30 August 2023

Hi folks,

As Spain lifted the Women’s World Cup, many English hearts were broken once again. The silver lining? Those inspired by Mary Earps’ penalty heroics will now be able to get their hands on one of her shirts. You’ve got to take the little wins, right?

Scroll down to read about how to cool off with luxury ice, kidulting, and the sequel to the festival nobody asked for.

Stats to power your week

👟 The number of US Gen Z who own New Balance has increased by 26% year-on-year. The cool kids can’t get enough of the moodboard staple, regularly selling out collaborations with Aimé Leon Dore, as well as exclusive releases with stylish celebs like rappers Aminé and Action Bronson. GWI USA 

📱 TikTok Shop is rolling out this month in the US, making it even easier for users to buy while scrolling on the app. Since last year, there’s been a 12% increase in TikTok users who say they use the platform to follow or find new information about products and brands. GWI Core 

👑 Since completing the Champions League and La Liga double in 2022, support for Real Madrid as a main club has grown 17% – higher than any other team over this time period. Even with the departure of stars such as Karim Benzema, Los Blancos will be eyeing up new galacticos to keep the trophies rolling in. GWI Core 

💪 Labor Day is this weekend, and where people do their work has probably never been more in flux. WFH still has considerable appeal for some – over one in four US business professionals prefer to work exclusively remote. GWI Work 

🏠 Whether you’re working remotely or in-person, you’re going to care about your home security, and in recent years tech solutions have become ever more popular – ownership of smart security devices like the Ring Video Doorbell is up 17% year-on-year. GWI Core

What’s on our radar

Kidulting, experiences that make adults feel like children again, is getting pretty popular. Adulting was getting tiring, anyway.

To beat the summer heat, many Americans are hopping on the newest trend of luxury ice cubes. Over on TikTok, users are freezing anything and everything at home. 

A federal judge ruled last week that AI-produced art can’t be copyrighted, and that “human authorship is a bedrock requirement” for copyright laws.

Inauthenticity on social media is back, baby! The new social media platform BeFake encourages users to use its AI to create edited images of themselves. 

Scientists have utilized AI to help give back speech to a paralyzed woman, translating her brain signals into speech through an avatar.

Round 2 of Fyre Fest was announced last week, with tickets starting as low as $500. There's no date or musical acts yet, but if it’s anything like last time, at least it’ll be something to remember.

As the US school year kicks off, teachers and students are finding ways to incorporate or evade the use of AI in the classroom from study help, to writing quiz questions. But many still have concerns about its impact on learning.

Chart of the week

The slow end of August means back-to-school season. But what subjects will kids be looking forward to picking up again, and is it different for boys and girls? 

Girls tend to be more interested in creative subjects, while boys are much more likely to be into STEM subjects, like IT and computing. But this “people vs. things” binary isn’t universal. Girls in Poland and South Africa are just as likely to be interested in math, Chinese boys care more about drama (the acting kind), while in Japan girls take the lead for an interest in computing.

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