the only PR team better than Taylor Swift's
they can make things (and maybe people) disappear
QUICK HITS
The “MrBeast Lab” toy line will arrive on shelves in the U.S. this July
TikTok to challenge Amazon Prime Day with its own sales event in July
My friend told me the other day that whenever she’s bored, she goes on her "man who is not her man’s" IG page, finds all the girls he follows, and checks to see if he’s liked any of their pictures lately. Together, we bemoaned the days when Instagram had that feature where you could see what other people were liking. What I want people to consider regarding Gen Z’s media literacy is that when sufficiently motivated, we can find just about anything on just about anyone. Never underestimate the sleuthing powers of a woman in a situationship.
We haven’t talked about Meghan Markle’s American Riviera Orchard for a while, but rumor has it that she will debut a line of rosé wine as the brand’s first product. (I guess the jams didn’t pass the F&F test.) This InStyle article said Meghan drank rosé on her first date with Prince Harry at Soho House back in 2016, so it has special significance for her. At least she didn't go with “I didn't like anything out there, so I decided to make my own.”
Gabbriette hosted a Paris Fashion Week dinner with Dazed and adidas Originals. Looked fun. They should have invited me.
McKinsey is coming to town, and this time you can thank AI. From BCG to Accenture to McKinsey, consulting firms are cashing in on companies in desperate need of someone to tell them how AI will impact their business—and in the meantime, how to use the thing. You want to talk numbers? I can talk numbers. IBM’s consulting arm has secured more than $1bn thus far in sales commitments related to generative AI. Accenture booked $300 million in sales last year. KPMG did over $650 million in the last six months, and about 40% of McKinsey’s business this year will be generative AI-related. How much do you think they’ll make from helping companies implement “restructuring plans.”
Meanwhile, Goldman and Morgan Stanley bankers could be getting OpenAI assistants to do their grunt work as early as next year. Goldman hopes this will elevate “creativity and creative problem-solving,” but with more time on their hands, I think we’ll start seeing more finance bros moonlighting as TikTokers.
A startup raised $10 billion to develop a vaccine to prevent fentanyl deaths. Ovax Inc. licensed intellectual property from researchers at the University of Houston who have successfully tested a fentanyl vaccine in rats. (Huh.) Ovax, which officially launches this week, plans to begin the first human trials of the vaccine early next year. If successful, the vaccine will block users of fentanyl from getting high or overdosing from the drug. Really hoping this works.
A baked goods startup raised $21 million in less than 90 days. This is significant for two reasons: 1) In this economy?! 2) Hero Bread makes low-carb “better for you” alternatives, which probably explains number one. Their white bread, seeded bread, buns, tortillas, croissants, and biscuits—are all made without sugar. Instead, they use more fiber and protein, with an enzyme that converts carbohydrates into fiber. Let's talk numbers again: premium bread is a $40 billion category in the U.S., and growing. In fact, I think that food quality—and prices—are only going to get more stratified in the next few years. There will be more venture-backed “better for you” options out there, but how many people will be able to afford them? CPG is weird because, on one hand, you have these sexy, healthy, status-y brands popping up in TikToks and shoppy shops, but then you also have fast-food chains handing out crazy cheap combo deals and people using BNPL to get groceries because even regular food is no longer affordable.
The teen summer job is back. Parents wisely decided to stop funding the Sephora girl and cologne boy lifestyle.
Nara Smith made her own sunscreen, and you couldn’t miss the news if you tried.
why do they all have to use this picture though? Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe is dating Paul McCartney's grandson Arthur.They’ve been together since at least last October when Phoebe shared a snap of them together in Paris. Nylon got an exclusive from Phoebe in the form of a photo diary of her graduation day. It didn’t give much, and I wonder how much Nylon paid. Anyway, I’m happy for her and all, but what I would really like to know is when Phia, her sustainable fashion platform with Sophia Kianni, is launching. She told Vogue last year that they were set to launch that fall, but it’s been “coming soon” ever since. Phia’s IG page still posts regularly, so we its not scrapped. My uninformed guess is that they pushed the launch back because they decided to do something with AI. Idk, sounds plausible.
The fact that these poor Boeing astronauts are STILL stuck in space because officials keep finding helium leaks in Starliner is sad but not surprising. What’s surprising is the fact that almost no one is talking about it. Kind of how the mysterious death of two Boeing whistleblowers barely stayed on the new cycle. This leads me to the conclusion that Taylor Swift’s publicist Tree Paine is in fact not the best PR professional in the game- the Boeing PR team is. Open to other suggestions, but right now this is where I stand.
Have you guys seen what Mschf has going on with Venmo? For the price of $10, fans of the Brooklyn based art collective can join Mschf Plays Venmo—a lottery where every hour someone is voted out, and every day, someone gets voted to win. This continues until one person receives 100% of the votes and takes home the entire jackpot. So, like Survivor. Mschf is known for their stunts (Big Red Boots, Birkinstock), so I’m sure there’s some social commentary in here somewhere, and if it were not a sunny Friday afternoon, I might have tried to find it.
Remember when I said individuals are acting like brands and brands are acting like individuals? Starface is leaning into this with their 'Star Spaces' video series, where they give their followers a behind-the-scenes look at select team members’ lives. The videos they’ve put out feel like old MTV shows but so far engagement is lower than on their usual content on both Instagram and TikTok. Still, it’ll be fun to see how this grows if they decide to stick with it. Starface’s strategy of making their product case an actual character on their socials (Duolingo style) has worked pretty well. I won’t be surprised if they’re trying to do something similar with employees. A few smaller brands do this on TikTok and get great engagement.
Starface competitor Hero Cosmetics signed Alix Earle as the first global ambassador for Mighty Patch. Love how Alix’s ‘I’m just like other girls’ vulnerability hook was her acne, and even now that’s all gone she’s still making $$$ off it.
Bella Hadid’s fragrance line launched a foundation to create positive change across communities that are “deeply personal” to her. Can you guess the rest? The Ôrəbella Alchemy Foundation will give a minimum financial donation of 1% of all Ôrəbella net sales to charity, as well as delivering service hours, community outreach, and social promotion. First of all, nice. Second of all, I’ve said before that having a charitable cause is table stakes for every celebrity beauty brand these days. Hot girl ESG. Third of all, I find it interesting that the announcement post describes Bella Hadid as an activist, as opposed to, like… a model?
Glossier sells a bottle of their “You” fragrance every 18 seconds, according to this Bloomberg article detailing how the perfume blew up. A viral TikTok really can 10x your sales overnight, apparently. When deciding whether to order more products to keep up with demand, CMO Kleona Mack shared what the team’s thinking was: “when consumers find a perfume and like it, they tend to repurchase it more than they do other products like makeup.” This was two years ago, right at the start of the fragrance boom, but I wonder if it's still the case now.
On the most recent Fat Mascara podcast episode, one of the hosts (I can’t remember which now) mentioned how some newer fragrance brands are actually struggling to scale. FragranceTok might be popping, but not nearly as much as SkincareTok or BeautyTtok. For obvious reasons, fragrance just isn’t shareable. Also, people aren’t making repeat purchases as often as they used to. Having a “fragrance wardrobe” means people take much longer to get through each one. This was a really interesting insight since all anyone (including me) ever talks about is how much the category is growing. Fitness mogul Tracy Anderson announced her new fragrance yesterday (love the packaging), and Kylie Jenner’s Cosmos is the fastest-selling fragrance at Boots, so there are definitely more options on the market. But I’d love to know more about how these newer brands are scaling. What are the economics here? How much growth can the market absorb?
Say what you want about the Hawk Tuah girl, but she’s already sold $65,000 worth of merch since going viral. And no, she hasn't signed with a Hollywood agent. Yet.
Andrew Huberman is writing a book called Protons. According to the publisher, the book is "an essential guide to improving brain function, enhancing mood and energy, optimizing bodily health and physical performance, and rewiring your nervous system to learn new skills and behaviors that can transform your life." Lmk if your man pre orders.
Vogue interviewed Ganni’s co-founders, Ditte and Nicolaj Reffstrup, about their sustainability first business model. Last year, the brand was able to reduce its absolute carbon emissions by 7% — a step up from the more common fashion business goal of reducing emissions intensity, which merely makes individual products more efficient. “An absolute reduction means a company has reduced its total carbon footprint — a goal that’s essentially in direct conflict with fashion’s business model, given its dependence on increasing sales, and thus product volumes, year after year.” It’s a great interview and reinforced my respect for what Ganni is building. The brand is ridiculously transparent about their sustainability practices and launched 'The Ganni Playbook’ last month as a hands-on guide to building a more responsible business within today’s fashion landscape. More on sustainability and capitalism in my Big Oil interview.
Two weeks ago, I promised you guys Big Oil Wednesday, but life got in the way so today I bring you Big Oil Friday. The reason I’m doing this is because I want to start including Big Oil news as seen on. Why? Because Big Oil is scandalous. Big Oil is rich. Big Oil plays hardball, and Big Oil is IMPORTANT. I brought in my longest standing BFF who works in Big Oil (and shall remain nameless) to answer some basic but important questions about the state of the industry. I want to make sure we’re all on the same page, because even though this industry fuels our lives, it’s not the easiest ecosystem to understand. You can ask questions in the comments and I’ll get answers from her.
(I worry this is off brand but its not because as seen on is for nosy people who want to sound smart at summer parties.)
When we talk about big oil, what do we mean? Who are the players in this ecosystem?
Big Oil is basically an Americanism for the world’s biggest oil companies, (who have recently rebranded to ‘energy companies’ because of their investments in renewables). They do oil exploration, they transport and store the oil through pipelines and infrastructure, and then there’s all the downstream work which involves selling, refining, and trading the oil and gas products. But it is not just Exxon, Chevron, Shell and the others. Oil/Energy touches everything. Companies usually have their own traders but there are also specialized energy trading houses like Vitol, Trafigura, Mercuria. Investment banks have Oil/Energy desks for M&A, financing and deals. So Goldman, JP Morgan and the rest are big players here as well. Governments also have their own oil and gas companies. Saudi Aramco is state-owned and one of the most, if not the most, successful oil company. Then you have the lobbyists, the scientists, and the intergovernmental organizations that give policy recommendations. You also have OPEC which helps “control” the market. Then there’s you and me who need (and want) to travel, eat, wear clothes, have carpets, paint our houses and use roads. Because Big Oil touches all this stuff too.
There’s been a lot of controversy lately about how companies are using carbon credits. For example Delta, Gucci and ExxonMobil were recently called out for misrepresenting their emissions cuts claims. What are your thoughts about the validity of carbon credits, and how should we be thinking about them?
I don’t think carbon credits are in their essence a bad thing. Carbon credits are basically pricing carbon and then trading or buying it to offset your own emissions. Europe has The European Union Emissions Trading System, which is a regulated carbon emission trading scheme that’s pretty legit. The real issue is with the ‘voluntary market’ which doesn’t have set standards or regulations. For example, there’s no standard average price for carbon credits, so companies can pretty much just make things up. And this is where all the bad press comes from, because you have companies generating their own projects, creating their own carbon credits, and trading it amongst themselves. So yeah, a lot of BS.
So like greenwashing?
Well not really because greenwashing is a bit more insidious and intentional. Think of carbon credits as a possible avenue for greenwashing to occur, but not a direct link. Renewable energy and reducing emissions aren’t huge money makers for Big Oil in the way oil and gas products are. Like I said, oil is in everything, so actions towards sustainability are actually costing these companies. And while we know climate change is real and scary and (almost) everyone accepts it, it’s more of a pain in the ass for the bottom line which is why the voluntary carbon market exists. Surely, the price of carbon should be way up there with the impact climate change is having on literally everything, but as of right now, it’s like 68 euros. Which is nothing.
Okay but how are large corporations supposed to achieve sustainability then?
My take is that ‘sustainability’ and the bottom line rarely go together. It’s almost always going to be easier and cheaper for them to not be sustainable. The only reason they’re taking any action is because of consumer pressure and government regulations. Right now, there are a ton of ESG and Sustainability reporting jobs at these places because no company wants to deal with bad press, or the government. But like I said, sustainability and capitalism just aren't compatible and most governments are capitalist, so there’s a limit to what they’re willing to do. Capitalism says you should always want more. Sustainability says reduce, reuse, recycle. It's almost antithetical for most brands to be truly sustainable. The system just isn't set up for them to be.
Back to Big Oil. Last month, ExxonMobil sued some of its own shareholders because they asked it to take a stronger stance on climate change. Is this what private individuals should be doing? Pressuring these companies from inside to make change?
I touched on this before, but yes, I think it’s one of the things private individuals can do. Everyone has their part to play- but governments, large corporations, and rich (mostly western) countries have the biggest responsibility here. A stat I always pull out when I see the West (particularly America, which is the world’s leading oil producer) try to make countries in Asia and Africa stop developing their Oil & Gas infrastructure is that if everyone in the world lived like an American, we’d need 5.1 Earths. We don’t have equal culpability, so I don't think we should have equal responsibility.
You work in Big Oil, how do the people you work with think about these issues?
It’s funny, I think this idea that people in Big Oil are all crazy rich villains is so entirely false. They’re just people with a job to do, often aware of the situation and wanting to help it, but also trying to earn a living. I mean, you literally work in fashion, Ochuko. The world runs on oil. Maybe it always will. I think we just need to find a way to reduce the harmful emissions. If Big Oil suddenly went away, the world as we know it would stop. Ironically, they’re also the only ones with the kind of money needed to produce renewable energy at the scale needed for a full energy transition. (Which is inevitable). Basically I think the conversation needs to be a bit more nuanced to come up withs scalable solutions. It’s like, if you could give up all these luxuries to save the planet, would you? Actually?
Have a great weekend!
i love ganni but knowing people on the inside their initiatives to be size inclusive are a falsity and scarce. they loooooved having paloma as a face of her own collection but they barely stock larges in store. i have friends that work there that usually cannot redeem their free clothes benefits because their own store doesnt stock their size and they can’t redeem their free clothes online! big bummer from a company that does have great sustainability otherwise!
Super excited abt the Big Oil addition. Your insider is great for breaking down opaque topics and has another great voice (“You literally work in fashion, Ochuko” my jaw dropped). But, they have a good point. Big Oil isn’t all villains and evil monsters, just people trying to get by. It’s just frustrating that one of the few remaining ways to make a livable wage in this world is to deal the fate of humanity et al.