However 2024 shapes up, we shouldnât forget a very important milestone - this year is Hello Kittyâs 50th anniversary. But we should let you know one important thing: she may be liked by a third of 8 to 11-year-old girls, but she is not actually a cat (she is, however, âa friendâ).
Scroll down to read more about cigar smokers, sharp objects, and Red Devils.
Stats to power your week
đ§ After the turmoil of the last few years, it's no surprise that mental wellbeing is getting worked into New Year's resolutions. Focus on mental health has jumped a spot on the leaderboard to become the third most common consideration for 2024, behind eating healthier and saving more money. GWI Zeitgeist
đïž Eating healthy has become particularly important in the US, where the number who frequently worry about their health has risen by 27% since mid-2020. It should come as no surprise, then, that compared to other resolution-makers around the world, Americans are 38% more likely to have losing weight as one of their New Year goals. A new vibrating anti-obesity pill might be the secret to success. GWI USA & GWI Zeitgeist
đŻ 16-year-old Luke Littler took UK sport by storm in his run to the final of the PDC World Darts Championship last week (if that sentence makes no sense to you, think Boris Becker or Emma Raducanu, but with sharp projectiles instead of tennis balls). The game is more popular than you might think, with more of Littlerâs fellow Gen Zers currently playing darts than golf or cricket. GWI Sports (UK)
â A stat to power your Dry January: 20% of consumers in the UK who drink alcohol regularly also drink non-alcoholic beer or spirits. This compares to just 7% of teetotallers who partake in non-alcoholic equivalents. As the brewer Lucky Saint puts it, moderation is by far the biggest driver of the category. GWI Core
✠Liverpool enter the new year sitting at the top of the English Premier League while long-time rivals Manchester United are down in eighth place. But as far as the league table of fandom goes, the Red Devils refuse to be knocked from the top spot. They have the highest overall fanbase in the EPL, and the biggest year-on-year growth too. At least theyâre top for something. GWI Sports
The latest Studio Ghibli film, The Boy and the Heron, is the first original anime film to hit number 1 at the US box office. The number of Americans who enjoy watching anime, by the way, has grown 21% since 2020.
What if the biggest problem with generative AI wasnât thinking that fake images are real, but that real images are fake? Weâre seeing this crop up more and more, and camera companies are teaming up to combat the issue with a new digital signature for photographs.
For all the controversies around AI, use cases are emerging for its potential to tell untold stories, particularly in emerging markets. Rest of World has a good roundup, while photojournalist Christopher Brown has used Midjourney to depict scenes he could never reach. Oh, and OpenAI now has an artist in residence.
Itâs one thing to own a Louis Vuitton, but how would you like to stay in one? LVMHâs move into experiential luxury comes alongside Versace opening a Macau hotel, and Lora Piana touching down in St Tropez.
Chart of the week
Historically speaking, being the incumbent party normally gives you an advantage in US Presidential elections. But not much can be taken for granted these days, especially with some surprising and powerful trends among voters ahead of this yearâs poll.
The Democrats are making solid gains among parts of the Republican base, like high-level executives who travel often and like the occasional round of golf (and cigar). They could also be taking some voters from the Greens, with vegans and Body Shop customers turning more to the Democrats.
But itâs not all plain sailing. Theyâre losing hold of younger voters, as well as those on the right of the party. The drop among parents of newborns, and people worried about foreign tensions, might also signal some dissatisfaction with particular policies from Bidenâs first term.
Local lowdown
Don Quixot-e-readers in Spain
Spain punches above its weight in the book trade. How? The reason is so obvious you can easily ignore it. Because Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world, thereâs a huge export market available in Latin America. This thriving literary culture is one of the reasons why Spain takes the lead among our tracked markets for owning an ereader.
But the countryâs connection with electronic books goes back even further â all the way to 1949, in fact. That was the year schoolteacher Ăngela Ruiz Robles patented her âmechanical encyclopediaâ, one of the first of its kind. So it seems a combination of literary legacy with forward-thinking innovation keeps the country of Cervantes at the top of the ebook pile.
