Avocado Ban 🥑
This Week in Review ☕️ : Coinbase and Tortilla Chips| Advertising Giants bring the big guns | Your Doritos just got smaller | Tobacco campaigns face near ban | Swiss Smokers | Venus is the New Mars |
Quick Bites:
Super Bowl 🏈 : And Los Angeles brings it home! The LA Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl 2022.
The Rams (which last made the playoffs in 2019 but ultimately lost to the New England Patriots) just woke up and said "'Bout time we win a Super Bowl?!"
Cali folks, how y'all feelin right now? 🎉
With more than 100 million viewers, the Super Bowl is.. well it's super for advertising!
With big brands flexing their muscle to grab viewers' attention, the thrill to outbid competitors is real.
A look at some companies that advertised in the early 2000s:
💡Blockbuster
💡Gateway Computers
💡VoiceStream Wireless
💡CompUSA
💡Radio Shack
Heard of any? Us neither🤷🏻♀️
A look at some companies that advertised this year:
💡Coinbase
💡Cryptocurrency exchange FTX
💡Netflix
💡Amazon Prime video
💡Expedia
💡BudLight x NFTs
💡Tonal Smart Gym
💡Taco Bell ( well, because whats life without a cheesy bean burrito?!)
Our Thoughts💡: It's clear Coinbase quickly dominated the conversation; they paid MILLIONS for a QR code bouncing around the screen for only 30 seconds!
But the ad was so popular- it crashed the app with the massive amount of scans from the crowd!
Lesson💡: Less.is.More.
"Coinbase went from 186th to 2nd place on the App Store after its Super Bowl ad."
"The website got 20 million hits in 1 minute after its ad."
Retail 🛒 : Beware of SHRINKflation guys!
We're curious if any of you have noticed your favorite products get smaller and smaller?
Businesses are passing their rising costs on to consumers by reducing the contents in their packaged goods, WSJ reports.
Global examples include Mars shrinking Malteasers and M&Ms by up to 15%.
Toblerone created headlines a few years ago when it widened the gap between the distinctive triangular chunks, The Guardian reports.
Only after the backlash did the company restore the chocolate to its original shape- but bigger, AND with a higher price.
For those who aren't aware of the rising inflation globally, stay alert. Most supermarkets hide the increased prices.. unless you pay attention. Rather than charge more, they shrink the size of the product. 500g of cheddar soon becomes 450g, 400g, 350g, 300g.
Price stays the same but manipulation increases 👋
Our Thoughts💡: We personally feel scammed. This is not 'shrinkflation' or 'hidden inflation'.
It's daylight robbery.
The only silver lining? It can help us deal with the nationwide weight gain over the course of the pandemic (which let's be honest, is well into our 3rd year at this point..🙈)
For those who've piled on the excess pounds snacking from home.. ahem🙄.., Smaller snacks=lesser calories=less lbs.
Food🥑 : The US has suspended all avocado imports from Mexico.
So, people can enter- just not the avocado? Lmao
PS. Maybe by the time those banned avocados get unbanned, they might actually ripe🙏
Mexico confirmed the “surprise, temporary suspension” late Saturday night.
And yes, incase anyone was wondering, that's less than 24 hours before Americans hunkered down with a big bowl of guac & chips to watch pro-football's biggest game!
The reason for the suspension: a threatening message sent to a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico, The Associated Press reports.
The suspension is in effect until further notice.
Luckily we made enough guacamole to last a week 🙏
“Facilitating the export of Mexican avocados and ensuring the safety of our teams go hand in hand [..] to resume operations,” said the U.S. Embassy.
Our Thoughts💡: Okay but Avocado Toast with flaming hot Doritos and melted cheddar tho..
Work 💻 : Our new tool this February 2022: Heyday
We keep a million tabs open while writing our newsletter for y'all, but always forget why we have some tabs open in the first place!
Heyday’s browser extension has allowed us to shut those tabs (thank f**king god) by automatically saving the content and resurfacing it when we need it.
Give your memory a boost TODAY! ( Oh, and the first 14 days are FREE 🥂 )
Tobacco 🚬 : Swiss voters approve a near-total ban on all tobacco advertising.
According to Swiss info, the country currently "has some of the weakest laws against tobacco advertising in Europe."
Key Highlights:
💡Almost 57% of voters backed the vote
💡Data shows that 31.7% of people aged 15 to 24 smoke
💡Tobacco companies will no longer be able to advertise in public spaces
💡NGO Addiction Switzerland called the move a "big step forward"
💡Opponents saw it as an "intrusion on economic freedoms"
Our Thoughts💡: Ok, so we can't eat meat, drink or smoke now?!
Lets just suck all the joy outta life and wait for Omicron to take us all out tf
Also, is smoking really a "sin"?! What's with the damn judgement?
Space 🚀 : NASA scientists capture ground-breaking images of Venus's surface.
"Venus is the third brightest thing in the sky but until recently, our view of it has been blocked by a thick atmosphere"
-Brian Wood, lead author of the study
Key Highlights, according to Inverse:
💡Difficult to capture images in the past due to the thick, sulfuric acid clouds and carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere that blanket the planet in a toxic haze.
💡New observations show Venus marked with diverse topography; continents, flat expanses and ranging highlands
💡The planet is 863.33 Fahrenheit at its surface
💡Emissions similar to an Earthly wonder: The aurora
💡New glimpses were captured by the Parker Solar Probe instrument
Our Thoughts💡: Surely after the year we've had, there are far more problems to solve on our own planet than Venus?
Let's not encourage blowing up ridiculous fortunes for billionaires to enter even larger pissing contests in outer space.
Fascinating? Yes. Wise? Probably not.
Quicker Bites:
Naomi Campbell and her daughter cover the March issue of British Vogue.
WHO: Vaccine nationalism is responsible for Covid-19 variants.
Boris Johnson urges Russia to 'step back from the brink'.
There is no link between HIV or Aids and the Covid-19 vaccines, experts say.
Australia declares koalas an endangered species.
US Covid vaccine for children under 5 delayed by atleast 2 months.
China says not granting passport renewals for non-essential travel.