The Zeitgeist: January 10, 2025

Today's Edition: Whatnot, OneCourt and Off Season

Good morning. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by the devastating fires in California.

This week, Derek Thompson penned “The Anti-Social Century,” The Atlantic’s February cover story, about how Americans today are spending more time alone than ever. You’ll see the link below under Culture. The amount of time we spend alone and in our homes is reshaping the consumer economy, from dining to entertainment to delivery, and changing everything from our personalities to our relationships. Derek summarizes the article nicely in a post on Twitter/X.

Campaigns

Earned-friendly campaigns & clever moments

Also, Bumble’s Bumble Honey Latte at La La Land Cafe, Halo Top’s “rebrand” for Dry January, Mug Root Beer’s Dawg DNA Kit, Tide x Marvel Studios’ Collateral Stains campaign and 5D film experience, Krispy Kreme x Pop-Tarts’ donut collab and the return of White Castle’s Love Castle for Valentine’s Day.

Culture 

Snackable bites of consumer culture

Corporate

Commerce

Shopper society snapshot

Connections

Feed intelligence

Media Moves:

  • Aisha Counts, reporter at Bloomberg News, is taking on a new beat covering the creator economy. She has been covering social media companies such as Twitter and Meta.

  • Kia Kokalitcheva, formerly technology and business senior reporter at Axios, is now senior editor of venture capital at Pitchbook.

  • Jane Ridley, formerly correspondent at Business Insider, is now correspondent at The Daily Mail U.S. She is the outlet’s first correspondent for Real Life, which covers human interest stories, for its U.S. operations.

  • Tyler Katzenberger, formerly intern at Politico, has been hired full time to cover tech policy.

  • Valentina Caval, formerly senior video producer at Yahoo! Finance, is now senior producer at The New York Times.

  • Jordan Erb, formerly newsletter editor at Business Insider, is now newsletter editor at Bloomberg News.

  • Jae Thomas, formerly shopping editor at Mashable, has left the outlet and is pursuing freelance opportunities in pet, outdoors and lifestyle commerce.

  • Eat This, Not That! is ceasing publication this week.

  • Layoffs were announced at The Washington Post and HuffPost.

Also... read this story in Smithsonian Magazine about the accidental invention of the snow globe.

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