

The Origin is the GM subsidiary’s first attempt to build an fully autonomous car from the ground up

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Andrew J. Hawkins

The not-a-car sits on the gleaming black stage surrounded by a halo of light. It’s orange and black and white, and roughly the same size as a crossover SUV, but somehow looks much larger from the outside. There is no obvious front to the vehicle, no hood, no driver or passenger side windows, no side-view mirrors. The symmetry of the exterior is oddly comforting.

I am one of the first non-employees to see it, after being invited by self-driving company Cruise to come out to San Francisco for an early look. And what I see is a car. A weird-looking car, sure, but a car nonetheless. That’s what my brain tells me. But the company insists I’m not seeing what I’m seeing. One employee refers to it as “the property.”

The company insists it’s not a car — one employee refers to it as “the property”

It’s easier to describe what it’s not, rather than what it is. For example, it doesn’t look like a toaster on wheels, as some autonomous “people movers” tend to do. A microwave might be more accurate, but I’m not convinced.

Its official name is “Origin,” and Kyle Vogt, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Cruise, is clearly excited to be showing it off. With a broad smile, he reaches out and touches a button on the side, causing the doors to slide open with a little whoosh like something out of Star Wars.

Inside are two bench seats facing each other, a pair of screens on either end… and nothing else. The absence of all the stuff you expect to see when climbing into a vehicle is jarring. No steering wheel, no pedals, no gear shift, no cockpit to speak of, no obvious way for a human to take control should anything go wrong. There’s a new car smell, but it’s not unpleasant. It’s almost like cucumber-infused water.

“The way vehicles are designed, normally they have a hood in the front where the engine is and some storage in the trunk,” Vogt says, as we sit across from each other. “But when you don’t need all that stuff… we can have this enormous, spacious cabin without taking up any more space on the road than a regular car would. Which is kind of insane.”

But the Origin is arriving into an unforgiving world: half of Americans are skeptical to the point of being fearful about self-driving cars. They don’t mind a car that can drive itself — as long as they can take over when they choose. That’s impossible with this vehicle. I ask Vogt where he gets the confidence to take away everything we’ve come to associate with human driving.

“when you don’t need all that stuff… we can have this enormous, spacious cabin”

“I guess it’s important to note that we haven’t validated and released our technology yet,” he says. “So we haven’t gone out there and said it’s safer than a human and getting ready for prime time. But we’re getting pretty close.”

Approximately 18 minutes later, after a brief tour of the vehicle and back-and-forth about the company’s grand plans for the Origin, Vogt says something bolder. “By the time this vehicle goes into production, we think the core software that drives our AVs will be at a superhuman level of performance and safer than the average human driver,” he says. “And we’ll be providing hard empirical evidence to back up that claim before we put people in a car without someone in it.”

ruiseCruise has often been described as a “division” or “unit” of General Motors, but the company prefers “majority owned subsidiary.” (The automaker technically owns two-thirds of Cruise, which it bought in 2016.) However, GM isn’t the only major automaker in Cruise’s corner. In October 2018, Honda announced its plan to invest $2.75 billion in Cruise over 12 years. The company has also raised money from Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund and T. Rowe Price, and has a valuation of $19 billion.

As part of the Honda deal, GM teamed up with the Japanese automaker to design a “purpose-built” self-driving car. A “purpose-built car” is not a normal car retrofitted to be self-driving, as a majority of the autonomous vehicles on the road today are. Rather, it’s a car designed from the ground up to drive itself. That would be in addition to the steering wheel-and-pedal-less Chevy Bolt that GM and Cruise are working on. At the time, Vogt teased a vehicle with “giant TV screens, a mini bar, and lay-flat seats.”

“We built this car around the idea of not having a driver”

The Origin has none of these amenities, but Vogt insists its real asset is its modularity. “We built this car around the idea of not having a driver and specifically being used in a ride-share fleet,” he says. “This vehicle is engineered to last a million miles and all the interior components are replaceable. The compute is replaceable, the sensors are replaceable. And what that does is it drives the cost per mile down way lower than you could ever reach if you took a regular car and tried to retrofit it. The replacement cost and the upkeep of that would just kill you from a business standpoint.”

I don’t typically hear AV companies talk about “unit economics” and profitability. But that’s going to creep up sooner than a lot of people realize, Vogt says. Experts estimate that each self-driving car could cost upward of $300,000-$400,000, when taking into account the expensive sensors and computing software needed to allow the vehicles to drive themselves. Recouping those costs will be enormously challenging, and Cruise is trying to address that by building a car with more staying power than most personally owned vehicles.

Cruise has been working on the design of the Origin for over three years, but Honda’s involvement “super charged” the effort. The two automakers didn’t collaborate on every tiny detail; instead, they split up the work based on their expertise. GM was responsible for the base vehicle design and the electric powertrain, while Honda helped create the interior’s “efficient use of space,” Vogt says. Meanwhile, Cruise handled the sensing and computing technologies, as well as the experience from the rider’s standpoint.

We don’t typically hear AV companies talk about “unit economics” and profitability

Vogt allows that the sensor suite could change before the vehicle goes into production. But right now, it has the standard configuration found in many AVs on the road today: radar, cameras and LIDAR laser sensors. The hard drive, stored in the trunk and housing the vehicle’s artificial intelligence and perception software, is cooled by the vehicle’s battery system, making it quieter and less prone to overheating than previous iterations. That means passengers riding in the forward-facing seats won’t have to experience overly toasty tushies (as I have riding with another AV operator).

Cruise, with Honda’s help, designed the interior of the vehicle primarily for shared rides. The screens, one on either side, will display an itinerary for picking up and dropping off each passenger, so riders know what to expect. Carpooling in the age of smartphones hasn’t exactly been the runaway success that ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have hoped. But Cruise thinks its abundance of space can help minimize the friction.

“It’s designed to be comfortable if it’s shared, but if it’s just you, you’ve got so much space in here you can really like stretch out,” he says, extending his legs so his feet almost touch mine. Almost, but not quite.

Look, as far as I’m concerned, Cruise’s Origin is a car. Cruise says it wants to “move beyond the car,” but I’m not convinced the absence of certain controls negates its inherent car-ness. As Vogt points out, it occupies the same amount of space as an SUV, and Cruise claims it can travel at normal city speeds. It is a car-like shape and does car-type things, like traveling down a road with people in it. And if there isn’t another good name for it — “the property” notwithstanding — then “car” will have to do.

I don’t begrudge the company for attempting to argue otherwise. The push for not-car-ness is evident in Cruise’s intense marketing campaign leading up to the unveiling of the Origin. The company recently emptied out its Instagram account — so long, photos of smiling people riding in the company’s fleet of self-driving Chevy Bolts — and posted a series of cryptic longitude and latitude coordinates that correspond with famous historical moments, like the invention of the compass and the steam locomotive. Not-car inventions that seriously changed how we travel, in other words.

as far as I’m concerned, Cruise’s Origin is a car

Even so, Cruise isn’t the first company to build and test a self-driving car without traditional controls. In December 2016, Google stunned the world when it revealed that it had put a blind man in one of its egg-shaped autonomous test vehicles and sent him out for a short ride around Austin, Texas. Google’s Firefly vehicle, audaciously designed by YooJung Ahn, is widely considered to be the first car tested publicly without a steering wheel or pedals.

Waymo, the company spun out of Google’s self-driving project, retired the Firefly in 2017. But in a recent podcast interview, Waymo CEO John Krafcik voiced curiosity that no one has replicated the feat since. “Why do you think no one has done that yet?” Krafcik said on the Autonocast. “Because we all sort of scratch our heads and say, ‘Is there not the capability there? Or folks have the capability but they’ve chosen not to do it or not to show it?’”

Cruise hasn’t been as forthcoming with its technology as Waymo. The company has only hosted one demo ride for journalists in 2017, which produced embarrassing headlines such as Reuters’ “Taco truck halts GM autonomous car’s cruise through city streets.”

There have been other bumps in the road as well. Cruise’s plan to test its vehicles in New York City — arguably the most difficult driving environment in the US — went nowhere. In July 2019, the company announced that it would miss its goal of launching a large-scale self-driving taxi service by the end of the year. It tried to sugarcoat the disappointing news by announcing a plan to dramatically increase the number of its test vehicles on the road in San Francisco.

Coming right on the heels of the Consumer Electronics Show and its cavalcade of concept cars and design projects, there’s a sense that Cruise is trying to beat back diminishing expectations. The past year has been a pretty bad one for believers in the technology: missed deadlines, rising concerns over safety, and the growing belief that making autonomous vehicles will be harder, slower, and more expensive than previously thought.

Cruise is trying to recapture some of that early magic with this vehicle. But it’s also attempting to be more pragmatic and attuned to the realities of growing and scaling a real business.

fOf course, bureaucracy and politics could drive the whole thing right off the road.

Remember the unsettling lack of steering wheel, break pedals, and so on? That means the Cruise’s not-car will require an exemption from the federal government’s motor vehicle safety standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration only grants 2,500 petitions a year. GM submitted a petition for permission to deploy a fully driverless Chevy Bolt in 2018, but it has yet to receive a response. And it will most likely need another exemption before the Origin is allowed to hit the road, too.

Safety advocates are urging NHTSA to take its time in deliberating these changes. For example, the Center for Auto Safety “strongly question[s]” the NHTSA’s decision to prioritize these rule changes considering self-driving cars are still in their “infancy and quite likely decades away from widespread practical utility.” And the National Automobile Dealers Association, meanwhile, takes issue with the use of the term “barriers” to describe current safety standards and argues that self-driving cars should continue “to allow also for human control.”

Remember the unsettling lack of steering wheel, break pedals, and so on?

GM isn’t the only company seeking to fast-track these changes. Ford has said it will build an autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals by 2021, while Waymo has begun offering a limited number of rides in fully driverless minivans to its customers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Cruise is clearly feeling the heat from its competitors, especially when you consider that it has yet to take the important step of launching a commercial business. The company has a beta ride-hailing service, but it’s only available to employees, and Cruise won’t say when it will be available to the broader public. The company also won’t say when the Origin will roll out, but promises to share more information about its production plans in the future. (It’s already been burned once when it missed its 2019 robo-taxi deadline, so it seems the company wants to be careful that doesn’t happen again.)

I have so many more questions — about the sensor suite, the business model, the testing (if any) that Cruise has conducted — but I’m informed that our time is done. The event is being managed by a unionized workforce, and any additional time could cost Cruise an additional $12,000. I thank Vogt for his time and jokingly ask if there’s an “abort” button in the vehicle.

“I think it’s been pushed,” he says, grinning. “You just go straight through the ceiling.”

CULTURE

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Dami Lee

Atari-branded hotels with e-sports studios and game rooms are coming to the US

Hotels will be coming to eight cities

Atari has licensed its name for a number of brand partnerships in the gaming space, but the company’s latest deal to build eight Atari-branded hotels marks its foray into the hospitality industry. The company announced a licensing deal with US real estate developer True North Studio and GSD group to build eight hotels in the US. Construction will begin in Phoenix in mid-2020, with more hotels to come in Austin, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.

The “video game-themed destination” will offer gaming playgrounds that include VR and AR games, and some locations will have venues and studios to accommodate e-sports events. Atari says the hotels will have meeting rooms, co-working spaces, restaurants, bars, a bakery, a movie theater, and a gym. The company says it’ll be a destination for families and business travelers, which lends itself to a hilarious image of a businessman trying to print something in the meeting room while a Fortnite tournament happens in the next room.

Atari will receive 5 percent of hotel revenue, and it received a $600,000 advance for inking the deal. The hotel will be located close to Steve Wozniak’s Woz U university campus in Arizona, which is also associated with the Phoenix-based GSD Group.

Meanwhile, the development of the Atari VCS retro console has been reported to be undergoing significant difficulties, with the console’s lead architect claiming that he hadn’t been paid in over six months. If Atari, a gaming company, is having this much trouble with building a game console, it paints a troubling picture of how the hotels will turn out.

18 Things You Missed If You Forgot The 2020 Grammy Awards Were On Last Night

Tears, flames, and Billy Porter in a remote-controlled hat.

Content Courtesy of: buzzfeed.com

Written by: Allie Hayes

1. The red carpet was positively FLOODED with incredible looks courtesy of all your favorite artists:

2. And there were some hella cute couples there, for sure:

3. But, let’s be honest, Billy Porter’s incredible (and now meme-worthy) look stole the show:

4. To open the ceremony, the night’s host, Alicia Keys, gave a powerful monologue in tribute to Kobe Bryant:

5. Then, Boys II Men joined her on stage for an emotional performance of “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday”:

6. Lizzo performed the only way she knows how — EPICALLY — with a literal orchestra behind her:

7. Then — immediately following her performance — she took home the Grammy for “Best Pop Solo Performance” for her absolute BOP, “Truth Hurts”:

8. Camila Cabello brought the audience to tears with a rendition of her song “First Man,” which she sang directly to her father in the audience:

9. Usher, Sheila E., and FKA Twigs performed a tribute to Prince that left the internet divided:

10. Tyler, the Creator nearly burned the place to the ground (literally) with his stunning performance:

11. And then used the time after his win for “Best Rap Album” to address the Grammys’ history with racism:

12. Ariana Grande performed a medley of all her biggest hits from 2019 in an outfit that would’ve made Elle Woods proud:

13. Demi Lovato gave a truly goosebumps-inducing performance — singing the song she wrote mere days before her overdose — and received a well-deserved standing ovation:

14. BTS made history as the first Korean artists to ever perform at the Grammys, sharing the stage with Lil Nas X:

15. Nick Jonas appeared to have some food in his teeth during the Jonas Brothers’ performance and, naturally, Twitter was hilarious about it:

16. Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. gave the ultimate throwback performance:

17. John Legend, Kirk Franklin, DJ Khaled, Meek Mill, and Roddy Ricch took the stage for a moving tribute to Nipsey Hussle, in which photos of both Bryant and Hussle were projected behind them:

18. And finally, Billie Eilish absolutely DOMINATED the show, taking home the awards for Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Album:

19. Be sure to check out the full list of the night’s nominees and winners here!

FASHION

Content Courtesy of: vogue.com

Written by: Steff Yotka

The 9 Most Important Trends of the Men’s Fall 2020 Season

The menswear machine can’t be stopped. What was once a sleepy, siloed-off section of Vogue Runway has become a seasonal behemoth to compete for eyeballs with our flagship women’s coverage in February and September. The data doesn’t lie: Over the past three weeks of shows in London, Florence, Milan, and Paris, our readers have spent more than 1.5 million minutes looking at the men’s collections. What did they see?

The easiest and most obvious takeaway is the return of suiting to menswear’s fore and the dissipation of streetwear from the catwalks. On the back of Virgil Abloh’s comments that streetwear is “gonna die,” a single-breasted suit at Off-White was practically a death knell for jeans-and-tees. Elsewhere, Kim Jones perfected his couture-ish tailoring at Dior Men, Clare Waight Keller cut fabulous slim suits at Givenchy, and Pierpaolo Piccioli dreamt up a moonlight blue sequin DB to challenge the ease of his popular hoodies and knits at Valentino. So yes, suiting is back, and it arrives with a newfound swagger.

But the in-your-face energy that streetwear brought to the runways—and to retailers, where graphic tees and buzzy sneakers still sell—is not gone, it has simply evolved into new trends with the same high-impact bravado. Consider this season’s ’70s-tinged glamourpusses, all rust-color flares and undone-to-there silk shirts at Dries Van Noten and Tom Ford. In a similarly sexy vein is the rise of the full leather kit. Seen at both Alyx and Vetements, head-to-toe skins blend the utmost of luxury with a subversive kink. Shorts and high boots—see Rick Owens’s opening look (and then try to forget it, we dare you)—should keep menswear’s look-at-me streak going way into the 2020s.

In sharp contrast to all this performative flair are two of the season’s more sedate trends: Hygge-worthy all-white ensembles and reemergent classical Italian tailoring. Even so, these are not clothes for blending in. Fall 2020 has been a standout season of standout dudes, and perhaps the best trend yet, is that come September most of them will be standing tall in high heels. Well, if Van Noten and Owens have anything to say about it, at least.

Crystals With a Couture Spin

Dior Men

The couture-inspired fabrics and silhouettes that have been on the rise in menswear reached a head this month at Kim Jones’s Dior Men show. The last look, a crystal-and-sequin-beaded jacket, took more than 1,000 hours of handwork to produce—and came with exactly the right amount of panache to make such craftsmanship seem effortlessly wearable. Alexander McQueen’s golden coat is equally resplendent, as are more casually glitzy options from Balmain, Etro, or Bode.

’70s Swagger

Dries Van Noten

The louche loverboys of spring 2020 are hanging around for fall, replacing their silky shorts and pearl necklaces with killer flare jeans and fur stoles. Dries Van Noten and Tom Ford represent the poles of the trend best: a little Mick, a little Bianca, and mostly attitude. The most important accessory here is the assured strut to make those heeled boots really work.

Fur Coats

Vetements

Thank Raf Simons and Silvia Venturini Fendi for the return of the larger-than-life fur at men’s fashion week this season. The former is shaggy, sometimes plastic-wrapped, and has a Space Age sensibility. The latter is more sleek, innovated with paneled zippers to adjust for ever-changing temps. Not in the mood for a fuzzy duster? The stole is having a resurgence too.

A Total Print Takeover

Louis Vuitton

The humble graphic tee has been replaced by graphic everything! Suits, tops, trousers, socks, turtlenecks—if you can wear it, it’s covered in a quirky pattern. At Louis Vuitton, the motif du jour is a relaxing cloudscape. At Off-White, it’s wine bottles popping off. In between, there is a world of prints to suit any vibe.

The Silhouette Is Slim

Prada

A rejection of all things oversized occurred at Prada, Raf Simons, Givenchy, and more of the season’s most tenor-setting shows. It’s a look that was popular 20 years ago, when Hedi Slimane and Simons were engaged in a war of who could cut the skinniest suits. No surprise that two decades on, this trend is being resurrected just as shoppers with aughts nostalgia gain spending power.

Everyone at Pitti Uomo Dresses Like This Now

Junya Watanabe

The dandies of Florence’s menswear fair are legendary for both their adherence to the strict mores of Italian tailoring and their codebreaking flourishes of sprezzatura. Junya Watanabe paid homage to this strain of Italianate classicismo in his collection, but we must also look to the masters who have been advocating caffe-color plaids and cashmere turtlenecks for the better part of a century: Brunello Cucinelli, Canali, Brioni, and Canali. Stateside, nobody does it better than Ralph Lauren, whose version of menswear harkens to halcyon days of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. That was the last time American men really got dressed. Here’s hoping they get the memo for 2020.

Leather Daddies Are Back

Rick Owens

Leather jumpsuits appeared on Vogue Runway’s menswear trend report three seasons ago. Back then, we wondered if guys would opt for such a total—and totally constricting—look. Consider the devotion to calfskin pants, jackets, and shirts on the fall runways the proof that men are into leather, big time. For those new to the trend, try out one of the lower impact leather looks, like Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s one-shoulder top or Alyx’s coveralls.

All-White Everything

Craig Green

The tender feeling of menswear’s spring season has morphed into a series of serene, all-white ensembles for fall. They come as suits, as sweaters, and as conceptual menswear, a palette cleanser for all the hype that has dominated menswear for the past several years. Off-the-runway, this trend is probably best paired with a stain-removing pen—or better yet, worn indoors to really capture the hygge-influenced mood.

Show Some Thigh

Marni

Teensy shorts won’t seem like the most practical fall/winter trend until you see them paired with knee-skimming boots or socks. The styling trick appeared at several of Paris’s most influential menswear shows, though it might have started in Milan with high boots at Marni’s and Gucci’s knee-socks. Is it the translation of 2018’s pants-less trend for men or the realization that men are getting more comfortable with flaunting their bodies? Either way, expect to see plenty of leg as autumn sets in.

Grammy Awards 2020: Fashion—Live From the Red Carpet

Content Courtesy of: vogue.com

Written by:  Josephine Relli

Music biggest event of the year has arrived in Hollywood: The 62nd annual Grammy Awards kick off in Los Angeles tonight. The awards ceremony, hosted by Alicia Keys, is set to feature performances from musicians such as Billie Eilish and Lizzo, two of the Grammys’s most-nominated artists. (Stars such as Ariana Grande, the Jonas Brothers, Tyler, the Creator, and more will be putting on a show as well.)

The ceremony has a history of bold, outré fashions that is poised to continue on the red carpet this evening. For starters, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since Jennifer Lopez’s Versace dress went viral. Follow Vogue’s red carpet coverage of this year’s Grammys in real time here, and be sure to check back for our best-dressed list of the night.

Billie Eilish in Gucci

Lizzo in Atelier Versace with a Lorraine Schwartz necklace

Ariana Grande in Giambattista Valli with Lorraine Schwartz earrings

Dua Lipa in Alexander Wang

Rosalía in Alexander Wang

Lana Del Rey

Lil Nas X in Versace and Billy Ray Cyrus

Maggie Rogers in Chanel

Usher in Balmain

Camila Cabello

Grace Elizabeth in Giuseppe Di Morabito

BTS in Bottega Veneta

Shawn Mendes in Louis Vuitton with a Bulgari necklace

Ella Mai in Giorgio Armani

Joe Jonas in Ermenegildo Zegna XXX and Sophie Turner in Louis Vuitton

Billy Porter in Custom Baja East and Alexis Bittar jewelry

Chrissy Teigen in Yanina Couture

Heidi Klum in Dundas with a Lorraine Schwartz necklace

H.E.R. in DSquared2

Shania Twain in Christian Siriano

Gwen Stefani in Dolce & Gabbana with Le Silla shoes and Blake Shelton

John Legend

Tyler, the Creator

Alessandra Ambrosio in Balmain

FKA Twigs in Ed Marler

Khalid in Sies Marjan

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas in Ermenegildo Zegna XXX

DJ Khaled

Quavo in Prada and Saweetie in Moschino

Swae Lee in Dundas

21 Savage in Saint Laurent

Bonnie McKee

Gloria Gaynor

Conor McGregor

Blac Chyna

Nicole Trunfio

Hit-Boy

Adrienne Warren in Brandon Maxwell with Chopard earrings

Beck in Celine

FOOD

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by:  Keith Nunes

Borden Dairy Co. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Source: Borden Dairy Co.

DALLAS — Borden Dairy Co. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 6. The company said in court documents structural changes to the retail and dairy industries led to the move. The filing comes on the heels of Dean Foods Co., the nation’s largest dairy processor, filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past November.

In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, the company said net sales in 2018 were $1.19 billion with gross profit of $292 million.

“Notwithstanding the foregoing, (Borden) experienced an income loss from operations in the amount of $2.6 million and a total net income loss of $14.6 million (in 2018),” the company said. “These losses continued into 2019, with (Borden) reporting income loss from operations in the amount of $22.3 million and a total net income loss of $42.4 million from January 2019 through Dec. 7, 2019.”

Borden produces a full range of dairy products, including fluid milks, sour cream, creams and dips. Fluid milk and cream make up 92% of revenues, juices and other beverages make up 5%, ice cream 2% and cultured products 1%, according to the company. It operates 13 manufacturing plants and employs 3,300.

Management blamed the company’s predicament on the state of the U.S. beverage, retail and dairy industries.

“In recent years, dairy products have begun to compete with other replacement non-dairy nutritional products and beverages for consumer sales, which has contributed to demand decreases,” the company said. “In addition, the growth of discount grocery retailers has intensified competition and reduced the margin over milk at retail, making it increasingly difficult for Borden to hold its margin while competitively pricing its products to appeal to consumer price sensitivities. Borden competes against others that do not depend on the profitability of milk exclusively, including vertically-integrated retailers and dairy cooperatives that now process their own milk.”

The company said in the court filing that retailers such as Walmart processing some of its own milk has negated some of Borden’s marketing efforts.

“Retailers that are vertically integrated typically re-dedicate key shelf space that was formerly occupied by branded products for their own private label products,” the company said. “Accordingly, customer awareness of major food service retail establishments has decreased, which in turn has muted the marketing and sales initiatives implemented by (Borden) in the past two years.”

Adding to the milk processing industry’s woes is the fact fluid milk consumption has declined by over 100 gallons per person in North America during the past 45 years. Some of that decline is driven by the rise of plant-based dairy alternatives.

“Options like almond, soy, rice, coconut and hemp beverages are beginning to demand more and more space on grocery store shelves as consumers have grown to embrace new flavors and alternative diets,” the company said.

Borden Dairy was further pressured by the price of conventional raw milk, which has risen 27% since January 2019. Management said it expects the price of raw milk to continue to rise in 2020. The inflation comes at a time when the number of dairy producers is declining. In the past year and a half, for example, over 2,730 dairy farms have gone out of business.

“Despite our numerous achievements during the past 18 months, the company continues to be impacted by the rising cost of raw milk and market challenges facing the dairy industry,” said Tony Sarsam, chief executive officer. “These challenges have contributed to making our current level of debt unsustainable. For the last few months, we have engaged in discussions with our lenders to evaluate a range of potential strategic plans for the company. Ultimately, we determined that the best way to protect the company, for the benefit of all stakeholders, is to reorganize through this court-supervised process.”

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by:  Sam Danley

Perdue Farms launches direct-to-consumer platform

Perdue Farms, Adobe Stock

SALISBURY, MD. — Perdue Farms is entering the direct-to-consumer space.

The company announced the launch of a new e-commerce site offering an assortment of frozen items across the Perdue, Niman Ranch, Coleman Natural, Sonoma Red and Skagit Red brands. Additional offerings will be added as demand increases.

Nearly half of all shoppers now buy perishables such as meat, produce and dairy items online, according to a global survey by retail analytics firm Precima. By mid-2020, a third of shoppers said they expect to spend more than 40% of their grocery budget online.

With more consumers buying food online, the direct-to-consumer market is beginning to capture the attention of food manufacturers. Companies including Nestle and Unilever have entered the space recently in an effort to bolster sales and attract younger consumers.

“As both online shopping and the demand for convenience show no signs of slowing down, we felt it was important to be in this space,” said David Zucker, senior vice-president of e-commerce and new ventures at Perdue Farms. “We’re excited that this is the first time we’ve been able to offer so many of our brands in one place, nationally.”

The new web site has several sustainability initiatives, including 100% recyclable packaging. Each order comes with a reusable shopping tote and a packet of bee- and butterfly-friendly seeds. Foam insulation used in packaging is made from water-soluble cornstarch, which may be composted or disintegrated under running water.

The company also will make a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation with each order to offset the shipment’s carbon footprint. This equates to removing approximately 70 lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere per order, the company said.

“We are always listening to our consumers and striving to provide them with solutions that fit easily into their lifestyle,” said Randy Day, chief executive officer at Perdue Farms. “That includes not only offering the differentiated products people love, but also making the products available to buy through the channels where they prefer to shop.

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by:  Jeff Gelski

Nielsen forecasts big decade for C.B.D.

Adobe Stock

NEW YORK — The market research company Nielsen projects the U.S. hemp-based C.B.D market may be a $2.25 billion to $2.75 billion industry in 2020. The projection accounts for U.S. Food and Drug Administration rulings and other possible issues. The F.D.A. on Nov. 25, 2019, said it could not conclude that cannabidiol (C.B.D.), a hemp extract, is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) among qualified experts for its use in human food or animal food.

“While the regulatory roadmap remains ambiguous, one thing is clear: The next decade for the hemp-based C.B.D. market has the potential to be a game-changer for the traditional C.P.G. (consumer product goods) and retail industry,” said Rich Maturo, vice-president of cannabis practice for New York-based Nielsen.

The user bases for capsules, gummies and beverages should grow significantly this decade, according to Nielsen. If the F.D.A. ever approves C.B.D. as GRAS, the user base of ingestible formats could grow as much as 250% to 375% in a year’s time. Cannabidiol especially shows potential in the beverage categories of coffee, functional waters, energy drinks, teas and sports drinks, according to Nielsen, adding brick-and-mortar retail channels this decade could steal C.B.D. share from online retailers, local specialty retailers, and vape and tobacco shops.

Education efforts targeted to health care providers also may increase the C.B.D. market in the 2020s. A Nielsen study found about one-third of health care practitioners were knowledgeable about laws surrounding hemp-based C.B.D. Among adults interested in C.B.D., 50% said guidance from a health care practitioner would motivate them to try a C.B.D. product, according to Nielsen. Cannabidiol products could be positioned as over-the-counter products targeting arthritis, sleep and general pain.

Production efficiencies linked to cultivation and extraction practices of hemp should bring down prices for C.B.D. products, according to Nielsen. The number of U.S. hemp farmers will rise over the decade, and Latin American farmers should grow hemp as well.

The December Details & A Year In Review

ART

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Tessa Solomon

The Year in Technology: Augmented Reality Works, New Digital Art Platforms, and Much More from 2019

Visitors using VR goggles at Serpentine gallery in London.
GUY BELL/SHUTTERSTOCK

Is technology closely watching us, or are we closely watching technology? This year, the boundaries grew even thinner between machines and people—AI is grading tests in classrooms across the country, a popular Russian face-aging app sparked widespread panic over data privacy. In July, a Florida judge granted police access to GEDmatch, a widely-used DNA database similar to Ancestry. These developments were reflected in the art world, where artists and auction houses experimented with the possibilities of technology, museums launched new digital platforms, and new apps were made. What follows, in no particular order, are some of the year’s defining art-and-tech initiatives.

Christie’s Aims to Make History With Sale of First Mixed-Reality Work

AI-generated works and virtual reality pieces were long thought by many to be impossible to sell, but auction houses are pushing forward, making available works involving new technologies with aplomb, and next year, a new precedent could be set. In 2020, Christie’s will sell the first mixed-reality work ever to hit the auction block: Marina Abramović’s The Life. (Mixed reality differs from virtual reality in that the surrounding environment is still visible, even with while wearing a headset.) The sale of was announced in November after the work debuted at London’s Serpentine Galleries. The 19-minute piece features Abramović pacing around, occasionally flickering in and out of vision, and it was met with reviews that were less than positive—Guardian critic Jonathan Jones wrote, “I’ve only experienced events this vacuous at really bad concerts.” But the auction house seems hopeful that the work will be bought for somewhere in the range of $775,000, with the buyer will receiving a recording of the piece and “wearable spatial computing devices,” according to Christie’s. The piece could set a new auction record for Abramović—and change the state of digital works on the market.

Marina Abramović with technicians.
GUY BELL/SHUTTERSTOCK

Alan Michelson Reveals Ugly Parts of American History Through AR

For his solo show at the Whitney Museum in New York, Alan Michelson, a Mohawk member of Six Nations of the Grand River, created four works that explore the impact of colonialism on Indigenous peoples and the destruction of the land on which they live. The show included two augmented reality works, both produced with the help of artist Steven Fragale, that can be accessed through an app. When one of those AR works, Sapponckanikan (Tobacco Field) (2019), is activated, a circle of tobacco plants indigenous to New York appears on one’s phone screen, looking as though it had sprouted through the floors of the Whitney’s lobby. And, when viewed through the app, Town Destroyer (2019) reveals a three-dimensional bust of George Washington overlaid with moving images and audio relating the story of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign of 1779, a scorched-earth invasion of the Haudenosaunee homelands ordered by the founding father. Michelson’s new pieces are AR works at their best—they reveal the unpleasant realities of our own world that are often kept out of sight from many people.

Posthuman Studies’s Russian Ferations (2019) is one of several works commissioned by Garage Digital.
COURTESY THE ARTIST

Moscow’s Garage Museum Launches a Pioneering Online Art Platform

In December, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow launched Garage Digital, a platform for digital artworks that could become a major resource for artists and the public alike. Through it, curators at the museum will commission new artworks, and research materials—including documentary videos and academic studies—will be made available. Currently, Garage Digital is hosting new artworks by Sascha Pohflepp with Matthew Lutz and Alessia Nigretti, Gints Gabrāns, and James Ferraro and Ezra Miller; the museum has promised more to come in the future. There will also be a focus on gaming, and among the offerings on the website right now offers gameplay of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding (2019), one of the year’s most eagerly awaited video games which stars renders of Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux. This isn’t the kind of material typically made available by an art museum, and it’s an example of how open-minded and essential Garage Digital could soon become.

Nick Cave’s Accumul-Istic Quest.
APPLE

[AR]T Walk Brings Augmented Reality to Midtown New York

There were words in the sky around New York’s 59th Street. They fell and faded, seeming to melt away into the landscape around them. This was real life, or something like it—an AR poem by the late artist John Giorno called “Now at the Dawn of My Life,” part of [AR]T Walk, which was started by Apple and the New Museum in New York. Not unlike Pokémon Go, participants could point iPhones—loaned by Apple and loaded with the [AR]T Viewer app—at predetermined locations and view large-scale artworks become visible. The results left something to be desired—none were particularly memorable—but the talent that the initiative had enlisted, which included artists such as Nick Cave, Nathalie Djurberg, Hans Berg, Cao Fei, Carsten Höller, and Pipilotti Rist, was impressive.

“Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018” at the Whitney

From foundational works of Minimal and Conceptual art, like a Sol LeWitt wall drawing from 1976, to a restored version of Nam June Paik’s hypnotic video wall Fin de Siècle II (1989), to several digital works recently commissioned by the Whitney, this show, which opened in 2018 but closed in 2019, charted the ways systems, mathematics, and choreographies have altered art dealing with technologies. Curated by Christiane Paul, the show included some of the best works making use of technology in recent years, among them Mendi + Keith Obadike’s The Interaction of Coloreds (2002/18), which allows users to determine the correct HTML coding for their skin tone by filling out a questionnaire which included prompts such as, “Has your skin color ever been in vogue?”

Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Shadow Stalker (2019) at the Shed.
DAN BRADICA

Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Shadow Stalker Tells Us About Ourselves

A pioneer in her field, Lynn Hershman Leeson has long questioned what separates our bodies from cyberspace and the surveillance state. Shadow Stalker, her latest work—now on view in the Shed’s “Manual Overdrive” show—deals with the practice of data mining, in which personal information is collected online by entities and corporations, often in ways that are not immediately disclosed to the users themselves. Hershman Leeson’s installation uses technology similar to the predictive policing system deployed by American law enforcement departments to gather data that could forecast where future crimes will occur. (Such practices have been controversial, with some alleging that officials have used them to target low-income and predominantly nonwhite communities.) At the Shed, viewers are invited to enter their email address, and Hershman Leeson’s algorithm fetches chilling results: old home addresses, the names and prior locations of loved ones. It’s a creepy work about the uneven power dynamics that guide the way we use digital technology—and an instructive one about the dangers of putting too much information into our beloved machines.

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: The Editors of ARTnews

2019: The Year in Review

With 2019 coming to a close, the editors of ARTnews have looked back on the past year in the art world. Artists pushed boundaries by making use of new technologies, and major figures were lost. Below, a complete guide to our year-end coverage.

The Year in, and Beyond, New York’s Galleries—Plus a Top 10 from All Over

ARTnews executive editor Andrew Russeth picks his favorite shows on view in New York, plus some more exhibitions on view around the country.

The Year in Screens

ARTnews senior editor Alex Greenberger addresses the defining moving-image and digital works of 2019.

The Year in Sound

ARTnews deputy editor Andy Battaglia selects his favorite music, sound artworks, writings, and more from throughout the year.

The Year in Books

The editors of ARTnews pick their favorite books of the year, from an anthology of Peter Schjeldahl’s writings to a volume about criticism that costs just $5.

The Year in Technology

A look back at some of the biggest developments in art and technology over the past year.

Art World Luminaries Who Died in 2019

See a slideshow of the major figures lost this year, from pioneering artists to historians who penned groundbreaking criticism.

The Most-Read ARTnews Stories of 2019

From a controversial banana at Art Basel Miami Beach to Mary Boone closing her gallery, these were the most-read ARTnews articles of the year.

ADVERTISING

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Adrianne Pasquarelli

5 TIMES AI REPLACED HUMANS IN MARKETING IN 2019

Chase, Kohl’s and Essence all tapped machines for tasks this year

Essence Credit: Illustration by Ad Age. Composite image: Essence cosmetics

We haven’t quite reached peak robot, but we are getting closer every year. In 2019, artificial intelligence took over as copywriters, media buyers and influencers. We’ve come much farther than a half-century ago, when Ad Age chronicled 10 newsmakers that included eight men, one woman and a computer. At the time, a Xerox executive warned “We are all in danger of being drowned in data.” What would he say now?

Machines beat humans at Chase

After a trial in which artificial intelligence outperformed humans for tasks such as writing ad copy, the bank tapped Persado, a company that applies AI to marketing creative, for a five-year deal. Kristin Lemkau, who was CMO of JPMorgan Chase at the time and is now head of U.S, wealth management, called the technology “incredibly promising.” Perhaps not for marketing creatives, though.

A different kind of holiday elf

Kohl’s called on some extra helpers this past holiday season—in the form of computers. The retailer continued a trial with Google it began over the summer to add more AI to its digital media buying. The retailer also said it is incorporating more AI into email subject lines and banner ads.

All of the faces of hunger

Feeding America created a composite image of the people across the nation who visit food banks—that image, of a woman with short dark hair, headlined the nonprofit’s campaign earlier this year.

Robots write the news

This one hit close to home. Patch, the local news site operator, used AI to write articles, chiefly run-of-the-mill stories and data. The publisher, which said it was relieving staffers of tedious work, posts around 3,000 stories each week through the technology.

Weird science

Machines can be influential, too, as cosmetics brand Essence proved this month when it created a virtual influencer for Instagram. Other non-real stars include Lil Miquela, whose kiss with supermodel Bella Hadid in a Calvin Klein ad sparked backlash and an apology earlier this year.

Content Courtesy of:adage.com

Written by: Jack Neff

THE 10 WORST MARKETING BUZZWORDS OF 2019

Turn your storytelling into storyliving with hyper-relevant snackable content for a digestible experience amplified by influencers

Credit: istock

10 Worst Buzzwords of 2019

Not all these are brand new, but they’ve been trendy and will make you sound very knowledgeable and important the more you repeat them. They’re also crucial in making people hate marketers. Special thanks to Rob Estreitinho (@robistyping,) senior strategist at VCCP Kin, London, and his Douchebag Strategist @douchebagstrat Twitter bot for inspiration on some.

Brandformance – This mashup of “brand” and “performance” marketing is big now, as opposed to years past when no one cared if brand advertising performed.

Storyliving – Storytelling is so 2017. Storyliving was big at Cannes this year. Now, a brand must tell a story and “live it.” Authentically, of course, through storydoing.

Snackable – Quibi is a whole streaming service built on “snackable content,” which is really short video you can watch between train stops, or any time you’re busy storyliving.

Digestible – What snackable content becomes once ingested. Even longer-form meal-worthy content can be this if it goes down well. The opposite is barf-able content. Think Peloton.

Thumb-stopping – When your snackable content is so digestible your thumb has to stop to take in the beauty and avoid getting a cramp.

Experience – Marketers now know it’s about more than marketing. It’s the whole experience, from the smell of the package to the sound of the coins falling into the jar or the little song the card reader plays. Chief marketing officers are morphing into chief experience officers, a stroke of sneaky marketing genius for an under-appreciated job title, because it will let them run everything.

Hyper-relevant – Mere relevance is no longer enough. You need hyper-relevance, like an ad that has meaning only to your little finger. Or, as Accenture’s insurance marketing blog puts it, hyper-relevant insurers don’t simply focus on customers’ preferences or demos, but on “the evolving context in which customers make decisions.”

Hyper-targeting – Combine this with hyper-relevance and it’s so powerful that it should be licensed to keep it out of the wrong hands.

Recession – This buzzword simply failed to deliver this year, and possibly for the foreseeable future. Not so good for folks bent on defeating Donald Trump.

Influencer – It’s a real marketing phenomenon, but as a word leaves much to be desired. Many influencers do more entertaining than influencing. Then there was that guy from Iowa with 1.5 million Instagram followers who hired his cousin with a gun to make someone turn over a website domain. How much influence does your influencing have when you need a gun?

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Ann-Christine Diaz

THE TOP 5 CREATIVE BRAND IDEAS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RIGHT NOW: DECEMBER 23, 2019

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the Top 5 most innovative brand ideas you need to know about right now.

5. Jet Blue: ‘AirSMR,’ MullenLowe

We’re kind of over the ASMR trend, but JetBlue’s new video from MullenLowe that jumps onto that bandwagon does something pretty extraordinary: it transforms the typically stressful sounds of the airport into a soothing experience.

4. Seventh Generation: ‘Climate Carols,’ Opinionated

While many of us are wrapped up in the festivities of the holiday season, eco-friendly home products brand Seventh Generation wants us to remember the dark cloud of climate change that looms overhead. The company and its agency Opinionated created “Climate Carols,” which turns holiday favorites like “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” into calls-to-action for environmental change.

3. Eco Six Pack Rings: ‘The Simpsons Duff Beer Campaign,’ We Believers

Eco Six Pack Rings is the Cannes Lion-winning product idea from agency We Believers. It’s an eco-friendly version of the plastic rings on cans of beer and soda that won’t harm ocean life. The rings now appear on beer brands around the world, including Corona and Guinness, but the company is hoping to get more visibility—on cans of Homer Simpson’s favorite brew, Duff Beer. A campaign running in time for The Simpsons 30th anniversary in the show’s hometown of Springfield, Oregon is targeting creator Matt Groening, promising him unlimited free rights for Duff Beer to use the Eco Six Pack Rings.

2. Popeyes: ‘Help Wanted on Sundays Classified Ads,’ Gut Miami

In 2019, Popeyes was on fire with its creative ideas, some of those at the expense of one of its main rivals, Chick-fil-A. In a previous campaign from Gut, Popeyes poked fun at how its competitor isn’t open on Sundays. Its latest idea continues in that vein. Popeyes placed “help wanted” ads in big publications like the New York Times and the Boston Globe, saying that it was looking for experienced chicken sandwich makers on Sundays only—to help accommodate the onslaught of orders the fast feeder has been getting for its popular sandwich on that day.

1. On the Beach: ‘Everything’s Better on the Beach,’ Uncommon London

Simplicity is a powerful tool. That’s evident in this standout comedic campaign for UK travel site On the Beach from Uncommon London. It pairs simple scenes and a voiceover from Iggy Pop to show how easily your troubles can melt away—when you’re on the beach.

That’s it for the Top 5. Make sure to check out more of the best in brand creativity at Adage.com/Creativity.

BUSINESS

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: George P. Slefo.

Spotify to suspend political ads in 2020

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and the RNC are among Spotify advertisers

Spotify announced that it would pause any political advertising on its platform.
Credit: Composite by Ad Age. Images: Bloomberg Finance LP

Spotify is suspending the sale of political advertising on its platform, the company told Ad Age Friday.

Spotify said in a statement that it will pause political advertising in early 2020 across its ad-supported tier—which boosts 141 million users— as well as the streaming giant’s original and exclusive podcasts, some of which include “The Joe Budden Podcast” and “Amy Schumer Presents.” The move only applies to the U.S., as Spotify doesn’t run political ads in other countries.

“At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our process, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” the company said in a statement to Ad Age. “We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.”

Presidential hopefuls such as Bernie Sanders and organizations such as the Republican National Committee have both advertised on Spotify. Though the company declined to share how much revenue it generates from political ads, a person familiar with its advertising business said it’s not a significant revenue generator for the company, especially when compared to Spotify’s largest money makers, such as entertainment ads for movies or shows.

Spotify joins other tech companies like Twitter and Google, which are grappling in their own ways with political messaging ahead of a likely-polarizing 2020 presidential election. For its part, Spotify says it has opted to work on its tech before reintroducing political ads to its platform at a future, unknown date.

Twitter has placed a permanent kibosh on political advertising. While Google’s effort on the matter is more nuanced, as it’s removed the ability to micro-target individuals based on their political affiliation through Google Search and YouTube. Facebook, meanwhile, is firmly entrenched with its decision not to fact check political ads run on its platform.

Other tech companies, such as The Trade Desk, a platform that media agencies use to buy digital ads through automation, believes that technology companies should figure out how to solve the political ad problem instead of outright banning them. “A number of tech companies have opted to sit out and that is a huge mistake,” the company’s CEO, Jeff Green, said during The Trade Desk’s most recent earnings call. “We have a civic duty to make that process better.”

Spotify’s latest policy covers political organizations such as candidates for office, elected and appointed officials, Super PACs, nonprofits and political parties. It also removes content that advocates for or against political entities and legislative or judicial outcomes. The company will not, however, control political ads that are embedded in for third-party podcasts, though they will still be subject to Spotify’s content policy.

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Adrianne Pasquarelli.

The biggest brand fails of 2019

Here are some of the biggest mistakes marketers made in ads, products, public comments and internal operations this year

Brand fails Credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/Ad Age

Website glitches, easy-to-mock names and tone-deaf advertising dominated the headlines of 2019, even as some marketers tried to fly too close to the sun (ahem, WeWork.) Here are some of the biggest mistakes marketers made in this year.

Marriott says hello to Bonvoy

In early 2019, Marriott rolled out a revamped loyalty program under an unusual name. “Bonvoy” was fashioned from the idea of good travel, executives said, but consumers weren’t keen. The name was ridiculed so much that by Advertising Week in September, brand executives were still defending it. Whoopsvoy.

Rent the runway—oh wait, you can’t

When popular clothing rental service Rent the Runway installed a new software system for its inventory, it didn’t count on the glitches that would come with the new platform. Unfortunately, the system was so problem-plagued—orders didn’t show up or were delayed—that the company had to shell out refunds and extra cash to satisfy disgruntled customers.

Peloton’s holiday horror story

It was the ad watched round the world—and widely criticized. While experts debated whether the mockery around Peloton’s holiday ad, which chronicles a thin woman’s journey to being just as thin, was good or bad for brand sales, no one could refute that it got buzz. Only time will tell if that buzz will lead to long-term brand health.

Boeing’s brand crisis

After the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max planes led to nearly 350 fatalities, Boeing grounded its 737 Max models, but faced consumer uncertainty over the safety of its product. That uncertainty turned to anger when reports revealed that executives may have received warnings over safety issues before the crashes.

Airbnb scams

Airbnb came under fire recently when an investigative report revealed a series of scammers trying to cheat customers of the home-sharing platform. The company also faced heat when house parties at some of its rentals turned violent and resulted in deaths. As a result, Airbnb revised some of its policies, but the brand damage was already done.

WeWork don’t work

Once a pioneer of the hot trend of co-working spaces, WeWork became a cautionary tale of the dangers of trying to grow too quickly. The company canceled a much-publicized IPO, bid goodbye to its founder and CEO and thousands of employees, as its valuation sank. Maurice Levy, its new interim chief marketing and communications officer, has a lot of work to do

Tesla’s Cybertruck dreams get shattered

Gasps of awe turned to disbelief when Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s Cybertruck and the vehicle’s supposedly shatter-proof windows smashed into smithereens. However, according to Musk, who reportedly was heard muttering “Oh my fucking God” under his breath, the mishap is solidly in the rearview.

The unhealthy Juul

E-cigarette startup Juul spent the year battling claims that its products were harmful to users, many of whom were marketed to as teenagers. States are suing the brand even as it is under investigation by federal regulators.

Kim’s Kimono unraveling

Kim Kardashian West’s shapewear line had all of the makings of success—a trendy, in-demand product with a high-profile celebrity attached to it. Then she named it “Kimono” and faced outrage over cultural appropriation. Within weeks, she’d renamed the brand Skims. S’okay.

Baby Yoda is late to the Christmas tree

Disney claims that the delays in merchandise of the trendy “Baby Yoda,” from Disney Plus’ The Mandalorian, were part of a concerted effort to avoid spoilers. However, the omission of the big-eyed fan favorite from holiday shopping lists feels like a mistake.

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Adrianne Pasquarelli and Jessica Wohl.

These are the comeback brands of the decade

Brands such as Chipotle, Old Spice and Barbie saw success in the last 10 years

David Bowie edition Barbie Credit: Mattel

Call them the comeback kids of the 2010s. Some of these brands failed and recovered. Others returned from oblivion. All of them were riding high by the time the decade closed.

The 90s

From scrunchies to Dr. Marten combat boots, the 90s made a big comeback in the latter half of the decade as brands once reserved for the dusty reservoirs of a parent — or grandparent’s — closet returned to the front lines of youth. Few brands made the leap more effectively than Birkenstock, which has clad the feet of high-profile celebs like Julianne Moore and the Olsens.

Barbie

For years, the brand was accused of marketing an unrealistic idea of womanhood and body image. Yet a recent makeover, including the rollout of more diverse dolls and female-empowering marketing, had shoppers doing double takes in the toy aisle. Barbie went on to become one of the strongest brands in parent company Mattel’s arsenal. Meanwhile, Ken’s still Ken.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle’s sales tumbled after an E.coli outbreak in 2015 kept customers away. Even after major food prep changes at the chain, it seemed that each time a staffer sniffled, negative publicity would surface. Under a new CEO and chief marketing officer, visits to restaurants, sales and the stock price have soared.

Coke Zero Sugar

A rebrand in 2017 that included a design overhaul and the replacement of former name Coke Zero with Coke Zero Sugar helped consumers better understand the low calorie benefits of the beverage brand. The overhaul also paved the way for Coke Zero Sugar to become one of Coca Cola’s strongest contributors to U.S. growth.

Domino’s Pizza

For years, Pizza Hut reigned supreme. Then Domino’s morphed into a tech company that happens to sell pizza. Ads promoting concepts such as tracking a pizza being made, and enabling ordering via text, tweet or simply opening the app, caught on. In 2017, Domino’s jumped over Pizza Hut to become the biggest pizza seller.

My Little Pony

A 2010 reincarnation of the 80s brand, as a TV series, included better-proportioned characters and themes about the power of friendship. The show’s immediate success spun into several toy lines, series extensions and even a movie. It also helped spawn the adult fan group Bronies.

Nintendo

The console played endlessly by Gen X parents updated itself earlier in the 2000s with Wii. But it’s the Nintendo Switch that really brought the brand back into the gaming fray.

Old Spice

Since “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad campaign broke in 2010, Old Spice has been on a tear. The campaign, in which a towel-clad man urges ladies to consider the potential of their partners’ switch to Old Spice body wash, has not only contributed to the brand’s sales success, but also been chronicled as a marketing success story.

Polaroid

As taking photos on a phone became the norm, camera sales suffered. Polaroid’s fate seemed sealed even before the latest iPhone and Android releases. Yet it found a way to make printing mini photos cool, an analog response to a digital world, and kids are clamoring for the retro cameras.

Target

After a data breach in 2013, Target’s future seemed far from certain. Yet in recent years, the chain’s investment in store remodels, in-house brands, and improved operations have paved the way for the brand’s retail dominance. Way to hit that bullseye.

TECH

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Chaim Gartenberg

AT&T’s 5G coverage expands to six new cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas

AT&T now has 19 total 5G cities

AT&T continues to roll out its low-band 5G network, with the addition of six new cities that add some of the biggest urban areas in the US to AT&T’s growing network: New York City, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

As with the earlier launch in December, the six new cities feature AT&T’s regular 5G network, built on its low-band 850MHz spectrum technology. (Not to be confused with its rebranded LTE network — which AT&T calls 5G E — or its high-band 5G network based on mmWave technology, which AT&T calls 5G+.) In addition to the low-band rollout, AT&T is also launching its mmWave 5G+ network in select areas of Baltimore and Detroit, although the 5G+ network isn’t available to general customers yet.

The six new cities put AT&T’s total number of 5G cities at 19 (and total 5G+ cities at 25), although the carrier only offers a single 5G phone to date: the $1,300 Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G. Still, the addition of major metropolitan areas like New York and Washington, DC are encouraging to see from AT&T, especially as more devices start to feature 5G support in 2020.

Access to AT&T’s 5G network is included at no extra charge with AT&T’s Unlimited Extra or Unlimited Elite plans ($75 or $85 per month for a single line) — although using 5G data will count toward the unlimited plans’ throttling caps (50GB and 100GB of total data usage).

Coverage maps for each of the new 5G cities are linked below:

  • New York City
  • Washington, DC
  • Baltimore
  • Las Vegas
  • Detroit
  • Philadelphia

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Julia Alexander

YouTube gives creators more control over copyright claim disputes with new update

An automatic trim feature helps directly tackle the problem

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube’s recent Studio update is finally giving people an easier way to deal with copyright claim disputes.

The new update now lets creators address copyright disputes directly from their digital back-end workspace and gives them the option to trim out the claimed content in question. The “Assisted Trim” option is the biggest feature rolling out with the new Studio update, with the “endpoints of the edit pre-set to where the claimed content appears in the video,” according to a Google product blog. The team is working to allow adjustable endpoints so creators can cut out the specific portion of their video that makes the most sense, but that isn’t available just yet.

Copyright disputes between creators and music labels or third-party companies are a consistent problem on YouTube. The company has tried to work with different companies to ensure that creators aren’t constantly facing copyright claims, but it’s been a tedious battle. Earlier this year, creators specifically called out groups like Universal Music, which owns one of the largest catalogs of songs, for being overzealous with copyright claims.

YouTube rolled out a new policy update in July addressing concerns, noting that copyright owners like Universal now must state exactly where copyrighted material appears in a video, something they didn’t have to do before when reporting a case of copyright infringement.

Creators can also filter through their video feeds in Studio to specifically see which videos were hit with copyright claims — leading to demonetized statuses or blocked videos entirely — much more easily. In an effort to be more transparent, the YouTube team is also showing copyright strikes, which are different and far more severe than copyright claims, directly on their Studio Dashboard.

“We’re also providing more transparency about the content of the copyright takedown than ever before, now surfacing the specific description of the copyrighted work provided by the claimant in the takedown notice,” the blog post reads.

YouTube’s blog post also notes there are “many more updates” coming in 2020 that will help creators navigate copyright claim messiness that often plagues their experience. For now, the company is trying to make it easier to work with copyright claims, appeal ones they think are unfair, and keep a closer eye on what’s getting hit.

CULTURE

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Ashley Carman

The decade in babies

Babyfication as a trend

This decade, babies took on a new life. Everyone wanted to be a baby, and particularly this year, babies dominated the meme cycle. We’re obsessed with babyfication — turning everything into a baby including ourselves and beloved characters. Unlike infantilization, babyfication suggests corporate strategy, foresight about how turning users or characters into babies will spur brand visibility.

I can’t pretend to understand why we’re baby-crazy, except for positing that it has something to do with a complete lack of control over the world and our lives. Climate change is going to burn up the Earth; wealth inequality is rampant; and generally, many things are bad. Babies, on the other hand, are good. They’re innocent and pure. They don’t know how horrible the world can be; they’re just babies. Babies are cute. We love babies. (We can’t help it, genetically!)

Maybe recounting the top baby moments of this decade will help us come to some sort of conclusion on babyfication and what it means for 2020 and beyond. Will the reign of His Majesty, The Baby ever end?

2014: BABY GROOT

Is it possible Baby Groot is the trendsetter? Groot, a character from Guardians of the Galaxy, dies in the original movie and is re-spawned in a post-credits scene as a tiny baby tree. He then shows up in the second Guardians of the Galaxy as a legitimate baby.

Disney has always been baby-obsessed, which makes sense: its target demographic is children. There is, for instance, versions of Mickey Mouse as a baby, wherein Disney scaled down the popular Mickey Mouse to baby size. The difference is that now, Disney owns more adult-oriented brands, like Marvel and Star Wars. (This also means more merchandising opportunities than just toys and action figures: perhaps adults want a Baby Groot for their desk.)

Baby Groot was Disney’s first viral baby moment for its adult brands, and it proved that adults would not only love a baby character, but use it in memes and buy its merch.

2016: “BABY SHARK”

The kids couldn’t stop singing “Baby Shark,” and then the adults couldn’t either. The internet tells me “Baby Shark” really took off around 2016, but frankly, it feels like it’s existed forever. I can’t remember a time before “Baby Shark.” It’s just part of my brain now. Like every viral trend, Ellen DeGeneres featured the song on her show in 2018, creating her own version, and introducing a group of people, most without young kids, to the song. She points out that one “Baby Shark” video has over a billion views. The “Baby Shark” generation has arrived.

2017: BOSS BABY

Boss Baby doesn’t have great reviews, but it was nominated for Best Animated Picture during the 2018 Oscars and grossed over $500 million globally in theaters. It debuted in 2017, just after Donald Trump became president of the United States, pushing Vanity Fair to ask whether this was a movie about Trump. A baby as a boss? A baby running our country? Could it be?

This feels like the biggest hint to the decade’s proliferation of babies. The fact that a publication even asked whether this movie was actually about the US president suggests something deeper: a lack of control over politics, sure, but also maybe a surrendering to a more powerful, bigger baby.

2019: “I’M BABY.”

2019 is the year for baby content, and this time, instead of bowing down to big babies, we ourselves are the babies. “I’m baby” as a meme goes back to 2017, according to Know Your Meme. The original is grim: a young woman texted her mother about a home invasion — because if she spoke, the intruder would hear her. Her mother replied, and her phone autocorrected a text to “I’m baby. Call 911.” After circulating on Tumblr, the phrase went viral on Twitter two years later. Then, it came to TikTok, too, with people showing photos of themselves as babies as part of the “I’m baby” trend. We were once all babies, and we still can be — it’s more of an essence thing.

2019: SNAPCHAT’S BABY FILTER

Snapchat’s baby filter took over the internet, even outside of Snapchat. The premise is simple: see what you looked like as a baby, but now. Your skin is smoother; you’re weirdly kind of hot? Kim Kardashian West briefly loved the baby filter and posed with it on Instagram, too. Snapchat said its platform grew by 7 to 9 million users solely because of its baby and gender-swapping filters. The people want to know what they’d look like as a hot, thirst-trap baby.

2019: DEATH STRANDING’S BRIDGE BABY

I haven’t played Death Stranding, and I don’t entirely know what a Bridge Baby, or BB, does in the game. All I know is you hear it cry constantly throughout the game, and the baby is more creepy than cute. The Verge’s games editor Andrew Webster says about the babies:

“A large chunk of Death Stranding’s dense lore is dedicated to BBs — there’s more than just one, as they’re a fairly standard tool for travelers — and where they came from. Death Stranding’s post-apocalyptic future is one nearly devoid of history. Most records have been lost or destroyed, but as you slowly rebuild a network that links together America, more details come to light. Throughout the game, Deadman, a scientist with the exact likeness of Guillermo del Toro, regularly shares newly uncovered details about the origin of these weird little babies.”

2019: BABY YODA

Baby Yoda is everything we want in a baby: big eyes, big ears, cute little hairs, a shearling coat, and constant goo-goos and gah-gahs. Like Baby Groot before him, Baby Yoda is cultural currency for Disney that translates into actual profit. More than Baby Groot, Baby Yoda lives in meme form. We can project onto Baby Yoda: he’s every mood and everything we could ever want. At the same time, we want a piece of Baby Yoda in the form of merch, which Disney delayed releasing until 2020, but will definitely sell once it’s released.

2019-2020: BABY SONIC

As the year and decade comes to a close, we have been introduced to a final baby: Baby Sonic. We can’t yet say what Baby Sonic is about, other than looking cute, but this feels like something ripped out of Disney’s playbook — taking a beloved character and making it a baby. Baby Sonic also previews another decade of babies. We love them; we can’t resist them. They aren’t going away.

FASHION

Bottega Veneta Shoes Look Just Like Instant Ramen

Content Courtesy of: wmagazine.com

Written by: Jocelyn Silver

Bottega Veneta shoes are inescapable–the square-toed mules were a fashion week staple, the Lido sandal a must for every street style slideshow throughout fashion month in September. According to the Lyst Index, as of October, the quilted shoe was the most sought-after women’s fashion product in the world, with more than 27,000 people searching for the style online each month. Creative director Daniel Lee was ahead of the square toe curve, and created a bestselling, ‘90s inspired phenomenon.

But for Bottega Veneta’s 2020 pre-fall collection, Lee looked to a different ‘90s-style source: ramen noodles, just like Justin Timberlake’s NSYNC hair. As Diet Prada pointed out on Instagram, a pre-fall shoe–a macramé style that comes as an open-toed mule or clompy open-backed bootie–bears an uncanny resemblance to instant noodles. They come in a light tan and yellow, looking exactly like the bricks of noodles we inhaled at 4 AM in college. Crack an egg on them for a gourmet touch.

Last year, Lee spoke about his understanding of Bottega Veneta as a brand—he probably wouldn’t be thrilled with the JT comparison. “Bottega is a brand that talks about sophisticated elegance. It’s almost about being quiet,” the designer told Vogue’s Nicole Phelps. “A silence in all the noise. A kind of stillness.”

WATCHBottega Veneta Spring 2012

“For me, life is really all about living in the moment,” he said. “I don’t have social media. I try and use my cell phone as little as possible. I definitely prefer human interaction. That’s very important to me and to the work I do. Design is also about living in the moment. It’s about working with whatever you have at hand and making the best of a situation. Celebrity? I think it’s a very different kind of world than what we’re in.”

Lee may be extremely offline for a millenial, but we bet he’s still seen the ramen meme. Some influencer better take a photo of the shoes in a bowl.

Noen Eubanks, TikTok Teen, is the New Face of Celine

Content Courtesy of: wmagazine.com

Written by: Kyle Munzenrieder

74-year-old French fashion brand Celine has picked 18-year-old Noen Eubanks, a star on the three-year-old social video platform TikTok, as it’s newest face. The easy joke to make here might be “and now you feel old,” but maybe it just proves that time is a flat circle.

Celine posted the latest campaign on its Instagram earlier today, identifying Eubanks as a “teen idol” rather than a “TikTok” star (though, we suppose TikTok stars are technically today’s teen idols).

The brand’s creative, artistic and image director Hedi Slimane photographed Eubanks, pictured in a leather jacket and stripped crop top.

Eubanks has amassed 7.5 million followers on TikTok. That’s impressive, considering he told Paper earlier this year that he had only joined the app in 2018, and only saw his followings rise drastically starting earlier this year. Despite a bad boy image (that is, thanks to his two-toned fluorescent hair and general penchant for neon, not that far from Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” image), Eubank’s videos on the platform are mostly silly fun. There’s lots of dancing, lip-synching, quick edits, and experimentation with makeup and hairstyling. Cool moms would approve.

By may of this year, Eubanks signed a deal with the “youth entertainment company,” Kyra. The agency essentially helps its stars produce content as well as strike brand partnerships (he’s also launched his own brand of merch since joining the agency).

Eubanks’ quick trajectory from a kid living in the Atlanta suburbs to one of fashion’s buzziest brand faces might perplex anyone over 25, but rendered in Slimane’s black-and-white portraits, it’s easier to understand.

With his high cheekbones, pouty lips, pale skin and floppy hair, Eubanks looks like the classic Slimane male model. Visually, Eubanks wouldn’t have looked out of place in Slimane’s campaigns for Dior Homme last decade or at Saint Laurent just a few years ago.

This isn’t the first time the star of an emerging video platform has risen from anonymity to fashion star at lightening speed. A few years ago, Cameron Dallas caused a massive spectacle outside of a Dolce & Gabbana show in Milan.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

The Best Sneakers of 2020

Content Courtesy of: marieclaire.com

Written by: Marina Liao

Yes, you need a pair.

Good news, everyone: Sneakers are still in for 2020. For the new year, expect your favorite staple to receive some major style upgrades, whether in a brand-new color or crafted from sustainable material. Dad sneakers, in particular, have ruled the roost for the pass few seasons, which begs the question: What’s next? Will it be the cutout sneakers we saw at Kate Spade New York’s spring ’20 show? Or, perhaps, the platform styles that ruled R13’s spring ’20 runway? Ahead, we predict what sneakers will be popular in 2020. The best part: You don’t have to wait to shop them.

FOOD

PepsiCo unveils new cola blended with coffee

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by: Rebekah Schouten

PURCHASE, N.Y. — Coffee and cola collide in Pepsi Café, a new beverage from PepsiCo, Inc. set to launch in April 2020.

Featuring a blend of roasted Arabica coffee and Pepsi cola, the drink contains nearly double the amount of caffeine found in a regular Pepsi soda. Pepsi Café is packaged in 12-oz slim cans and will be available in original and vanilla varieties.

“We know that the consumers today are looking for products that meet the needs of energy, indulgence and refreshment during that afternoon pick-me-up occasion,” said Todd Kaplan, vice-president of marketing for PepsiCo. “At Pepsi, we’ve known the potential of blending cola and coffee for years, and, after striking the perfect balance, we cannot wait to introduce Pepsi Café to the U.S. next year. We are confident that cola fans, iced-coffee drinkers and anyone in need of an extra caffeine boost will love the unexpected flavor medley of roasted coffee infused into the refreshing, crisp flavor of Pepsi.”

Pepsi Café is not PepsiCo’s first attempt at brewing up a beverage combining coffee and cola. In 1996, the company debuted Pepsi Kona and tested it for a year in Philadelphia. The coffee-flavored Pepsi was discontinued in 1997 due to low sales.

PepsiCo is also not the only beverage manufacturer to introduce this type of blended beverage this year. In April, the Coca-Cola Co. announced plans to launch a similar product — Coca-Cola Plus Coffee — in 25 countries in 2019. The beverage may come to the U.S. market depending on how consumers respond to the drink, Coca-Cola said.

Storytelling takes top spot in Innova’s 2020 trends

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by: Jeff Gelski

PARIS — Consumer interest in authenticity and transparency almost demands companies tell a story about their products, which is a reason why Innova Market Insights ranked storytelling as the No. 1 trend among its top 10 trends for 2020. Survey findings from Innova show 56% of global consumers say stories around a brand influence their purchase decision.

“Even if you make condensed soup, tell consumers why you make it like that,” said Lu Ann Williams, director of innovation for Innova, in a Dec. 4 presentation at Food Ingredients Europe in Paris.

Consumers mostly want to know about the ingredients in a product and the origin of the ingredients. Food and beverage companies may focus on ingredient storytelling in several ways: detailing culture and tradition, explaining where the ingredients are sourced or telling how they are processed. Ms. Williams pointed to Una Celebración, a Danone yogurt in Mexico. All the ingredients are sourced from Mexico.

While walking the Fi Europe exposition floor, Ms. Williams said she noticed how ingredient companies are telling stories, too. One booth promoted milk powder from Germany while another booth played up flavors from Turkey.

“That’s also part of the story, right?” Ms. Williams said. “It adds a layer of depth to consumer products as well. So now we’re saying you will win with words. You have to tell a story about your product.”

The No. 2 trend, plant-based products, shows no signs of slowing.

“This year it has absolutely exploded,” Ms. Williams said. “In my 25-plus years in the industry I’ve never seen anything pick up as fast as this. This has legs. It will be around forever.”

The average compound annual growth rate for food and beverage launches with a plant-based claim was 68% from 2014-18, according to Innova, which is based in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Ms. Williams said promoting the products as plant-based might work better than promoting them as vegetarian or vegan. She said vegan may be polarizing in that consumers may perceive that the product has problems with taste and texture.

Plant-based meat and dairy alternatives continue to rise in sales, but companies now should focus on making the items more clean label, she said.

Consumer interest in sustainability, the No. 3 trend, rose this year. In 2018, 65% of global consumers said they expect companies to invest in sustainability. The percentage increased to 87% in 2019.

Consumer interest in sustainability varies by geographic region. French consumers care most about organic, Ms. Williams said, while animal welfare is the top concern in Germany and food waste is the top concern in America.

“Consumers have really broken into little niches,” she said. “So you have to know your consumers.”

The right bite, the No. 4 trend, refers to consumers expecting many choices. Innovation should consider consumers who are managing careers, families and social lives while maintaining healthy lifestyles. One example is consumers wanting to relax in the evening and partaking in chocolate cake or alcohol to relieve stress, Ms. Williams said.

Consumers wanting richer experiences and a greater feeling of indulgence ties into the No. 5 trend — texture.

“Texture is a great way to tap into that,” Ms. Williams said.

Trend No. 6 involves perceptions of macronutrients. In protein, plant protein sources have become prominent, Ms. Williams said. In fat, margarine is seen as plant butter, a more positive perception. In carbohydrates, sugar is viewed negatively.

“Sugar is definitely the demon,” Ms. Williams said.

The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, has taken advantage of trend No. 7, hybrid products. Coca-Cola brand products now include coffee, energy drinks and fruit flavors. Beverages containing a blend of dairy milk and almond milk alternatives are examples of hybrid products as are products containing a mixture of meat and plant-based protein.

A star is born, trend No. 8, refers to specific ingredients shooting up in consumer popularity. Probiotics once fit into this category, but now they are mainstream. Ashwagandha often is promoted at trade shows, Ms. Williams said.

“But it’s still quite low on the familiarity scale with consumers,” Ms. Williams said.

Cannabidiol (C.B.D.) could be a hit at trade shows in 2020, Ms. Williams said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently said it could not guarantee that C.B.D. is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) for use in foods, beverages of dietary supplements.

Nootropics, which are associated with mental health, show potential as a new star ingredient.

Eat pretty, which is trend No. 9, involves ingredients associated with muscle health, hair health and skin health, Ms. Williams said. She called these traits cosmeceutical.

Brand unlimited, trend No. 10, refers to consumers wanting more personalization in their products, which has led to a rise in seasonal and limited-edition items. Ms. Williams said two in five global consumers agreed with the statement, “I would love to design my own limited-edition product.”

NOTABLE NOVEMBER NEWS

ART

Content Courtesy of: nytimes.com

Written by: Florence Fabricant

An Art Show for Food Lovers

A gallery show looks at how some 20th-century artists depicted food and drink.

Artists have illustrated food and drink throughout the ages. An exhibition, “What’s for Dinner? A Brief History of Food in Art,” surveys 20th-century interpretations by more than 30 artists. It includes works by Édouard Vuillard, Georges Braque, Kazimir Malevich, Arman, Robert Indiana, Louise Nevelson and Anh Duong.

“What’s for Dinner? A Brief History of Food in Art,” through Jan. 31, Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Galerie Gmurzynska, 43 East 78th Street, 212-535-5275, gmurzynska.com.

Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.

Florence Fabricant is a food and wine writer. She writes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns, as well as the Pairings column, which appears alongside the monthly wine reviews. She has also written 12 cookbooks.

Techno Titan Carl Craig Commissioned for Sound Project at Dia:Beacon, Five Years in the Making

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Andy Battaglia

The spacious basement of Dia:Beacon—the museum for Minimalist art and extrapolations on its legacy in a post-industrial manufacturing plant in upstate New York—will soon be home to a sound installation by storied Detroit techno producer Carl Craig. Starting in March, the commissioned work—to be titled Party/Afterparty—will feature electronic music composed for the environs as well as visual elements to draw out aspects of the otherwise empty 35,000 square feet in the lower level’s largest gallery.

“It took five years for us to come up with something that would be not only worthy of Dia but also something that could really be a piece of me,” Craig told ARTnews of the project. The process began when curators at the Dia Art Foundation—an enterprise most often associated with sculptors like Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Walter De Maria—started thinking years ago of ways to mark the anniversary of the first Dream Festival, an early Dia production in 1975 that featured a program of music organized by composer La Monte Young and artist Marian Zazeela.

“We were thinking about the impact of Dia’s involvement with sound and what the next generation of that would be,” said Dia curator Kelly Kivland, who noted the foundation’s history with Young as well as sound artist Max Neuhaus, the creator of an installation that has been humming mysteriously for decades beneath a sidewalk grate in New York’s Times Square. “That led us to electronic music, and we really homed in on techno because of its attributes [owing to] Minimalist and Post-Minimalist sound and its effects today. Also there is the architectural element of potentialities in post-industrial spaces and different forms of experimentation.”

Craig—part of a fabled lineage for a legacy of techno music that was born and bred in Detroit—said he drew connections between his hometown and Dia:Beacon’s setting in a former factory that had been abandoned for years before it was transformed in an art-world destination in 2003. “I’m representing not only myself but also my background coming from the hood in the D,” Craig said. “The kind of space we’re working with at Dia, there are tons of abandoned spaces I’ve been working with my whole lifetime. The fall of the automotive industry in Detroit left all these factories that turned into party spaces—and a lot of them are still there.”

Of Beacon’s remote setting in the Hudson River Valley, Craig said, “It’s a different landscape for me and for anyone doing anything within DJ culture. But this isn’t a DJ culture show—though when people think of Carl Craig, they’re not thinking of a badminton champion.”

The sound for the installation has been composed via a mix of hardware and software—modular and analogue synthesizers plus studio programs and “stray frequencies made with oscillators,” Craig said. And though some of it will be rhythmic and made in mind of the dance floor, much of it will evoke the “afterparty” part of the title. “My experience of being on the road is that no matter how many people are in a room, you can still feel this loneliness,” said the artist, who has been traveling the planet and sometimes playing multiple gigs a night for many years. Some of the sound will signal the comedown mood that can follow a spell of clubbing revelry as well as the effects of the tinnitus he developed on the job. And all of it will commune with “a space so vast that controlling the room is virtually impossible. It’s about using what is untamable to my advantage.”

“There are some acoustic obstacles, let’s say, and things that need to be taken into consideration,” Kivland said of a concrete room with seven seconds of reverb. But the music was made for the space it will be in, and subtle visual elements will accentuate the experience too. “There is a lighting component that involves the windows, and there is an element that will allow for a dimensionless aspect of the space,” Kivland said.

Dia will release a record as part of the project, and programming during its six-month run into September will also include live performances as well as considerations of techno’s artistic and cultural significance. Otherwise, the sound will be the star.

“The music will be a sequence,” Craig said, “that changes and morphs as time goes on.”

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Maximilíano Durón

Manchester Museum Becomes First in U.K. to Repatriate Objects to Indigenous Australians

As more and more museums in Europe and the United States begin to return objects looted from indigenous peoples during moments of colonization, the Manchester Museum in England has become the first one to do so in the United Kingdom.

The museum has repatriated a group of 43 objects considered sacred to four different indigenous groups in Australia: the Aranda people of Central Australia, the Gangalidda Garawa peoples of northwest Queensland in the northeast of the continent, the Nyamal people of the Pilbara, and the Yawuru people of Broome, both in Western Australian, according to the Art Newspaper.

Many of these objects, which have not been on display for several decades, are believed to have arrived in the country over a century ago, and the official return was completed as part of a series of ceremonies held this week in Manchester, which is part of an ongoing project that marks the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Captain James Cook to Australia.

In an interview, the Manchester Museum’s director, Esme Ward, told the Guardian, “Very often people will say, ‘Is it a slippery slope?’ No, I really don’t think it is. I think some museums, or even the museum sector, is in a bit of an existential crisis—particularly museums that are born of empire. The conversation about where collections belong is getting louder and louder and museums are out of kilter with the public sentiment.”

The 43 objects are a small fraction of the over 32,000 Indigenous Australian objects currently held in British institutions, as identified by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Many of these are held by the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, both in London. The institute has also identified more than 100,000 across 220 institutions worldwide, with many of these objects sitting in storage, according to the Guardian.

Mangubadijarri Yanner, who received the objects in Manchester for the Gangalidda Garawa people, told the Guardian, “We’ve always known that during the process of colonization, which is continuing today in various respects, that our cultural heritage items were removed from us, were stolen from us and taken from us. With these specific items, I can say with authority that they were taken without permission.”

Yanner added, “They were taken from us, stolen from us, but it’s important now that we’re here to take them home.”

ADVERTISING

One Whopper Jr., Hold the Toy

Content Courtesy of: nytimes.com

Written by:  David Yaffe-Bellany

As environmental concerns grow, chains like Burger King and McDonald’s are rethinking what to offer with children’s meals.

In the climactic scene of “Toy Story 3,” Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the crew narrowly escape death when a remote-controlled claw lifts them from an incinerator just before flames engulf them.

Now Burger King is set to enact an alternative ending — collecting, sorting and chopping up hundreds of thousands of tiny toys, before melting them into hot plastic at a factory in northern England.

To anyone with childhood memories of beloved action figures, this may sound like an act of carnage — more Dante’s “Inferno” than Disney Pixar. But the “meltdown” is intended as a grand environmental gesture. Faced with growing public concern over the proliferation of single-use plastic, Burger King has vowed to stop giving away plastic toys with children’s meals in Britain and has encouraged customers to deposit old toys in collection bins at the chain’s locations there.

In December, the recycling firm Pentatonic will melt those orphaned action figures, then turn the raw material into playground equipment and reusable tray tables. Burger King plans to eliminate non-biodegradable toys from all its restaurants worldwide by 2025.

“That might be a shame for a tiny minority of people,” said Alasdair Murdoch, the chief executive of Burger King in the United Kingdom. “But it’s very clear that long term, people think that we’re doing the right thing.”

For decades, fast-food toys have operated as marketing tools designed to get children eating French fries and Chicken McNuggets. Politicians and public health advocates in the United States have repeatedly tried to ban them, arguing that fast-food marketing aimed at children contributes to obesity.

Those health concerns never swayed the major fast-food companies, but a viral British petition arguing that the toys “harm animals and pollute the sea” has made a stronger impression. It’s part of a growing public backlash against single-use, disposable plastic items like straws and cups, as well as myriad other plastic objects piling up in landfills, littering beaches and floating in oceans.

Burger King is not the only chain contemplating a toyless future. In 2018, McDonald’s established a task force to explore “ways to lessen the impact of the toys,” according to Elaine Strunk, the chain’s director of sustainability.

Based on the task force’s recommendations, McDonald’s has moved to scale back the distribution of plastic toys in Britain and other markets outside the United States, although it has stopped short of pledging to discontinue them. In October, McDonald’s offered its British customers Happy Meals with a choice of a toy or a bag of fruit.

Next year, children at its British locations will be able to choose between a toy or a book. In the past, McDonald’s has handed out Roald Dahl books, as well as stories about dinosaurs by the English author Cressida Cowell.

“We are on a journey across all of our categories and then beyond to make more sustainable environmental footprints,” Ms. Strunk said. “It’s always a lens through which we look at decisions we’re making.”

Burger King is collecting old plastic toys at its British locations. Next month, the toys will be melted so the plastic can be reused.Credit…Chelsie Craig for The New York Times

But environmental experts say it’s not clear whether eliminating plastic toys would meaningfully advance plastic reduction efforts in the fast-food industry, let alone make a dent in the broader pollution problem.

Burger King has said ending distribution of the toys in Britain would reduce its annual plastic footprint by more than 300 tons. But the context for that number is unclear: Burger King has not calculated the total amount of plastic it uses across its global markets, according to its chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado. And at some restaurants in the United States, Burger King continues to serve drinks in foam cups, even as McDonald’s and other chains have banned the environmentally harmful products.

McDonald’s officials said the company was still working out an effective way to calculate its overall plastic footprint and declined to reveal the volume of plastic toys it distributes each year.

“If you’re a company like Burger King whose packaging is seen as a big part of the problem, it doesn’t make sense to act on the toys but not on your packaging,” said Conrad MacKerron, who helps run As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group that has pushed major fast-food companies to cut down on plastic. “The company seems to be trying to impose a certain priority on this which I don’t think is necessarily merited.”

Mr. Machado said Burger King planned to eliminate foam cups soon. And in the coming months, he said, the company will publish a website detailing the steps it has taken to reduce pollution.

“We’re not sitting here on any level saying that we are perfect,” said Mr. Murdoch, Burger King’s chief in the United Kingdom. “We’re on a journey, and we’ve got a long way to go, but we’re pretty keen on it.”

For years, McDonald’s and Burger King have resisted attempts to regulate the distribution of plastic toys, which began proliferating in the 1980s. The toys have proved to be powerful marketing devices. A study by researchers at Dartmouth found that knowledge of fast-food toys among young children “was associated with greater frequency of eating at McDonald’s.”

“It’s been a pretty important part of the business model of the companies that use them,” said Joel Bakan, the author of “Childhood Under Siege,” a 2011 book about marketing efforts aimed at children. “Both the packaging of the Happy Meal and the addition of the toy to it was highly effective in reaching children.”

In 2010, legislators in San Francisco voted to bar fast-food restaurants from giving away toys with children’s meals that fell short of nutritional standards, arguing that the figurines promoted unhealthy eating. But McDonald’s got around the ban on giveaways by charging 10 cents for each toy.

In the last decade, officials in New York, Nebraska and Wisconsin have tried and failed to ban the plastic toys, stymied in part by the lobbying muscle of the fast-food industry.

Now, rising environmental concerns over plastic waste appear to be succeeding where the obesity argument failed. And fast-food chains have grown increasingly focused on digital marketing tools, such as giving children scannable codes that can unlock games on branded apps, making plastic figurines less crucial to attracting younger customers.

Burger King plans to replace the toys in children’s meals with digital alternatives over the next few years. Credit…Chelsie Craig for The New York Times

“Maybe this is not the key for them anymore,” said Sara Ribakove, a policy official at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which has campaigned against fast-food toys. “There’s a strong shift in the digital environment and the way we’re seeing marketing. It’s become much more personalized. It’s coming to everyone’s doorstep in a different way.”

Over the next few years, Burger King will gradually replace plastic toys with digital alternatives, company executives said, though the chain could also develop toys made from biodegradable materials.

A handful of other fast-food chains have scrapped the toys for commercial rather than environmental reasons. In 2013, Taco Bell announced that children’s meals would not be a part of its “long-term brand strategy.” Jack in the Box stopped giving away toys in 2011, saying, “We focus on adults and not children.”

But the major rival of McDonald’s and Burger King, Wendy’s, continues to offer the plastic figurines. Recently, the chain rolled out a line of Transformers toys. A Wendy’s spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

McDonald’s has experimented with toy alternatives in a number of markets, including Germany and France as well as Britain. In Japan, McDonald’s allows customers to return toys so the company can convert them into trays, a project similar to Burger King’s initiative in Britain. In the coming years, McDonald’s officials said, the company expects to distribute fewer plastics toys, as books and other alternatives become more popular.

“It’s all about choice,” said Kandice McLeod, a McDonald’s official who oversees Happy Meal toys. “Our customers want to know that they have a choice in what they’re going to receive.”

In the United States, however, one crucial constituency appears to remain broadly supportive of plastic toys: children.

On a recent Sunday night at a McDonald’s in Brooklyn, 8-year-old Amber Smith sat quietly, playing with the miniature Pokeball that had come with her Happy Meal. As far back as she can remember, she said, fast-food toys have been her favorite part of McDonald’s.

“All the toys, in my opinion, are super awesome,” she said. “I’m not picky with the toys.”

Asked about the prospect of a toyless Happy Meal, Amber balled her hands into fists. “I like the food, too,” she said. But without the toys, “I’d make a tantrum.”

Versace Debuts Its Own Bite-Sized Soap Opera with Donatella and Helena Christensen

Content Courtesy of: wmagazine.com

Written by: Kyle Munzenrieder

The proliferation of new streaming services is getting out of hand. But maybe—just maybe—we’d make rom for Versace+ one day.

Fortunately for now, the Italian fashion houses’s recent foray into scripted content is available to view for free in the form of a Versace Holiday Saga, which is a riff on campy soap operas. The idea was realized in collaboration with the American artist Sarah Baker and the U.K.-based art and fashion journal Baroness Magazine.

Narratively constructed as a letter to Donatella herself, the six-part micro-soap tells the story of “Angelina” (played by Baker), the CEO of Narcissist Records who has been accused of failing to properly credit a writer on her label’s latest smash-hit “Spritz Me With You Love.”

The accusation proves true, but the other writer is Angelina’s one-time boy toy, named Angelo. Angelo, of course, is believed to be dead after having driven straight off of a cliff. Angelina, of course, soon suspects that her chief rival The Baroness, played by Helena Christensen is to blame. If this all sounds ridiculous and super soapy, well, that’s the point.

You can probably guess that Angelo is not dead (he’s played by the male model Jonathan Saxby). The world’s sexiest “computer geek” (played by Simonas Pham) and Angelina’s ingenue daughter (played by Meghan Roche) also figure in.

The clip not only features a glorious amount of Versace fashion, but a copious serving of other assorted Versace consumer items as well. There’s Versace silverware, a Versace pool float, a Versace volleyball, a Versace ash tray, Versace martini glasses, and… well, you get the picture.

A director’s cut of the entire narrative has already been released, and Versace has unleashed the first full episode on their YouTube channel.

The actual print edition of Baroness will feature an accompanying editorial, which hints at being even steamier.

While Versace is unabashed in its embrace of over-the-top luxury, at this point it’s no surprise that Donatella continues to deliver it with a little bit of a knowing wink and a whole lot of camp. This is the label that reunites supermodels and has Jennifer Lopez close its shows (it is also the brand that makes Shalom Harlow dance).

Versace knows the value of spectacle and drama. So, a fresh take on the soap opera is fitting.

Indeed, as knowingly ridiculous as the narrative is, The Versace Saga gives us every single thing we need out of a soap (sex, scandal, and splendor). While we’re not actually holding out hope for a Versace+ streaming service, maybe Quibi can order up a second season. They do seem to be green lighting everything right now.

RYAN REYNOLDS PITCHES A NETFLIX FILM, A SAMSUNG TV AND A GIN BRAND IN ONE AD

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: E.J. Schultz.

The spot by Adam & Eve DDB is the latest example of self-referential advertising

Talk about marketing multitasking. In his latest ad appearance, Ryan Reynolds pitches three products at once—his new Netflix movie, a Samsung TV and Aviation Gin.

The TV ad begins with the actor plugging Samsung’s QLED TV as the best way to watch the movie “6 Underground,” which starts streaming on Netflix on Dec. 13. Then, midway through, an ad for Aviation appears on the large-screen TV Reynolds is hawking, prompting him to confess that “I bought mid-roll ad placement.” The ad was handled by Adam & Eve DDB’s New York office in collaboration with Reynolds’ production company, Maximum Effort Productions.

Reynolds has an ownership stake in the gin brand, which is controlled by Davos Brands. While the gin brand shares the stage with Netflix and Samsung, the spot marks its first national TV spot, according to a spokeswoman. The partnership extends to Samsung’s website, which highlights “6 Underground” as part of a plug that touts its TVs as the best place to watch Netflix premiers.

The TV spot, which shows Reynolds interacting with a character playing an ad director, is the latest example of self-aware advertising. The tactic—in which ads own up to being nothing more than ads—has risen in popularity this year. Oat milk brand Oatly, for instance, has run an outdoor campaign built primarily on self-referential ads, with language like “You actually read this? Total success” on a bus stop ad.

The meta approach fits Reynolds’ style. After all, he routinely breaks the so-called “fourth wall” in his “Deadpool” movies.

FRITO-LAY REWORKS ‘SOUND OF MUSIC’ CLASSIC INTO A HOLIDAY SONG BY ANNA KENDRICK

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by: Jessica Wohl

The actress sings about a few of ‘My Favorite Things’—including ugly sweaters, secret Santa and, of course, salty snacks—in the two-minute video

Frito-Lay is putting a winter spin on an iconic song to remind people to stock up on snacks for the hundreds of millions of holiday gatherings that will happen before the Super Bowl.

“My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music” has been transformed into a Christmas-meets-snacking tune sung by actress Anna Kendrick. The campaign is the biggest effort yet from Frito-Lay North America’s in-house creative team.

The lyrics of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic were rewritten to include lines about Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s, Smartfood popcorn, Tostitos, salsa and queso, as well as holiday-season traditions such as gingerbread houses, ugly sweaters and secret Santa.

“It’s a beloved song, so we didn’t want to do something that upset people that love the song,” says Chris Bellinger, VP of creative and digital at Frito-Lay North America, who oversees the PepsiCo Inc. unit’s in-house creative team.

‘We didn’t want to do something that upset people that love the song,’ says Frito-Lay’s Chris Bellinger. Credit: Frito-Lay

A Frito-Lay employee was recorded singing the snack-filled tune when the team was tinkering with it but the part was kind of written with Kendrick and her personality in mind, says Bellinger. “She was our first choice,” he says.

As it turned out, the actress is a fan of Cheetos Puffs and other salty snacks, and enjoys gathering with her family in Maine for the holidays. What’s more, she was available.

Kendrick sings the updated song in a two-minute video while wearing dresses in hues that could be described as Lay’s yellow and Doritos red, as well as a Lay’s ugly sweater and other winter gear. The actress, who describes the vibe of the spot as “winky,” says she added one idea that made the final cut.

“I think the only thing I pitched on the day was getting Cheetos dust on my mittens,” says Kendrick.

While snacking is synonymous with the Super Bowl—Frito-Lay has advertised during the big game in the past—the chip giant discovered that the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the day before Thanksgiving are the busiest days for snack shopping, while Christmas week is the busiest time of year for visits to stores.

“We want to be a major player in this timeframe,” says Bellinger.

Frito-Lay says it sells nearly 100 pounds of snacks per second. And according to the company, Americans will take part in an estimated 327 million holiday gatherings between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, which presents a staggering number of chances to get salty snacks into people’s minds—and stomachs.

Anna Kendrick describes the vibe of the spot as ‘winky,’ Credit: Frito-Lay

Kendrick, who stars in the Christmas movie “Noelle” on Disney+ and is currently shooting the HBO Max anthology series “Love Life,” is the central character and only singer in the spot.

Eagle-eyed viewers might also recognize actor Matty Cardapole, who has appeared in shows including “Stranger Things” and in commercials for products such as Skittles. One of the women is played by Teresa Dalquisht, who, along with her sisters, had a moment of Internet fame a few years back and a series called “Golden Sisters” on OWN.

A 90-second version of the “Favorite Things” commercial will air during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. There’s also a 30-second cut plus plenty of content suited for Instagram, Facebook, Spotify and elsewhere.

Frito-Lay’s multi-snack holiday-themed push follows a spot that ran this spring and summer called “The Perfect Side of Summer” and featured Doritos, Lays and Tostitos together, along with brief shots of cans of sibling brand Pepsi.

BUSINESS

DoorDash continues to lead in the food delivery wars

Content Courtesy of: cnbc.com

Written by: Frank Holland, J.R. Reed

An exclusive partnership with Cheesecake Factory and deals to deliver for Chipotle Mexican Grill, Five Guys and other local restaurants made DoorDash the leader in U.S. meal delivery last month.

According to data from consumer analytics firm Second Measure, DoorDash has taken 35% of the meal delivery market. Publicly traded rivals GrubHub and Uber Eats have captured 30% and 20% of the market, respectively.

DoorDash is also the fastest growing, with sales increasing 114% since October 2018, while the overall market grew by 40%.

Analysts say meal delivery has even more room to grow. Last week, Morgan Stanley published research showing meal delivery services only address 6% of the $350 billion dollar quick-service restaurant market.

In a note on Wednesday, Peter Saleh, managing director and restaurants analyst at BTIG, added that “restaurant delivery will survive, if not thrive, given the healthy consumer demand for the service across quick service, fast casual and casual dining.”

DoorDash is reportedly planning to enter the public markets through a direct listing, according to a Bloomberg report. Based on recent investments, the company’s valuation is approaching $13 billion, the report said.

The meal delivery leader may now have the biggest share of customers nationally, but the landscape remains fragmented in major cities.

According to Second Measure data, DoorDash has the most customers in Washington D.C., Houston and San Francisco. GrubHub is the dominant player in New York City while Uber Eats grabs the top spot in Miami and Postmates is the leader in Los Angeles.

And, although DoorDash is increasing market share, it’s also facing increased scrutiny.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine is accusing the company of “deceptive” business practices, alleging DoorDash kept tips meant for workers and mislead customers about where their tips were going. Racine is seeking to recover millions of dollar in tip money that customers paid through DoorDash over the last two years. In July, following a petition from workers, DoorDash changed its policy, which had allowed the company to keep a portion of driver tips.

The overall meal delivery business is also facing increasing pressure on margins with the rise of price comparison tools available on Google and through the site FoodBoss. Adding to those headwinds, WeWork’s tumultuous past few months have raised suspicion over the valuations of aggressive entrants into traditional industries like food delivery.

Some analysts see GrubHub as the poster child for the industry’s challenges. The company has seen its market value cut in half this year as it spends heavily on promotions to stave off growing competition.

Shares of GrubHub plunged 43% on Oct. 29 after reporting disappointing orders last quarter and issuing a dismal forecast for future sales. That was the stock’s worst day of trading since going public back in April 2014.

Second Measure will publish its full report on U.S. meal delivery on Friday afternoon.

Correction: Uber Eats has the greatest market share of the delivery services in Miami and Postmates is the leader in Los Angeles, according to Second Measure. A previous version of this story misstated this information.

WeWork Lays Off More Than 2,000 Employees

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: Diana Pearl

Troubled coworking company recorded a $1.25 billion loss in Q3

Word of pending WeWork layoffs surfaced earlier this week.

WeWork may have gotten a bailout after its IPO debacle but troubles continue for the coworking giant, which announced today that it has laid off 2,400 employees.

Rumors that massive layoffs would hit WeWork surfaced earlier this week, though those predictions had put the number of employees who would lose their jobs as high as 4,000. Those 2,400 employees represent a massive 19% of the company’s overall workforce; according to CNBC, WeWork had 12,500 employees as of June.

“As part of our renewed focus on the core WeWork business, and as we have previously shared with employees, the company is making necessary layoffs to create a more efficient organization,” a WeWork spokesperson told Adweek in a statement. “The process began weeks ago in regions around the world and continued this week in the U.S.”

The laid off employees will receive severance, according to the spokesperson, as well as continued benefits and job search assistance. “These are incredibly talented professionals, and we are grateful for the important roles they have played in building WeWork over the last decade,” the representative told Adweek.

It’s been a tough few months for WeWork, a company that had seemed poised for massive success. Earlier this year, it was valued at $47 billion and had been set for an IPO, which it filed for on Aug. 14. That filing did not go as planned, leading to the company’s co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann stepping down at the end of September.

Shortly afterward, the IPO was officially postponed and the company was forced to be bailed out by SoftBank, its largest shareholder. This past quarter, WeWork recorded a $1.25 billion loss.

WeWork is currently working on revamping its business with a “90-day game plan” it detailed at an investor’s presentation last month. In particular, the company is sidelining its second-priority ventures to focus on its core businesses.

TECH

Content Courtesy of: cnbc.com

Written by: Anmar Frangoul

Sony establishes A.I. arm that will focus on gaming and food

KEY POINTS

  • Sony AI will have offices in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.
  • To start with, it will launch projects in gaming, imaging and sensing and “gastronomy.”

Sony Corporation has set up Sony AI, an organization that will undertake research and development into artificial intelligence.

In an announcement Wednesday, Sony said the new venture would have offices in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, initially launching projects in gaming, imaging and sensing and “gastronomy.“

In its announcement, the tech giant said that the “adoption of new AI technologies developed through these flagship projects will be critical to further enhancing the value of Sony’s gaming and sensor businesses in coming years.”

It added that the research would be “pursued in close collaboration with the relevant Sony Group business units.”

The firm has already made moves into the “gastronomy” sector. In April 2018, via its U.S. subsidiary the Sony Corporation of America, Sony struck an agreement with Carnegie Mellon University to work on artificial intelligence and robotics research.

At the time, Sony said “initial research and development” would look into “optimizing food preparation, cooking and delivery.”

This area was chosen, Sony explained, because the technology needed for a robot to handle “the complex and varied task of food preparation” could in turn be applied to a wider range of skills and industries.

The topic of AI generates a great deal of discussion and debate. There is undoubted potential. The European Commission, for example, has said that AI can “bring solutions to many societal challenges” such as treating diseases and “minimizing the environmental impact of farming.”

The Commission does note, though, that ethical, legal and socio-economic impacts “have to be carefully addressed.”

Others have been more forthright in their views. In 2014, the late scientist Stephen Hawking told the BBC that the “development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: SASHA LEKACH

Juno abruptly shut down and refers riders to Lyft

The clock is ticking to take your final Juno ride.

The New York-only ride-sharing service announced Monday that by 6 p.m. that same day it would cease operations. Juno started in NYC in 2016 and was bought for $200 million by Israeli transportation company Gett in 2017.

This morning Juno users saw this message on the app:

On the company’s website, it said the service was shutting down “due to the changing market situation.”

In a news release, Gett said it had formed a “strategic partnership” with ride-hailing app Lyft. Gett, which claims to serve 15,000 companies, said the company plans to pivot to connecting corporate clients with Lyft.

SEE ALSO: Uber and Lyft trips just got more expensive in NYC. Here’s why.

Gett also blamed “the enactment of misguided regulations in New York City earlier this year” for the end of Juno. New NYC regulations for 2019 capped the number of cars each ride service could offer and limited the amount of time drivers could “deadhead,” or drive without paying passengers in the car.

Harry Campbell, a former driver who runs The Rideshare Guy blog about all things ride-hailing, credited Juno for creating a “hopeful beacon for drivers” with a tip button, lower commissions, and other pro-driver incentives and options.

But it couldn’t convince riders to stick with the new service after discounts dried up — and Lyft and Uber are hard to ditch.

“I think this shows how important first-mover advantage is in the [ride-share] industry and also just how hard it is to grow ridership when Uber and Lyft’s product work pretty well for the most part,” Campbell wrote in an email.

Juno users were told Monday to switch to Lyft for future ride-sharing needs. An email said, “To continue riding, we recommend downloading the Lyft app. New to Lyft? Get $25 in Lyft credits. Simply click HERE to download the app and go to the Promos tab in the app and enter the code: LYFTJUNO25.” The same message was in the app:

Juno was infamously known for promising drivers equity and dropping the ball with a small, one-time payout. At least now it’s promising drivers and riders it won’t sell their account data — that’s something, right?

CULTURE

Content Courtesy of: cnbc.com

Written by: Sarah Whitten

‘Baby Yoda’ merch from ‘The Mandalorian’ is on its way, just in time for the holidays

KEY POINTS

  • You’ll soon be able to buy merchandise featuring “Baby Yoda,” the breakout star of “The Mandalorian.”
  • The character, which Disney calls The Child, was absent from the marketing and initial merchandise launch for the new Disney+ as to not spoil his surprise appearance.
  • Apparel and accessories featuring the yet unnamed creature will soon be available through Amazon, Zazzle, Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Hot Topic and Box Lunch, as well as the Disney Store, ShopDisney and at the Disney Parks.

You’ll soon be able to buy merchandise featuring the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” CNBC has learned.

The Child — or “Baby Yoda,” as “Star Wars” fans have been affectionately calling it — was absent from the marketing and initial merchandise launch for the new Disney+ show because showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni didn’t want to spoil his surprise appearance.

Apparel and accessories featuring the yet unnamed creature will soon be available through Amazon, Zazzle, Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Hot Topic and Box Lunch, a person familiar with the company plans said. These items could arrive as early as Friday.

Other products will also arrive at the Disney Store, ShopDisney and at the Disney Parks before the holidays. In addition, presales for toys and plush will be available in the coming weeks. It is uncertain when that merchandise will be shipped.

There are already two T-shirts available on Amazon. One retails for $22.99 and the other costs $25.99.

The Child has become a social media sensation since debuting at the very end of the first episode of “The Mandalorian.”

Notably, the cute creature has been called “Baby Yoda” because of his resemblance to the iconic “Star Wars” character and the fact that creator George Lucas has never revealed the name of Yoda’s species or his home planet.

So far, two episodes of “The Mandalorian” have been released on Disney’s new streaming service. A third is set to air Friday.

The series follows a Mandalorian bounty hunter in the years after the end of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” as the world adjusts to the fall of the Empire and seeks to build a New Republic.

Content Courtesy of: cnbc.com

Written by: Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

House committee approves landmark bill legalizing marijuana at the federal level

KEY POINTS

  • The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that legalizes marijuana on the federal level, removing it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act.
  • Some Republican members expressed concerns that the bill went too far and that it was unlikely to be taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Wednesday that legalizes marijuana on the federal level, removing it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act.

The legislation, which passed 24 to 10, has a high chance of approval in the full House where Democrats control the chamber with 234 seats. It’s likely to face a tougher battle in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes marijuana legalization.

The legislation allows states to enact their own policies and gives them incentives to clear criminal records of people with low-level marijuana offenses. It also includes a 5% tax on cannabis products that would provide job training and legal assistance to those hit hardest by the war on drugs.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, marijuana arrests account for more than half of all drug arrests in the United States. U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday repeatedly cited the disproportionate impact drug laws have had on communities of color, saying that decriminalizing marijuana helps alleviate some of that imbalance.

“The criminalization of marijuana has been a mistake,” Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said during the markup of the bill. “The racial disparity in marijuana enforcement laws only compounded this mistake with serious consequences, particularly for minority communities.”

Some Republican members expressed concerns that the bill went too far and that it was unlikely to be taken up in the Senate.

“I don’t think a majority of the Republicans will support this bill,” Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado said Wednesday. “It is even less likely that the Senate would take it up. Therefore, I would just suggest that we deal with other bills that we can get a much larger bipartisan support from.”

In response, Nadler said that House Democrats can “negotiate” with the Senate, acknowledging Republicans won’t take the bill “as is.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea … to say, ‘the Senate won’t take this bill,’” he said. “When the House passes a bill, it’s part of a continuing process. It’s not the end of a process.”

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also known as NORML, has called the legislation the “biggest marijuana news of the year.”

A majority of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, according to the Pew Research Center. The bill has more than 50 co-sponsors, according to Congress.gov. Backers of a Senate version of the legislation include, presidential contender Sen. Kamala Harris.

Only 11 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for recreational use. Medical marijuana, prescribed by physicians, is legal in 33 states and Washington, D.C.

The committee approval comes two months after the House passed legislation that would protect banks that serve marijuana businesses in states where the substance is legal.

Content Courtesy of: nytimes.com

Written by: Andrea Salcedo

The Secret Behind the Viral Churro Seller Video

A grass-roots criminal justice organization, Decolonize This Place, has become a clearinghouse for videos of police behavior on the subway.

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Sofia B. Newman, an actress with about 2,500 Twitter followers, was returning home from work this month when she saw a woman who was selling churros at the Broadway Junction subway station in Brooklyn having a heated discussion with four police officers.

Ms. Newman said she started recording the interaction with her phone so she would have evidence in case it escalated.

“The moment I saw four officers surrounding a woman of color, it was a red flag for me,” Ms. Newman, 23, said.

She posted the video, which shows the vendor being handcuffed, on her Twitter account at 12:30 a.m. and then went to sleep.

By the morning, the post had received nearly 50 retweets, mostly from friends and relatives, she said.

But Ms. Newman also received a message from Decolonize This Place, a grass-roots criminal justice organization. The group asked if it could post her video on its Twitter and Instagram accounts, along with a narrative of the arrest. She agreed.

And that’s when “it started blowing up,” Ms. Newman said.

As of Sunday, the post had been retweeted 11,300 times and had been liked by almost 25,000 people.

Within days of the altercation, several local officials, including Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, two Democrats who are expected to run for mayor in 2021, had seen the video and criticized the officers’ behavior.

It was just the latest in a series of videos, which have been viewed millions of times on Twitter, that have outraged many New Yorkers and resurfaced a conversation about police officers’ interactions with civilians on the subway at a time when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, is pushing for 500 more officers to be hired at a cost of nearly $250 million to patrol the transit system.

These videos have all followed a similar pattern: They were recorded by bystanders who happened to be in the subway when the encounters happened, and who in most cases had few followers on social media. Yet they attracted a lot of attention almost immediately after being posted.

The common denominator? They all gained prominence after being promoted on the social media accounts of Decolonize This Place.

Amin Husain and Marz Saffore, co-organizers of Decolonize, said the videos showed a reality that people of color had experienced for decades. “Now the argument can’t be made that this is a one-time incident,” Mr. Husain, 44, said.

The videos have put the Police Department on the defensive, demonstrating the power of social media and the role technology now has in holding law enforcement accountable. The police say civilians are focusing on the wrong people: Politicians are the ones who can affect the economic conditions that often result in people with limited opportunities loitering in the subway or selling food there illegally, they say.

“A lot of elected officials came out and their immediate reaction was to criticize the N.Y.P.D.,” Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said of the churro vendor video at a news conference on Thursday. “I’d like to see a time when their first reaction is to help the woman that was selling churros.”

“It’s good that people see this,” he added, referring to the viral videos. “Being a cop anywhere is a tough job, and we need the cooperation from all 8.6 million New Yorkers.”

The phenomenon of videos of police behavior becoming viral is nothing new. In the past six years, footage captured by cellphones and police body cameras have prompted protests and started a national conversation on the role race plays in policing and the excessive use of force.

The difference in New York is that one organization, Decolonize This Place, has become the clearinghouse and gatekeeper for most of these videos.

Decolonize, founded in 2016, has 10 members and works with more than 50 other grass-roots organizations, Mr. Husain said. Its Instagram account has over 86,000 followers, and its Twitter account has nearly 11,000.

Since late October, when Decolonize posted the video of an officer punching two teenagers on the subway and another one depicting officers swarming into a subway car to arrest a man, Mr. Husain said people had been sending the organization about 10 videos a day. Staff members are also on the lookout for videos to post, as they did in the case of the churro vendor.

But his organization cannot post all of the videos it receives, Mr. Husain said. Five staff members who handle the group’s social media accounts — two of whom are pursuing advanced degrees in media studies — scrutinize the videos to see which ones might have the biggest reach.

The staff members make sure that a video is accurate and that they have enough context of the incident, Mr. Husain said. They also work to ensure that it does not depict a subway incident the group has previously brought to light.

Decolonize also avoids sharing videos that show people being beaten out of respect for the victim, Mr. Husain said. The organization says it asks for permission to use each video and has never paid for any content.

“It’s the combination of thinking about the Instagram account, about the content we put out, about the movement and the moment what makes these videos blow up,” he said. “It’s connected to on-the-ground organizing.”

Days before Ms. Newman recorded the churro vendor’s arrest, Erin Quinlan, a freelance journalist based in New York, recorded two officers asking a man to leave the First Avenue station in Manhattan. Ms. Quinlan, 40, said the tone of the conversation raised a “red flag” and pushed her to record it.

In the video, she can be heard repeatedly asking why the officers are trying to remove the man; they do not respond. An officer can be seen telling Ms. Quinlan: “Why don’t you mind your own business? It seems like you are looking for a lawsuit.”

Ms. Quinlan posted the video on her Instagram account the next morning and tagged Decolonize. At that point, it had been viewed only about 100 times, Ms. Quinlan said.

“I intentionally wanted them to see it,” Ms. Quinlan, who has about 450 Instagram followers, said of Decolonize, which received her permission to share the video.

It has now been viewed over 400,000 times, and has more than 19,000 likes and 900 comments on Decolonize’s Instagram account.

Without the organization’s help, she said, “there’s no question almost no one would have seen it.”

On Tuesday, another video of an arrest of a subway vendor went viral after it was shared by Decolonize.

The footage shows four police officers piling on top of a man on the subway platform at the 125th Street station in East Harlem. The Police Department later said the man, identified as Byron Shark, 26, had been selling candy illegally.

“When the officers attempted to take him into custody, he would not cooperate and refused to allow them to handcuff him,” the department said in a statement. “As a result, officers assisted in removing the individual from the platform, and the individual eventually walked on his own accord.”

Mr. Shark was arrested on charges of obstructing governmental administration and violating a local law.

On Twitter, that video has been viewed 488,000 times, and it has garnered 750 retweets and almost 1,500 likes.

Ms. Quinlan said her video had become so popular that she could not keep up with the hundreds of comments and direct messages she had received from supporters as well as critics. In the end, she said, she wished she had never been in a situation that required her to take out her phone.

“It’s not about Go! Yay bystanders!” Ms. Quinlan said. “It’s about what can we do to safeguard the most vulnerable of the community. I want no need for bystanders or good Samaritans.”

Michael Gold contributed reporting.

Andrea Salcedo is a reporter for the Metro desk, and part of the 2019 New York Times Fellowship class. @salcedonews

FASHION

Content Courtesy of:wmagazine.com

Written by:Kyle Munzenrieder

Victoria’s Secret Confirms Its Fashion Show is Dead, But What Will Happen to the Angels?

Victoria’s Secret finally confirmed what seemed inevitable: it’s annual fashion show spectacular is no more. According to WWD, in a conference call with analysts this morning, VS parent company L Brands’ CFO and executive vice president Stuart B. Burgdoerfer acknowledged the brand was moving on for now. “It was a very important part of the brand building of this business and was an important aspect of the brand and a remarkable marketing achievement,” he said. “And with that said, we’re figuring out how to advance the positioning of the brand and best communicate that to customers.”

While dwindling television ratings and sweeping cultural shifts among young consumers made it clear that the VS Fashion Show as the public had known it for decades was in serious need of an update, the fact that the show went from institution to no more in just a year is still astonishing. Though, longtime chief marketing officers Ed Razek accelerated the fall by giving a fiery interview to Vogue in which he defensively claimed that the inclusion of plus-sized and transgender models in the show wasn’t part of the brand’s preferred vision “fantasy.” Razek didn’t resign from the company until August, but the fallout from his remarks were swift. The ratings for the 2018 show hit a record low (a repeat of NCIS: Las Angeles beat the show in total viewers), and business struggles have dogged the brand all year.

Concurrently, rival brands had found success in both buzz and at the bottom line by embracing inclusion. Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show, which streamed on Amazon Prime, proved that diversity was no detriment to fantasy. Her show featured multiple plus-sized models, transgender models, a drag queen, and even a few veterans of the VS show. For her part, Bella Hadid recently revealed that she felt far more confidant walking in her lingerie for Rihanna than she did at any other lingerie show (a comment that was interpreted as a dig at Victoria’s Secret).

WATCH

Jasmine Tookes Tries On the $3 Million Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

If women buy lingerie to celebrate their bodies, it only makes sense that a brand would find success in celebrating all bodies. That doesn’t seem like it’s any big secret. At least in 2019.

Though Victoria’s Secret is done with the fashion show (for now at least), the future of the Victoria’s Secret Angels is still very much a question mark.

When a foursome of VS Angels (Josephine Skriver, Elsa Hosk, Jasmine Tookes and Romee Strijd) appeared together at an event for fast-fashion e-tailer BooHoo, Page Six reported that insiders were buzzing that the end of the VS Angel may be near. “It used to be that you did VS and you became this superstar,” a source identified as “a Victoria’s Secret insider” told Page Six. “The industry has just changed overall. I could see the Angels going away.”

While there was always some overlap and exceptions, many Victoria’s Secret Angels (a select group that didn’t include every girl who ever walked the show) existed in an eco-system separate from the models cultivated by high fashion brands on the runways of Paris and Milan. That didn’t mean the Angels never had major high-fashion moments, it just meant that their career paths and the extent of their popular appeal were often different. In other words, the reverberations of the end of the age of the Angels may extend fay beyond the mall lingerie staple and into the wider fashion and modeling industries.

Then again, Victoria’s Secret has continued to designate new models as “Angels” since Rezak’s controversy (Grace Elizabeth, Barbra Palvin, and Leomie Anderson have all received the tag since), but without the signature event the women no longer have such a public platform.

The 2020 Met Gala Theme Is ‘About Time’

Content Courtesy of:harpersbazaar.com

Written by:LAUREN ALEXIS FISHER

“What is time?” is officially the new “what is camp?”

This year’s camp-themed Met Gala delivered an endless stream of over-the-top red carpet moments (and several live outfit changes from Lady Gaga), but it’s officially time to look ahead to the 2020 event. The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the theme of next year’s Costume Institute exhibit will be “About Time: Fashion and Duration.”

If you thought camp was confusing, you probably have some questions about what exactly a “time” theme means. Inspired by Virginia Woolf and 20th-century French philosopher Henri Bergson, the exhibit will look back at the timeline of women’s fashion from the last 150 years (dating from 1870 to today) to coincide with the Met’s 150th anniversary. Woolf will serve as the “ghost narrator” of the exhibit.

For a more specific image, Sally Porter’s 1992 film Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf’s time-traveling novel of the same name, served as the main inspiration for the 2020 theme. Starring Tilda Swinton, the movie’s fashion spanned from 18th-century Marie Antoinette-inspired style to 19th century dressing. In other words, prepare to see some grandiose, “let them eat cake”-worthy looks on next year’s Met Gala red carpet.

Tilda Swinton in Sally Porter’s 1992 film ’Orlando.’

“Fashion is indelibly connected to time, it not only reflects and represents the spirit of the times, but it also changes and develops with the times,” Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute, told the New York Times.

Given the range of a 150-year timeline of fashion, it may be one of the most abstract and eclectic Met Gala red carpets ever—with celebrities being able to time-travel back through several centuries of fashion. Or, of course, they technically could opt for something that’s “timeless.”

The co-chairs of the 2020 Met Gala are Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Nicolas Ghesquiere of Louis Vuitton (the brand will serve as a sponsor for the event). Most excitingly, it will mark the first ever Met Gala attendance for Streep.

Meryl Streep is co-chairing the 2020 Met Gala, marking her debut at the annual fashion event.

The 2020 Met Gala will be held on May 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the exhibition will open to the public on May 7, 2020.

OCTOBER PRESENTS PROTEIN FROM COFFEE, A GAME OF THRONES PREQUEL AND THE NY BOTANICAL GARDEN REVEALS PLANS FOR A YAYOI KUSAMA 250 ACRE EXHIBITION!

FOOD

Content Courtesy of: foodnavigator-usa.com

Written by:

Recognizing people increasingly value authenticity and meaningful relationships over material possessions or a façade of perfection, Happy Family Organics unapologetically shows – and prizes – the messy, chaotic process of parenting in a new marketing campaign that sharply contrasts with traditional highly-staged ads that may set an unrealistic bar for the ‘right’ way to raise children.

“The organic baby food company’s ‘Happiness Wins’ campaign that debuted earlier this month features real, unscripted parenting moments, including messy mealtimes, delayed departures and bedtime struggles. But rather than concentrating on frazzled parents, each scene focuses on the children’s joy and in doing so strives to reinforce the brand’s ethos that children’s health and happiness are greater than everything.

“As a brand, we have always taken a positive and celebratory view on parenting,” and “as parents ourselves, we saw an even greater opportunity to champion happiness above all, especially in today’s busy and uncertain times, when parents are under pressure and bombarded by the 24-hour new cycle,” said Erica Messina, VP of marketing & ecommerce at Happy Family Organics.

To do this, she explained to FoodNavigator-USA, the brand “deliberately set out to differentiate these videos from what we traditionally see in the CPG space,” which tend “to feature babies in situations by staging, casting and studio production. We wanted to strip away things that can be distracting and really focus in on real, natural parenting moments.”

Real-life campaign reflects changes in how consumers engage with brands

But to uncover those ‘real’ moments, Happy Family Organic’s needed a different approach that included real families – either company employees or friends – and no actors, she said.

“To ensure that we captured these raw reactions from the kids, we knew that we couldn’t show up with a 20-person production crew, so we rigged cameras and hid them in objects and toys … so the children never saw a camera or a crew member,” Messina explained, adding that the cameras were operated by the parents.

The result is a series of short videos and ads that not only are relatable, but also tap into a broader cultural shift that is changing how consumers relate to brands by redefining a ‘good life’ as one with filled with meaningful relationships rather than material positions, said Messina.

For support, she pointed to research commissioned by Happy Family Organics that found 95% of parents believe that ‘achieving overall happiness despite life’s challenges’ is most important to living a good life.

“This sentiment is reflected in both the way we celebrate and capture happiness in our videos using authentic parenting moments from real families, and in the message that we want parents to come away with – that it’s easy to be bogged down in the stresses and pressures of life, but at the end of the day a happy child is greater than everything,” she said.

And while the company fully believes that a happy, healthy child is more important than those chaotic mornings when nothing seems to go as planned, Messina notes that Happy Family Organics also strives to help parents be happier by providing “convenient organic, nutritious meals and snacks that parents can feel confident feeding their little ones.”

These include the brand’s Happy Tot Super Mornings breakfast blends and Happy Baby Clearly Crafted line of pouches and jars made with “organic ingredients traceable to the farm where they were grown,” Messina said.

More than a CPG marketer

Happy Family Organics’ also is using the campaign to fuel social change and meet parents’ expectations that “companies go beyond providing quality products and services by using profits to drive positive change in the world,” Messina said.

She explained that the campaign encourages parents to share candid moments on social media with the hashtag #HappinessWinsChallenge and tagging @HappyFamilyOrganics. For each post, the company commits to donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the non-profit SPOON, which helps provide proper nutrition to children in US Foster Care and orphanages worldwide, Messina said.

Beyond this, she said, Happy Family also offers personal support to caregivers through its free live-chat service on its website, which connects parents to company nutritionists and lactation specialists, she added.

“We know that feeding can be confusing and stressful,” and to date “we have helped over 30,000 parents with anything from low breast milk supply to meal planning for picky toddlers,” she said.

She added the company also uses its scale to “create pathways for happiness that go beyond the nutritious food we offer – from donating millions of meals to families in need and offering our premium products through federal aid programs to partnering with sustainability leaders like Renew Oceans to convert ocean plastics into energy in developing countries.”

[Editor’s Note: Want to learn more about how brands are approaching children’s food and marketing to parents? Join us next month in Chicago for FoodNavigator-USA’s Food For Kids Summit. Check out all the details and register today.]

Content Courtesy of: foodnavigator-usa.com

Written by: Mary Ellen Shoup

Protein from coffee? Applied Food Sciences introduces CoffeeProtein to plant-based protein market

Applied Food Sciences has launched CoffeeProtein, which the company says offers clear sensory and consumer-friendly advantages over the rest of the plant-based protein competition

Applied Food Sciences (AFS) specializes in functional ingredients from botanical extracts and has been working in coffee extraction since 2001.

Coffee and its various compounds (e.g. caffeine, antioxidants) and possible product applications (coffee flour , coffee fruit ‘cascara’ beverages) have made it a popular ingredient for the food and beverage industry.

“Everybody has organic coffee extract. In fact, green coffee extract is one of the most commoditized extracts around, but very few people have started to dabble in the other extracts that are found in coffee,” Brian Zapp, director of marketing at Applied Food Sciences (AFS), told FoodNavigator-USA.

“We’ve decided to look at this plant-based protein side of the story and found that coffee beans are a decent source of protein (30% caffeine-free protein).”

This discovery led to the development and launch of the company’s CoffeeProtein ingredient launched at SupplySide West show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Protein from coffee’ has trustworthy appeal

AFS believes that consumers’ familiarity will work in favor of CoffeeProtein despite it having a lower protein content compared to other protein sources.

“We thought opposed to these lupin and more obscure pea proteins, that consumer familiarity with coffee would be a really strong element with this product,” said Zapp.

CoffeeProtein is a ‘whole food protein’ (as opposed to an isolate) meaning it provides other phytonutrients such as antioxidants and fiber and a 30% caffeine-free protein content.

“It’s not the highest in the world, but we think the familiarity will encourage application,” Zapp noted.

Excellent sensory profile

Added protein is showing up in all sorts of products from RTD beverages such as cold brew coffees and draft lattes to crackers, cookies, and gummies, noted AFS. In fact, the number of global food and beverage launches featuring protein grew by +26% CAGR between 20145 and 2018, according to Innova Market Insights.

One of the obvious applications for CoffeeProtein the company foresees is in protein fortified coffee beverages, according to Zapp.

In our opinion, coffee protein for coffee products, it’s just one of the immediate, low hanging fruits,” he said.

However, Zapp noted that while the market is “jam-packed” with protein products, there’s a growing interest in more moderate amounts of added protein, which tend to taste better, Zapp said.

“Where a lot of product development is headed is in fortifying more than usual servings of protein in everything, but anything that’s jam packed with protein usually leaves little to be desired with taste. It’s just kind of this chalky, unfulfilling experience,” he said.

CoffeeProtein, on the other hand, has a favorable sensory profile compared to many other plant-based protein sources, according to Zapp.

“Plant proteins in general tend to be bitter, have a lot of astringency, and that’s one of the rubs of working with botanical ingredients. When you break down the coffee as naturally as you can to just the actives, it’s really not bitter, it profiled mores like a nut protein. Instead of gritty mouthfeel, it’s very smooth and creamy,” said Zapp.

“Just hearing ‘coffee protein’, sounds delicious.”

Sustainability and transparency story

AFS is vertically integrated and has its hands on every step of sourcing. The company sources all of its coffee from southern India where AFS enforces strict criteria for its partner companies such as a fair living wage and proper safety training for coffee farmers, and regenerative agricultural practices.

“The bar keeps raising as far as what our standards are in terms of ethical and sustainable sourcing,” said Zapp.

ART

NEWS Getty Center Closes for the Week as Wildfires Scorch California—Other Art Museums Take Precautions

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Claire Selvin

Firefighters look at the Getty Fire spreading in the hills behind the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.

ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

As wildfires rage throughout Northern and Southern California, several museums across the state have been forced to close. A conflagration known as the Getty Fire, which started early Tuesday morning along the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles, has caused the Getty Center and the Getty Villa to remain closed through the week.

In a statement to ARTnews, a museum representative said that, while the Getty Center is secure, “our property is still serving as a hub for emergency responders and there are forecasts for high winds and another red flag warning tonight through Thursday morning. After careful consideration, we have made a decision to close both the Getty Center and Getty Villa through Friday. We do so out of an abundance of caution related to the weather conditions, to allow space for continued movement of fire equipment, and because road closures would make it difficult for visitors and staff to come to either facility.”

The Getty shuttered to “accommodate the fire-fighting effort and make space for emergency responders on Getty roads,” according to a statement. The museum has said on Twitter that the artworks in its collection are safe and “protected by state-of-the-art technology.”

Over 1,000 firefighters were on the scene at the Getty Fire on Monday, and the Getty, which is normally closed on Mondays, was also closed to employees yesterday. On Tuesday, the Getty Fire had burned 656 acres.

Cultural institutions in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, also closed to the public on Tuesday due to the Kincade Fire, spanning over 75,000 acres and threatening some 90,000 structures. The Charles M. Schulz Museum is closed, but plans to reopen on Wednesday, October 30. The Museum of Sonoma County also closed Tuesday and will remain closed Wednesday; pending weather conditions, the museum may reopen on Thursday.

Jeff Nathanson, the executive director and curator at the Museum of Sonoma County, told ARTnews that the majority of the museum’s staff have been evacuated from their homes. He said that because the museum is located in downtown Santa Rosa, its structure and collection are not imminently threatened by the fire. Air quality within the museums walls is, however, a concern.

“The air quality inside our building is not as bad as outside, but it’s not good or safe,” Nathanson said, adding that a contractor is setting up air purifiers throughout the museum today. “By this evening we expect [the air in the museum] to be completely clean.”

Artworks in the collection will be checked following air purification procedures.

“We’re going to have to go through a complete inspection of our exhibition galleries and our collection,” Nathanson said of works that may require cleaning.

The Museum of Sonoma County was also impacted by fires in Northern California in 2017, when, according to Nathanson, the museum staff more seriously considered evacuating objects in its collection. During those fires two years ago, the institution opened its doors as a sanctuary space for community members affected by the disaster. If the museum reopens on Thursday, it will serve this purpose once again.

Since 2017, the museum has organized a symposium on fire safety and evacuations attended by multiple institutions in the region. As a result, “we feel more prepared than we were two years ago,” Nathanson said.

“Cultural institutions, especially museums, have to be part of a community recovering— being resilient and processing what impact these disasters have,” he said.

Yayoi Kusama Will Fill New York Botanical Garden with Infinity Room, ‘Dancing Pumpkin,’ and Much More

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Claire Selvin

Yayoi Kusama with Pumpkin, 2010.

© YAYOI KUSAMA/COURTESY OTA FINE ARTS, TOKYO/SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI, VICTORIA MIRO, LONDON, AND DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK

ARTnews is sounding the “Infinity Watch” alarms for the fourth time this month: the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx has revealed details about its sprawling Yayoi Kusama exhibition, which will spread across the institution’s 250 acres next spring.

Slated to open May 9, the show, titled “Kusama: Cosmic Nature,” will focus on the artist’s longstanding exploration of nature, which goes back to her childhood in Japan, where her family owned a flower nursery. The exhibition will feature works from throughout Kusama’s seven-decade career from sketches of flowers she made at 16 to new pieces debuting in this survey.

On deck at the Botanical Garden are a potpourri of polka-dotted sculptures of flowers, paintings, and installations, including one of the artist’s famed “Infinity Mirror Rooms” and a greenhouse-themed “Obliteration Room,” where visitors are asked to cover the entire space with specially designed floral stickers.

The newest piece in the exhibition is a monumental bronze sculpture, titled Dancing Pumpkin (2020), that will allow viewers to approach the work from multiple angles, including having them walk under and around it. In an interview with ARTnews, Karen Daubmann, the NYBG’s associate vice president for exhibitions and public engagement, described the over 16-foot-tall work, which will be installed outdoors, as “a cross between a spider and a pumpkin.”

Kusama once described “the sense of being obliterated by flowers” as a child in a field near her home in Matsumoto, in Japan’s Nagano prefecture—an indelible event that likely influenced numerous aspects of her art-making, from her frenzied depictions of flora to her obliterating, immersive environments themselves.

“The more we researched her, the more we got excited about these stories we could tell here at the garden,” Daubmann said. “We’re writing a story about Kusama that most people don’t know.”

This will be just the third chance that New Yorkers will be able to see work by Kusama in the Big Apple in the span of a year. A solo exhibition of new work, expected to bring 100,000 visitors, opens next month at David Zwirner in Chelsea and a balloon designed by the artist will soar above Manhattan as part of this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “Cosmic Nature” will remain on view at the New York Botanical Garden through November 1, 2020, allowing visitors to experience Kusama’s works through multiple seasons. Tickets for the exhibition go on sale January 29.

FASHION

How Sustainable Is Renting Your Clothes, Really?

Content Courtesy of: marieclaire.com

Written by: Elizabeth Cline

For the millions of converts to clothing rental platforms like Rent the Runway, Le Tote and Gwynnie Bee, trying out the latest trends without destroying the planet is a big part of the allure. I recently leased a gold sequin skirt and a ruffled red dress for date night—the kind of wear-it-once styles documented on Instagram and then tossed out—without any of the guilt I feel when buying fast fashion, which is notorious for its water pollution, labor abuses and textile waste.

Over the summer, Urban Outfitters, Macy’s, Banana Republic, American Eagle, and Bloomingdale’s announced their own rental subscription services, which industry analysts clocked as a bid to appeal to conscious consumers. And in a sign of just how lucrative renting clothes has become, Le Tote is set to acquire former retail giant Lord & Taylor. But as rental fashion becomes big business, it’s worth asking: Just how sustainable is constantly borrowing clothes?

The short answer, according to the half-dozen sustainability experts I spoke to for this story, is that we don’t exactly know. Despite some rental platforms advertising themselves as inherently green, there has yet to be an in-depth environmental study of their operations. And yet experts have spotted a number of environmental pitfalls in the business model, from the proliferation of energy-consuming dry cleaning facilities to carbon-spewing deliveries and returns.

Consider the Returns

Every sequin skirt borrowed must be returned, which means the shipping impact of leasing your wardrobe could be neck-and-neck with that of a fast fashion shopper. Transportation is now the top source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, and online shopping is partly to blame. A quarter of this footprint comes from trucks doing “last-mile deliveries,” taking packages ordered online from a warehouse to your front door. And second only to manufacturing our clothes, consumer transportation has the largest footprint of our fashion habit, according to some studies.

There are ways to whittle emissions out of delivery routes, including putting warehouses closer to renters and grouping returns together (or buying a fleet of electric trucks, a la Amazon). But for now “the returns and transportation activities just of moving all these clothes will definitely be higher than just regular delivery of fast fashion clothing,” says Josué Velázquez-Martínez, the executive director of MIT’s Supply Chain Management master’s program and Sustainable Logistics Initiative.

According to his rough estimates, an item ordered online and then returned can emit 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of carbon each way, and spirals up to 50 kilograms for rush shipping. By comparison, the carbon impact of a pair of jeans purchased outright (presumably from a brick and mortar store) and washed and worn at home is 33.4 kilograms, according to a 2015 study commissioned by Levi’s.

Most rental services ship in cardboard boxes, which have a shockingly low recycling rate.

What’s more, borrowed clothes often come wrapped up like new, contributing to packaging waste. Most rental services ship in cardboard boxes, which have a shockingly low recycling rate and require energy and water when they are. Then there’s the tissue paper that isn’t recyclable. Plus returns are sent back in a plastic bag. Rent the Runway is doing a better job than many competitors on the packaging front, shipping in custom reusable garment bags and hangers, though every item inside is wrapped in a plastic dry cleaning bag. The company recycles these for its customers, but, as Velázquez-Martínez points out, not all plastic is utilized in the recycling progress.

What About the Dry Cleaning?

For avid renters, free laundry is one of the perks. Rent the Runway often boasts that it’s the nation’s largest dry cleaner, and the company opened a second, 300,000-square-foot facility in Arlington, Texas last July. But the way we clean our clothes has a major environmental impact, even at home: Americans emit 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents each year in high-heat tumble dryers, about the same amount of carbon emitted by e-commerce giant Amazon.

While we don’t know the aggregate effect of the dry cleaning industry, we do know that dry cleaning requires more energy than our own laundry rooms, and that industrial dry cleaning facilities are packed with all sorts of energy-consuming equipment, from steamers and pressers to temperature-controlled storage. Rented outfits might be washed regardless of whether or not they’ve been worn, and services like Rent the Runway have the power to tip our fashion choices towards fussy, dry-clean-only items we would avoid if we were washing them ourselves.

All of the major rental services deserve credit for avoiding perchloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent that’s carcinogenic, classified as a toxic air pollutant by the EPA, and still used by 70% of the nation’s dry cleaners, according Steve Whittaker, a toxicologist with the Seattle-based Hazardous Waste Management Program. But Whittaker is also quick to note that the hydrocarbon alternatives (also called “petroleum-based” solvents) used by most rental platforms are not exactly green. They can produce hazardous waste and air pollution if not handled correctly, and they’re often paired with stain removers that are more toxic than the solvents themselves. “There is no such thing as non-hazardous dry cleaning,” he says.

Rentable fashion contains the environmental risk that it will increase our appetite for clothes.

There is no evidence that hydrocarbon solvents are harmful to renters or that they remain on our borrowed outfits at harmful amounts. Still, Whittaker says that the far more sustainable option is “wet cleaning,” essentially a souped-up version of home laundering that uses gentle soaps and water and is safe for most dry-clean-only clothes. Le Tote is the one rental company that confirmed it uses wet cleaning for 80 percent of its inventory, and mostly relies on biodegradable detergents. “Whenever we can avoid dry cleaning, we avoid it,” says Reshma Russell, the company’s director of quality assurance and process improvement. The wet cleaning process, the company claims, also uses less water and electricity than our own machines.

The Light at the Bottom of the Reusable Bag

As someone who has reported on the devastating impacts of fast fashion, I remain convinced that renting is a step in the right direction, and an urgently needed one. Most of the researchers I spoke to agree. Velázquez-Martínez says that he thinks that even the most avid renter is greener than a fast fashion shopper. (He is having his students study the impacts of leasing fashion this semester, which may tell us conclusively.)

The reason for my confidence? Fashion’s biggest environmental crime lies in overproduction. Of the 3.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalents generated by the apparel industry every year, the majority are emitted while making more clothes, clothes that mostly end up in landfills long before their useful lives are over. Reducing the impact of industry is the most challenging part of tackling climate change; sharing clothes through rental platforms presents a simple and obvious solution.

Fashion’s biggest environmental crime lies in overproduction.

Maureen Sullivan, chief operating officer of Rent the Runway, says via email, “The shared economy is now being widely adopted—both among our community and across the industry—reinforcing the power of the model as an enduring behavior and an inherently more sustainable way to live.” Renting is not inherently sustainable, as I’ve pointed out. But rental platforms could be far greener than they are, investing in renewable energy for warehouses, reducing packaging waste, and switching to wet cleaning wherever possible. Shoppers, meanwhile, can do their part to not turn rental services into fast fashion with a toxic dry cleaning habit. Sharing fashion, unlike fast fashion, can be as green as consumers and rental companies want it to be.

But rentable fashion contains one more environmental risk: that it will increase our appetite for clothes. Fashion rental platforms that own the clothes in circulation differ from true sharing economy platforms like, say, Airbnb or closet-swapping app Tulerie, where users own the inventory. According to Steven Curtis, a researcher at Sweden’s Lund University, companies like Rent the Runway are better described as access-based consumption platforms. This isn’t just petty semantics: “Research suggests that access-based consumption can induce more consumption as consumers have access to a greater selection of goods at a reduced price,” says Curtis. It’s called “share-washing.” Uber, for example, advertised itself as a way to share rides and curb car ownership; instead, it has been proven to discourage walking, bicycling, and public transportation use.

It remains to be seen whether the rise of rental companies persuades the few remaining non-fast fashion shoppers to start dressing less sustainably, dabbling in every (increasingly short-lived) trend. All of the researchers I spoke to agreed on one thing: Wearing what’s already in your closet is the most sustainable way to get dressed.

For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter.

 

Nordstrom’s NYC Flagship Store Is a Fashion Lover’s Dream

Content Courtesy of: marieclaire.com

Written by: Marina Liao

Here’s another reason for both New Yorkers and out-of-towners to hit up the Central Park area: Nordstrom’s new flagship store, located on 57th Street and Broadway, is a mere few blocks away from the NYC landmark. The 320,000 square-foot seven-story space boasts all your favorite brands and comes equipped with seven restaurants and bars.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Nordstrom threw an exclusive party on Tuesday night for the fashion crowd. Guests like Maggie Gyllenhaal, Katie Holmes, Olivia Wilde, and Joan Smalls enjoyed light bites and drinks as they explored special in-store activations like bag customization stations and kid-friendly conveyor belt giveaways. Performers included Kitty Cash and DJ Lady Bunny, with a special encore by The Roots. If you weren’t able to make it and had a slight pang of sadness on missing out, good news: The store is now officially open to everyone.

Check out some images from the flagship store, so you know what to expect before you head out the door. I will see you there because I am moving in.

The lower level is where you’ll start your shopping journey:

You’ll find some of your beloved luxury brands when you wander around:

I am really into this sitting situation inside the Burberry concept space:

The Nike lounge is a must-visit:

When you’re tired from shopping, grab a bite or drink at one of the seven restaurants:

And, right across the street is Nordstrom Men’s so your significant other doesn’t feel left out. (Thanks for holding the bags, babe.)

For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter.

TECH

Esports tournaments facing huge cyberattack threats

Content Courtesy of: techradar.com

Written by:

Trend Micro research uncovers major threats facing esports industry

Security experts have warned that the global esports industry is facing a growing threat from hackers as its popularity booms around the world.

New research from Trend Micro has warned that as the sport becomes more lucrative, cybercriminals are attempting to target both professional and amateur players as well as affect the games themselves.

Esports has grown rapidly over the past few years to become a billion-dollar industry, with tournaments attracting thousands of fans to sold-out arenas across the globe.

  • How esports are taking over the world
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Gaming threats

Criminals have targeted esports for many years, but as the popularity increases, so have the number of attacks, Trend Micro found.

The firm found that the servers used by companies to host valuable gaming assets are a prime target for exploitation by hackers. Trend Micro found that as of July 25, 2019 there were 219,981 exposed gaming assets easily discoverable via a Shodan search.

The players themselves are also at risk, with criminals launching ransomware attacks to lock out top gamers from their accounts unless a ransom is paid (including some players shelling out up to $1000 in Bitcoin) and phishing malware deployed to steal account details along with financial record.

Trend Micro also warned that tournaments can be targeted with DDoS attacks, or servers targeted for maximum disruption to slow down gameplay and affect the reputation of certain companies or organisations.

All of this can also be tied in to the increasing popularity of illegal gambling on esports, with hackers able to affect the outcomes of tournaments to win big for criminal enterprises.

“If there’s one thing we know about malicious actors, it’s that they follow the money. Trend Micro has already observed nation state groups taking advantage of security gaps to target the gaming industry for financial gain, and we expect the same in esports,” said Jon Clay, director of global threat communications for Trend Micro.

“As esports becomes a billion-dollar industry, it’s inevitable that attackers will look to capitalise over the coming years. We predict the sector will experience the same kind of attacks as the gaming industry, but on a much larger scale, with financially motivated actors getting involved for monetary and geopolitical reasons.”

Stay safe online with the best antivirus software of 2019

Spotify launches a dedicated Kids app with curated playlists and playful art

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by:

Spotify is launching a new app called Spotify Kids that’s meant to provide a safe space for kids to explore and listen to music — and finally get “Baby Shark” out of their parents’ Discover playlists.

The app, which launches today in Ireland, includes around 6,000 tracks, all of which have been curated by editors at Spotify. For “younger kids,” the app will be limited to things like Disney soundtracks, songs about dinosaurs, and children’s stories. If parents set the app up for an “older kid,” then it will add pop hits from artists like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Bruno Mars.

Spotify editors are looking at more than whether a song contains foul language when determining if it’s an appropriate fit for this app. References to guns and violence, for example, could be disqualifying, too. Song selections will also change by region, with editors creating different playlists based on what’s popular in each area.

The app requires a Spotify Premium Family subscription, which costs $14.99 per month in the US (or €14.99 per month in Ireland). Partly, that’s because Spotify Kids won’t show ads, which is a feature exclusive to paying listeners. Each kid’s account will count toward one of the six total accounts allowed under the family plan.

Spotify has also created a separate privacy policy that it says is compliant with both GDPR and COPPA, the American online privacy law for kids. It won’t collect location data (region restrictions are based on whatever the parent’s account is set to), and parents can delete data associated with a kid’s account at any time. Spotify only saves data related to what songs a kid is playing and favoriting; it says that data will neither be sold nor shared with third parties for advertising purposes. Spotify may still share that data with third parties for select other purposes, though, like connecting Kids accounts to TVs. What Spotify can share is outlined in the privacy policy.

The app, available on both iOS and Android, looks like a streamlined version of Spotify, stripped back to just a single feed filled with colorful playlists. Kids are meant to poke around at recognizable movie characters and different illustrations that Spotify has made (like a smiling guitar or a bouncing bucket of popcorn) or tap on artists they recognize if they’re old enough. Kids can search if they want to find something specific, though they can’t browse by artist or album. The app is really just meant to be browsed through the curated playlists Spotify has put together. In a particularly cute touch, kids get to choose between one of 12 adorable monster avatars, and the color scheme of the app will change based on what they pick.

Spotify characterizes the initial launch of this app as a beta and says it’ll be rolling out to more markets over time. The company says it’s spent more than two years working on Spotify Kids and that it’s consulted with kids’ content experts along the way. The app is meant for kids between three and 10 years old.

For Spotify, the Kids app could offer a couple of big wins. For one, it makes the Family plan more valuable for parents who might already be considering splitting one between themselves. Beyond that, it’s also an early way to bring kids into the company’s ecosystem. There’s no way to move accounts between Spotify Kids and Spotify proper right now, but once kids are ready to move on from the children’s app, there’s really only one place to go — especially since they’re already on a family plan.

Once it’s available, the app seems likely to be a must-download for parents who already subscribe to Spotify. If you’re planning to let your kid poke around Spotify anyway to listen to Disney soundtracks, Spotify Kids gives them an easier, simpler, and more appropriate place to do that. And even if you don’t care about what they’re listening to, it’ll at least save your Spotify recommendations from being filled with kids’ songs.

Update October 30th, 8:15AM ET: Spotify clarified that third-party data is not shared for advertising purposes but may be shared for select other reasons. This article has been updated to reflect that.

CULTURE

HBO announces new Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by:Julia Alexander

Based on Martin’s story about the Targaryens

“HBO has ordered a Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, straight to series.

“The new prequel is written by Ryan Condal (Colony), with George R.R. Martin set to co-executive produce. The project is based on Martin’s 2019 book Fire and Blood, and is a history of House Targaryen (the ancestors of Daenerys) as they fight through a civil war. The 10-episode project is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

“HBO executive Casey Bloys made the announcement at an event for HBO Max, AT&T’s streaming service coming May 2020. The news comes just hours after news broke that HBO canceled a previously announced Game of Thrones spinoff series.

“It appears part of the reason HBO pushed forward with House of the Dragon is because the “established history penned by Martin to serve as a backbone for the story,” according to Entertainment Weekly. The other pilot only had some “vague references to build on.” The goal is to eventually have the events of the new series lead up to The Dance of the Dragons. It’s a major moment in the Seven Kingdoms history, leading to an all out civil war between two rival faction of House Targaryen.

“It’s unclear when House of the Dragon is expected to air.

Uber threatens to sue Los Angeles, as the fight over scooter data escalates

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Andrew J. Hawkins

LA wants Uber’s location data, but the ride-hailing company says it’s worried about privacy

The fight between the city of Los Angeles and scooter companies over location data is heating up. On Monday, Uber threatened a lawsuit against LA’s Department of Transportation (LADOT) pushing back against the requirement that scooter operators share anonymized real-time location data with the city.

The suit, which was first reported by CNET but has yet to be filed in LA Superior Court, centers on LADOT’s use of a digital tool called the mobility data specification program (MDS). The department created the tool as a way to track and regulate all of the electric scooters that are operating on its streets. MDS provides the city with data on where each bike and scooter trip starts, the route each vehicle takes, and where each trip ends. LADOT has said the data won’t be shared with police without a warrant, won’t contain personal identifiers, and won’t be subject to public records requests.

MDS HAS PROVEN CONTROVERSIAL WITH SCOOTER COMPANIES

Naturally, MDS has proven controversial with scooter companies, which have balked over having to share location data with the city. It’s growing into a bigger problem beyond LA. Cities such as Columbus, Chattanooga, Omaha, San Jose, Seattle, Austin, and Louisville are demanding scooter companies agree to share data through MDS as a condition for operating on their streets.

Uber, which owns the dockless scooter and bike company Jump, said MDS would lead to “an unprecedented level of surveillance” and vowed to stop it. It’s leaning on a recent analysis by California’s Legislative Counsel to make its argument. The counsel said MDS could violate the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was signed into law in 2015.

In August, Uber and Lyft sent a letter to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, in which the companies argued that LADOT was exceeding its authority with MDS.

“While we support the creation of a global standard for data-sharing for local municipalities, it appears that certain city MDS requirements may be in violation of CalECPA,” the companies wrote. “We have repeatedly raised concerns directly with these municipalities throughout the development and implementation of MDS, and yet they continue to require the MDS as a condition of our operating permits.”

In a statement, Uber said that it has exhausted its options and had “no choice” but to sue the city.

“Jump riders in Los Angeles have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the trip data created from riding on our bikes and scooters. Independent privacy experts have clearly and repeatedly asserted that a customer’s geolocation is personally identifiable information, and – consistent with a recent legal opinion by the California legislative counsel – we believe that LADOT’s requirements to share sensitive on-trip data compromises our customers’ expectations of data privacy and security. Therefore, we had no choice but to pursue a legal challenge, and we sincerely hope to arrive at a solution that allows us to provide reasonable data and work constructively with the City of Los Angeles while protecting the privacy of our riders.”

A spokesperson for LADOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an interview with The Verge on September 9th, LADOT director Seleta Reynolds said that the city “encoded” privacy protections into the regulations in order to give them “the force of law.”

She added that it’s a “Day One job and a forever job” of city officials to make sure that the “open source tools that we build do not become tools that people can use to invade the privacy of others.”

Updated October 29th, 3:01PM ET: “LADOT has the responsibility to manage the public right-of-way, ensuring safety and access for everyone,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “To be effective, the department requires reasonable information about the tens of thousands of shared vehicles operated by transportation technology companies that use our streets for profit. While all other permitted scooter and bike companies are complying with our rules — Uber has repeatedly refused. LA’s requirements have been clear since last November, and Uber agreed to abide by them. By 5 pm Tuesday, we expect Uber to come into compliance or they will face suspension proceedings, which could eventually lead to revocation of their permit.”

Updated October 30th, 9:04AM ET: Given that Uber has yet to file its lawsuit, the headline to this story has been changed to indicate that Uber is just threatening to sue Los Angeles.

ADVERTISING

The feature is rolling out starting today

Content Courtesy of: theverge.com

Written by: Jon Porter

Today, Snapchat is introducing a new 3D Paint feature that lets you draw in augmented reality. You can use it to draw on your own face using your phone’s front-facing camera, and it’ll also work with your rear-facing camera to let you to draw on objects in the environment. One video produced by Snap shows the feature being used to draw a pair of eyes and a mustache on the front of a van.

The functionality looks similar to Samsung’s “AR Doodle” feature which it introduced with the Galaxy Note 10. However, Samsung’s feature has the added benefit of using the phone’s S Pen stylus, which should be more precise than drawing with your finger on the screen.

If you want to give the feature a go yourself, then Snapchat’s 3D Paint is rolling out starting today. You’ll be able to find the feature within the Create section of the iOS app’s AR Bar. Unfortunately, the feature isn’t available on Android at launch, but Snapchat says that it will be coming to the platform in the coming months.

REESE’S PROMISING INTERACTIVE HAUNTED HOUSE WAS NO TREAT

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by:

Jawline A first-person account from inside awkward ‘It’s A Live:’ Not even Neil Patrick Harris could save me

Halloween is the biggest holiday for Reese’s, not to mention parent company Hershey Co. In years past, Reese’s has crafted interactive events, like a vending machine where people could exchange Halloween candy for its peanut butter cups, to drive holiday engagement.

This year, Reese’s opted for another interactive experience—this time a live one, which Reese’s described as “the most epic Reese’s Halloween treat experience to date.”

Reese’s nabbed actor Neil Patrick Harris to host “It’s A Live,” a Facebook Live event that streamed Oct. 24. The concept was promising: Harris would guide the paths of 32 selected guests through a haunted house based on real-time viewer votes. Those guests would have to find a key to escape two fright-filled rooms—a combination of “Sleep No More” meets haunted house meets escape room.

Unfortunately, the execution—created with Matador Content, CAA and Facebook Creative Shop—produced more laughs and awkward moments than scares. Even Reese’s admits the event did not go according to plan.

Reese’s began promoting the event in early October. Harris posted 11 videos to Facebook, as well as an IGTV video, hyping the event and asking fans what elements would be scariest to confront in the haunted house.

I participated as one of three media members—appearing at approximately the 36-minute mark in the Facebook Live video. Watch the hour-long video (if you can stomach it), and decide for yourself:

It's aLIVE Created by NPH

Vote to decide on the tricks and treats. Let’s terrify these people. Isn’t Halloween the best?

Posted by Neil Patrick Harris on Thursday, October 24, 2019

Prepping backstage

At the taping studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, participants, mostly influencers, are placed in groups of four. Media members are grouped together. Production people secure phones, have us sign waivers, distribute whistles (if we need rescuing) and blindfold us. We are brought backstage until told we can remove our blindfolds and enter the room with a blinking light.

The entrance

We step into a smoky hallway. There is no room with a light. An awkward minute passes before we finally see a light and head toward it.

Credit: Reese’s “It’s A Live” Facebook live

The experience

In the room we encounter actors costumed as ghoulish, bloody grandmas and grandpas, who begin hollering and encircling us.

Credit: Reese’s “It’s A Live” Facebook live

They bark at us to lie down and we reluctantly do as we’re told. Lights flash as the actors, shrieking and spouting nonsense, pretend to be grabbing us. Then they hesitate, uncertain what to do next. It was obvious there was no script for this.

Credit: Reese’s “It’s A Live” Facebook live

As we lay on the floor surrounded by seniors in too much makeup, Harris was in the control room, trying to control his laughter. “Someone give them a key, please,” he pleads in the Facebook Live video. We are told to leave as the actors stare after us, utterly confused about what they are supposed to do.

Credit: Reese’s “It’s A Live” Facebook live

In the Facebook Live video, Harris has an incredulous look on his face. He tries to stifle a laugh and apologizes for our experience. I hope someone gave Harris a head’s up that the live event wasn’t going to be perfect. “Ok, that’s a little creepy … not scary though,” one viewer comments on the live feed. From another: “I would be ‘Hell no, I am not laying down!’”

Credit: Reese’s “It’s A Live” Facebook live

“Couple things,” Harris tells the camera. “That [room] was apparently cut and not rehearsed; so glad the media saw that … Huh, boy. You know what, we’re just going to send them straight to the treat suite because all we did was torment and traumatize them, and have old people yell at them which is horrible for many, but a lot of the scares that were supposed to happen, did not.”

The treat suite

We bypass other rooms and are brought to the Reese’s treat room, where a woman offers a tray of Reese’s cupcakes. We are perplexed. We went through only one room? Did we do something wrong?

Credit: Reese’s “It’s A Live” Facebook live

“On the video, Harris continues: “Anyone in the media who is watching, this is our beta test. We are seeing how this goes, and every room is different. And yeah, sure, sometimes there’s a key, and yeah, sure, sometimes you’ll have to lie/lay on the ground, and have people just scream at you for a minute or two. But boy, what work we put into it as a whole, as a larger piece of entertainment, so thank you for coming and if any of you need a one-on-one interview afterward, I’m happy to give you an exclusive. We can talk about my Halloween costume for the family.””

It’s clear we weren’t the only group that felt shortchanged, although there were more screams from other rooms in the haunted house, which included a dentist’s office and a séance. Harris, who did his best to brush off slipups, seemed to struggle keeping track of the groups.

The event also began 16 minutes late, the videography at time was poor, and some viewer suggestions—such as which weapons the actors should carry—were not implemented.

“We are always game for trying new experiences. And sometimes when you try something new, you have hiccups,” Anna Lingeris, earned media and brand publicity lead for Hershey Co. said on Friday.

“Neil said it last night; the experience didn’t go as planned. But the one thing we know is that everyone, including the participants and cast, had a great time in the Treat Suite. It was clear to us that no matter how scared people may have been, Reese’s—at the end—made it better.”

The engagement on the live video—21,000 views, 675 reactions, 1,505 comments and 189 shares—was low, considering Neil Patrick Harris has nearly 3 million followers on Facebook.

MILLER LITE’S NEW CAMPAIGN ASKS PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Written by: E.J. Schultz

Content Courtesy of: adage.com/

The brew plugs itself as ‘the original social media’ in new effort from DDB Chicago

                                 

 

Miller Lite is the latest brand trying to tap into social media addiction. But the brew is going further than most, making a plea for drinkers to unfollow it on Instagram and Facebook.

As part of a new campaign in which it plugs itself as “the original social media,” Miller Lite says it will give a free beer to people who prove they have unfollowed the brand by texting a screenshot to a designated number detailed at www.unfollowmillerlite.com. (Because of state alcohol regulations, not all consumers are eligible for the giveaways.)

The campaign by DDB Chicago includes a TV spot that dramatizes the “follow” culture by showing two men and one woman being chased in real life by packs of people, including some armed with annoying selfie-sticks. The spot, shot in black-and-white, ends with the people finding a safe haven in a bar, with the kicker: “A few friends are better than a few thousand followers. Here’s to the original social media.”

Miller Lite, which has 119,000 Instagram followers and just over 2 million on Facebook, will also go “dark” on social media, taking a two-week break from posting there. In a news release, the brand says the effort is a way to reimagine its classic “It’s Miller Time” slogan.

“We know that today’s generation of new drinkers will spend more than five years of their lifetime on social media, and yet are only meeting up with their close friends less than a few times a month,” Anup Shah, VP of the Miller family of brands, stated, referencing data from a study the brand commissioned from YouGov. “By reintroducing Miller Time, we want to remind them that while social media is great, it’s no replacement for hanging out in-person over a Miller Lite.”

Miller Lite’s ad marks a significant creative pivot for the brand, which had been running ads under the “Hold True” tagline that emphasized product attributes, like its low-calorie count. The new campaign is the latest move by MillerCoors Chief Marketing Officer Michelle St. Jacques, who assumed the role earlier this year, to shift the brewer’s advertising into more newsy terrain by tapping into cultural trends.

Miller Lite is now following the same playbook as multiple other brands that have attempted to stand out by making a statement against social media addiction.On Monday, HP debuted a campaign by Goodby Silverstein & Partners that warns against digital addiction by highlighting facial filters, emoji conversations and other digital distortions that have replaced real conversation.

Last year, Coca-Cola Co.’s Vitaminwater ran a contest encouraging consumers to give up their smartphones for a year to win $100,000. Stella Artois, meanwhile, imagined a bar where no one used a phone, with an ad last year that began a new tagline, “Joie de Bière,” which amounts to a bar-friendly twist on the French phrase “joie de vivre” that means joy of living.

Of course, marketers continue to spend billions of dollars on digital advertising, so most brands don’t seem to be putting their money where their mouths are.

SEPTEMBER IN THE SPOTLIGHT!

Food

Bulletproof’s ‘biohacking’ innovations promise to help people become better, faster & stronger

Content Courtesy of: foodnavigator-usa.com

Written by: Elizabeth Crawford

To meet the demands of today’s fast-paced, high-pressure world, consumers everywhere are looking for shortcuts to be better, faster and stronger – fueling the emergence of so-called biohacking, a term coined by the CEO of Bulletproof and made easier by the brand’s broad product portfolio.

“Biohacking, specifically that term, was more or less coined by our founder and CEO Dave Asprey, he fancies himself a biohacker, which … if you dissect the word biohacking, it is hacking the system of your biology to figure out what makes it tic and how you can best leverage it to your advantage and be the best version of yourself,” said Jordan Bowditch, national education specialist at Bulletproof.

He explained that Asprey came to biohacking after following conventional nutritional and health wisdom failed to give him the results he wanted.

“Through a lot of self-experimentation and being really willing to risk it, so to speak,” Asprey found “biohacking served him well,” Bowditch explained.

Asprey was able to spin his experimentation into a category-leading lifestyle brand with top-selling products in Whole Foods and Sprouts in part by generating a constant stream of content that engages consumers as well as continually innovating products that promise shortcuts to better health.

“One of the most unique things about Bulletproof is it is a brand first with products second,” but all of those products are supported by science and have track records of helping consumers thrive, Bowditch said.

For example, he pointed to the brand’s “core” Brain Octane Oil, which is a specific fatty acid from coconut oil that is hard to find in sufficient quantities naturally but which helps the body produce ketones without requiring a prolonged period of fasting, he explained.

The Brain Octane Oil is used in several of the brand’s other products, which include collagen protein powders and bars that Bowditch described as “the bee’s knees” for how they taste. In addition, Bulletproof sells is ready to drink coffees as well as coffee beans that have been tested for mold toxins.

At Expo East, the brand debuted its new product Innerfuel, which Bowditch said is a flavorless and heat soluble prebiotic that consumers can add to coffee, soups or other foods to help fill the fiber gap with which many Americans struggle.

If the brand’s track record is in any indication, he added, consumers can expect more innovation across categories from Bulletproof in the future.

Content Courtesy of: foodbusinessnews.net

Written by: Eric Schroeder

Kellogg expanding plant-based portfolio

BATTLE CREEK, MICH.— Kellogg Co. is extending its MorningStar Farms portfolio with the introduction of Incogmeato by MorningStar Farms. The new product line includes the company’s first ready-to-cook plant-based burger to be sold in the refrigerated meat case and frozen, fully prepared plant-based Chik’n tenders and nuggets.

“Our testing indicates we have a consumer preference for our food,” Steven A. Cahillane, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Kellogg, said during a Sept. 4 presentation at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference in Boston. “We think the food is outstanding. I’ve been in our test kitchen myself grilling this up. It is a real meat-like experience. It grills like meat. It bleeds like meat. It tastes like meat, and we’re very excited. We think we have a right to win in this space, and … launching in the first quarter of 2020, and we have ambitious plans for this.”

MorningStar Farms has been involved in the plant-based foods space for many years and, according to Kellogg often has been the first meat-alternative product people have tried. Now the company is hoping to build on its name recognition at a time when more and more companies are entering the plant-based foods category.

“We know that about three-fourths of Americans are open to plant-based eating, yet only 1 in 4 actually purchase a plant-based alternative,” said Sara Young, general manager, MorningStar Farms, plant-based proteins. “So, the intent is fully there, but it hasn’t necessarily been followed with action. We know the No. 1 barrier to trying plant-based protein is taste. These consumers are still seeking the amazing taste, texture and sizzling qualities of meat but want a better alternative for themselves and the planet.”

Kellogg said the 4-oz plant-based patties are made with non-G.M.O. soy and will be sold in the refrigerated meat case. The plant-based Chik’n tenders and nuggets, also made with non-G.M.O. soy, will be sold in the freezer section.

Also during the Barclays presentation Mr. Cahillane said Kellogg is testing a product called Leaf Jerky, which he described as being a 100% plant-based meat jerky. He said the product arose out of a program at Kellogg called “Tiger Tank,” which is the company’s version of the television show “Shark Tank.”

“Internal employees came up with this idea for Leaf Jerky,” he said. “One year later, we’re launching. And so we’re launching in a test. We’ll see what it does.”

ART

In Times Square, Artist Kehinde Wiley Raises Monument to a New Kind of History

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Annie Armstrong

Kehinde Wiley, Rumors of War (2019), installed in Times Square. Below, the artist embraces his gallerist Sean Kelly.

ANNIE ARMSTRONG/ARTNEWS

On Friday afternoon, amid the chaos of New York’s Times Square, a very calm and well-dressed group of people congregated near 46th Street and 8th Avenue beneath a looming abstract shape shrouded by a silver cloth. What hid beneath was Rumors of War, a new sculpture by Kehinde Wiley, but no one had yet seen it.

Champagne was passed around to attendees including Thelma Golden from the Studio Museum in Harlem, gallerist Sean Kelly, writer Antwaun Sargent, and Tom Finkelpearl, commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. (Whispers got around that Barack Obama, who chose Kehinde Wiley to paint his Presidential likeness for the National Portrait Gallery, might make an appearance, though sadly he did not).

Suddenly, a marching band rolled in, their yellow-and-black costumes revealing their origins from Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark, New Jersey, amid chants of “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Wiley himself then appeared in front of the grey monolith, looking larger than life in a colorful suit, and began to dance.

“We thank Kehinde for making this day a day of rebirth,” Alex Nyerges, the director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, said to the assembled in a thick southern drawl. The museum a few states away had already acquired the mystery work—which was still in hiding—after a unanimous vote from its board, and board chair Monroe E. Harris added, “From the slave ship to the board room, we have made progress. Look at this crowd. This is the most important acquisition this museum has ever made.”

Richmond, the Virginia Museum’s home, is also home to 10 Confederate statues still standing in the city. “That’s 10 too many,” Levar Stoney, Richmond’s mayor, said.

When the drape was lifted and the monument was revealed, the sculpture—of a young black man wearing a hoodie and sporting dreadlocks astride a horse going to battle, his Nikes driving hard into stirrups—was greeted by a mix of gasps and applause. In an earlier description of the piece—which is being shown in New York by Times Square Arts along with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Sean Kelly Gallery through December 1—the artist said, “Rumors of War attempts to use the language of equestrian portraiture to both embrace and subsume the fetishization of state violence.” In front of the audience, he said, “Human nature is to have war. Human nature is to have strife. The nature of human beings is to be in moments politically and socially like the one right now, but there’s nothing new to that. And we’re stronger than it.”

Wiley came up with the idea for the piece after visiting Richmond three years ago and walking down Monument Avenue, which is lined with Confederate statues. “What does it feel like physically to walk a public space and to have your state, your country, your nation say, ‘This is what we stand by’?” he asked the audience, exasperated. “We want more. We demand more. We creative people need to create more.”

Looking choked up, Wiley continued: “We come from a beautiful, fractured, sometimes terrible past. But I think the job of artists is to be able to take all those myriad pieces [and] imagine them coming back together, to be able to look at yourself—your black body, your female body, your trans body, whoever you happen to be—to be able to see yourself in this place that we call America.”

© 2019 ARTNEWS MEDIA, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ARTNEWS® IS REGISTERED IN THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE.

Kanye West to Release IMAX Film Set in James Turrell’s Roden Crater

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Andy Battaglia

The poster with an interior shot of Roden Crater.

Rapper and art enthusiast Kanye West is releasing a new film in collaboration with IMAX with footage of his Sunday Service performance series set in Roden Crater, the decades-in-the-making sculptural array being built within a dormant volcano by artist James Turrell.

“Filmed in the summer of 2019, Jesus Is King brings Kanye West’s famed Sunday Service to life in the Roden Crater, visionary artist James Turrell’s never-before-seen installation in Arizona’s Painted Desert,” a release issued by IMAX reads, with news of screenings in theaters starting October 25. “This one-of-a-kind experience features songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with music from his new album Jesus Is King—all presented in the immersive sound and stunning clarity of IMAX.”

Fundraising activities for Roden Crater have been on the rise as Turrell continues work on a project first started when he spied the site near Flagstaff, Arizona, while flying over the desert in search of a volcano of his own. A recently established interdiscipinary partnership with Arizona State University—minted in part with help from Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and president of the artist’s Skystone Foundation—is part of ambitious efforts to raise at least $200 million to ramp up construction so as to open Roden Crater to the public in a projected five years. And after a visit to the site with Turrell, West—whose interests in art are said to also extend to Michael Heizer and Isamu Noguchi—donated $10 million to the project in January.

The poster for Jesus Is King features an interior shot of Roden Crater, which will feature a network of tunnels and chambers arranged in astrological alignments to serve as a sort of sculptural observatory for the sky.

© 2019 ARTNEWS MEDIA, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ARTNEWS® IS REGISTERED IN THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE.

As demonstrations return to Cairo, Egyptian protest artist goes on show in new London space

Content Courtesy of: theartnewspaper.com

Written by: TIM CORNWELL

Exhibition of street artist Bahia Shehab’s work opens at Aga Khan Centre Gallery in King’s Cross

Bahia Shehab’s latest political graffiti work in London was removed within 24 hours, according to the artist Courtesy of the artist

More than 2,000 people, including prominent activists and lawyers, are said to have been arrested after a flurry of demonstrations erupted in Cairo last week, according to reports in the Guardian. As the protests against the president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi took place, the Egyptian street artist and scholar Bahia Shehab—who came to global attention in the 2011 Arab Spring that saw millions of people demonstrating in the capital’s Tahrir Square—opened an exhibition in London.

The show is the first for the Aga Khan Centre’s new, non-commercial gallery in King’s Cross. It includes a film with four circling screens showing disparate scenes, from a graffiti artist’s suitcase and a body floating in a Greek swimming pool, to a bridal couple’s bizarre progress through Cairo’s famous City of the Dead necropolis.

During the Arab Spring, Shehab developed a signature style of stencilled calligraffiti inspired historic representations of the word “no” found on mosques, tombstones or ancient buildings, echoing the Arabic saying “no, and a thousand times no”. She also uses lines from the famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

While Shehab has put her poetic protests on the walls of cities around the world, from Cairo to Stavanger, incredibly her latest offering in London was erased in just 24 hours. She took time out earlier this month to take a couple of volunteers to spray a construction site wall in Clerkenwell with the message, in Arabic: “no to borders, no to Brexit, and no to Boris”.

The exhibition, At the Corner of a Dream (until 5 January), also includes a small display of a protesters’ gas mask and gloves, as well as a piece of asphalt from Tahrir Square, and part of a demolished house in Palestine. The Aga Khan Centre Gallery’s curator Esen Kaya calls Shehab “one of the most important Arab female artists working today”. Shehab says, “I’m not a commercial artist, I’m a street artist, so I don’t easily exhibit in galleries. I do when I have to but I’m more comfortable on the street.” A book with the same title as the show, a kind of travelogue of her global “journey of resistance and rebellion” in street art, is published this week.

Shehab says she avoided overt political messages in the film: “I’m an artist, but I’m not an artist in Egypt—I’m an educator, a curator. I don’t do any art in Egypt, I haven’t since 2013.”  The film, she says, is unlikely to be exhibited in Cairo.

The Aga Khan Development Network has worked on prominent heritage restoration and social programmes in Egypt. Shehab describes the AKF as “the only Islamic art patron I know globally that truly represents what Islamic culture stands for… I believe in their mission and I respect it and I’m very grateful that they gave a space for me to exhibit.”

One piece by Shehab remains on an English wall. A  30-metre mural called We Will Not Repent, based on a line by Darwish, was executed with some 40 volunteers on a wall at Lincoln University’s Nicola de la Haye arts building in late August.

FASHION Amazon Wants You To Wear Alexa On Your Face With Echo Frames

Content Courtesy of: in.mashable.com

Written by:  KARISSA BELL

Amazon already has an Alexa-enabled product for just about every room in your house. Now the company wants to put Alexa on an entirely new surface: your face.

The retailer just announced Echo Frames, eyeglasses that come with Alexa built-in. While the new glasses will undoubtedly bring up comparisons to Google Glass, Amazon’s new eyeglasses don’t have cameras or a display. Instead, the glasses are meant to make Alexa accessible at all times throughout the day.

The glasses have a microphone and small speaker built in, so you can ask Alexa questions or use commands to set reminders. The speaker is meant to beam sound towards the wearer’s ears so they can hear it but people nearby won’t (the idea is somewhat similar to Bose Frames sunglasses).

Echo Frames will be on sale on a limited, invitation-only basis later this year for $179.99 and are available with or without prescription lenses.

If you don’t want Alexa actually on your face, Amazon also introduced another new device for wearing its assistant: Echo Loop, a titanium ring you can use to control Alexa from your fingertips.

The ring has two mics, a speaker, and a haptic engine built in. You can use the microphones and speaker to interact with Alexa, and the haptic engine will trigger small vibrations, which can be linked to your phone’s notifications.

“Simply press a button talk softly to Alexa and then the answer comes discretely through a small speaker built into the ring,” Amazon notes.

It’s difficult to imagine that talking to Alexa via a ring on your finger is at all “discrete,” but Amazon notes that both Loop and Frames are somewhat experimental.  The two new products are “Day 1 Editions,” which means Amazon is only making a small number available as it looks for initial feedback.

Cardi B Wins Paris Fashion Week With Her Boldest Look Yet

Content Courtesy of: vogue.com

Written by: CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

Cardi B isn’t afraid of slipping on the most experimental pieces designers have to offer. Remember her brief obsession with archival Mugler, including the feathery couture ensemble from the label’s Fall 1995 collection that she wore to perform at this year’s Grammys? Nothing is off limits for the fashion-obsessed rapper. No gown too flashy or extravagant! And this is particularly true this week: Cardi hit up the Spring shows in Paris this weekend, stepping up her style game even further in the process: she was spotted wearing her boldest look yet.

Staging an impromptu photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower, Cardi hit the streets in a head-to-toe outfit by Richard Quinn—at least, we think that’s Cardi. The rapper’s face was concealed by a floral mask that blended in with the rest of her ensemble, including a boxy jacket, pleated skirt, and tights to match. “I’m here to serve it to you cold,” she said of the look, crossing the street in her uploaded Instagram video. “Make sure a car don’t hit me, because a bitch can’t see.”

The very directional look is from the English designer’s Fall 2019 collection, exactly as it appeared on the runway. Quinn has made florals his trademark though his looks are hardly for wallflowers. And while Cardi certainly went incognito in this getup, all eyes—tourists and paparazzi alike—were still on her like bees to honey. Her cover was blown.

Helen Mirren Takes the Red Carpet Entrance to the Next Level

Content Courtesy of: vogue.com

Written by: CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

Dame Helen Mirren is a legendary actress who deserves an even more legendary red carpet entrance—and that’s exactly what she pulled off last night, at the premiere of her new TV series Catherine The Great, in Mayfair, London. Instead of walking onto the step and repeat like every other ol’ Hollywood A-lister, Mirren chose to be carried onto it by four men instead. Sitting ever so regal in her brocade litter enclosed with glass, it’s as though she was using the moment to channel Catherine the Great herself, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader.

Mirren’s outré entrance is a capital-E extra move only a Dame could pull off—but don’t go thinking the fabulousness stopped there. Once the doors swung open and Mirren walked out of her private litter, the actress then put forward a chic red carpet ensemble that included another nod to the 1700s: she wore a corset-inspired top that had a squared neckline, pairing it with a floor-length skirt and seriously ornate jewelry, including a statement necklace and dangly earrings. The whole affair made for a thematic experience that is exactly what a red carpet moment should be: theatrical, over-the-top, and unabashedly fun. Consider the bar raised.

Margiela Model Leon Dame Just Gave Paris Fashion Week Its Fiercest Walk

Content Courtesy of: vogue.com

Written by: JANELLE OKWODU

Photo: Courtesy of Maison Margiela / Fashion Feed

You don’t need a giant set or a celebrity appearance to enliven Paris Fashion Week—sometimes all it takes is a truly great walk. This morning, at Maison Margiela’s Spring 2020 coed collection, John Galliano’s cast stomped through the Grand Palais with a fierce sense of purpose, their tweed utility jackets and side caps gave them an air of military authority. And no one did this better than Leon Dame, the German model whose very expressive strut closed the show. A zigzagging waggle of hips that was at once seductive and sinister, Dame’s walk had the entire crowd reaching for its iPhone.

As spontaneous as it seemed, the strut took a bit of advance planning. “I already had something on my mind, but I worked it out during the rehearsals with Pat Boguslawski the night before the show,” shared Dame, who enlisted the famed choreographer and movement director to help bring the concept to life.

The Margiela runway has long been a showcase for models willing to go above and beyond. The majesty of the clothing allows for a degree of creative freedom when it comes to the presentation. Who can forget Aneta Pajak’s now-infamous hunched stomp during Fall 2015, or Bella Hadid’s mesmerizing liquid gold moment at Fall 2017’s couture show? Dame, who already ranks among the world’s leading male models—having worked with everyone from Acne Studios to Valentino—understood the opportunity at hand. When he headed out on the runway, he did so with a classic supermodel adage in mind: “Work it,” he told himself. If the crowd’s reaction is anything to go by, he did exactly that.

Adidas and Reebok team up for first sneaker collab

Content Courtesy of: fashionunited.uk

Written by: Huw Hughes

Sportswear giants Adidas and Reebok have teamed up to launch a collaborative sneaker for the first time: Instapump Fury Boost.

The Instapump Fury was launched by Reebok in 1994 – a modern, minimalist sandal-like design stretched over a thin GraphLite shard that bridged a gaping Split Sole unit. The new Instapump Fury Boost combines the Instapump with the performance power and cushioning of Adidas’ exclusive Boost technology.

“Instapump Fury Boost is exactly something we would have tried back in 1994 if we had the technology,” Steven Smith, designer of the Instapump Fury, said in a statement. “We were always experimenting to find the best cushioning system possible. It is great to build a hybrid of the best of both brands’ technologies.”

Kelly Hibler, general manager, Reebok Classic, commented: “When the Instapump Fury was released in 1994, there was no other athletic shoe like it. Even today, it feels ambitiously experimental. Now 25 years later, the Instapump Fury is ready for reinvention. Celebrating the legacy of the Instapump and the cushioning of adidas’s Boost technology, the Instapump Fury Boost is here for a whole new generation.”

The Instapump Fury Boost will be featured across three packs that capture the heritage of both the Fury and Boost concepts. The packs will launch throughout the remainder of Autumn/Winter 2019. The first of the three packs, the Instapump Fury Boost “Prototype”, will be available exclusively at atmosCon Japan 10/5 limited to 50 pairs only.

TECH

Elon Musk brought little news but lots of hype for the SpaceX Starship

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: ADAM ROSENBERG

SpaceX’s much-heralded Starship reveal on Saturday night was undone somewhat by the fact that it’s hard to maintain secrecy with a 165-foot vehicle.

The Elon Musk-hosted evening presentation in Boca Chica, Texas gave viewers on the ground and watching from home via the livestream an update on the long-in-development spacecraft. The SpaceX Starship is a reusable vehicle capable of carrying both passengers and cargo beyond Earth’s orbit and out into our solar system.

Musk has described it as a “multiplanetary” transport that “will allow us to inhabit other worlds. Nevermind the fact that SpaceX hasn’t actually launched a crewed ship into space at this point, as NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine pointedly made clear in a statement on Friday.

Musk promised during the hour-plus Boca Chica presentation that such a development is coming soon. Starship could take to the skies before the end of winter 2020 – perhaps even before the end of 2019 – and it could do so with passengers aboard by later in the same year.

“This thing is going to take off, fly to 65,000 feet — about 20 kilometers — and come back and land in about one to two months,” Musk said, standing in front of the gleaming Starship prototype that was assembled on the launchpad in the days leading up to the presentation. It’s not quite ready to fly, but it made for an effective prop as Musk hyped the next steps for SpaceX.

Throughout (and after) the presentation, SpaceX stayed active on Twitter, sharing out various tidbits of info on Starship and looks at photos, videos, and mockups. The tweets fill in all the key details for people who want to know all the key points without having to watch the 100-minute presentation.

(Raptor engines will be used to carry Starship skyward.)

 

Uber buries its ride map to put Uber Eats front and center

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by:  SASHA LEKACH

The Uber app is getting an extreme makeover.

For the first time, the hallmark Uber ride-hailing map with cars crawling around the screen will no longer be in the spotlight. Instead, the app will soon open to a landing page with choices for your preferred Uber features. Starting in October, you can choose between catching a ride or ordering food through the Uber Eats delivery service.

At an all-out Uber event in the style of an Apple iPhone announcement in San Francisco on Thursday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he sees Uber as “the operating system for your everyday life.” That means the Uber app is open not just when you need a ride, but when you need to plan dinner, bike to a meeting, or even take the bus somewhere.

He called the mapless homepage “our vision for the next generation of the Uber app,” and acknowledged it’s “a big change,” but worth it for the “one-click gateway to everything Uber can offer for you.”

This week, some users will start to see a modified home screen that still includes a map, but now includes a bottom tab to toggle between “Rides” and “Eats.”

So instead of immediately jumping into riding options like UberX, Uber Pool, or renting Jump e-bikes or Lime e-scooters, the focus has shifted to food orders. The app change seems like preparation for more expensive and less frequently hailed rides amid complicated driver pay issues, like those stemming from California’s AB 5 law about independent contractors and sinking stock prices.

Nundu Janakiram, director of rider product, said in a phone call ahead of the event that Uber is more than a transportation app at this point. With Uber Eats nipping at the ride-sharing side of the app, the ride-hail company is simplifying the app “to reduce the friction and make it easier to access the platform.” This is catering to users who get in an Uber and order a meal to be delivered at their destination. Or just use Uber Eats and skip the “Uber” part.

At the event Thursday, Uber announced 1 billion Uber Eats deliveries worldwide. To keep the orders coming, a new Uber Pass subscription will offer savings for all of Uber’s products including free delivery on Uber Eats. Or a new Eats Pass is just solely focused on food delivery discounts for frequent users. Uber still has a Ride Pass for a ride-only monthly subscription.

SEE ALSO: Lyft’s makeover makes it way easier to find a bus, bike, or e-scooter

Other updates outside of Uber’s main ride-sharing focus were announced, like new safety features, especially timely with a recent Washington Post report about mishandled safety procedures. Soon riders can text 911 through the app instead of calling via the 911 button. For verified ride pick-ups eventually all riders will receive a PIN to match with the driver and if you opt in you can automatically verify the PIN through ultrasound waves between the driver and passenger phone once you’re within close range.

For Uber-owned Jump pedal-assist bicycles, a new design for 2020 includes swappable batteries that riders can take out and trade for a fully charged battery at charging kiosks. The current Jump e-bikes have swappable batteries, but only for Jump employees to access

More transit options for public transportation systems are listed in the app now, with San Francisco, Mexico City, and Paris live as of Thursday. So instead of hailing an Uber car, you can look up in the app how to catch a bus to your destination. It helps that if the next bus is 40 minutes away you’re already in the Uber app.

All this comes the same week as the Lyft app added tabs for different transit options on its home screen. But instead of moving away from the iconic map, Lyft added all its transit options onto the screen to show buses, scooters, bikes, and regular Lyft cars available nearby.

Everyone is moving away from ride-hailing.

Amazon’s Alexa Will Soon Add Samuel L. Jackson’s Voice

Content Courtesy of: in.mashable.com

Written by: ALEX PERRY

What if Amazon’s Alexa could tell you the weather in a much more excited and profane way?

At its annual hardware event on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a slew of updates to its virtual assistant, including the ability to add the voice of Samuel L. Jackson.

And Amazon is using neural text-to-speech technology to replicate the iconic actor’s voice, instead of having him record canned lines to repeat ad nauseam. That seems pretty creepy, but if it works, it works.

The Samuel L. Jackson Alexa personality is launching later this year. Anyone who buys it in 2019 will get it for just $0.99. Humorously, there will be explicit and non-explicit versions of his voice available for use.

Alexa just keeps getting more Alexa-

Amazon also announced a “deep learning model” that will allow Alexa to understand vocal inflections. If she senses frustration, she’ll recognize it, according to Amazon. That will roll out next year.

In more important but less glitzy news, Alexa is getting some new privacy and ease-of-use options. Starting now, users can ask “Alexa, tell me what you heard” and she’ll give read back your last voice command. Later this year, Amazon will add an “Alexa, why did you do that?” command that will force Alexa to explain her most recent response to you.

Since people have been justifiably weirded out by the way Alexa stores voice recordings, Amazon is also adding an auto-delete toggle in the Privacy Hub. The rolling deletion tool will automatically purge anything older than three months or 18 months, depending on which the user chooses.

CULTURE

Iconic East Village Newsstand Rebrands as “Schitibank” in Anti-Gentrification Prank

Gem Spa Rally Turns Beloved East Village Institution Into Mock “Schitibank”

Content Courtesy of: gothamist.com

Written by: JESSE JARNOW

GRETCHEN ROBINETTE / GOTHAMIST

*Tommy Noonan, Jeremiah Moss, Doug Cameron (Noonan and Cameron created the Schitibank mash-ups)

A source of delicious egg creams and daily newspapers since at least the 1930s, an unassuming shop at the corner of St. Marks Place and 2nd Avenue was renamed Gem Spa in 1957 and swiftly transformed into a meeting ground for generations of downtown artists, musicians, poets, and activists. This year has brought fears that the store is in danger, however, and on Saturday a “cash mob” helped transform the venerable newsstand into a “Schitibank,” evoking past counterculture happenings of the old, weird East Village.

Organized by Vanishing New York’s Jeremiah Moss and #SaveNYC to draw attention to the plight of small businesses in a corporate-dominated Manhattan, the protest blanketed the legendary corner in art that mashed up Citibank’s brand of cuddly capitalism with the neighborhood’s countercultural heroes.

“Yes, another Schitibank,” read the banner over the front window, while art featured some of the store’s most famous customers. “The same Schiti ATM used by the New York Dolls,” promised a sign with a picture of the glam-punk quintet outside Gem Spa, originally featured on the back of the band’s 1973 debut. Another offered “Robert Mapplethorpe points,” redeemable for egg creams, vapes, and leather cock rings.

It’s been a turbulent year for Gem Spa. The illness of longtime owner Ray Patel and the recent loss of their cigarette license, compounded by the ongoing decline of print media, have only fed ongoing rumors of takeover by Citibank or another corporate force. Zoltar the Fortune-Teller disappeared in the late spring, as did the daily newspapers. Last month, the NY Times reported that Patel is being sued by the shop’s landlord for thousands in unpaid back rent. But Parul Patel, running the business in the wake of her father’s illness, insists “the worst is behind us. We’re not closing, we’re not thinking about closing.”

The egg cream line stretched to the refrigerator cases in the back on Saturday (not unlike this above scene from 1969), as Patel stood behind the counter and directed traffic. Earlier in the year, in an effort to attract customers, she established the store’s social media presence (on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter) and began to concoct new share-ready egg cream flavors. A new Gem Spa T-shirt was an instant hit, sucked into the world of influencers. Already cited as a fashion must, it’s been declared “way cooler than Supreme” by the editor of streetwear magazine Fucking Young, and Patel says it will soon be sported by neighbor Remy Holwick at Fashion Week in Paris. Sold out and reordered several times over, bootleg knock-offs quickly appeared online. Patel stresses that customers should only purchase the $20 shirts directly from the store, or via the store’s PayPal account. Egg cream pint glasses and other merch will follow.

“This is the best day in Gem Spa history,” Patel declared on Saturday, simultaneously distributing shirt orders, greeting visiting family members, and firmly explaining to a photographer that James the cat is very friendly and would surely only have batted someone if suitably provoked.

Outside, the corner overflowed with supporters and a healthy scrum of reporters.

*The Gem Spa bodega cat, James. GRETCHEN ROBINETTE / GOTHAMIST

“It’s about raising awareness that this is some place the community really cares about,” Jeremiah Moss said, emphasizing that “it’s about more than just Gem Spa.” Representatives from #SaveNYC passed out literature, emphasizing their objective of passing the Small Business Jobs Survival Act. “We want to make clear that banks and big chains really aren’t welcome here.”

“They devised the whole campaign, they did everything,” says Patel. “We’ve always gotten press, but I need to get business. As I told them, I don’t need a one-hit wonder, I need to people to continue to patronize the store. I think I’m seeing that, though, and not just this weekend, either.”

But the mood on Saturday was less like an organized protest than a cross between the casual gatherings Gem Spa has been informally hosting for decades, and the kind of surrealist ferment for which the neighborhood has long been known. In fact, the very idea of the chaotic media-activated socially-conscious flash mob manifested for the first time only five blocks to the south of Gem Spa in 1967, when Bob Fass organized a “Sweep-in” of East 3rd Street via his WBAI show, Radio Unnameable. Later that summer, Abbie Hoffman martialed his Yippie forces outside Gem Spa and led them to the Stock Exchange, where they threw money from the balcony.

“Events like this make you see a kind of invisible community,” said Doug Cameron, co-creator of the Situationist-inspired Schitibank mash-ups with partner Tommy Noonan. The pair—who work by day as the design firm DCX Growth Accelerator—came to Moss’s attention after they helped stage an “Artisanal Rent Hike Price Sale” at a Boerum Hill bodega in 2015. “You start paying attention to who’s really going to the deli, who’s really around the neighborhood,” Cameron said. One homeless patron of Gem Spa told Cameron that the store had saved their life on multiple occasions.

*Parul Patel, right, works the counter at the rally GRETCHEN ROBINETTE / GOTHAMIST

On Saturday, parents could be seen introducing their kids to egg creams while neighborhood weirdos got on with their hustles and James the cat threaded through the crowd, friendly but camera shy. “It’s weird, literally like a bubbly milkshake,” observed one teenage egg cream newbie. Painter Mark Miletta, a devotee of Gem Spa regular Jean-Michel Basquiat, drove from north of Albany to honor the store and sell prints of his paintings of Gem Spa. In a dog collar, leather pants, and faux-leopard-print jacket, punk-coiffed Devyln Shadow performed for #SaveNYC’s cameras and posited about a Lower East Side bank and an alternative currency with Joey Ramone on the one dollar bill.

Citibank, meanwhile, denied via Twitter that they were interested in Gem Spa’s corner. “We’d love for you to come to @Citi HQ to share your egg creams w/ our staff who care about iconic NYC traditions.” A rep for Citi, Matthew Polevoy, told Gothamist on Monday, “Citi and our team of colleagues in NYC love and respect NYC institutions like Gem Spa. We have never explored opening a branch at that location.”

Even if they didn’t inquire about the property, as has been rumored, the bank remains emblematic of the neighborhood’s disappearance into a mire of corporate storefronts, and one can easily imagine them getting jealous of the Emigrant in the former Fillmore East/The Saint a few blocks to the south, and the Chase currently occupying the original Second Avenue Deli a few blocks to the north.

“It was great!” Patel said of the rally, when we spoke to her on Monday. “It was beyond my wildest dreams. I thought 20 people would show up, and the day before they told me 150 people had responded. I thought I’d prep for 150-200 people. But I didn’t count, and way more than that showed up. The store was packed the whole time. There were lines going out the door, even beyond the time of the event. It finally quieted down around 6, and it continued into Sunday.”

The Schitbank makeover will remain on display for the immediate future. As of Monday morning, the store now sports a new grate painting by artist (and White Zombie co-founder) Paul Kostabi.

*The new mural at Gem Spa PARUL PATEL

Artists transform historic Gem Spa into “Schitibank” to help save it

Content Courtesy of: timeout.com

Written by: Emma Orlow

Gem Spa is a newspaper stand and candy shop that’s been home to one of New York’s best egg creams since opening in 1957. (It opened before that in the 1920s, operating under a different name.) But in recent weeks, it’s been facing closure. Local blog E.V. Grieve recently reported that the business has lost its license to sell cigarettes and lottery tickets, and Zoltar, the fortune teller game that sat out front, has been removed. Hours have also been scaled back at the corner spot, once known during the punk era for its all-night offerings. 

But last night, an art installation emerged on the historic East Village storefront. Faux advertising reads “Schitibank coming soon,” and the fake ads feature punk bands like the New York Dolls, jokingly saying that it was once their preferred “bohemian” bank. (Gem Spa appeared on the back cover of the band’s first album.) The art piece is a nod to the fact that Citibank has reportedly been trying to replace Gem Spa’s location (Citibank, meanwhile, has denied this and even invited Gem Spa’s team to their HQ for egg creams on their dime.)

The art installation is a collaboration between author Jeremiah Moss of Vanishing New York and Tommy Noonan and Doug Cameron of the design firm DCX Accelerator. Moss was a fan of the design duo’s staged installation they called an “Artisanal Landlord Price-Hike Sale” at Brooklyn’s Jesse’s Deli when it was facing similar peril.

“We see too many large banks and large chain stores move into these small neighborhoods putting mom-and-pop shops out of business. We wanted to see if our art could prevent that. Gem Spa is a fixture of the community and we wanted to help,” shares Noonan and Cameron on Moss’ blog. The installation seems to also mock the Lower East Side opening of a Target branch that used CBGB’s history in its marketing. “The whole store will look as if a Schitibank has come to the East Village and tried to co-opt the space in a cool way, kind of like many other corporations, Chase cafés, TD Bank that knocked down Mars Bar, Target Greenwich Village, and how John Varvatos took over CBGB’s and kept the vibe,” they continued.

The piece comes ahead of Saturday’s cash mob run by grassroots organization #SaveNYC that invites fans of Gem Spa to spend their money in support of the East Village fixture (The event runs from noon until 2pm.) The Schitibank installation is just one of a few creative solutions to save Gem Spa that’s currently being piloted. Owner Ray Patel’s daughter Parul even started the shop’s own Instagram account to help spread awareness of its pending fate. The family behind the bodega made T-shirts with the iconic yellow logo as well and are selling paintings of the shop designed by local artists. Artist, Jean Michel Basquiat, who is featured in one of the Schitibank ads, made a painting in ode to Gem Spa back in 1982.

Gem Spa is one of the few remaining bastion of the East Village as it once was. This weekend, show your support if the spot’s storied history means something to you.

Gem Spa is located at 131 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003.

Gem Spa has become “Schitibank” ahead of cash mob Saturday

Content Courtesy of: brooklynvegan.com

Written by: Amanda Hatfield

photo via @123dortiz

Iconic East Village bodega Gem Spa, which has been struggling to keep its doors open, has gotten a (temporary) makeover ahead of a “cash mob” on Saturday aimed at driving business to the store. As Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York writes, he got Tommy Noonan and Doug Cameron of design firm DCX Accelerator on board to create an art installation playing on the rumor that CitiBank is looking to take over the space (for their part, Citi denied the rumor on twitter). A satire of blatant marketing schemes like Target East Village’s CBGB “recreation, the “Schitibank” design installation plays off art and activism, and features Jean-Michel Basquiat, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, The New York Dolls, and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others. Take a look in the Instagrams below.

“>You can also experience “Schitibank” for yourself in person for a limited time (and help keep Gem Spa open) during a “cash mob” being held on Saturday September 14 from 12 PM-2 PM. From the Facebook event:

“#SaveNYC is hosting a Cash Mob at Gem Spa to help support this beloved East Village business–and keep it alive. Come prepared to spend some money—egg creams, pretzels, t-shirts, toothpaste!–and take your photo with a surprise work of guerrilla street art, as an acclaimed group of cultural activists and designers radically transform Gem Spa into a dystopian vision for the new St. Mark’s Place.

View this post on Instagram

gem spa popping off today 😂

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House passes CBD banking bill

Content Courtesy of: foodnavigator-usa.com

Written by: Hank Schultz

The United States Capitol building against Blue Sky, Washington DC

A bill that will allow companies selling CBD products to access banking services has been approved by the US House of Representatives.

Dubbed the SAFE Banking Act, the bill was introduced by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-CO.  The bill will allow companies dealing in hemp or hemp-derived CBD products to use nancial institutions that are part of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation).  The bill now goes to  the Senate.

As one of the rst states to both pass medical marijuana laws and legalize full recreational use, Colorado has been at the forefront of the CBD boom.

In the early days of the cannabis business in Colorado, as elsewhere, companies were forced to deal in cash, because no FDIC bank would agree to accept such deposits. That led to obvious diculties, including the need to have armed guards on site

That has changed to some degree, and some nancial institutions have taken such deposits in recent years.  But it’s a patchwork quilt, and one that is rapidly changing, as some credit card payment processors have abruptly shifted course and have stopped processing such payments when they had previously been doing so. Earlier this year online seller Thrive Markets was forced to suspend sales of hemp products as a result while it sought a dierent payments processor.

Regulatory clarity still needed

The new bill is a boon for companies trying to comply with regulations, such as they are.  A number of CBD companies hawk the fact that their products are made in GMP compliant facilities, and that their products pass rigorous tests.

But all of that exists within the confounding fact that as far as the US Food and Drug Administration is concerned, CBD is still an illegal dietary ingredient.  So Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president of the Natural Products Association, said that while having the banking bill advance another step in the legislative process is a good thing, there is still a long way to go.

“This is a win for legitimate businesses who are selling CBD products, but the bottom line is it doesn’t change the fact that congress needs to direct FDA to set a safe level of consumption for CBD,” Fabricant said.

“We will continue to work with the House and Senate to ensure that consumers have the information they need to make informed decisions about their health, especially when it comes to the fast-growing CBD marketplace,” he added.

FDA has said that it plans to make an announcement about the regulatory path forward for hemp and hempderived CBD products sometime this fall. The agency has also received a letter for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) demanding that FDA issue a formal declaration on enforcement discretion within 120 days.

Self-Grandparenting Is The New Self-Parenting And They’re Both Self-Care

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: CAITLIN WELSH

It’s tough to practice real self-care when the internet’s obsessed with #selfcare. Let Mashable help with our new series Me, My Self-Care & I.

As the concept of self-care has spiralled out from the original definition, one of its new mutant meanings stands out: Self-care is actually just self-parenting.

It’s the care in caretaking, being the stern but loving voice in your own head that fights the whining kid who doesn’t wanna — telling yourself to go to bed at a sensible hour, not eating Froot Loops for dinner, going to the doctor when you need to, wearing the warmer coat, whatever the 2019 equivalent of balancing your checkbook is. It’s keeping yourself safe and healthy and all the other things on that second floor of the Maslow pyramid.

Learning that discipline is an important part of what I absolutely fucking refuse to call “adulting,” and you are doing yourself no favours by avoiding it well into your 20s.

And it’s true that giving into the whiny kid voice who just wants the fancy face masks and the next episode and the entire tub of ice cream and the not having to get out of your pajamas all day can also be self-care — being stern with yourself all the time is exhausting, and giving yourself permission is loving.

But somewhere between bingeing Succession at 3 a.m. in a bed full of chip crumbs, and an 8 p.m. bedtime after an all-broccoli dinner, is a form of self-care so grown-up it usually takes a lifetime to learn how to do it. If you haven’t already, it’s time to embrace self-grandparenting.

Molly Lambert, a writer and co-host of the podcast Night Call, has. She coined the term after she saw her friend Cait Raft, a TV writer, tweeting about “eating meatloaf alone at a restaurant.” (Googling the phrase, smugly convinced I’d thought of it myself, I’d found Lambert — of whom I was a longtime reader — had beaten me to it.)

“Climate change has made a lot of people reconsider or decide against procreating,” she says. “Since many of us will never get to have grandchildren, the idea was to treat yourself like your own grandchild.

It’s a joke about self-care but I’m also totally serious.”

Self-grandparenting is a form of self-care that involves simple pleasures, slow living, and a mode of mindfulness that back in someone’s day, if not mine, was probably just called noticing things. It’s indulging in things we don’t tend to think of as indulgent because they don’t involve reckless financial splurges (like buying expensive shoes because you deserve them), or life decisions that violate the 2019 moral imperative of wellness (like eating a whole tub of something). It’s doing wholesome things that come without the baggage and extra labor of having to talk yourself out of feeling guilty, which is so often the case when we declare things to be “self-care.”

“I think it’s more about being gentle with yourself than spoiling yourself,” explains Lambert. “I think self-care culture tends to be too focused on buying stuff like crystals and beauty supplies. Self-grandparenting is totally about taking up retirement hobbies, since a lot of millennials are also contract workers with a lot of downtime. Rather than feel guilty about not being a productive earner, it can be time for hobbies, exploring your neighborhood on foot, or cooking something comforting for yourself.”

The retiree vibe is key: Time is something a retired grandparent may well have both a lot of, and a finite amount of, but you don’t need to be past middle age for that to be true either. Self-grandparenting involves a certain reevaluation of how you spend and value your time, slowing down the pace of your living, spending, and consumption.

While plenty of contemporary grandparents are more likely to have stood in line for the Grateful Dead than their daily bread, for millennials, our cultural imagination of grandparents is as people whose childhoods were marked by post-Great Depression scarcity and want, who might have been retired on a fixed income roughly as long as we’ve known them, and have a make-do-and-mend thriftiness built in that lends itself to doing, simply, less.

“Doing nice things for yourself that are cheap or free is a good way to self-grandparent, and I recommend taking up those hobbies you always wanted to get to: pick up a used instrument, start a sketchbook, get into bird-watching,” Lambert suggests. “I’ve gotten into learning about constellations, which are comfortingly ancient, like grandparents.”

Perhaps you already practice self-grandparenting. I am not a person who relishes imminent unconsciousness — there is always so much more internet to read and delicious nothing to do — but if you love nothing more than a 6 p.m. dinner and early bedtime, that’s self-grandparenting. Doing puzzles. Baking. Schweppes’ Bitter Lemon (and other delicious but ascetic or old-fashioned flavours). All hobbies, broadly speaking, are self-grandparenting (less so if they involve a great deal of equipment or moisture-wicking fabrics). Watching obscure TV shows old people love instead of the booby prestige watercooler drama of the week, and then not talking about them online, is self-grandparenting.

Your particular self-grandparenting vibe might also change depending on your relationship with your own grandparents. It might be sweet and indulgent, or about a renewed lust for life when some of your precious time is handed back to you, or it might be of the platonic ideal of the sweet Nanna or wise-cracking Pop you never had.

“I was lucky enough to have really wonderful grandparents on both sides of my family,” says Lambert. “Not everyone is so lucky, so for those people it’s less about invoking their own specific grandparents than the general idea of a caring grandparent who would tell you it’s OK to have that bowl of ice cream after a hard day.”

And much as parents often become more mellow when they become grandparents — as though the stakes are lower, and they can afford to be indulgent now that the primary job of shaping a human is largely not on them — being your own grandparent (slash grandchild) can be a shortcut to an underrated product of life experience. The goal is the relaxed, live-and-let-live equanimity and, as Lambert puts it, “empathy for people, including yourself.”

Because some of your problems are of your own making, but plenty more are not, and that remains true whether you eat Pop-Tarts or salad for dinner.

“We live in terrible times,” Lambert points out, “and the least we could do is be less hard on ourselves for the things outside our control.”

Instagram Will Restrict Some Diet Posts, Once Users Complain

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by: RACHEL KRAUS

The days of detox teas and lip filler posts overrunning your Instagram may be numbered.

Facebook announced Wednesday (via The Guardian) that it is changing its policy around posts that peddle diet products and monetarily promote cosmetic surgery.

It will age-gate content that sells these products, making them invisible to anyone under 18. It will also outright ban posts that make “miraculous claims” about diet products with links or codes to buy.

But as with any new content policy, the devil is in the details. Facebook is drawing the (albeit fuzzy) line for the policy around posts that are clearly meant to generate sales of the product. How egregiously promotional a post has to be to fall under the policy is not yet clear, meaning the products and services could still have a strong presence on the platforms, if they’re careful about wording.

What’s more, Facebook and Instagram won’t be directly going after these posts. Instead, they will only age-gate or remove the posts after users report them — likely once plenty of susceptible users or minors have seen them.

“We will remove or restrict content if it breaks our Community Guidelines, once reported to us by the community,” a Facebook spokesperson clarified for Mashable.

It’s easy to see why Facebook is taking action on diet products and surgical procedures. There has been ongoing criticism of the presence of pernicious posts that offer gut squishing, face tweaking, and miracle diuretics that promise to make you look like a Kardashian (sometimes pushed by Kardashians themselves).

Beyond contributing to unhealthy body image expectations, some of the diet products can be supremely unhealthy, encouraging eating disorders or severely dehydrating users.

Additionally, social media has been linked to an increase in plastic surgery requests among young people. People want to look more like their filtered selves, and they turn to social media to find the people and procedures to make that happen; experts have said that social media is a huge advertising and marketing opportunity for plastic surgeons.

So now, in partnership with Dr. Ysabel Gerrard, who specializes in body image and mental health, and advocate-actor Jameela Jamil, a vocal critic of the diet industry’s use of influencer marketing, Facebook is making a change across both Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram will roll out a setting to report these sorts of posts within the app in coming weeks. Here is the specific wording of the policy that Facebook sent to Mashable:

  • Restrict: If a post promotes the use of certain weight loss products or cosmetic procedures, and has an incentive to buy or includes a price, we will restrict people we know to be under 18 from seeing that post
  • Remove: When the content makes a miraculous claim about certain diet or weight loss products, and is linked to a commercial offer such as a discount code, it will no longer be allowed under our Community Guidelines and we will remove it from Instagram

Though the new policy applies to both platforms, these posts have flourished on Instagram in particular, where Instagram models frequently promote body ideals that are unattainable without surgery, and often, photoshop — but nonetheless hawk detox teas to pay the bills. Facebook specifically said that it is looking at “products on Instagram such as diet teas, supplements and certain cosmetic surgery.” It’s likely that the new policy will affect the influencers who use their bodies as proof of these products’ validity the most.

That’s especially true since Facebook noted that it has always prohibited direct advertising of diet products and cosmetic surgery; the new policy is intended to “address the growing trend of influencer marketing and organic content.”

Additionally, doctors and the influencers they enlist to support them may be affected.

It’s still somewhat unclear what content Facebook will and will not allow or age gate at this time, and it seems that the discretion of human reviewers will play a huge part. We do know that it is focusing explicitly on diet products and procedures, and not products that fall into a gray area, like waist trainers. That’s something Facebook could consider in the future, since waist trainers aren’t exactly a diet or surgery product, but they function like modern corsets, make “miraculous claims,” and certainly promote an unhealthy body image.

Another clear differentiator for the policy is whether a post is simply promoting the product, or whether it is actively pushing a link to buy, or an offer code. If a post falls into the latter camp, it could be restricted or removed. Even posts that simply provide a price for the product could be subject to the policy.

Facebook has been taking steps to remove harmful physical and mental health information from its platforms. Earlier this month, it made changes to how it handles posts about suicide and self-harm, which includes restrictions on potentially triggering images. It has recently gone more aggressively after bogus cancer treatments and anti-vaccination content. It is also attempting to use AI to more proactively screen for prohibited content before it goes up, but that’s still not standard across the board.

Facebook is trying to catch up to all the ways toxic messaging can spread on its platforms, and it’s clear that specific policies for different types of posts is what’s needed. While the new policy doesn’t encompass the totality of harmful body image posts on a platform filled with unattainable standards, and still relies on users to do the heavy lifting of content moderation, it’s a step in the right direction.

ADVERTISING

The Greta Thunberg Helpline: For adults angry at a child’ gets approval from Greta herself

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

Written by:  ANDY MOSER

Satirist Mark Humphries has finally given a bunch of angry adults what they need: A helpline for those upset over teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg trying to save the planet.

SEE ALSO:Trump spent his night making fun of teen activist Greta Thunberg

The center fields a few exaggerated talking points from typically conservative critics, all highlighting the sheer hilarity and absurdity of grown adults acting like children.

We shouldn’t be listening to a child, we should be listening to an expert,” one man says.

“Oh right, well do you want me to put you through to an expert?” the representative asks before being hung up on.

The video ultimately envisions a sad world of adults shouting into the void to blow off steam as a less-terrible alternative to bullying Thunberg online. Humphries pokes fun at a scenario that has managed to take the usual maturity levels of teenagers and grown-ups and invert them.

Even Greta got in on the joke, retweeting Humphries’ video, adding, “Hang in there! Help is available.”

“If you’re a grown adult who needs to yell at a child for some reason, the Greta Thunberg Helpline is here to tolerate you.” Grown adults, take note before you send that Tweet.

Runners participate in an epic race with no finish line to test out the latest footwear tech

Content Courtesy of: mashable.com

 

 

SHAKIRA AND J. LO AT THE SUPER BOWL. PLUS, ADVERTISING WEEK TAKEAWAYS: FRIDAY WAKE-UP CALL

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by:  Angela Doland

Happy Friday. The ad industry mega-conference is (finally) over

Credit: Pepsi

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. If you’re reading this online or in a forwarded email, here’s the link to sign up for our daily newsletter. You can also get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device.

Shakira and J. Lo are the Super Bowl halftime stars

Maroon 5’s Super Bowl performance at this year’s Pepsi Super Bowl halftime was panned as forgettable, “flavorless” and “mushy at the edges.” Justin Timberlake, a year earlier, was “underwhelming.” Now Jennifer Lopez and Shakira are coming to the rescue.

As Ad Age’s E.J. Schultz writes, the pair will headline the show in Miami on Feb. 2; they were selected with help from Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, which is overseeing the lineup this time. “Ever since I saw Diana Ross fly off into the sky at the halftime show, I dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl,” Lopez said in a press release, referring to the 1996 show in which Ross made her exit in a helicopter (after four costume changes). Here’s hoping a duo of divas can bring back the ‘wow’ factor.

Advertising Week New York: It’s a wrap Advertising Week New York closed Thursday after four days. It felt like more. Partly because “attendees jammed escalators (which broke more than once), snaked up the stairs and queued in front of the concession stand,” Ad Age’s I-Hsien Sherwood writes. “Disorganization added to the confusion.” On the upside, Facebook brought along puppies for people to adopt. Read Sherwood’s “Five takeaways from Advertising Week New York.”

More on Advertising Week
Throwing down the gauntlet: 
General Mills Chief Marketing Officer Ivan Pollard challenged agencies to bring back more of his “trust, admiration and money.” Read more by Ad Age’s Lindsay Rittenhouse.

Troubling news: “New data from She Runs It and management consulting firm Diversity Best Practices shows a troubling decline in the number of women in executive positions in the advertising, media and technology industries,” I-Hsien Sherwood writes in Ad Age. Only 29 percent of corporate or executive positions in those sectors are held by women, down from 30 percent last year.

Pitbull: Hip-hop star Pitbull and Horizon Media have teamed up on a new multicultural agency called 305 Worldwide. Now they have a client: Boost Mobile. Watch Pitbull’s interview with Ad Age’s Ilyse Liffreing, recorded before he performed at the Advertising Week wrap party.

Just briefly: 

On second thought: Endeavor Group Holdings, the talent, sports, events and marketing company, pulled the plug on its initial public offering a day before it was set to happen. The IPO market seems more uncertain now. “Peloton Interactive had a disappointing debut earlier Thursday, following the disappointing debuts of Lyft and Uber earlier this year and the WeWork cataclysm of the past month,” CNBC writes.

‘Likes’: Facebook just started a test “to hide the number of likes, reactions and video views from posts in Australia. The author of the post will still be able to see those metrics, but other users won’t,” CNN writes. The company has already been testing the move on its Instagram platform; the idea is to make social media less anxiety-inducing.

Do-over: “The Grocery Manufacturers Association is renaming itself the Consumer Brands Association as it seeks to recover following the exodus of some of the nation’s largest food marketers,” Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl writes.

‘Fight season’: Sports streaming service DAZN is trying to rebrand the fall season in new marketing campaign to promote its boxing slate. Now the autumn is “fight season,” Ad Age’s Anthony Crupi writes.

Fantasy partner: DraftKings is now the first-ever official daily fantasy partner of the National Football League, Ad Age’s George P. Slefo writes.

Moving up: R/GA’s Jess Greenwood has been promoted; her new title is global chief marketing officer, effective immediately, Ad Age’s Lindsay Rittenhouse writes.

Podcast of the day: Stephanie Csaszar, manager of nutrition strategy and insights at snack brand Kind, chats with Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl about why the company is calling out synthetic food dyes. Subscribe to the Marketer’s Brief podcast on iTunes or Spotify.

Campaign of the day: If you’ve always wanted to be a boss (in every sense of the word), then Anna Wintour has some advice for you. MasterClass, which offers educational videos from the masters (Stephen Curry on basketball, Natalie Portman on acting), is running its first fully fledged brand campaign featuring Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor-in-chief, as Ad Age’s Ann-Christine Diaz writes. The striking campaign from agency Observatory features some of the bons mots Wintour offers during her course on leadership. Here’s one: “Yes or no, never maybe.” Got it?

Ad of the day: Got an anonymous tip for Ad Age? Here’s how to contact us.

OMNICOM CUTS TIES WITH EMBATTLED E-CIGARETTE MAKER JUUL

Content Courtesy of: adage.com

Written by:  E.J. Schultz

DDB had been working for the brand for about a year

Credit: Juul

Omnicom Group has ended its relationship with embattled e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The move comes amid a growing backlash over vaping, which has been blamed for a mysterious lung injury causing hundreds of cases of illness and 12 deaths.

Omnicom representatives declined comment. Juul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Juul on Wednesday announced it would suspend all broadcast, print and digital advertising in the U.S. and also refrain from lobbying the Trump administration over its proposed vaping restrictions, which includes a ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Juul also announced former Altria Group executive K.C. Crosthwaite as its new CEO, replacing Kevin Burns.

Omnicom’s DDB began working for Juul about a year ago, with media buying handled by Omnicom Media Group, according to people familiar with the matter. Questionable influencer marketing practices that have been cited by congressional investigators occurred before DDB came on board, they said.

DDB’s work began airing around December and includes testimonials from Juul users. Juul last ran TV ads on Sept. 26, according to ad-tracking service iSpot. One ad includes a woman who self-identifies as a former pack-a-day smoker who expresses relief about no longer smelling like smoke.

Juul is facing intense scrutiny amid a growing public health crisis related to vaping. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reported 805 cases of lung injuries related to vaping across 46 states, including 12 deaths. The CDC notes that “no single product or substance has been linked to all lung injury cases.”

But once high-flying Juul has taken the brunt of the negative publicity surrounding the epidemic, with regulators targeting the company for its marketing practices. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early September sent Juul a warning letter alleging that it was improperly marketing its products as less risky than traditional tobacco products without gaining the necessary approvals to do so.

At the same time, the Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into Juul over potential deceptive marketing, including using influencers to target minors, according to a report in late August by the Wall Street Journal. In a statement to Ad Age in August, Juul said it had “never marketed to youth.”

But the company expressed regret at the time that its first marketing campaign in 2015, while targeted to 25-to 34-year-olds, “was executed in a way that was perceived as appealing to minors.” The social media campaign, called “Vaporized” was created by an internal team and two ad firms, Brooklyn-based Grit Creative Group and Canadian-based firm Cult Collective.

Grit’s 2015 work included identifying 280 influencers in New York and Los Angeles to “seed Juul product” over three months, according to documents released in July by a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform as part of an investigation into the youth e-cigarette epidemic. Grit’s contract called for it to collect $10,000 in fees, according to the scope of work document released by the subcommittee.

Grit in a statement to Ad Age on Friday said: “When Grit was hired byJuul to assist in its launch, our mandate in any marketing efforts was to engage with ‘existing smokers only’ and only individuals 24 years of age and older.  Grit was diligent in adhering to these guidelines.  This was from the very beginning. “

SNACKABLE CONTENT FROM NYC’S ADVERTISING WEEK

NYC Advertising Week

We’re highlighting New York City’s 2019 Advertising Week in today’s blog post, providing you with bite-sized content of our most noteworthy!

Advertising Week Kicks Off with Ken and Burtch Drake Opening the NASDAQ Stock Exchange

Ken and Burtch Drake rang the Opening Bell to inaugurate the climate action pledge called “The Future is Calling.” The Ceremony was filled with the executives from companies such as Facebook, DDB, Barbarian and Quantcast, who have signed the pledge, in addition to several youth activists as well as actress and activist Maggie Q. The Pledge which was created in response to the youth global climate movement, intended to mobilize business leaders to use the full force of their resources to creatively and effectively increase public knowledge about the climate crisis.

Monday, September 23rd at the NASDAQ Opening Bell

The First-Ever Winners of the “Future is Female” Platform Announced

In partnership with the newly re-branded Apersand, winners of “The Future Is Female” platform were announced at Monday night’s opening concert at the PlayStation Theater in Times Square. Headlined by TLC, the best-selling American female group in history, the special kick-off concert celebrated the first day of Advertising Week and honored the 10 rising stars of the advertising and marketing industry.

Honorees were selected based on a combination of proven achievements, demonstrated ability to effect organizational change, commitment to external impact, ability to mentor others, and professional endorsements.

 Congratulations to “The Future is Female” 2019 Winners:

Arnetta Whiteside, Associate Director, Research & Planning, Cultural Quotient, Publicis Media

Jessica McGlory, Director of Paid Social Media Marketing, Bombas

Amy Manganiello, Global Advertising Director, Reebok

Christena Pyle, Executive Director, Advertising, Time’s Up

Maya Azzi, Director of Corporate Luxury Marketing and Strategy, L’Oreal

Jen Wong, Chief Operating Officer, Reddit

Belen Marquez, Art Director, Droga5

Leena Danan, SVP & Managing Director, Horizon Media

Laura Fruitman, Co-Founder, The Right To Shower, Unilever

Larene Mantel, VP, Advanced TV and Audio Strategy, Cadreon

Meghan Hanley (Stand-up Comic & Writer) Image courtesy of AW New York/Shutterstock

Fernando Machado, Burger King CMO and industry disrupter, gave a Keynote speech in a panel on Tuesday morning called “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. But Do It,” and credited his bold, and often daring, ads to his penchant for pursuing ideas that frighten him: “I’ve seen a lot of people on the client side killing ideas because they don’t know how to do something. You have to put your career at risk sometimes. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”He highlighted Burger King’s “very generic” marketing tactics prior to his arrival as a means of illustrating “fake advertising that has nothing to do with the brand.” In order to be competitive in today’s advertising space, particularly when other major chains have larger budgets at their disposal, Machado emphasized the importance of creativity as a means of gaining a competitive edge.Later, during a Deep Dive session, Machado spoke to the importance, as well as his team’s infatuation, with social listening; citing that, an understanding of what’s trending influences his team’s creative work.

Fernando Machado, Burger King CMO during his keynote speech in a panel titled, “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. But Do It.” | Image Courtesy of Ilyse Liffreing | Ad Age

Serena Williams on Retiring from Tennis and her Clothing Company’s Invitation to NY Fashion Week

At a panel on Tuesday with Guru Gowrappan, CEO of Verizon Media, and Julia Boorstin, entertainment and media correspondent at CNBC, Serena Williams joked about retirement saying she’ll “transfer out, you know, in 20 years, not anytime soon,” which was met with laughter and enthusiastic applause from the audience.

In discussing her clothing brand, S by Serena, she outlined the driving force behind her fashion brand: “Changing the way you feel when you put on our outfit, you want to feel sexy, you want to feel confident, and you want to feel sure.” Williams spoke about how thrilled she was to be included in New York Fashion Week and upon hearing the news, she thought to herself, “I just got into New York Fashion Week, okay, how do I get into Milan?”

Williams’ venture firm, “Serena Ventures,” is currently investing in companies like Daily Harvest, Lola and Colugo. When it comes to finding companies to invest in, Williams declared that she’s “really interested in technology, and even more so founders… we really focus on female founders.”

In discussing her underlying philosophy, Williams said “We want to stand up for what we feel is right, and we want to empower people to stand up for what they feel is right as well,” adding that “my main goal is to get rid of the word exclusive, and bring in the word inclusive.”

 

Guru Gowrappan (CEO, Verizon Media), Serena Williams (Olympic Tennis Athlete & Entrepreneur) and Julia Boorstin (Entertainment & Media Correspondent, CNBC)  Image courtesy of AW New York/Shutterstock

Iman Addresses Her “Third Act” As CARE’s First-Ever Global Advocate

Iman, Founder & CEO of Iman Cosmetics, Skincare & Fragrances and Michelle Nunn, CEO of Care USA, led an enlightening discussion around ongoing international conflicts and crises and how we can best tell the human stories at their center.

Iman spoke about growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, and how she was fortunate to live a privileged life as the daughter of activists and an ambassador.  She was set to follow in her parents’ trailblazing footsteps, attending boarding school in Egypt and learning to speak 3 languages; but one day in 1969 changed everything. When a coup broke out in her home of Somalia, Iman and her family were forced to flee with only their clothes on their back, instantly becoming refugees.

Iman credits the NGOs for giving her a chance at a new life, describing these organizations as angels who allowed her to continue to attend school, find a job and eventually move on to college where she would study political science.

Giving a voice to the voiceless, Iman hopes to humanize the 65 million nameless, faceless people by sharing their individual stories which often get lost in politics. One of CARE’s main directives is to reinforce financial stability to keep kids in school, providing a safe space for children where they can grow and create a better future for themselves.

“Parents don’t care how long they live, as long as their children can have a better future,” Iman said. And through her work as CARE’s first-ever global advocate, Iman hopes to push storytelling, particularly in Jordan where they are creating a film school where young refugees have been taught to produce their own documentaries so that their stories can be heard. It is the hope of both Nunn and Iman that these efforts will help public perception towards refugees.

“We can never underestimate the power of our voices…I think we’ve seen over the past week the power of young people to activate,” said Nunn. “I hope that we can continue to see that same wave of activism and leadership form our citizenry around the world.”

Michelle Nunn (CEO, Care USA) and Iman (Founder & CEO, Iman Cosmetics, Skincare & Fragrances) Image courtesy of AW New York/Shutterstock

Building a Brand by Being Yourself

Jason Harris, CEO of Mekanism and author of The Soulful Art of Persuasion, and Lauren Bosworth, Founder & CEO of Love Wellness, discussed what it takes to build real long term brand success by being yourself.

Bosworth started Love and Wellness in 2016 after experiencing a lack of personal care products for women that were natural, safe and effective. After creating an open, honest, self- care culture, Bosworth was able to expand her offering to include total body care in 2018 where she has to experience much success.

During the seminar, Bosworth talked to the joys and challenges of starting a company from scratch, finding real sustainable packaging and why now, more than ever, woman deserve to be comfortable in their own bodies.

“I love the process of starting something from nothing,” said Bosworth. On the female wellness space, she added: “What’s interesting about what we do is that we are problem solving.”

Jason Harris (President and CEO, Mekanism) and Lo Bosworth (Founder, Love Wellness) Image courtesy of AW New York/Shutterstock

Jesse Eisenberg Talks De-Stigmatizing Anxiety & His Personal Struggles 

Actor Jesse Eisenberg opened up with Child Mind Institute President Harold Koplewicz, MD about his struggle with anxiety during a session titled Great Minds Think Unalike 2.0. The Child Mind Institute, which was founded in 2009, is a non-profit organization focused on bringing awareness to child mental health issues and providing families with resources for treatment.

According to The Child Mind Institute, today 1 in 5 children and teens struggle with a mental disorder, of which anxiety is the most common. Koplewicz led a powerful and thought provoking interview with Eisenberg, addressing the anxiety he’s suffered as both a child and an adult, the connection between anxiety and creativity, and the de-stigmatization of mental health issues.

On the importance of publicly talking about his mental health, Eisenberg added: “I think that discussions like this that are public, de-stigmatize something that is incorrectly stigmatized… That’s why I was hesitant to do this today, but my overriding thought is that if somebody understands that it’s common that there are people they see in a movies who have this kind of thing– I know if I was 12 years old and I saw that… it would be helpful to me, because i think it would make me feel not alone, and also to understand that this is a temporary period, and life ebbs and flows and you might be in ebb now but you might flow soon enough.”

Things got better with age, but anxiety is a disorder Eisenberg still deals with this to this date. He discussed how he’d struggled throughout elementary school, crying daily dealing with separation anxiety, and how he’d act out in middle school, which led to a him having to take some time off to get his anxiety under control.

 Through creativity, Eisenberg learned to channel his anxiety. He attended Public Professional High School in the city and eventually The New School for college, where he was able to surround to himself with people who were more like him, who had their own difficulties and problems, and were also seeking creative outlets to express their feelings.

Eisenberg described coming to New York as “genuinely life saving” and how acting for him was “cathartic way to have an emotional experience that was safe and contextualized”. Creativity can act as an outlet for people who suffer from anxiety because it focuses the mind away from the matter that is stress inducing.

Jesse Eisenberg during a session titled Great Minds Think Unalike 2.0, discusses anxiety with Child Mind Institute President Harold Koplewicz, MD | Image courtesy of AW New York/Shutterstock

Gwyneth Paltrow on GOOP, Acting and Entreprenurship 

Gwyneth Paltrow, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Goop, sat down with Harry Kargman, Founder and CEO of Kargo. As Paltrow discussed acting, “I wouldn’t say I’m that passionate about it anymore,” she admitted.  “At a certain point I felt like it wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I did a little pivot,” Paltrow explained. Starting GOOP in 2008 as a newsletter, Paltrow has since grown the brand into a destination where people can go to shop, learn about food and where to eat and where to stay when traveling. A true lifestyle brand, GOOP has gained a substantial following over the years.

“I really want Goop to have a much bigger legacy than I did as a celebrity,” she said. “We try to break rules and do things our own way, but always very authentically.”

When asked for advice on how entrepreneurs can live their best life, Paltrow shared, “I would just say speak your truth at all costs. It’s so important – and you can do it really nicely and really diplomatically  – if you are articulating what is really true for you.”

Gwyneth Paltrow, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Goop | Image courtesy of AW NewYork/Shutterstock

AUGUST WAS FULL OF VEGAN FASHION, A DISAPPEARING DIAMOND AND RADIOACTIVE VODKA!

FOOD

Content Courtesy of: nytimes.com

Written by:

The fast-food chain tested Beyond Fried Chicken at one location this week.

Customers lined up at a KFC in Atlanta to be among the first to try Beyond Fried Chicken, a plant-based option made in partnership with Beyond Meat.

For weeks, a debate over where to get the best chicken sandwich has waged between Popeyes, Chick-fil-A and the chicken-eating public at large. But KFC, another chicken giant with a global reach, is working on its own agenda: a plant-based “chicken” that proved so popular in a sales test that it sold out in a single day.

“It’s confusing, but it’s also delicious,” read a tweet from KFC on Monday announcing the sale of Beyond Fried Chicken, created with the help of the company Beyond Meat, at a single location in Atlanta. In about five hours on Tuesday, a KFC representative said, the restaurant sold as many plant-based boneless wings and nuggets as it would sell of its popular popcorn chicken in an entire week. (A “Kentucky Fried Miracle,” the company declared.)

The representative said the company started “talking with various plant-based suppliers this spring” and “decided to launch this very initial, limited test in Atlanta to gauge interest in plant-based options from KFC customers.”

Is a national rollout imminent? Not quite. The company now plans to evaluate the results of Tuesday’s test, and customer feedback, to determine what comes next, the representative said.

With the test, KFC joined several other major fast-food companies in dabbling in making meat alternatives more mainstream. Most are using either Beyond Meat’s products or those made by Impossible Foods to replace the meat in their most popular products — the Burger King Whopper, a White Castle slider and so on.

Is the idea to turn everyone into a vegetarian? Not exactly. But studies have shown that eating less meat could help both the environment and your health, and that could be making people a little more interested in cutting back.

“Our target customers for this product were flexitarians looking to incorporate plant-based choices into their diets,” the KFC representative said.

Here’s a look at what some of those companies are selling.

In April, Burger King began testing its plant-based Impossible Whopper in St. Louis and later in other markets around the United States. This month, it took the sandwich nationwide.

The Impossible Whopper, made by Impossible Foods, is billed as “100% Whopper, 0% beef” and features a flame-grilled patty topped with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup and pickles on a sesame seed bun. The sandwich is 630 calories and contains 34 grams of fat and 25 grams of protein, according to nutritional information on Burger King’s website. (A regular Whopper has 660 calories, 40 grams of fat and 28 grams of protein.)

[Read more about how the Impossible Whopper came to be.]

The traditional breakfast sandwich got a makeover when Dunkin’ teamed up with Beyond Meat to serve the Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich in July — but it’s currently available only in Manhattan.

The patty is served on an English muffin with egg and American cheese, and has 10 grams of plant-based protein.

[Read more about the unique foods being offered at fast-food chains, including Arby’s answers to plant-based meat.]

A meatless Impossible Slider from White Castle.

CreditDrew Angerer/Getty Images

White Castle began offering the Impossible Slider in April 2018 in 140 locations in New York, New Jersey and Chicago, the company said. By September, the plant-based slider, made by Impossible Foods, had been rolled out nationwide. On the one-year anniversary of its initial offering, White Castle announced that a newly formulated Impossible Slider was available in all its restaurants.

The slider comes with smoked Cheddar cheese and is 240 calories with 11 grams of protein. White Castle does not offer a vegan cheese for the slider, but said it was working to find an option.

The burger chain Carl’s Jr., based in Tennessee, introduced its own vegan patty at the beginning of the year. It worked with Beyond Meat to create the Beyond Famous Star, a plant-based version of the restaurant’s Famous Star burger, a release said.

The quarter-pound Beyond Burger patty comes with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, dill pickles, special sauce and mayonnaise on a seeded bun. A nutritional breakdown on Carl Jr.’s website said that the sandwich is 710 calories with 40 grams of fat. It has a total of 30 grams of protein, with 20 grams coming from the patty.

Outside the world of burgers and sandwiches, Little Caesars said in May that it was testing plant-based spicy-sweet sausage on its new Impossible Supreme pizza in Fort Myers, Fla.; Albuquerque; and Yakima, Wash. The sausage, by Impossible Foods, is made from plants, caramelized onions, mushrooms and green peppers. It has no cholesterol, 17 grams of protein and is 270 calories per quarter-pound serving.

The company said it began working with Impossible Foods to create a pizza topping earlier in 2019.

After a product test in Michigan, Qdoba announced in April that it was adding plant-based protein to 730 locations across the country. A news release for the restaurant said it would be the largest Mexican fast-casual chain to serve the protein from Impossible Foods.

The plant-based protein, which Qdoba said tastes and cooks like beef, is seasoned in the restaurant. Patrons can try it in a Qdoba Impossible Bowl or in a Qdoba Impossible Taco.

While some chains are embracing the plant-based trend, others are still thinking it through.

Arby’s, whose tag line is “We Have the Meats,” is heading in the opposite direction — last month it cheekily unveiled a carrot made from turkey, which it called the “marrot.” It’s unclear if the product will ever reach the menu.

And what about that fried chicken sandwich war that’s been dominating social media this month? Would we ever see Chick-fil-A and Popeyes duke it out over a vegetarian option?

At least one of those companies says it’s not likely any time soon. But Jackie Jags, a spokeswoman for Chick-fil-A, said its culinary team is always exploring new trends and menu offerings. “We are still in the early phases of evaluating if this is the right fit for our menu,” she said.

Content Courtesy of: cbsnews.com

Written by: CHRISTOPHER BRITO

Scientists distill vodka from Chernobyl’s radioactive exclusion zone and say it seems safe to drink

Scientists have distilled vodka from ingredients found in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, creating the first consumer product out of the area since the nuclear disaster over 30 years ago. Called Atomik, the artisan vodka is actually an experiment from researchers looking into how much radioactivity would transfer over to crops grown in the zone, according to the Chernobyl Spirit Company, the team that created it.

“They couldn’t find anything — everything was below their limit of detection,” he said.

The only problem with the vodka is that so far there’s only one bottle of it, according to the BBC. The team said in a blog post they plan on making more bottles of Atomik, with the hope of making a profit to help local communities that surround the abandoned zone.

The recent HBO series “Chernobyl” renewed interest in the disaster and the site where it transpired. Fears of radiation have kept many away from the exclusion zone, which was evacuated in the aftermath of the 1986 nuclear accident, but thousands of tourists now travel to the site every year. So many, in fact, that Ukraine’s president announced plans to make the site and surrounding areas more tourist friendly. The plans include new waterways and checkpoints in the area, enhanced cellphone reception and new walking trails. Filming restrictions will also be lifted.

Back in April 1986, when the region was part of the Soviet Union, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, resulting in at least 32 deaths in the immediate aftermath. After initially downplaying the risk, the communist regime soon forced thousands of people to evacuate, turning the nearby city of Pripyat into a ghost town. Hundreds of square miles surrounding the reactor remain off limits.

ART

An Artist Will Make a $2 M. Diamond Disappear in Plain Sight at the New York Stock Exchange

Content Courtesy of: artnews.com

Written by: Annie Armstrong

Diamonds may be forever, but artist Diemut Strebe is planning to make a high-profile precious stone vanish.

Beginning on September 13, Strebe will have her work The Redemption of Vanity on display at the New York Stock Exchange. The piece is comprised of a 16.78 carat natural yellow diamond, valued at $2 million, which will be shrouded in “the blackest black ever created,” also known as carbon nanotubes. The effect of the carbon nanotubes, or CNT, will cause the diamond to become invisible to the naked eye. The piece will be on display until November 25.

The New York Stock Exchange.

Strebe collaborated with a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is an artist-in-residence, to utilize the CNT. The scientist, Brian Wardle, who previously collaborated with Trevor Paglen on his 2012 project The Last Pictures, created the material, which absorbs 99.96 percent of surrounding light.

“That the piece is on display at the New York Stock Exchange is a good match. [The project] explores how material and immaterial value is attached to objects and concepts in reference to luxury, society and to
 art. ” Strebe told ARTnews. “Interestingly both the diamond and the carbon nanotubes are made of the same element, carbon, but their different atomic lattice structure is the reason for their opposite properties in exposure to light. The one reflects light to the extreme, and the other absorbs it to the most opposite extreme, drawing no shadows on the object. The CNT covered diamond will appear entirely flat.”

Strebe and Wardle are offering the development of CNT to be used by any artist, unlike Anish Kapoor’s exclusive ownership of his “vantablack,” which also absorbs nearly the same amount of light as Wardle’s creation. In a joint statement, Strebe and Wardle said, “We do not believe in exclusive ownership of any material or idea for any artwork and have opened our method to any artist.”

Diamonds have been the art world’s best friend as of late. In 2016, Jill Magid’s similarly science-adjacent project took the ashes of the late architect Luis Barragán and, with the help of a lab, alchemized them into a 2.02-carat diamond. Before that, Damien Hirst’s sculpture For The Love of God (2007) became one of his most recognizable pieces, as over 8,000 diamonds created a skull that cost £14 million ($17 million) to produce.

The diamond in Strebe’s piece comes from L.J. West Diamonds Inc., and Strebe explained that the price tag attached was highly important. “Value was key for this project,” she said. “[The diamond] is enormous! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a highly symbolic object. [This piece] could be seen as a challenge to the art market.”

Brother Sues Brother Over Warhol ‘Moonwalk’ Print

Written by: Tessa Solomon

It’s brother versus brother in a battle over proceeds from the sale of a Andy Warhol Moonwalk screenprint. On Wednesday, Keith Donaldson filed suit against his brother Robert in Hennepin County District Court in Minnesota over what the lawsuit alleges was an “unauthorized” sale of Keith’s Warhol.

According to civil court papers, the brothers had acquired the Warhol work—two prints published in an edition of 160—in 1999, and Robert held both pieces in his possession. In 2018, Keith asked for the return of what he believed was his half—only to learn Robert had sold both parts two years prior for $200,000, ultimately netting $180,000 after a commission.

Aldrin atop the Moon during Apollo 11.

Moonwalk—merged stills featuring Buzz Aldrin and the American flagwas executed by Warhol in 1987, only months before his death. They were the only prints ever completed for TV, Warhol’s planned portfolio of monumental moments in American television history. At Sotheby’s in April, a set that was estimated at $250,000 to $350,000 sold for $312,500.

According to the lawsuit, Keith is requesting either the return of the print or at least $140,000, which he claims is the fair market value of one half of the work.

“Robert intentionally and improperly converted to his own use Keith’s art by selling it and intentionally and improperly converted to Robert’s own use of the proceeds of the sale of Keith’s art,” wrote Keith’s attorney, Julie Nagorski, in the lawsuit.

Attorneys representing Keith and Richard Donaldson did not immediately return requests for comment. A court date is not yet set.

Written by: Annie Armstrong

Christie’s to Sell Collection of ‘Kinky Boots’ Producer and Palm Beach ‘Grande Dame’ Terry Allen Kramer

Beginning this fall and continuing into 2020, Christie’s in New York will auction off more than 260 pieces of art and design from the collection of philanthropist and theater producer Terry Allen Kramer, who died in May at the age of 85. During her career, she produced Broadway hits such as Kinky BootsHello, Dolly!, and The Humans.

The lots, offered in an array of different sales, are estimated to bring in $20 million. On October 16, a sale dedicated to her collection will include works of art, decorative art, and furniture that filled her Upper East Side apartment and her estate in Palm Beach, Florida—whose society referred to her as its reigning “grande dame.”

Pablo Picasso, Buste d’homme (1968), which is estimated to sell for between $9 million and $12 million.

The biggest-ticket offerings will be included in Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and modern art on November 11, where her late Picasso, Buste d’homme (1968), is estimated to go for between $9 million and $12 million. That auction also includes her Pissarro, Jardin et poulailler chez Octave Mirbeau, Les Damps (1892), estimated between $4 million to $6 million. Her collection also included works by artists such as as Aristide Maillol, Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec, and Mary Cassatt.

Christie’s will also be selling works on paper and prints from her collection by artists like Dalí, Léger, Matisse, Miró, and Picasso.

Max Carter, the head of Christie’s Impressionist and modern art department, said in a release that her collection “reflects the spirit of adventure and sense of fun she was legendary for, spanning the best of modern art from the late-19th to mid-20th centuries.”

FASHION

Fashion Is Dissent—How Style Played a Role in Equality Movements

Content Courtesy of: whowhatwear.com

Written by: JASMINE FOX-SULIAMAN

Women’s Equality March and Strike, 1970

Some might say that style and politics are mutually exclusive. I’d beg to differ. Sure, the way you choose to dress can seem frivolous compared to the tragedies happening in the world, but the truth is that style has been and continues to be a tool for marginalized communities as a form of visual dissent. As we celebrate Women’s Equality Day and reflect on the history of how women fought for our right to participate in democracy (while wearing all-white, might I add), let us note the role style can play in the fight for the rights of all marginalized groups.

By no means am I looking to diminish the message of any movement, especially when we’re advocating for human rights, but fashion doesn’t have to take away from the message or the fight; it can add to it. How you choose to dress can speak to your beliefs. Not only can your T-shirt say what you care about, but your purchases can impact the environment and the communities that are producing the products you buy. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Ahead, I’ve tapped fashion historian Laura McLaws Helms to speak to the intersection between style and politics and how style can be a form of dissent.

Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you study? 

I grew up in New York City and London. I got my BFA in photography at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, and then went on to get my masters from FIT in fashion and textile studies. Afterward, I did two years toward a Ph.D. in fashion history at LCF. Even as a little child, I was interested in fashion and especially historic fashion—poring over old photo albums, digging through trunks in my grandparents’ attic, obsessing over paper dolls based on past eras. As soon as I could read, I was learning about fashion, and then I started collecting vintage from secondhand shops and car boot sales when I was a pre-teen, so it is unsurprising that I made fashion history my career.

As a fashion historian, how would you describe your job to those who don’t know what that is? 

I study, research, and write about the interconnections between fashion and culture throughout history—looking to situate dress as an integral part of the culture, both shaping and shaped by how we live our lives. Most of my work currently is writing articles and consulting with brands about fashion history, but I’ve also curated museum exhibitions, written books, and given talks/seminars about fashion and cultural history.

You have a serious vintage collection. What era of clothing do you personally love and collect the most?  

I really adore 1967 to 1973. It was an era of real fantasy in fashion. Historic revivalism met Bohemian luxe in a theatrical ode to times past and far-off places.

Suffragette picketing at the White House, 1917

Why do you think that in spaces of academia, and wider society, people are quick to dismiss the importance of fashion and its role in both historical movements and the cultural zeitgeist? 

For centuries, society has seen fashion as frivolous and the purview of bored women with brains only for feathers and furbelows. While academic publications that have centered dress as a vital aspect of culture have begun to shift attitudes, it has been a very slow process over the last 60 years—though I’ve definitely seen an increase in acceptance and understanding of the value of fashion history and fashion itself in the last 10 years.

Proceeds go toward the ACLU.

From a historical lens, what examples would you give to shed light on the fact that marginalized communities use style as a visual indicator of their dissent against the political systems and societal “norms” that oppress them? 

Often as a form of dissent, marginalized groups take aspects of their oppressor’s dress and subvert it. This can be very clearly seen by feminists over the years that have adopted masculine clothes—playing with androgyny, hinting at homosexuality, covered up in a suit or pants yet skirting the edges of what was considered “proper” and “appropriate” for a woman to wear. Lesbians like Romaine Brooks and her partners Natalie Barney and Lily de Gramont wore variations of masculine dress not in an attempt to pass as men but as a signal—a way of making their sexuality manifest. While gender fluidity and sexual freedom are accepted and understood (by most) today, in earlier decades, they were viewed with panic and as morally wrong.

 

Woman arrested for egging on the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943

Zoot suits were another form of subversive dress and bricolage. They were developed and popularized in African American and Mexican American communities in the 1940s, and for the wearers, the extravagantly flamboyant suits were a repudiation of the constrained and boring suits (and lives) of white society as well as a declaration of freedom and self-determination. The rebellion inherent in their exaggerated proportions led them to be associated in the media with delinquency, and many considered their voluminous use of fabric as wasteful and unpatriotic in light of textile rationing during World War II. The Zoot Suit Riots occurred in Los Angeles in 1943 when American servicemen and white civilians attacked and stripped primarily Mexican American youths clad in zoot suits; rooted in racism, white Americans viewed the zoot suits as an affront on traditional American values.

Pride March in London, 1988

Though we’re living in 2019, there are a lot of misconceptions about feminism, specifically how it impacts the clothing women who identify as such choose to wear. Why do you think society as a whole tends to think a feminist can’t dress in a “feminine” way? 

Often, the media has depicted feminism as a total rejection of femininity and sexual orientation instead of a push for equality and a rejection of patriarchal dominance. While there have definitely been feminists who have rejected femininity and all its associated worlds (fashion, beauty, etc.), most have sought to remove the traditional strictures put on feminine life—the idea that women’s place was in the home, solely devoted to raising children and doing housework, all while looking fresh and beautiful for their husband. The happy homemaker, as she was so lovingly glorified at the time. Femininity and feminism do not have to be mutually exclusive, though they are often considered that way. And furthermore, identifying as a feminist doesn’t determine your sexual orientation.

Dr. Martens has donated a portion of the sales of its Pride boots to The Trevor Project.

A young demonstrator protesting the Miss America beauty pageant, 1968

How has the way a typical “feminist” dresses evolved, and why do you think it’s so hard for society to believe that a woman can be both a feminist and still love fashion?

I don’t believe that there is a typical feminist or typical feminist dress. One of the greatest shifts to happen during the tumultuous changes of the 1960s was the breaking down of the idea that there is a single acceptable way for a woman to dress. Once any style is available and acceptable (jeans, suits, flowing dresses, etc.), the need to use dress to broadcast one’s beliefs and political alignments becomes less necessary (though still a totally valid mode of expression). A feminist can wear whatever she pleases today. I think in general, society is becoming more understanding that feminism does not equate to anti-feminine.

Feminist demonstration in New York, 1970

In terms of trends, which era indicated the greatest shift in women’s role within society? 

The greatest shift in a woman’s role in society probably occurred in the 1960s. While the whole 20th century was full of advances in women’s rights and shifts in status, the 1960s was a decade of dramatic changes in women’s lives and also in their dress. At the turn of the decade, women were still expected to wear gloves, stay home, be docile, not enjoy sex. The pill was approved by the FDA in 1960, dramatically changing women’s sex lives and allowing women the opportunity to postpone children while pursuing careers. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin at the same time that miniskirts began to unveil women’s legs, for the first time not on a beach. All of the advancements in the women’s liberation movement and civil rights were so deeply connected with the opening up of women’s dress. In 10 years, women went from girdles, stockings, and gloves to no bras, pantyhose (first introduced in 1959 with the first seamless ones appearing in 1965), miniskirts, and jeans for everyday wear.

Women’s March in Berlin, 2017

How do you feel culture uses style now as a political statement? 

For the last few years, we have seen many fashion designers sending down their catwalks pieces that state in bold text grand political statements. Drawing clearly on Katharine Hamnett’s iconic mid-1980s political slogan T-shirts, designers like Pyer Moss and Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior have used their platforms to make clear political messages. These kinds of political slogan tees can be worn to boldly show any political allegiance, and a quick search online shows how omnipresent they are. Many elements of style that started as a sign of resistance and as a clear political signifier—like the LGBTQ+ rainbow—have now been commercialized by big business. They still have the same meaning but by becoming such a mass symbol have lost some of their anger and power.

One hundred percent of proceeds benefit NARAL Prochoice America.

Justice for All march in Washington, D.C., 2014

In conclusion, style has had a place not only in our closets but also in our cultural movements. It has been an integral part of every movement, from civil rights to LGBQT+ rights, and continues to be. There’s power in choosing to let your personal style break societal gender norms or choosing to buy sustainable, ethically made pieces. But ultimately, the biggest power is speaking up; you can wear your feminist T-shirt, but if you’re not showing up the marches or the polls, if you’re not educating yourself on the plights of other marginalized communities, or you’re not having difficult conversations with family members, then you’re just wearing a T-shirt. Style is only truly radical when put in action.

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

Content Courtesy of: fashionunited.uk

Written by: Simone Preuss

Vegan fashion – once snickered at as a short-lived fad at best – is now becoming fashionable, if not mainstream and even luxury brands are catching on and increasingly make do without fur, angora, mohair, exotic skins and even leather, wool and silk. Mainstream labels are setting examples, for instance Amsterdam-based denim brand Kings of Indigo is now a 100 percent vegan brand; luxury fashion brand Stella McCartney has always been vegan and pioneers like Loomstate, Planet Guests, Doshi and others are pushing boundaries when it comes to new standards in fashion. FashionUnited has taken a look at recent alternatives embraced by brands going fully or partly vegan.

Vegan brands

Vegan products are defined by PETA as being “clothes, shoes and accessories that contain no leather, fur, wool, skin, exotic skins or any other animal-derived fabric.” “Veganism as a lifestyle choice is more popular than ever and with ever-rising cruelty-free product demand, retailers, beauty brands and designers are raising their game to meet the animal-free market needs,“ finds the animal rights organisation.

Vegan handbag brand Gunas to launch beauty line

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

American vegan handbag company Gunas is known for creating cruelty-free handbags which are hand-crafted in South Korea, in sweatshop-free facilities. The brand announced the launching of a beauty line to produce 100 percent plant-based animal-free artisanal beauty bars, starting with pure olive oil soap in floral fragrances and volcanic ash.

Aldo and Call it Spring to eliminate single use shopping bags

The Canadian retailer of men’s and women’s shoes, Call It Spring, has become fully vegan by removing all animal materials from its entire product range. In keeping with its commitment to a greener future, Canadian Aldo Group, the first fashion footwear and accessories company in the world to be certified climate neutral, along with Call It Spring announced the bag-free initiative to phase out all single-use shopping bags from corporate stores globally.

Brands with vegan selections

Currently, countries like the US, UK, Germany and France are investing the most in the vegan market. According to London-based retail technology company Edited, by the end of January 2019, there was a 75 percent increase in products described as ‘vegan’ in the UK, 11 percent in the US, 12 percent in France, and a staggering 320 percent in Denmark. No wonder then that the beauty and footwear and also the fashion industry are increasingly putting their efforts into vegan products.

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

New Look launches range of vegan shoes and bags

British fashion giant New Look becomes the first high-street fashion retailer to register products with The Vegan Society’s Vegan Trademark. New Look’s registered products are free of animal-derived components, including any that might be found in fabrics, threads, glues, dyes and treatments, also the manufacturing process for the products and their materials are free of animal testing.

In pictures: Topshop launches its first vegan shoe collection

As the popularity of cruelty-free fashion continues to skyrocket, Topshop has joined the trend and launched its inaugural vegan shoe collection. Handmade in Spain, the PETA-approved vegan footwear collection comprises of six styles and features a neutral palette of snakes, croc, nude, toffee, orange, black and white across 12 options. In addition to the vegan footwear, items will be packaged in boxes assembled using 100 percent non-animal and non-fish glue.

Po-Zu announces first 100 percent vegan footwear collection

London-based ethical footwear brand, Po-Zu, announced its first 100 percent vegan AW19 mainline collection. The new range, includes sneakers, cork runners, flats and traditional walking and winter boots with a modern twist, it is made from ‘Apple Skin’ – vegan leather derived from the apple juice industry and grown in the Italian Alps – coconut husks, cork, rubberised cotton and pineapple leaves.

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

Global barefoot shoe brand Vivobarefoot has launched its most innovative sustainable shoe to date with its plant-based Primus Lite II Bio, the new vegan shoe is designed with more than 30 percent renewable plant-based materials, including Bio TPU made from yellow dent field corn and uses natural rubber and harvested algae called ‘Bloom’ instead of single-use petroleum materials.

Awards

M&S receives first-ever award from PETA for vegan retail

British multinational retailer Marks and Spencer has been recognized for its vegan efforts. PETA awarded M&S with its first ever “Vegan-Friendly High Street Retailer” recognition. The retailer’s Plant Kitchen range offers over 50 vegan food dishes and M&S also introduced an affordable line of vegan footwear with 350 different styles.

What the experts have to say

Starting a new vegan label, product line or even just one product is not easy and those thinking about it should research the market, their target audience and the USP of their product or range well. FashionUnited has spoken with entrepreneurs from six innovative vegan brands that have learned a lot on their journey and are happy to share their experiences.

Brave GentleMan founder Joshua Katcher on building a vegan menswear brand

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

New York based high-end menswear clothing store Brave GentleMan offers a broad range of completely vegan menswear products, from 100 percent Italian-milled bamboo suits with buttons made from tagua nuts, to footwear made from EU Ecolabel-certified Italian PU. Future-wool, future-silk, future-ivory and future-slik are also used throughout the brand’s designs.

Vegan fashion: Q&A with British brand Beyond Skin

Brighton-based British footwear brand Beyond Skin has been creating stylish shoes that are ethical and vegan. Beyond Skin is on a mission to make cruelty-free fashion the way of the future. The brand has grown in popularity – both within the vegan community and outside of it – and has been worn by the likes of actress Natalie Portman at the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and in her movie “V for Vendetta”.

Vegan fashion: Q&A with mother-daughter brand HFS Collective

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

Los Angeles-based brand HFS Collective is an ethical and sustainable-driven brand that produces a selection of wallets and bags using solely vegan methods. Five percent of the brand’s earnings is donated to organisations that help empower women, protect animals and preserve the environment.

The rise of vegan fashion: Q&A with Delicious California

Headquartered in Folkestone’s Old High Street, UK, Delicious California is a 100 percent vegan independent brand which proudly describes itself as ‘ethical, original and fun’. Delicious California focuses on the environmental impact of the manufacturing process and uses water-based inks, and the cleaning products used in the screen printing process are environmentally friendly.

Vegan fashion: Brazilian brand Insecta Shoes wants to take over EU and North America

Vegan fashion: the latest, the greatest and what else to know

Brazillian brand Insecta Shoes, affectionately nicknamed “beetles,” are a rising vegan footwear label. The fabrics used are always upcycled, the sole is made from recycled rubber, the insole is made with surplus fabric from their own production and the sewing thread is made of recycled PET bottles. Insecta has a reversed logistics solution: When customers no longer want to wear the shoes, they can return them to the store to be recycled, avoiding generating more waste in the world.

Interview: Veja on its new biodegradable sneakers made from corn waste

French sneaker brand Veja has taken the industry by storm, with a simple but very smart concept: minimalist sneakers that make the world a little better through their ethical and sustainable design. In addition to organic cotton, recycled plastic and rubber from traditional sources, a new material is now being used: a leather substitute made from corn starch waste, a non-edible part of the plant.

Though the vegan lifestyle may not have (yet) become the new mainstream, it is certainly here to stay and brands and retailers are well advised to heed this trend. They should also do their research well as not everything sold as vegan is also environmentally friendly, thus not benefitting people or animals in the long run. What is sold as “vegan leather”, for example, is often nothing but polyester or polyurethane. But as we have seen, there are many trailblazers now that show how it is done.

Victoria's Secret named 2nd most successful U.S. brand in new study

Victoria’s Secret named 2nd most successful U.S. brand in new study

Content Courtesy of: fashionunited.uk

Written by: Robyn Turk

Media company 24/7 Tempo researched several metrics surrounding U.S.-owned fashion brands to determine America’s place within the fashion industry. Analyzing revenue, number of stores, name recognition and metrics involving foot traffic from intelligence company Placed, store number, revenue, and other measures of success, 24/7 Tempo has ranked the 20 most successful American fashion companies.

Its research, which was published on 24/7 Tempo’s website, has determined that the most successful U.S. brands are distinguished by their longevity, practicality, ease of wear and ability to cater to a wide consumer base.

24/7 Tempo ranks Brooks Brothers at place 20 due to its 500 plus stores worldwide and a revenue of 1 billion dollars. Ahead of Brooks Brothers are Converse at place 19, Tommy Hilfiger at 18 and Kate Spade at 17.

With 3.7 billion dollars in revenue and over 4,000 stores worldwide, Calvin Klein comes in at number 16. 24/7 Tempo noted that boundary-pushing ads and a wide range of product categories has helped build brand recognition in the company’s five decade lifespan. Eddie Bauer, Vans and Under Armour, J.Crew and Polo Ralph Lauren follow Calvin Klein, in that order.

The 10 most successful U.S. fashion brands

According to 24/7 Tempo’s analysis, the ten most successful American fashion brands are those with highly recognizable brand identities and product ranges.

Heritage denim company Levi’s came in in tenth place, just behind teen-favorites Abercombie & Fitch and Hollister, which are both owned by parent company Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Nike landed seventh place, with 37.2 billion dollars in revenue and 951 stores worldwide.

Three of the brands in the top ten list are owned by Gap Inc. These are Banana Republic in sixth place, Gap in third place and Old Navy in first place, while Coach holds fifth place and American Eagle Outfitters fourth place.

Perhaps surprisingly, Victoria’s Secret was named as the second most successful American fashion brand. The brand has seemed to struggle lately as it encounters growing competition in the lingerie field. Parent company L Brands has been reporting sales declines and Victoria’s Secret has shared plans to downsize.

Meet Alkhemist, the brand creating everyday basics using hemp

Meet Alkhemist, the brand creating everyday basics using hemp

Content Courtesy of: fashionunited.uk

Written by: Dale Arden Chong

Though cotton has been the main fiber found in denim and T-shirts, Alkhemist by James Jeans is exploring another option: hemp. Using hemp as a sustainable alternative to create its Hemp Incorporated pieces, the fashion brand — which is a division under the Los Angeles-based licensed and certified cannabis cultivation facility Alkhemist — has created a debut collection that includes jeans, shorts, jackets, T-shirts, tank tops, cargo pants, and more.

Alkhemist pieces are currently available on the brand’s website and ranges from 56 USD to 320 USD.

Below, Alkhemist co-founder Conrad Yun discusses how Alkhemist got started, what customers can expect, and more.

Meet Alkhemist, the brand creating everyday basics using hemp

Tell us about how you came up with the idea to create Alkhemist.

We were looking at using hemp as a source material for our apparel lines over the last few years. With the growing interest in hemp spurred by the passage of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 in December last year, we felt the timing was right to launch our hemp incorporated apparel lines under the Alkhemist brand name. Under the Alkhemist brand, we are also creating other product lines that use all parts of the hemp plant, such as fashion jewelry and other consumer products made from hemp plastic and hemp paper derived from the stem of the plant as well as CBD infused edible products derived from the flower of the plant.

What have you discovered through the process of developing the hemp blend you use in your clothing?

We are making new discoveries on a regular basis since we first started looking at hemp-blended materials several years ago. We are encouraged that with the excitement around hemp since the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 was passed in December 2018, more suppliers are looking to develop higher quality hemp blended materials for use in the fashion industry as well as other industries. The technology continues to improve at a rapid pace.

How does using hemp in your clothing differ from traditional cotton and other areas of traditional clothing?

In many ways, we are hearkening back to 300 years of traditions in our country. Hemp had been an important source material for everyday items such as clothing, paper, rope, and lamp oil since the founding of our country. What makes hemp exciting now is that with the liberalization of hemp and CBD in 2018 and the rapidly changing attitudes toward cannabis (which, taxonomically speaking, is the same plant as hemp), people are becoming more intrigued by what hemp can do for the apparel industry as well as for many other industries such as agriculture, health & wellness, and construction, to name a few.

Meet Alkhemist, the brand creating everyday basics using hemp

Right now, Alkhemist only offers women’s clothing, which ranges from denim to cotton shirts and loungewear — do you have any plans on expanding?
Yes, we will be expanding into additional “hempleisure” products using a variety of blended materials, as well as a line of men’s clothing.

What can people expect when trying Alkhemist pieces for the first time?
Our customers can expect the same great fit, quality and style that has kept people coming back to buy James Jeans products for the last 15 years. All of the Alkhemist hemp incorporated pieces essentially have the same texture and feel as the cotton products but offer much improved durability, anti-microbial properties and other eco-friendly benefits of hemp.

TECH

Facebook’s Dating App Is Launching In The US. Here’s How It Works.

Content Courtesy of: buzzfeednews.com

Written by:

Facebook on Thursday announced the US debut of its dating service, which had previously only been available in Colombia. Facebook Dating is now available to users who are 18 and older, and it will not match you with your preexisting Facebook friends.

Facebook Dating requires opting in to the service, and it isn’t really part of your Facebook profile. You must create a separate Dating profile which is then linked to your Facebook and Instagram profiles. You fill out the profile, as you would on services like OkCupid or Bumble, and it will start matching you with people who have similar interests.

It will allow you to link your Instagram profile, which would allow you to pull in Instagram photos. It will eventually allow users to pull stories from Facebook and Instagram as well.

Facebook Dating also integrates with Groups and Events that you are part of. Product manager Nathan Sharp at a launch event Thursday described Facebook Events as “missed connections.” The dating app will also allow you to share your live location.

Obviously, there are a bevy of security concerns with something like this. According to Facebook’s release announcement, you can delete your dating profile at any time, and it will allow you to toggle what details it displays, including hometown, religion, occupation, and gender.

“We’re committed to protecting people’s privacy within Facebook Dating so that we can create a place where people feel comfortable looking for a date and starting meaningful relationships,” Erin Egan, VP and chief privacy officer said in a blog post Thursday.

While Facebook Dating won’t match you with your Facebook friends — which means you won’t accidentally see your uncle on there — it does have a feature called Secret Crush that will let you flirt with people you already know. Secret Crush lets you choose up to nine friends to label as a crush. If one of those nine friends adds you as well, it notifies you.

Facebook Dating lives entirely on the Facebook mobile app. It also doesn’t require users to match before sending messages.

Also, in case you’re worried about accidentally letting all your friends and family know you’re on the prowl: Facebook Dating is siloed entirely from your News Feed, eliminating all risks of being horny on main.

Amazon’s Next-Day Delivery Has Brought Chaos And Carnage To America’s Streets — But The World’s Biggest Retailer Has A System To Escape The Blame

Deaths and devastating injuries. A litany of labor violations. Drivers forced to urinate in their vans. Here is how Amazon’s gigantic, decentralized, next-day delivery network brought chaos, exploitation, and danger to communities across America.

aldimar Gray was delivering packages for Amazon at the height of the pre-Christmas rush when his three-ton van barreled into an 84-year-old grandmother, crushing her diaphragm, shattering several ribs, and fracturing her skull.

“Oh my god!” screamed Gray as he leaped out of his van. It was a bright, clear afternoon on Dec. 22, 2016, and the 29-year-old had been at the wheel of the white Nissan since early that morning, racing to drop Amazon packages on doorsteps throughout Chicago. He stood in anguish next to Telesfora Escamilla as she lay dying, her blood pooling on the pavement just three blocks from her home. After the police arrived, Gray submitted to drug and alcohol tests, which came up clean. He would later be charged with reckless homicide.

The officers who investigated the crash didn’t ask Gray about the constant pressure for speed he faced as a driver for Inpax Shipping Solutions — one of hundreds of small companies that make up Amazon’s gigantic delivery network across America. If they had, they would have discovered that the company’s drivers worked under relentless demands to deliver hundreds of packages each shift — for a flat rate of around $160 a day — at the direction of dispatchers who often compel them to skip meals, bathroom breaks, and any other form of rest, discouraging them from going home until the very last box is delivered.

Amazon issued Inpax hand scanners that could monitor the progress of its drivers as they delivered their packages and dictated the routes they drove. It had sent Gray’s bosses at Inpax a memo just days before the accident, criticizing lackluster delivery rates in the area and instituting a “no package left behind” policy during the critical holiday week. The number of deliveries drivers were expected to make each day was way up, and dispatchers were urged to keep as many of their vans on the road for as long as possible — even if it meant driving long into the bitter winter night.

But when Escamilla’s grieving family sought redress — suing Amazon, Inpax, and Gray for wrongful death — the e-commerce giant refused to accept any responsibility. “The damages, if any, were caused, in whole or in part, by third parties not under the direction or control of Amazon.com,” its lawyers said in a court filing.

Inpax had by then been repeatedly cited by the Department of Labor for withholding pay from its drivers. Its owner had several cocaine-related felony convictions and had previously declared bankruptcy after missing insurance payments, failing to pay taxes, and defaulting on loans and other obligations amounting to $15 million. And the company was struggling to make ends meet on the razor-thin margins of a system set up by Amazon to squeeze contractors while minimizing its own costs at every turn.

 
Gray’s van, seen after striking and killing Telesfora Escamilla.

Just months before Escamilla’s death, a former employee told BuzzFeed News, Inpax had stopped paying for a critical safety monitoring service it had installed in every van in Chicago — equipment some felt could have helped prevent the accident.

But despite Inpax’s checkered record, after denying any blame for Escamilla’s death, Amazon continued using the company to deliver its packages across Chicago and at least four other major cities. Inpax did not respond to a detailed written request for comment.

The super-pressurized, chaotic atmosphere leading up to that tragedy was hardly unique to Inpax, to Chicago, or to the holiday crunch. Amazon is the biggest retailer on the planet — with customers in 180 countries — and in its relentless bid to offer ever-faster delivery at ever-lower costs, it has built a national delivery system from the ground up. In under six years, Amazon has created a sprawling, decentralized network of thousands of vans operating in and around nearly every major metropolitan area in the country, dropping nearly 5 million packages on America’s doorsteps seven days a week.

Amazon drivers say they often have to deliver upward of 250 packages a day — and sometimes far more than that — which works out to a dizzying pace of less than two minutes per package based on an eight-hour shift.

“The damages, if any, were caused, in whole or in part, by third parties not under the direction or control of Amazon.com.”

The system sheds costs and liability, even as it grows at lightning speed, by using stand-alone companies such as Inpax to pick up packages directly from Amazon facilities and deliver them to the consumer — covering what’s known in the industry as “the last mile.” Amazon goes further than gig economy companies such as Uber, which insist its drivers are independent contractors with no rights as employees. By contracting instead with third-party companies, which in turn employ drivers, Amazon divorces itself from the people delivering its packages.

That means when things go wrong, as they often do under the intense pressure created by Amazon’s punishing targets — when workers are abused or underpaid, when overstretched delivery companies fall into bankruptcy, or when innocent people are killed or maimed by errant drivers — the system allows Amazon to wash its hands of any responsibility.

Amazon still relies on UPS and the US Postal Service for many deliveries. And it has captured the public imagination with press releases about futuristic drone delivery, which does not yet exist. But it’s this homegrown network that makes it possible to offer the amazing convenience of next-day and even same-day delivery that has become a cornerstone of its market dominance. By some estimates, nearly half of Amazon’s packages in the US are now delivered this way. And the Seattle-based giant dictates almost every aspect of that operation, down to what drivers wear, what vans they use, what routes they follow, and how many packages they must deliver each day.

Amazon says its role is to lend entrepreneurs a hand as they build small businesses and not to control their companies, equipment, or labor force. It said it does not make personnel decisions for them, and while it offers them the opportunity to lease vans, purchase insurance, and manage payroll through its preferred programs, they are free to use whichever vendors they choose.

In response to a detailed list of questions from BuzzFeed News, it said that because many of the cases mentioned in this article are in active litigation, it cannot discuss them in detail. However, the company said safety is always its top priority and that even one serious incident is too many. It says that when accidents occur, it works with drivers or their employers to investigate claims and take appropriate actions.

In a written statement about the article’s findings, the company said:
The assertions do not provide an accurate representation of Amazon’s commitment to safety and all the measures we take to ensure millions of packages are delivered to customers without incident. Whether it’s state-of-the art telemetrics and advanced safety technology in last-mile vans, driver safety training programs, or continuous improvements within our mapping and routing technology, we have invested tens of millions of dollars in safety mechanisms across our network, and regularly communicate safety best practices to drivers. We are committed to greater investments and management focus to continuously improve our safety performance.

Six days after publication of this article, Amazon issued an additional statement: “We require that all delivery service partners maintain comprehensive insurance, including auto liability so if in the rare case an accident does occur, there is coverage for all involved.”

UPS and FedEx, the traditional powers of the logistics world, are deeply invested in safety. UPS, which spends $175 million a year on safety training alone, even has a policy prohibiting drivers from taking unnecessary left turns to reduce exposure to oncoming traffic, finish routes faster, and save fuel. Both firms are also heavily regulated by the government, and many of their trucks are subject to regular federal safety inspections and can be put out of service at any time by the Department of Transportation.

But Amazon’s ingenious system has allowed it to avoid that kind of scrutiny. There is no public listing of which firms are part of its delivery network, and the ubiquitous cargo vans their drivers use are not subject to DOT oversight. But by interviewing drivers as well as reviewing job boards, classified listings, online forums, lawsuits, and media reports, BuzzFeed News identified at least 250 companies that appear to work or have worked as contracted delivery providers for Amazon. The company said it has enabled the creation of at least 200 new delivery firms in the past year, a third of which are owned and run by military veterans. Inpax gets fully 70% of its business from Amazon; some companies depend on the retail giant for all of their income.

With little training, and often piloting vans in dangerous states of disrepair, Amazon drivers have crashed into cars, bicycles, houses, people, and pets.

A yearlong investigation — based on that data, along with internal documents, government records, thousands of court files, and interviews with dozens of current and former Amazon employees, delivery company operators, managers, and drivers — reveals that Amazon’s pivot to delivery has, all too often, exposed communities across the country to chaos, exploitative working conditions, and, in many cases, peril.

Public records document hundreds of road wrecks involving vehicles delivering Amazon packages in the past five years, with Amazon itself named as a defendant in at least 100 lawsuits filed in the wake of accidents, including at least six fatalities and numerous serious injuries. This is almost certainly a vast undercount, as many accidents involving vehicles carrying Amazon packages are not reported in a way that can link them to the company. And in some states, including California, accident reports are not public.

The deaths have included victims as old as Escamilla and as young as a 10-month-old baby named Gabrielle. Often with little training, and at times piloting vans in dangerous states of disrepair, Amazon drivers have crashed into cars, bicycles, houses, people, and pets. And under constant pressure to deliver ever more packages, drivers have piled parcels so high on their dashboards that they couldn’t see out the windshield — causing at least one serious collision.

 
A delivery vehicle with packages lined along the dashboard, seen in Chicago.

In some of the cases in which Amazon was sued over road accidents, the drivers had been allowed to take the wheel despite previous convictions for traffic infractions.

Delivering packages for Amazon can itself be a perilous job. Drivers have reportedly been punched, bitten, carjacked, robbed, and shot — and at least two have died in recent years as a result of road accidents that occurred on the job.

Amazon denies any responsibility for the conditions in which drivers work, but it has continued to contract with at least a dozen companies that have been repeatedly sued or cited by regulators for alleged labor violations, including failing to pay overtime, denying workers breaks, discrimination, sexual harassment, and other forms of employee mistreatment.

And when one group in Michigan voted to join the teamsters in protest against shoddy conditions and punishing hours without overtime pay, Amazon officials acted swiftly to counter further unionization efforts.

In Southern California, Illinois, and Texas, Amazon continues to work with a firm beset by a staggering array of lawsuits from its own drivers, who said they weren’t paid properly, and from pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists, who said they were injured in collisions with the company’s trucks — even after its chief executive was accused by the firm’s own CFO of embezzling more than $1.5 million to fund an apparent gambling spree in Las Vegas.

Two drivers for a different delivery company operating in the Los Angeles area said they were forced to skip meals, ordered to urinate in bottles rather than stop for bathroom breaks, and advised to speed and not wear seatbelts to ensure they delivered more packages in less time.

A UPS worker delivers packages on Dec. 26, 2013, in Chicago.

Amazon’s gargantuan delivery network was born after a notorious incident remembered in the corridors of the company’s Seattle headquarters as the “Christmas Fiasco” of 2013. As e-commerce began to boom and the holiday loomed, UPS and FedEx, which then delivered the bulk of Amazon’s packages along with the US Postal Service, were blindsided by the large volume of online orders and failed to deliver many parcels by Dec. 25.

Furious, embarrassed, and determined that such an incident would never happen again, Amazon gave affected customers $20 gift cards while its executives hatched a bold and disruptive plan to free themselves from overdependence on the large, established carriers. They would develop a network of small and midsize delivery companies to take over key routes, working directly out of special Amazon delivery stations, rather than UPS or FedEx facilities, and delivering packages according to Amazon’s own routing algorithms.

The goal, according to people with knowledge of Amazon’s operations — including a former executive who helped oversee the program in its early days — was to build out a completely independent last-mile delivery system. The company said it did so because of growing demand from customers, but continues to work with established delivery companies as well.

Amazon would offer small delivery companies, many of them brand-new, a chunk of its booming e-commerce business, and in exchange would be able to wield unprecedented leverage over their logistics operations. It would also have the power to squeeze costs down in a way it never could working with behemoths such as FedEx and UPS.

Under this new system, Amazon would be able to closely monitor drivers through its routing software. It would make entrepreneurs assume the financial risk of running a delivery business. And perhaps most crucially, because the drivers would be employed by independent companies, Amazon would be able to assert it had no legal liability for their working conditions — or for any mayhem employees wrought as they raced to hit delivery targets requiring more than 99% of packages to arrive by their promised delivery date.

In short order, fleets of anonymous-looking gray-and-white vans were dashing through the streets of communities across America, stopping every few blocks to disgorge books, electronic gadgets, boxes of toilet paper, and the myriad other items that people increasingly order online.

In short order, fleets of anonymous-looking gray-and-white vans were dashing through the streets of communities across America.

For consumers, the change was hardly perceptible — unless they happened to look out their windows and notice that the familiar brown of the UPS truck and the cheerful orange and purple of FedEx came less often, replaced by slightly smaller vans that often had no markings at all.

But behind the wheel, and out on the streets, the changes were enormous.

Even though the Sprinter-style vans Amazon requires its delivery providers to use weigh several times more than most passenger cars, they fall just under the weight limit that would subject them and their drivers to Department of Transportation oversight, unlike most FedEx and UPS trucks.

In a sign of how business is booming, Amazon last summer bought 20,000 of these vans from Mercedes-Benz to be leased, through fleet managers, to its dedicated delivery companies around the country.

Applicants for jobs at UPS and FedEx are thoroughly screened and cram for challenging entrance exams before being hired. They undergo rigorous training that can last for weeks or longer, depending on the position, and are required to undergo additional training every year. Even the most minor fender benders trigger internal investigations that seek to identify who was at fault and how such accidents can be avoided in the future.

UPS, which is unionized, uses routing software programmed to minimize most left-hand and other dangerous turns. As part of their training, its drivers must go through special protocols before making certain maneuvers, such as backing up their trucks.

Amazon says it spends tens of millions of dollars on safety, and in some of its contracts with delivery companies, it demands that every driver pass a background check and drug test, have at least six months’ experience, and pass an extended road test. Job postings by firms delivering Amazon packages, however, say commercial driver’s licenses and prior experience aren’t necessary. Drivers are paid either a flat day rate or an hourly wage — which generally works out to between $15 and $18 an hour, with scant perks or benefits. With constant alternation between driving and loading and unloading packages, the job is physically demanding.

One of the first companies ushered in under Amazon’s new delivery regime was Progistics Distribution, an already operating San Francisco–based logistics firm that agreed to dedicate a portion of its fleet to Amazon packages. Jose Guillermo Perez was hired by the company as a driver in spring of 2014, soon after the Christmas Fiasco.

“Dude, you need to be careful; I want to get back safe. I don’t want to die, man.”

After two days of in-office training, Perez was sent onto the hilly, chaotic streets of San Francisco riding shotgun alongside a more experienced driver to learn the ropes. Things almost immediately went haywire. Just after lunch on the first day, Perez was astonished to find the driver backing into a light post, then speeding away from the scene as if the accident hadn’t happened, without even checking for damage. After that, Perez said in an interview, things got worse. The driver continued to ignore the speed limit and blew through stop signs as he shot up and down traffic-choked streets.

“Dude, you need to be careful; I want to get back safe,” Perez recalled saying. “I don’t want to die, man.”

But the driver, Jim Kitamura, told Perez he had to hurry.

Shortly after 3 p.m., their Ford van approached a busy intersection in a residential neighborhood just as the light turned red. Rather than hit the brakes, Kitamura kept going, heading straight for a motorcycle that was accelerating through the crossing. A driver in another car noticed and honked frantically in warning, but the delivery van kept going and smashed into the bike, according to a police report.

The impact was so powerful that it not only knocked Paul Hon Chow Lee off the motorcycle — fracturing his ankle, pelvis, and six ribs — but also knocked his shoes clean off his feet, according to the police report.

Even before the crash, the events of the day had given Perez cause for alarm. He saw that drivers were given huge piles of packages to deliver and were barraged by constant nagging calls from dispatchers checking in on their progress. The vans, he thought, were in terrible shape, with worn tires and sagging suspensions, and he said he’d witnessed at least one driver smoking marijuana on the job. Perez said Progistics hadn’t done a drug test on him, and could not recall any other screening process.

Progistics did not respond to a detailed request for comment.

Police cited Kitamura for running a red light. It was far from his first driving violation. In the eight years leading up to the accident, Kitamura had been pulled over at least four times, records show, twice pleading guilty to driving more than 20 mph over the speed limit — once in 2006 and once in 2008 — and once to running a stop sign in 2011. He’d also been charged with sex crimes involving minors and was a registered sex offender.

So concluded Perez’s training.

The first day he was sent out on his own, he quit before the shift was over.

“I thought, No, this is crazy. I had 160 packages and it was raining; you can’t even see,” he said. “I did, like, probably half of it and I took the truck back and went and told the guy, ‘This is it. I’m done.’”

Workers unload packages onto the street for delivery in New York City on Aug. 30.

In the five years since it dove into last-mile delivery, Amazon’s business has boomed.

In 2018, its retail sales hit a record $233 billion, and this year it surpassed Walmart as the largest retailer in the world. In April, it promised free one-day shipping for all its Prime members — an unprecedented logistical challenge.

Not all of Amazon’s packages are carried by its network of small providers; it continues to rely on UPS and the US Postal Service for many of its deliveries, particularly for bulky packages or for rural, harder-to-reach destinations. But with FedEx recently canceling its contract to deliver Amazon packages, a growing share of the huge delivery load is being carried by the network of tiny, lightly regulated firms in its vast national network.

Delivering billions of packages a year is by far one of the company’s top expenditures. But Amazon can better control those costs by squeezing its own delivery network. It not only can track every package but also can monitor payroll, insurance, and even van leasing costs for many of its delivery companies. That allows it to keep an eye on companies’ profit margins and adjust accordingly. Early this year, for example, Amazon stopped paying delivery companies extra money to cover the cost of a dispatcher in each delivery station, requiring the companies to pay that salary out of already thin margins or operate without them.

Amazon pays many of its delivery firms a flat fee per route, so when package volumes increase and drivers need to be out on the road for longer, racking up more overtime, their margins are squeezed even tighter. One contract for a route in San Francisco reviewed by BuzzFeed News, for example, called for a fee of $279.50 per day. That money must cover the cost of the van, insurance, and any other overhead, plus the driver’s wages. Some newer delivery firms are paid a per-route fee, plus a per-package fee.

Many of them have no source of income other than Amazon and, faced with those circumstances, can find they have no choice but to cut back wherever they can.

A taped-on rearview mirror and balding tires on a delivery vehicle.

Drivers complain of poorly maintained vans, with underinflated and balding tires, cracked or missing sideview mirrors, and, in one case, doors that had to be held shut with bungee cords. Frequently they have no backup cameras, and many don’t even have a rear window. As a result, some drivers back into things — lawns, mailboxes, parked cars, and, sometimes, people.

And then there are the corners drivers themselves cut to finish their deliveries on time and keep dispatchers off their backs. Drivers complain they are sometimes given so many packages that they don’t all fit in the cargo area and must be piled on the passenger seat. Some said they pile packages on the dashboard to save the time it takes to walk around to the rear of their vans for each delivery. Having the parcels laid out at their fingertips, they explained, helps them get through their routes more quickly and avoid the wrath of impatient dispatchers. But that convenience comes at a cost.

Resty Evinger was pulling out of a parking space outside an apartment complex in Austin in March 2018 when she collided with Julia Barrera Duran. The 62-year-old was knocked to the ground, and her head hit the asphalt. According to claims in a pending lawsuit filed by Duran, Evinger had her left foot in a medical boot and walked with crutches. She quickly got out of the Dodge Ram van and knelt by Duran’s side. According to a police report, Evinger explained why she hadn’t seen Duran in broad daylight: Her view had been partially obstructed by a pile of Amazon packages arranged on the dashboard.

Amazon said that it considers a variety of factors when considering the size of loads, but said it is up to drivers to determine how to pack the vans and where to put the packages. If a driver is worried about the number of packages they are given, they are welcome to raise those concerns.

Amazon can surveil almost every driver in its delivery network. But when it comes to the pedigree of the companies it entrusts to deliver its cargo, officials are remarkably hands-off, overlooking serious safety lapses, criminal convictions, and egregious violations of labor laws.

Amazon said it expects its delivery operators to comply with the law.

In July 2015, an obscure mining firm in Idaho abruptly changed ownership and announced it was getting into the package delivery business for Amazon, under the unlikely new name of Scoobeez.

Just months after making its first deliveries, however, the company was who successfully claimed they had been misclassified as contractors rather than employees. It would be the first in a string of employment, personal injury, contract, and workplace discrimination lawsuits filed against the firm.

In March 2017, the company’s CFO sent a 25-page report to the Scoobeez board of directors alleging that CEO Shahan Ohanessian had misappropriated as much as $1.5 million of the company’s funds, transferring the money to his own bank accounts and withdrawing hundreds of thousand of dollars of that money at the Wynn hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Subsequent investigations concluded that Ohanessian then took out 17 high-interest loans to cover his tracks, costing the company some $2 million in fees and interest payments — money that might have been used to pay the drivers who were suing the company for unpaid overtime or, for example, the Texas family who came home one day to find that a Scoobeez van had rolled down their driveway and into their house, smashing the side of their attached garage

.

In April, Scoobeez filed for bankruptcy protection, listing, among other liabilities, monthly payments totaling nearly $7,000 for leased Bentley, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles that were made available to the company’s top executives.

Scoobeez denied, in a separate court filing, the former CFO’s embezzlement allegations, saying they were fabricated and part of a ploy to take control of the company. Ashley McDow, an attorney representing Scoobeez in its ongoing bankruptcy, said the company had nothing to add beyond what is in the public record.

As of late August, the company continues to recruit delivery drivers for locations throughout Southern California, Illinois, and Texas — and in court records, it has claimed that 99% of its revenue comes from Amazon. Newly filed personal injury lawsuits continue to roll in, and in May, Enterprise sued Scoobeez, claiming it owed it more than $700,000 for damages to vans it had leased the company.

Ohanessian and his wife are no longer with Scoobeez and lately have turned to another possible get-rich scheme: putting logistics on the blockchain

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In 2017, Courier Distribution Systems, another of Amazon’s larger delivery providers, was notified by Inc. magazine that it was one of the 500 fastest-growing privately held startups in the country. “Welcome,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief wrote in a congratulatory letter, “to the most exclusive club in business!”

Like other Amazon delivery companies, CDS — based outside of Atlanta but delivering Amazon packages in several states, including Wisconsin, California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois — was required to carry a full slate of insurance.

In addition to cargo, business, and general legal liability coverage, Amazon requires delivery firms to carry workers’ compensation policies, which are designed to cover the costs of medical care for employees injured on the job as well as any lost wages.

But that system failed Aleasa Thomas, who worked for CDS in the Milwaukee area. In April 2017, while completing a delivery to a house, Thomas said, she was violently attacked by a dog, causing her to fall and hit her head.

Only later did Thomas discover that CDS — which had earned its place on the Inc. list by growing at least 10 times larger over the previous three years — had failed to pay its workers’ compensation premiums in Wisconsin between February and June of 2017, meaning she was not covered. CDS was later hit with a $154,000 judgment for failing to pay workers’ compensation insurance in the state.

Jim Blanchard, a CDS representative, acknowledged the four-month insurance lapse but said it occurred while the firm was applying for different coverage. He added that CDS paid all of Thomas’s “medical bills, all of her unpaid wages, and any other losses.”

Wisconsin was far from the only region where CDS appears to have fallen fell behind on its bills. The firm has faced at least two dozen lawsuits and other claims in recent years by employees who say it didn’t correctly pay them, fired them without cause, or discriminated against them. Some of those cases settled out of court. A tire company near San Diego won an $11,578 judgment against the company in November 2017 after CDS failed to pay its bills.

Elsewhere, CDS had faced a mutiny from some of its drivers. Jovon Bray, a dispatcher at CDS in Sacramento, said he was forced to quell a near riot in October 2015 when roughly 100 angry drivers showed up to work demanding to know why they hadn’t been properly paid. When Bray called a manager at headquarters for advice, he recalled being told, “You need to find a better lie to tell them.”

“The whole thing is like a joke. They had no rules established. I asked if there was a manual or a handbook, what are my expectations? They said, ‘You gotta create them as you go.’”

When it happened again two months later, Bray said he called again and declared that he wouldn’t work unless everyone — including himself — got paid on time. A few days later, he recalled receiving a phone call from a supervisor while at a holiday party. “You aren’t management material,” Bray recalled the person telling him before summarily firing him. Bray and several other workers sued CDS and eventually settled out of court.

“The whole thing is like a joke,” Bray told BuzzFeed News. “They had no rules established. I asked if there was a manual or a handbook, what are my expectations? They said, ‘You gotta create them as you go.’”

Blanchard denied the allegations. “I assume this has been fabricated,” he said. He added that “CDS has offered good-paying jobs and benefits to thousands of employees — many of whom lacked the education or skills to secure any other job paying as much as they earned at CDS — and largely without incident or dispute.”

In the wake of the uprising, CDS lost its Sacramento routes. But Amazon continues to work with the company in numerous other cities around the country.

The same labor problems that appear across Amazon’s delivery network were apparent at Inpax in the period leading up to the crash that killed Telesfora Escamilla. Just months after Amazon began working with the firm in 2015, it fell under investigation by the Department of Labor for chronically underpaying dozens of drivers and was ordered to pay employees back wages. The following year, regulators found Inpax had “willfully violated” labor laws a second time by failing to pay drivers overtime. Third and fourth investigations would uncover more violations and unpaid wages of more than $140,000.

Inpax’s founder and CEO, Leonard Wright, had a string of cocaine-related felony convictions and first registered the company shortly after finishing a three-year prison sentence for narcotics distribution. Yet despite the mounting warnings that Inpax had serious issues, Amazon kept shoveling more business in its direction. By 2016, the firm was delivering in at least five cities — Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Dallas, and Chicago — Labor Department records acquired through the Freedom of Information Act show.

As Christmas of 2016 approached, Amazon was on track for what would be its biggest holiday season to date, ultimately shipping more than 1 billion packages worldwide. To handle the record-setting workload, it piled on the pressure, ramping up the number of packages each driver was expected to deliver each day.

Although the woman escaped with minor scrapes, the dog did not survive.

By then, Inpax had eliminated numerous fleet managers whose job it had been to oversee safety and operations, according to former employees. The firm had stopped repairing vans that were damaged or had missing mirrors, cracked windows, or bald tires. And, two said, it stopped paying for a state-of-the-art fleet monitoring service it had installed in all of its vehicles that tracked their location and speed and was designed to alert fleet managers if drivers were making unsafe maneuvers.

Escamilla’s death that December was not the first or last time the company’s drivers would run into trouble on the roads. Court records show the company has been served with at least five additional accident-related lawsuits since then.

In October 2017, an Inpax van loaded with Amazon parcels came around a corner in Weston, Florida, and plowed into a cockapoo that had run into the road before the eyes of its owner and her two young sons. When the distraught woman banged on the window in outrage, the driver hit the gas, dragging her to the ground, according to a police report. Although the woman escaped with minor scrapes, the dog did not survive.

A diagram from the police report depicting an accident that killed a dog in Weston, Florida.

The driver told police that she called her manager at Inpax to report the accident and was instructed to leave immediately and return to the delivery station. Perez voluntarily returned with her Inpax manager later that day to speak with police, but she was ticketed for fleeing the scene of the accident and ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution, court records show.

The dog’s owner is suing Inpax and the driver for physical and emotional damages, claiming that Perez had been “speeding down the street.” Inpax countered that the incident was solely due to her own “carelessness and negligence” in letting her dog stray into the road. Amazon was not sued; once again it escaped liability.

Traivon Hemingway, a slender 21-year-old who delivered packages in and around Chicago for Amazon delivery provider Sheard-Loman Transport, was attempting to make an exit off an interstate southwest of town on the morning of June 19, 2018, when the Ford van he was driving struck the back of a tractor trailer parked on the highway shoulder.

The force of the impact tore off the top of the van and drove the rest of the vehicle under the trailer. Emergency workers tried but failed to resuscitate Hemingway at the scene of the crash, where he died.

News of Hemingway’s death spread quickly through the Amazon delivery station on the South Side of Chicago where he’d worked, but there is no record of his death being investigated by workplace health and safety officials. News reports about the accident never linked Hemingway’s death to his work for Amazon, but a GoFundMe page set up by his sister received a $100 donation from Bill Seliger, an Amazon executive who managed delivery-firm accounts in Chicago.

Hemingway’s van was eventually returned to Sheard-Loman, which has been sued three times in the last year by former employees claiming they were cheated out of overtime and other wages. All three suits are pending.

Sheard-Loman did not respond to a written request for comment.

More than a year after his death, one of Hemingway’s relatives in Chicago was still frequently posting about his death on Facebook. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him and still cry,” she wrote on Aug. 30. “Missing you so much Traivon Hemingway until we be together again.”

Amazon delivery vans are seen May 14 in Orlando.

When delivery drivers complain about the harsh conditions they face, Amazon refuses to admit any responsibility. But when a group of drivers banded together to advocate for their rights to fair pay and safe conditions, executives at the e-commerce giant moved quickly to quash any further such efforts.

In March 2017, a group of drivers for the delivery firm Silverstar Delivery met with a Teamsters organizer at a TGI Fridays outside of Detroit to complain about the shoddy condition of the vans they drove, Amazon GPS devices that conked out at crucial moments, and, in particular, a lack of overtime pay, despite shifts that routinely lasted as long as 12 hours.

The organizer convinced them to unionize, and the following month, Silverstar employees voted 22–7 to join the Teamsters, making it the only Amazon delivery contractor to have unionized to date.

Silverstar did not react positively to the news. Within weeks, drivers reported to the National Labor Relations Board that they were being fired for joining the union.

One of the workers claimed he was terminated in May after bringing back undelivered packages to the warehouse. When he complained, the worker said a manager told him, “I was told to write you up for anything because you joined the union,” according to NLRB filings.

The board dismissed the charges that workers were illegally fired in retaliation for unionizing, but allowed other claims of anti-union activity to proceed. Silverstar ultimately agreed to pay $15,696 to settle the matter.

The Teamsters named Amazon in their complaint, but the retailer denied having any legal relationship to the unionized workers. “While Amazon has a services contract with Silverstar, Amazon is not the employer of Silverstar’s employees,” the company wrote in a letter to the NLRB.

A few months later, Norm Collins, who had been elected shop steward, received a call from a Silverstar dispatcher who told him the company was shutting down its Michigan location immediately, putting dozens of drivers, as well as several dispatchers and managers, instantly out of work. “He said don’t report to work because Silverstar came down, packed up all their stuff, took the vans,” Collins recalled. “They’re gone.”

Not long after the successful unionization vote, a team of Amazon officials paid a visit to Chicago, where they gathered top management from delivery firms operating in the city at a hotel west of town, according to two people who attended the meeting. The topic: how to ensure that what happened to Silverstar would never happen to them.

“The whole purpose of the meeting was to say to you, ‘Here’s how to not get unionized. Because if you do, we pretty much don’t want anything to do with a union,’” said one attendee.

In July, a Canadian news site reported that Amazon had held a similar meeting to discourage organizing among drivers for Toronto-area delivery companies.

The closure of Silverstar hardly slowed down Amazon’s Detroit-area operations. Other delivery firms already operating in the area were happy to pick up the available routes.

Because of the low pay, long hours, and high stress of the job, turnover among Amazon delivery drivers is high.

Former dispatchers said it’s not uncommon for drivers to quit in the middle of their shifts, sometimes abandoning the vans on the road. If a delivery firm doesn’t have enough drivers on any given day, it risks losing routes to competing delivery companies operating out of the same warehouse. Amazon routinely monitors and ranks the performance of each provider, delivery company managers say, and rewards its most reliable performers with additional and more profitable routes.

As a result, delivery firms are constantly recruiting drivers to get on the road as fast as possible — and in an economy with national unemployment currently below 4%, former managers described a perpetual hiring crisis that requires them to accept nearly anyone who walks through the door.

Former dispatchers said it’s not uncommon for drivers to quit in the middle of their shifts, sometimes abandoning the vans on the road.

A manager at Sheard-Loman, for example, recently used Facebook to cast a wide net for potential drivers.

“I’m launching an AGGRESSIVE hiring campaign. If someone owes you money and they’re not working, if someone needs to move out yet using the excuse that they don’t have a job, if your baby’s daddy/momma is behind on child support, have them call me NOW,” he wrote. “I’m hiring on the SPOT.”

But despite the high pressure and tight margins, many companies have jumped at the opportunity to get a piece of Amazon’s home delivery business. Some have had their dreams crushed.

Two years ago, Thomas Chen, a Chinese immigrant living in Southern California, was delighted when Amazon invited him to join its last-mile delivery empire. Chen had spent several decades in the import-export business and had built a relationship with Amazon through his work bringing Chinese merchandise into the US for sale. In the summer of 2017, he said, he enrolled in a multiday training session that Amazon holds for new delivery firms and had his first five vans on the road in Portland, Oregon, starting Nov. 1.

Rather than lease vehicles, Chen invested in a fleet of 36 brand-new vans, and his fledgling firm, FM Xpress, was soon awarded several routes in the Inland Empire outside of Los Angeles. In February 2018, he spent $2.5 million to acquire an already established delivery company called Metax Logistics.

Business was good and growing fast, and so when an Amazon executive approached him in April 2018 about buying a third company a few months later, he leaped at the opportunity. The firm, NEA Delivery, had been one of the first delivery companies contracted by Amazon back in 2014 and had more than 200 vans in service, making deliveries up and down the West Coast.

Chen said he sought and received what he called a “green light” from Amazon that NEA would be a good investment, and the $4.5 million purchase was closed in a matter of weeks. By October of that year, Chen said, he had 875 drivers on the road, a payroll of $1.6 million, and was delivering upward of 100,000 Amazon packages a day.

But it turned out there was a lot about NEA that Chen hadn’t been told. The firm had been sued numerous times over employment issues and accidents involving its drivers. One such suit, filed against NEA and Amazon, involved a teenager who said he suffered a head injury in 2015 when his bicycle was struck by an NEA delivery driver opening his door into the bike lane.

Even as Amazon approached Chen about the deal, it was arguing in court that it should be dropped from that lawsuit, claiming it bore no responsibility for the teen’s injuries. The case eventually settled.

“Amazon, you are so big. Why do you want to treat your business partner this way?”

Chen, who admits that he could have done more due diligence but said he trusted Amazon’s advice, had to contend not only with those cases but also with at least a half-dozen more suits that were filed against NEA after the deal closed and are still pending.

Another problem, according to Chen, was that Amazon was often extremely late in paying its weekly invoices, which stretched his finances. He complained about it during a meeting with Amazon executives in a Santa Monica hotel early this year, he said, and soon thereafter noticed that his routes had been dramatically reduced. This April, he said, he received a call from a different Amazon executive telling him that his services were no longer needed and his contracts would all be terminated in 30 days.

Chen’s three DSPs had recently been appraised at $28 million, he said, but Amazon offered him just $400,000 to sign a separation agreement and walk away. Instead, Chen filed a lawsuit, which is ongoing. In an interview, Chen claimed he believed that Amazon wanted to give away his routes to smaller, more pliant companies that would accept lower fees.

Chen, who said he’s been thrown into a serious depression by the situation, grew emotional as he described having to fire hundreds of employees on the spot.

“Amazon, you are so big,” he said. “Why do you want to treat your business partner this way?”

Chen is not alone in complaining about not getting paid by Amazon.

Lisa Bythewood of Tampa, Florida, signed her first contract to provide delivery services to Amazon in March 2015, running routes out of Miami. In less than two months, Amazon assigned her two more locations. She was excited but also noticed that the company hadn’t yet paid any of her weekly invoices, she recalls. Figuring it was just a bureaucratic hang-up, Bythewood took out a large line of credit to keep her business afloat.

By August, Amazon had awarded her company, VHU Express, an additional 17 locations, stretching from LA to Boston. But as the fall set in, she noticed that once again, Amazon was failing to pay her invoices and she started falling behind on her overhead. Bythewood took out a second line of credit, but it wasn’t enough and drivers started going unpaid.

At least one of those drivers complained to the Department of Labor, which launched an investigation in early 2016. The regulator found that 120 employees were owed a total of nearly $190,000 in back wages and overtime — but determined that nearly all of that should be paid by Amazon rather than VHU, according to Labor Department records.

It was a very unusual finding. Amazon has successfully argued, on multiple occasions in court and to regulators, that it had no responsibility for the treatment of drivers.

The DOL investigator felt differently, noting that because Amazon controlled and supervised the work and working conditions, required VHU to operate out of its facilities, mandated what screenings employees should undergo and what clothing they should wear, and could “dictate who they no longer wanted working as” drivers, it was, in fact, a joint employer.

Amazon acknowledged it had problems with its invoicing system, blaming a variety of factors, including having “moved their accounts payable department to India.” The company vigorously denied being a joint employer, but to get out from under the Labor Department’s thumb, it agreed to pay the workers. It also consented to pay back wages in Florida and Massachusetts, for a total of $352,816.71.

But that didn’t put the matter to rest.

Around the same time, Amazon terminated its contract with Bythewood, who had to lay off about 300 employees. Soon thereafter, it filed a claim against VHU in court, arguing that the firm had violated its contract, which required it to “defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Amazon from any third-party allegation or claim.” Eventually Amazon won a judgment against its former delivery company for nearly $300,000, despite the fact that it had apparently created the entire situation in the first place by failing to pay its invoices. Eventually Bythewood said she settled the dispute with Amazon out of court.

In the meantime, Bythewood, a 51-year old mother of seven, was left facing lawsuits from unpaid lenders, insurers, van leasing companies, and workers. In a bid to help her, Bythewood’s mother emptied her own retirement fund, but it was to no avail: Bythewood and her husband filed for personal bankruptcy a few months later, listing more than $1 million in unpaid Amazon invoices in the filing.

The previous summer, she had been named a finalist in the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s BusinessWoman of the Year awards because her company had landed a contract with Amazon. Now her company was gone.

“You’ve got people chomping at the bit because all they think and see is dollar signs,” said Bythewood, who currently isn’t working. It was hard to say no, she said, because if “you don’t want to do it, someone else will.”

Indeed, Amazon enjoys a glut of entrepreneurs eager for a chance at owning their own chunk of its delivery network. A Facebook group dedicated to people hoping to launch Amazon delivery companies has more than 500 members. They offer each other tips on how to pass the video interview (be sure to use Amazon’s STAR method for answering questions) and thoughts on whether or not $10,000 is actually enough to get started ($30,000 is a safer bet, some say).

“Just got the call I’ve been hoping and praying for, I’m in!” a group member recently posted. “It was a long road, since applying June 2018. God is good.”

Shortly before 3 p.m. on April 19, 2018, a driver for a delivery firm called Last Mile Delivered, Keith Heard, turned left down a four-lane road in a Philadelphia suburb, following delivery directions on his Amazon device. Worried he was about to miss a second left onto a side street, he pulled into an intersection when he heard what he later described as a “thump” and assumed he had somehow hit a pole, according to the police report.

What he had heard, in fact, was the sound of his Ford Transit van slamming into the body of Samuel Cabelus. The 22-year-old Temple University junior had been cruising on a motorcycle down the arterial at the time Heard cut in front of him, and when he tried to stop, his Yamaha hit the pavement and slid toward the van.

Cabelus was crushed under the vehicle, where he died. Heard was cited by police for failing to yield before making a left turn. Cabelus’s grieving parents declined requests for interviews but blame Amazon for the accident, arguing that the company’s policy of pressuring drivers to meet guaranteed delivery times contributed to their son’s death, according to an ongoing lawsuit they filed against Amazon, Last Mile Delivered, and Heard in late 2018.

In court, Amazon vigorously denied liability on the familiar argument that it does not control the delivery firms in its network or employ the drivers. And just as it had again and again — in cases of death, injury, and workplace mistreatment — the company invoked the carefully worded agreement it requires all delivery firms to sign, obliging them to defend and indemnify it from, or assume responsibility for, any and all legal claims. A lawyer representing Last Mile and Heard also denied responsibility for the death in court.

In the year since her son’s death, Cabelus’s mother, Winnie, has written frequent Facebook posts about missing the young man she remembered in one comment as “stubborn, handsome, funny, a great big brother, invincible, charming, and absolutely adored.” In February, she posted an article about the crash in a public Facebook group called Bad Amazon Deliveries. “Please take these unprofessional driver mistakes seriously,” she wrote. “They may cost you life.

“This is about shitty driving, yes,” she added. “But this is about low-paid, inexperienced, and untrained delivery drivers operating gigantic vans they don’t know how to drive, under enormous pressure to deliver quickly. This is profit driven, corporate greed behavior without consideration for anyone else’s humanity.”

Courtroom sketch of Valdimar Gray during his trial.

Late on the morning of July 31, an attorney for Amazon walked into a dingy, cramped courtroom on the second floor of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse in Chicago. She was there to watch the trial of Valdimar Gray, facing a felony homicide charge in the death of Telesfora Escamilla.

Moments before the trial began, 20 members of the Escamilla family entered the courtroom en masse, taking up half the seats in the gallery. Over two days of testimony, they relived the terrible afternoon of Dec. 22, 2016. On at least a half-dozen occasions, members of the family broke out into tears, sobbing audibly when the circumstances of Telesfora’s death were described.

Gray, who had no previous driving infractions, sat stiffly in a gray blazer and a crisp white shirt. He faced a sentence of between 3 and 14 years in prison if convicted. The Escamillas had pushed hard for him to be prosecuted. The civil suit they had filed against Gray, Inpax, and Amazon couldn’t proceed until Gray’s criminal liability was determined.

Escamilla’s daughter Irma told BuzzFeed News that she had heard about her mother’s death on her way home from work. She had been looking forward to spending Christmas Eve with her mom, a grandmother of 17, who had already purchased tamales for the family’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

“I still have a hole in my heart for my mom. She’s not with us. I don’t know if I can overcome this.”

Instead, she found herself staring at a pool of her mother’s blood on South Drake Avenue. “I still have a hole in my heart for my mom,” said Irma. “She’s not with us. I don’t know if I can overcome this.”

Witnesses testifying for the prosecution described the accident and its aftermath, conceding under cross-examination that Gray might not have been breaking the speed limit, even if he was in a hurry, and had paused, albeit briefly, at a stop sign moments before impact.

Gray’s lawyer, Adam Sheppard, saying the evidence was inconsistent and that Escamilla’s death was a “tragic accident,” called for his client to be acquitted. The judge concurred. Gray’s parents jumped for joy as the Escamilla family sat in shocked disbelief.

But Gray showed little joy.

“I’m not going to celebrate,” he said, walking grimly out of the courtroom with his mother and father.

Letters of support filed in court by friends and family describe how the accident has changed Gray’s once-easygoing personality and how he’s haunted by memories of that afternoon.

On that day, as dusk fell on the corner of West 28th and South Drake, amid crying members of the Escamilla family, gawking rubberneckers, and crowds of local TV news reporters, another Inpax employee quietly arrived on the scene to drive Gray’s Nissan van and the Amazon packages it held back to the Amazon delivery station, just 2 miles away.

Gray was fired the next morning and soon had criminal charges hanging over him. The Escamilla family lost its matriarch. But those boxes and envelopes were absolutely going to get delivered by Christmas.

The urgent memo Amazon sent to Gray’s supervisors at Inpax just five days before the fatal accident described the week as the “home stretch/final sprint” and urged that every driver be made “aware of the expectations for this week.”

“Our #1 priority,” it said, “is getting every package to the customer on time.”

Nowhere did it mention safety. ●

CULTURE

This Viral TikTok From A Deaf Creator Is Moving People To Learn Sign Language

Content Courtesy of: buzzfeednews.com

Written by: Lauren Strapagiel

Chrissy Marshall is inspiring people to pick up American Sign Language.

If you don’t live with a disability, you may not appreciate how crucial and meaningful community and accessibility are — but one viral TikTok is demonstrating it perfectly.

Chrissy Marshall, a 19-year-old content creator in Los Angeles, was born hard of hearing and became profoundly deaf in high school. Now, she makes content on YouTube and TikTok about her disability and American Sign Language.

One of those videos captures a “special” day she had recently. In the TikTok video, Marshall, looking happy and excited, recounts her day of encountering three people who signed to her in ASL.

“Oh my god. Today has been crazy,” she says and signs in the video. “Today I went to three places and all three people signed.”

She describes stopping at the bank, where a teller signed with her, then at Starbucks, where a deaf barista signed, and then she grabbed a pretzel, where the worker also signed.

“Everyone signed! It was like a perfect world. It’s like a utopia.”

The TikTok was reuploaded to Twitter, where it went viral.

“The sun was shining, people were signing, and everything felt so fluid,” Marshall told BuzzFeed News in an interview. “I thought I was being pranked or something, like cameras were going to pop out and ask about my day.”

“The area has a big deaf community,” she added, “and I’m glad and inspired to see the impact it’s had on the greater community as a whole.”

The video is making other people happy too, and it’s encouraging them to learn ASL.

Marshall said her online platform has given her the opportunity to spread awareness about disability rights, ASL, and deafness.

Her other videos cover what it’s like to be deaf. She also posts fun ones like ASL versions of songs.

“I’m so glad it’s just more people I get the opportunity to educate and inspire to be part of the community,” said Marshall. “I am a huge advocate for people learning ASL, and I’m happy and grateful so many people were inspired to do so.”

A Brief Explainer On Why Everyone’s Now Talking About White Claw For People Who’re Confused

Written by:Ehis Osifo

If you’ve been on the internet or have left your apartment in the past few weeks, you might have seen these floating around.

This delicious beverage for our 21+ readers is White Claw. It’s a low-cal spiked seltzer that has been on the market since 2016!

You’re probs like, “Why is this just NOW becoming a thing?” Or, “I’ve been drinking claws for YEARS and now all of a sudden it’s cool?” To which I say, “Because of Twitter,” and “Yes, that’s correct.”

I would attribute the sudden popularity of White Claw to YouTuber Trevor Wallace, who dropped this parody video a few weeks ago which went viral immediately and put WC on the map.

4 Books We Absolutely Loved Last Month

Written by:

In crafting a coming-of-stage story set under the bleary, borderline-palpable lights of Manhattan’s Times Square in the summer of 1940, author Elizabeth Gilbert has deliberately (but far from ignorantly) eschewed producing a story that mirrors the dark, heavy political and social mire of modern times. Any medium grounded in the year 1940 would, of course, be remiss to ignore the vile storm brewing in the United States (and beyond) at the time, but Gilbert’s dextrous storytelling finds a way of creating a narrative that is somehow politically aware and downright romplike.

And so City of Girls follows the mile-a-minute goings-on of Vivian, a bright-eyed 19-year-old dripping with curiosity who checks off every connotation of the word “virginal” one could possibly procure. Kicked out of Vassar and dropped off in the city, Vivian encounters cheap thrills, a cast of histrionic and outrageous friends, and, of course, the kind of love one can find only in the thick, humid air of New York City. Ultimately, City of Girls provides a sort of summertime escapism that doesn’t sacrifice sharpness or wit, a rare example of a “beach read” with shrewd edge and something to say. What exactly that is really depends on what you’re looking for from Girls, which has something to offer any reader as hungry as its delightfully voracious protagonist. Get your copy now. —Kyle Davis

Bright and motivated, 15-year-old Ilya has achieved what he and his brother Vladmir have dreamed of their whole lives: a ticket to America in the form of an exchange program between his small Russian refinery town, Berlozhniki, and its sister oil town across the world in Louisiana. But Ilya is unable to savor his achievement because his arrival in the States is clouded by Vlad’s recent incarceration back in Russia after confessing to the murders of three women. Convinced of his brother’s innocence, Ilya is determined to set Vlad free with the help of Sadie, the enigmatic eldest daughter of his American host family.

In chapters alternating between Ilya’s life in Russia and his time in the US, Lydia Fitzpatrick’s Lights All Night Long is both a mystery and a coming-of-age story that is plot-driven and engaging without ever skimping on character development or straying from the bond between Ilya and Vlad — the true core of the story. It’s a heartbreaking read, and one I struggled to put down. Fitzpatrick has crafted an impressive debut that feels transportive yet holds within it an intimate study of the ties that bind us to one another — across families, across continents. Get your copy now. —Jillian Karande

Part memoir, part art criticism, part queer theory, part futuristic dream, Trisha Low’s extraordinary book-length essay, Socialist Realism, grapples with questions that have obsessed me lately about modern living: How do we reconcile our desire for love and family with our desire to make the world a better place for everyone else? Is true revolution really possible? And does that even matter?

 Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson’s groundbreaking work, The Argonauts,Socialist Realism is breathtaking in its genre-bending, its excavation of American culture’s sexism, racism, and homophobia, and in its unflinching tenderness. The end had me in tears. I’m sure I’ll return again and again to this remarkable little book.

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The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

“It was not enough to survive, you have to live.”

Colson Whitehead delivers another harrowing tale, filled with rich details about the black experience in America. Inspired by the real-life abuse at the notorious Dozier School for Boys in Florida, Whitehead tells the story of an ambitious young black boy named Elwood Curtis who’s sent to the fictional Nickel Academy after being falsely accused of a crime. Elwood quickly learns of the horrific and dehumanizing practices keeping institutionalized racism afloat at Nickel Academy, masked as a reform school for wayward boys. In The Nickel Boys, Whitehead renders the horrors of the Jim Crow era while stirring up feelings of hope. It’s a chilling novel that deserves to be read, despite the pain it conjures up. Get your copy now. —Morgan Murrell

15 Podcasts To Take To The Beach

Written by: Becca James

For when you want to listen to something other than the waves at the beach.

You’ve heard of beach reads, but what about beach listens? Here are some podcasts to dive into before summer ends. In summer the term “beach read” is thrown around with abandon. Everyone—from authors to publications—questions its meaning, unable to reach a consensus. In the same vein, asking what makes a podcast fit for the beach is futile. Instead, we’re recommending 15 outstanding podcasts that range in subject and style, from investigative journalism to narrative fiction, meaning there’s something for everyone… even if you like elaborate video game conspiracy theories. The only catch is that they’re capsules, but that makes them perfect for a weekend at the beach.

1. 16 Shots

16 Shots humanizes the harrowing information surrounding the shooting of Chicago’s Laquan McDonald by police officer Jason Van Dyke. Pushing past crime statistics to offer an in-depth look at “the shooting, the fallout, and the trial,” the podcast provides daily updates and audio clips from the trial itself, leaving the listener in the jury box.

2. BIKRAM

ESPN’s 30 For 30, the popular documentary hub known for producing sports stories “too dramatic not to be real,” brings it in the podcast arena as well. Take BIKRAM, for example, an enthralling five-episode investigation of Bikram Choudhury’s controversial yoga practices from his boom in the ’70s to his current-day bust amid sexual assault allegations.

3. Arden

This fictional mystery-comedy subverts tropes by turning the Dead Girl narrative on its head. Enter missing starlet Julie Capsom who ran her car off the road a decade earlier, leaving behind a male torso in the trunk. Journalist Bea Casely and detective Brenda Bentley are on the case, cracking wise and tracking down bad guys.

4. Articles of Interest

A mini-series from 99% Invisible, Articles of Interest defines itself as a “podcast concept album… on clothes.” Digging deep into design, the podcast tackles tough questions like why womenswear doesn’t have pockets and why kid’s clothes are doused in dangerous chemicals. It also investigates timeless wardrobe staples from Hawaiian shirts to blue jeans with flair.

5. Bronzeville

Directed by and starring Laurence Fishburne and Larenz Tate and scripted by Academy Award-nominated writer Josh Olson, Bronzeville is historical fiction at its finest. Set in the titular Chicago neighborhood once nicknamed the “Black Metropolis,” it chronicles “the lives of players in the lottery games while illuminating the self-sustainability of the community’s African American residents.”

6. Bubble

Welcome to fictional Fairhaven—“a literal bubble of corporate utopia.” Bubble goes from satire to sci-fi with the abrupt appearance and killing of a reptilian monster. It’s a cutting and comic look at millennial misadventures that is as addictive as it is absurd, and will have you rooting for a small band of monster hunters.

7. Cover-Up *

Chappaquiddick has become shorthand for the death of political campaign specialist Mary Jo Kopechne. On People magazine’s first podcast, the publication goes back nearly 50 years to the discovery of her body in Ted Kennedy’s car, which the senator and presidential hopeful had safely escaped from 10 hours before he alerted authorities to the accident.

8. Dr. Death

A clear spiritual sequel to podcast-turned-tv show Dirty John, Dr. Death takes you on a spine-tingling journey as it unfolds the story of neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch and the profoundly flawed medical system that allowed him to get away with madness. It’s a masterclass in investigative reporting that follows every terrifying turn of malpractice.

9. Gay Future

Purporting to be an “adaptation of a recently discovered, never released YA novel by Mike Pence,” Gay Future is a subversive snack. In a tight six episodes, it brings you to the year 2062 in which (almost) everyone is gay, and the fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of the sole and secret straight.

10. The Grift

It’s always scammer season. The Grift, “a show about con artists and the lives they ruin,” investigates all sorts of swindlers—from card sharks to cult leaders—while trying to find out why we keep falling for it. It’s an intriguing look at the history of con artists filled with tips—er, tricks—of the trade.

11. The Habitat

The Habitat is a “true story of a fake planet.” Following six volunteers in an “imitation Mars habitat where they will work as imitation astronauts for one very real year,” it’s secluded setting, and mission-oriented focus is reminiscent of Survivor, and it’s just as addictive. Tune in in preparation for the day we blast off.

12. Mogul

Documenting the life and eventual suicide of Chris Lighty, the wildly successful hip-hop honcho, Mogul acts as a biography for both the man and the music. It shines a stark light on the price of pursuing the American dream while working to humanize Lightly as much as it honors him and his contributions to the genre.

13. The Polybius Conspiracy

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The “chicken sandwich wars” with Chick-fil-A captivated the internet and drove record sales. Then they became a logistical headache.

A line of customers waiting for a Popeyes fried chicken sandwich in New York last week. On Tuesday, the fast-food chain announced it had run out of sandwiches.

Content Courtesy of: nytimes.com

Written by: David Yaffe-Bellany and Matthew Sedacca

They started a war in 15 minutes.

At 1:43 p.m. on Aug. 19, Bruno Cardinali, a marketing executive for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, got a WhatsApp message from a colleague: That morning, one of Popeyes’ fast-food rivals, Chick-fil-A, had tweeted what appeared to be a thinly veiled critique of the new fried chicken sandwich that Popeyes had started offering nationwide a few days earlier.

Mr. Cardinali quickly convened a group of marketing officials in a small room on the fifth floor of the Popeyes headquarters in Miami. A high-speed brainstorming session ensued, and before long, the team settled on what seemed like the perfect response: “… y’all good?”

The tweet appeared on the official Popeyes account at 1:58 p.m.

“It was 15 minutes of turnaround putting out the tweet that triggered the whole thing,” Mr. Cardinali said. “And at that moment, we braced ourselves.”

What the tweet set off were the “chicken sandwich wars,” a viral social media debate that has captivated the internet for the last week and a half. Popeyes, Chick-fil-A and other fast-food brands traded barbs on Twitter, arguing about whose sandwich tasted best. As sandwich memes proliferated, customers flocked to Popeyes restaurants across the country, forcing employees to work hours of overtime as location after location sold out of the sandwiches.

As the chain’s sandwich supply rapidly dwindled, top Popeyes executives working behind the scenes in Miami were ebullient: A two-word tweet had turned the chicken sandwich rollout into the most successful product launch in the company’s history. But the success of the sandwich was also creating a logistical headache.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Popeyes announced that its chicken sandwich inventory was exhausted: For the time being, the chain said, its stores would have to stop offering the sandwich, which sold for $3.99. (Popeyes declined to reveal how many sandwiches it had sold over the last week and a half.)

“We had very aggressively forecasted the demand, and we thought we wouldn’t have any problems at all, at least until the end of September,” said Felipe Athayde, the Popeyes president for the United States market. “And then two weeks go by, and we’re out of the product on a national level.”

All of last week, Mr. Athayde had fielded calls and emails about the shortages. But it wasn’t until that Friday evening that he made a decision. The chain’s senior leadership had gathered in a fifth-floor meeting room. Some officials were on laptops, while others examined printed spreadsheets showing sandwich sales across the country.

“Guys, look,” Mr. Athayde said to the group. “I think we’re going to have to hit the brakes.”

In the end, the decision came down to simple mathematics, Mr. Athayde said in an interview this week. With 2,400 locations, Popeyes is one of the largest fried chicken chains in the United States. But it did not have enough chicken to keep making the sandwiches.