Beyoncé and A billion-dollar Peanut Butter Pill 🥜
This Week in Review☕️: Majority of supermarket food found to be unhealthy | Colleges are shuttering down | Nestle fires CEO | Queen B launches new whiskey brand based in Houston | The US Open begins |
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Quick Bites:
Alcohol🥃: “Bottle in my hand, the whiskey up high,” sang Beyoncé in her latest album.
Now it seems like the iconic singer had a specific idea in her mind.
Beyoncé launches Whiskey brand called 'SirDavis', as she inches one step closer towards billionaire status.
This thanksgiving we want SirDavis instead of Sweet potato casseroles and Pumpkin Pie. Very beyhive, very demure, very mindful 👌
PS. Us pulling up on bae after drinking 5 Beyoncé whiskey and Cokes while listening to Lemonade👇🏻
Key Highlights, reported by CNN:
💡The brand is a joint venture between Beyoncé and LVMH
💡SirDavis, will be headquartered in the singer's hometown of Houston, Texas
💡It is priced at $89 a bottle
💡It claims to be an “unexpected take” on American whiskey
💡The primary flavor profile are of dark red fruits, clove and cinnamon
💡It is the 32-time Grammy winner’s first play into the spirits industry
Background💡: Entering the Alcohol Business has been a home run for celebrities.
As we self-medicate with booze, celebs & influencers are minting money, one hangover at a time :
💡Ryan Reynolds: Aviation Gin sold for $610 million to Diageao
💡George Clooney: Casamigos Tequila sold for 1 billion (also to Diageo)
💡FatJew: Babe Wine gets sold to AB InBev
💡Bethenny Frankel: Skinnygirl Spirits gets sold to Beam Global for $120 million
💡Jay-Z: D'Usse Cognac in a JV with Bacardi
💡P Diddy: Ciroc Vodka
💡Drake: Virginia Black American Whiskey
Post Malone, Shay Mitchell, Kate Hudson, Dwayne Johnson, Drew Barrymore , Pharrell Williams, Fergie.. the list goes on.
Beyoncé’s new wishkey is named SirDavis in honor of the singer’s paternal great-grandfather 'Davis Hogue'.
“SirDavis is a way for me to pay homage to him, uniting us through a new shared legacy.”
LVMH said Beyoncé was involved in designing the bottle, which features a bronze horse logo representing the star’s Texas roots
Our Thoughts💡:
Queen B:
-highest-earning female singer at $115 million per year
-recording music for over a decade
-face of Tiffanys
-runs a hair care line, streaming music service and record label
-spokeswoman for Pepsi and L'Oreal
-Wife to Jay Z
-Working mom to Blue Ivy, Rumi and Carter
-Building a hemp and honey farm
-Now launching a whiskey brand
-Soon to be BILLIONAIRE
Wake 👏 the 👏 f**k up 👏 ladies
Health🍼: Majority of supermarket baby food is unhealthy.
The baby food aisle in supermarkets has come under scrutiny for misleading marketing claims.
Nearly two-thirds of these foods contain too much sugar and salt, according to a new study.
Ugh we just hate those snotty moms on Instagram who don't buy packaged food but instead document themselves making Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes and fresh blueberry muffins for their 3-year olds every effing morning ..
You kidding???? Some of us here like "We managed to bathe and keep the kids alive.. F U all" 🖕🏻
Common misleading claims include:
"Non-genetically modified”
“Organic”
"No Bisphenol A"
"No artificial colors”
"No added sugars"
These companies mislead the customer into thinking its product is more nutritious than the one next to it on the shelf.
Almost none of the foods reviewed in the study met all of the WHO standards for advertising, which focus on clear labeling of ingredients and accurate health claims.
Key Highlights, reported by CNN:
💡60% of 651 foods that are marketed for children aged 6 months-3 years in the US failed to meet nutritional guidelines
💡70% did not meet the adequate protein content
💡25% failed to meet calorie recommendations
💡44% of the baby and toddler foods exceeded the total sugars reccomendations
“Children have to learn to chew, so they should be eating regular fruits, not pureed, sweetened things in a pouch.”
“The lack of regulation in this area leaves the door wide open for the food industry to deceive busy parents.”
Education📚: Colleges are shuttering down.
Makes sense. Is a college degree still even worth it???
2.5 million fewer people are pursuing higher education today compared to more than a decade ago, CNBC reports.
No sh*t. A top-tier college education will cost you 90k/per year going forward.
That's $4180 per month for TEN years after graduation at 7% interest.
Umm.. NO THANKS 👋
As the world increasingly questions the value of a college education, there is another pressing concern: college closures.
More than 500 private, nonprofit colleges have closed in the past decade, and that pace is expected to pick up if the number of students continues to decline, WSJ reports.
Truth be told, top universities like Harvard and Princeton have both the fat endowments to face the declining applications plus enough preppy over-achieving seniors lining to enter their halls next year.
Also, 80% would be legacies that can afford to spend the extra bucks to get in.
They're probably spending the end of summer playing polo while managing their family fund, which given the S&P right now, would be crushing it +10% in August itself
According to the Wall Street Journal,
Small liberal arts colleges are most at risk, and the consequences of closures are stark.
“I put all this money and energy towards a piece of paper in a place that doesn’t care about me.. It’s really hard to sign up for that again at this point.”
- Jade Gilliam, a senior tells WSJ
Business🍫: The maker of Nescafe, KitKit, Nespresso and Maggi.. aka all the food we love, wants a fresh start.
Nestle, the world's biggest food company, fires CEO to get new leadership and new focus.
Background💡: Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider has led the company for the past 8 years. During his time he gambled on many nutrition experiments.
One such gamble: A $2.6 billion peanut allergy pill, which ultimately flopped.
It spent billions developing 'Palforzia', but the response came as a shock.
Only 6 people were interested in a medicine that had been billed as a "game-changer for life", Bloomberg suggests
Key Highlights:
💡Schneider is now being replaced by Laurent Freixe, a Nestlé veteran since 1986
💡Friexe says he'll look to "focus on the core" business"- which may mean ditching Schneider's expensive experiments in "healthy" products
💡However, even with a re-focus back on food, it might not be that easy as Nestlé and its competitors battle rising inflation and a decline in consumer spending
It's been quite a month for abrupt CEO departures.
Just recently, Starbucks fired its CEO Laxman Narasimhan, and replaced him with Chipotle CEO, 'Brian Niccol' as its new leader.
Starbucks’ sales have also struggled in recent quarters due to falling demand in the US and China, its two biggest markets, CNBC reports.
Our Thoughts💡:
Nestle and Starbucks can fire their CEOs all damn day long
As long as our KitKat Chunky and Iced mocha latte don't become extra $, we're all g 🙏🏻
Sports 🎾 : US Open sees record sales.
The US Open began this week and there is "seemingly no ceiling" for the largest tennis tournament of the year's revenue and attendance growth, Front Office reports.
Key Highlights, reported by Front Office:
💡Players are competing to win a share of $75 million in cash prizes, a 15% increase from 2023
💡The US Open is the 4th and final Grand Slam tournament of the year and is, in many ways, the biggest
💡Organizers are aiming to attract 1 million attendees, an almost 5% jump from last year’s record 958,000
💡2023's operating revenue figure of $514.1 million is also "set for further lift."
💡Hospitality sales are up 27% compared to last year
💡The event's signature cocktail, the “Honey Deuce”, costs $23 this year, up $1
💡In 2023, more than 450,000 sales of this cocktail were sold, a record that brought in more than $10 million
Quicker Bites:
Telegram founder arrested in France for "criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement."
NASA decides to call on SpaceX to return 2 astronauts to Earth instead of using the Boeing capsule; "humiliating setback" for Boeing.
Apple has set the date for its new product launch: September 9.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspends his Presidential campaign.
World’s 2nd largest diamond discovered in Botswana.
Apple to replace CFO on Jan 1, 2025.