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.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Uh1ZIg9S7/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=dlfix[/embed]

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. "