Shark Attack ⚠️
This Week in Review ☕️: The New Ingredient in every Consumer Good | Airbnb offers a getaway amid Volcanoes | Vegan Producers attract funding | Seaweed Protein | Marine Life gets Rebranded | Tiramisu
Quick Bites:
Retail 🧴: Consumer-Goods giant Unilever adds a new ingredient to its products: Inflation.
The company has increased prices as it claims to suffer from the worst inflation in more than a decade.
If you've been sanitizing your hands, used a brand-name cotton swab, or applied petroleum jelly to your chapped lips, it’s almost certain that you’ve used a Unilever product.
Think- Vaseline, Lifebuoy, Dove, St.Ives.. Ring a bell?
The maker of Ben & Jerry's said it was dealing with higher costs for ingredients, packaging and transportation, which has squeezed its full-year operating margin, WSJ reports.
Besides Unilever, General Mills and Procter & Gamble are also stepping up price increases across a range of products to counter inflation- which is rising at the fastest pace in 13 years, WSJ.
Our Thoughts💡: Unilever seeks 10% price increase of popular products like Marmite & Hellman's Mayo due to weak GBP. Tesco refuses. Unilever stops supplying.
i.e No marmite for brunch tomorrow #MarmiteGate
Food 🥓 : Sales of Vegan Bacon rise as more consumer brands hit the market.
The faux-pig products are carving out space in the frying pan- but without all the cholesterol and fat of its meaty alternative.
According to Bloomberg, the entire category of bacon alternatives almost doubled in 2020, to $267mn, compared to 2019.
That feeling when the coffee's brewing, the bacon's sizzling and you've got a day of no plans ahead!🙌🏻
One reason for the surge is the availability of ingredients to get the taste, flavor and texture right.
From coconut meat to wheat starch to Koji- a Japanese fermented fungus, vegan producers are attracting significant funding to develop fake bacon aka facon.
For example, 'Trophic'- a Berkeley-based startup is prototyping a bacon made from protein extracted from red seaweed.
Our Thoughts💡: Stop telling vegans you'll go vegan when plant-based food tastes exactly like steak/bacon/cheese👇🏻
1. It's NEVER gonna taste the same and be as juicy
2. It's not about you.
Cryptocurrency 📈 : Amazon rumored to start accepting cryptocurrencies soon, Business Insider reports.
According to a latest job listing, Amazon's Payments team is "seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon's Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy."
Yep. Seems like this particular order is coming from the very top.. Bezos himself
Events in 2021 for a bullish Bitcoin:
💡El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
💡Coinbase IPO crossing +$100bn
💡Elon Musk & SpaceX own Bitcoin
💡Tesla bought $1.5bn
💡BlackRock bought futures
💡Deutsche Bank: "Bitcoin too big to ignore"
💡Visa allows customers to pay via Bitcoin
Amazon doesn't accept cryptocurrencies as payment yet.
But, if Amazon begins to accept payments via cryptocurrencies, it would be sure to introduce millions of users to the technology, accelerating adoption and bringing us closer to a $BTC standard.
Our Thoughts💡: Central Banks will be exposed- you either join the $BTC club and ride the beta wave or you're out. No third way this works; Go Big or Go Home
PS. Forward this email if you're holding!! 🚀
Travel ✈️ : Airbnb and Volvic Water are offering a VIP stay in an eco-friendly pod amid 80 volcanoes.
For real.
We'd rather blow our savings on food, booze and Airbnb listings than wait around for the Zeta variant to take us all out tf
The venue is:
💡In France with scenic views of the Chaîne des Puys Volcanoes in the South East
💡A Lumipod- a minimal, glass walled mini cabin
💡Price is $1.18 (yep, you read that right!)
💡Available for one-night only
💡Hosted by Kilian Jornet, award-winning ski mountaineer & long-distance runner
💡Room for 2 people
💡Bookings are open till September 18
💡Travelers have to arrange their own transportation
According to Airbnb, the offer for the nature-friendly listing came from changing consumer behavior.
The travel company saw a surge in searches for listings near national parks in France in 2021.
The location in France- also, the birthplace of partner Volvic’s Mineral Water- is hailed as a “unique geological site” formed 35 million years ago with the Alps mountain range, Adweek reports.
It’s part of UNESCO’s World Heritage list that also includes the Galapagos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon.
Marine Life🦈: Shark attacks in Australia to be rebranded as 'negative encounters' or 'incidents' to show more understanding for the species.
💡Doctor: What happened?
💡Me: The shark 'negative encountered' my bloody arm off
Officials will also refer to "bites", rather than "attacks" in an attempt to change the terminology.
Despite their rarity, many people fear going to public beaches- partly, because of the way sharks have been immortalized in horror films such as the Jaw series.
Pro-shark campaigners have welcomed the change in terminology.
"It helps dispel assumptions that sharks are ravenous, mindless man-eating monsters,"
-Leonardo Guida, a shark researcher tells the Sydney Morning Herald
According to the Telegraph, there were 10 unprovoked fatal shark attacks globally in 2020- at least 6 of them were in Australia.
Our Thoughts💡: Ok, so they're not "man-eating monsters" but they are predators. It's not their fault if some half-baked human harasses them in their natural habitat.
Meanwhile, Tinder announces it will also rebrand lousy dates as 'negative encounters' from now on
Quicker Bites:
Tokyo Olympics: Alaskan teen shocks the swimming world.
A mixed AstraZeneca- Pfizer shot boosts Covid-19 antibody levels by six times, study shows.
President Biden announces the US will end its combat mission in Iraq by end of the year.
Tunisian President dismisses the country's Prime Minister and freezes Parliament following violent anti-government protests.
The EU’s main drug regulator authorized the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for children age 12 and older.
Kanye West debuts his new album Donda with a massive listening party event at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz stadium.
China rejects WHO proposal to probe lab leak theory.
Tokyo 2020 includes the most female athletes in Olympic history.
Brisbane named host of the 2032 Olympic Games.
Devastating flash floods leave passengers trapped in chest-high water on a Chinese underground train.
Michaela Coel is joining the 'Black Panther' sequel.
Like what you see? Spread the word!
Your network is the life of your business. It only makes sense you run campaigns on a community-centric platform to spread the word! Getting started is easy👇🏻