While we were all worrying about content that may or may not be AI-generated, we didn’t stop to think if those sun bears were actually humans in disguise. Rest assured: this newsletter is not, and has never been, produced by a bear in a human costume.
Scroll down to read about berries, honey, and hibernation bass planets, Birkenstocks, and Bratz.
Stats to power your week
🆙 The number of people in the US concerned about AI has grown 100% year-on-year. That’s right, it’s doubled. To put that into context, concerns about tensions with foreign countries grew 26% after the invasion of Ukraine. More people are now worried about AI than they are about loss of tradition, or the stock market. GWI USA
🧰 Fans of “little bits” up and down the UK are distraught that well-respected homeware retailer Wilko is entering administration. There’s more than one reason behind it, but trading down to cheaper chains has certainly contributed. Three-quarters of Wilko shoppers say price matters to them when buying household essentials, while the number who cite brand name is down 13% since 2021. Inflation is making more shoppers look at the price tag, not the name on the label. GWI Core/GWI Core Plus
🎧 The Chinese government is proposing a “minor mode” on devices to help limit the time young users spend scrolling – even though the country already ranks near the bottom for kids’ screen time. According to their parents, less than 1 in 10 kids in China spends a lot of time on devices, compared to 44% in the US. GWI Kids
🎤 Eurodance parody “Planet of the Bass” has been all the literal rave on TikTok, and for good reason. If you’re based in Europe, and you feel nostalgic for the 90s, you’re 39% more likely to enjoy dance music. More and more, people just want more and more… GWI Zeitgeist/GWI Core
🎮 Discord and gaming go hand-in-hand, and their latest update lets you stream Xbox gameplay directly to servers and DMs. Outside of China, the console Discord users most distinctly play on is – you guessed it – an Xbox Series X. They’re 29% more likely to use one than your average console gamer. GWI Core
What’s on our radar
Fans of comfortable footwear can relax even more than before: Barbie-powered Birkenstock is planning an IPO, while Crocs has reported record quarterly revenues. More high-end shoe enthusiasts can get the Ralph Lauren x Fortnite boot IRL.
American investment in English football (aka soccer) has gone up a notch with NFL legend Tom Brady investing in Birmingham City. Elsewhere, football's romance with fashion continues – Crystal Palace has now become the first EPL team to hire a creative director.
Fans of low food prices, look away now. With India restricting rice exports and further destabilization in Ukraine, food commodity prices are rising again.
AI is everywhere. News Corp is testing it to produce locally-focused stories, generative AI turned off D&D fans in Hasbro’s latest book, while Stack Overflow has decided if you can’t beat them, join them.
Cooling materials, the kind popularly used in sportswear, are getting more mainstream in response to heat waves.
Forget Oppenheimer, Barbie’s true rival might be Bratz, who just dropped a limited edition collab with Kylie Jenner.
The US has approved the first pill for postpartum depression. That’s encouraging news for the 18% of new moms who experience depression, compared to 11% of the general population.
Chart of the week
It’s been three and a half years since the World Health Organization announced a public health emergency over the outbreak of Covid-19, an emergency which it declared the end of in May.
In the early days of lockdown it was common to say that nothing would be the same at this point. And while many things have changed, many more have stayed the same.
We wanted to see exactly which things saw the most volatile changes during the pandemic, and which saw the least. If we use the UK as an example, on-off lockdowns and an ensuing energy crisis have sent consumer confidence haywire, but drinking Guinness has stayed consistent through it all.
So next time there’s a global crisis, you can be reasonably confident in one thing: our taste for the black stuff will go nowhere.
