The Zeitgeist: August 30, 2024

Today's Edition: Back To School, Hopecore and Beetlejuice

August 30, 2024

Good morning. This week, we’re seeing several more companies, including Ford, Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s owner Brown-Forman, scaling back their diversity and equity programs - a clear sign that the anti-DEI movement is roiling corporate America. Across the world, a new Right to Disconnect law is now in effect in Australia, where employees can safely ignore messages from their boss after work hours. Not everyone’s on board just yet, with some calling the new law “rushed, poorly thought out and deeply confusing.”

Lastly, don’t forget to buy a tennis hat - the new status symbol of the US Open - and enjoy the last long weekend of the summer.

Campaigns

Earned-friendly campaigns & clever moments

‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ brand partnerships are fueling the Summerween trend

Several brands from Secret to CarMax have partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures to promote the new film, kicking off spooky season early.

By Bailey Calfee | Campaign US

Also, Liquid Death x Yeti’s casket cooler, Pizza Hut’s mini table for moving day pizza, 7-Eleven x Green Day’s tattoo contest, HMD’s Barbie-branded flip phone and Wendy’s Krabby Patty burger (reportedly).

Culture 

Snackable bites of consumer culture

TikTok’s ‘hopecore’ trend shows the best—and worst—of internet optimism

Videos labeled #hopecore once symbolized an unrelenting optimism for internet doomscrollers, but like so many TikTok trends that came before, it quickly ran into cynicism.

By Henry Chandonnet | Fast Company

Food wars: Why Chipotle, Cava and Sweetgreen are winning fight for diners

The fast-food industry’s pain is fast casual’s gain with McDonald’s, Starbucks and KFC on the losing side.

By Kelly Tyko | Axios

The biggest star of the US Open: A cocktail that brought in $10 million

The Honey Deuce has become an incessantly Instagrammable staple of the Open and a lucrative sales driver.

By Geoff Weiss | Business Insider

25 Most Influential Creators of 2024

The Rolling Stone staff debated, asked creators across the spectrum to nominate their favorites and reviewed data from CreatorIQ to create the list.

By Staff | Rolling Stone

Corporate

Chicago wants to open a city-run grocery store. It could be the solution to urban food deserts

A report by HR&A Advisors found that the city could establish a three-store network that would fill its food deserts for $26.7 million in upfront investment.

By Patrick Sisson | Fast Company

Gen Z is actually taking sick days, unlike their older coworkers. It’s redefining the workplace

Sick leave in the US increased 55% in 2023 compared to 2019, according to new data from Dayforce, and while all age groups are taking advantage, employees younger than 36 are leading the charge, with a 29% leap in the amount of sick leave they took from 2024 compared to 2019.

By Sasha Rogelberg | Fortune

Lowe’s changes DEI policies amid activist pressure

Lowe’s is the latest big company to alter its diversity, equity and inclusion policies amid pressure from conservative podcast host and activist Robby Starbuck.

By Taylor Redford | The Washington Post

Klarna has 1,800 employees it hopes AI will render obsolete

Buy-now, pay-later giant Klarna has been making bold assertions that AI will replace its ambitious tech workers, and the company’s CEO just gave the biggest hint yet to his employees that hundreds of them shouldn’t expect to retire at the group.

By Ryan Hogg | Fortune

Commerce

Shopper society snapshot

Americans set to spend a total of $39 billion on back-to-school shopping this year

Last year, consumers spent a record $41.5 billion on back-to-school shopping, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation. This year, consumers have grown more tempered as they feel the compounding effects of price hikes and navigate through an economic slowdown.

By Matt Egan | CNN

At Costco, Shopping for Clues About Consumers

The reporter Ben Ryder Howe traveled far and wide to better understand Americans’ love of the membership-only retail store.

By Ben Ryder Howe | The New York Times

Gen Z more likely to buy holiday gifts via social media: report

Instagram and Facebook are forecast to be the most popular platforms for gift purchases during the season. 

By Tatiana Walk-Morris | Retail Dive

US consumer confidence scales six-month high, labor market angst rises

US consumer confidence rose to a six-month high in August amid optimism over the economic outlook, and odds of a recession continue to decline.

By Lucia Mutikani | Reuters

Connections

Feed intelligence

Digital news consumption has gotten harder to measure

The internet was supposed to unleash a new level of transparency around news consumption, but it's more muddled than ever.

By Sara Fischer, Neal Rothschild | Axios

Why Brands Are Inviting Customers on Influencer Trips

Community trips are being combined with broader initiatives to reach wider groups of customers with the aim of generating UGC.

By Liz Flora | Business of Fashion

Pokimane is the Most-Followed Female Twitch Streamer. How Did She Get There?

Pokimane is the embodiment of the "domestic cozy" inclination that has come to characterize a certain kind of Gen Z state of mind.

By Harriet Shepherd | Teen Vogue

Media Moves:

  • Robert Scammell, formerly editor at UTKN, is now senior editor of VC, startups and tech at Business Insider.

  • Kali Hays, formerly tech correspondent at Business Insider covering the major social media platforms, is now West Coast tech correspondent at Fortune.

  • Courtney Brogle, formerly assignment editor at NBC News, is now desk producer at Bloomberg TV.

  • Willa Bennett, formerly editor in chief at Highsnobiety, is now editor in chief at Cosmopolitan and Seventeen, starting September 16.

  • Ella Koeze, formerly graphics editor at The New York Times’ business news desk, is now graphics editor at Reuters.

  • Layoffs were announced this week at Penske Media Corporation, which owns Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

Also... check out The Disciples, a series of photo montages of music fans outside concerts from photographer James Mollison.

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