The Zeitgeist: February 14, 2025

Today's Edition: BF Island, Dr. Bronner's and Vending Machine Drama

Good morning. We’ve finally recovered from Super Bowl LIX (one reporter we spoke to said her team was “completely fried and zombified”), just in time for Valentine’s Day. According to a new survey from CouponFollow, on average, Americans in relationships plan to spend around $155 on V-Day. Gen Z will spend more, however, budgeting around $235, and baby boomers will spend way less (around $53). CBS News’ Data Team also looked at Yelp and Google Trends data to reveal how Americans across the country celebrate.

Campaigns

Earned-friendly campaigns & clever moments

Also, Califia Farms’ Green Album on Spotify, Papa Johns’ garlic bath bomb and Skin Control x DoorDash’s pimple patch deliveries for Valentine’s Day and Kiehl’s x The White Lotus.

Culture 

Snackable bites of consumer culture

Corporate

Commerce

Shopper society snapshot

Connections

Feed intelligence

Media Moves:

  • Cale G. Weissman, formerly editor in chief at Modern Retail, is now New York managing editor at The Real Deal.

  • Jill Manoff, formerly editor in chief at Glossy, is now also editor in chief at Modern Retail. She will oversee the publication’s editorial operations and drive the editorial vision for the Modern Retail Marketing Summit in April while continuing to lead Glossy.

  • Josh Fellman, formerly editor at Bloomberg for the Daybreak morning news digest, is now staff editor, markets & finance at Quartz.

  • Cristiano Lima-Strong, formerly tech policy reporter at The Washington Post, is now associate editor at Tech Policy Press.

  • Rebecca Rovenstine, formerly commerce writer at Entertainment Tonight, is now commerce writer at The Arena Group.

  • Danielle Sinay, formerly beauty writer at Glamour, is now health and wellness editor at Parade.

  • Andra Chantim, formerly deputy editor of Woman’s Day, has left the magazine and has yet to announce her new role.

Also... Severance fans, try your hand as a Lumon Industries macrodata refinement employee (and download the app to dive in deeper).

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—The Editors

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