š Need some good news to start your day? Here you go: McDonaldās is bringing its Snack Wrap back in 2025 after eight years of online begging from die-hard fans. Is this a ploy to win back consumer affection after that whole E. coli outbreak? Maybe. Is it going to work on us? Yep.
š§ On the pod:Why fast food is going all in on chicken.
NEWS FLASH
š Waymo is heading to Miami. The Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company will start driving in Miami with human safety drivers in 2025 before offering robotaxi service through the Waymo One app in 2026. Waymo recently raised $5.6B to expand its services across the US, brought ~300k people off its waitlist in Los Angeles, and partnered with Uber to offer robotaxi rides in Austin and Atlanta. The company said it now sees 150k+ rides per week booked in the Waymo One app across San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
šŖ Bitcoin cracked $100k for the first time, reaching a $104k high on Wednesday. Bitcoinās value has shot up 36%+ since the US election. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to embrace cryptocurrency, and on Wednesday announced Paul Atkins as his choice for Securities and Exchange Commission chair. Atkins previously served as SEC commissioner under President George W. Bush, and in 2017 became co-chair of the Digital Chamberās Token Alliance, an initiative to promote and develop ābest practicesā around digital assets.
š® Chi-Chiās is back? Michael McDermott, founder of Kona Grill and son of ChiChiās co-founder Marno McDermott, intends to open new Chi-Chiās restaurants in 2025. In 2003, the Mexican restaurant was hit with numerous lawsuits after green onions in a Pittsburgh locationās salsa caused the nationās largest-ever hepatitis A outbreak. Outback Steakhouse bought Chi-Chiās for $40m in 2004, and converted the locations it didnāt close to its own brands.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book, available exclusively at Target, sold a reported 814k copies in its first two days out, per Circana BookScan. The only other nonfiction title to beat that figure was Barack Obamaās A Promised Land, with 816k.
The number of 401(k) millionaireshit a new record. Fidelity Investments saw a 9.5% increase to 544k accounts holding $1m+ in the third quarter. Accounts with lower balances also hit their highest average levels since 1999.
Humaneis pitching something new. After its Ai Pin struggled to sell, the company is demoing a new operating system called CosmOS that could one day bring an AI voice assistant to your carās entertainment system, smart speakers, your TV, or your smartphone.
TOOLBOX
There will be plenty of time this weekend to relax ā put aside a few minutes to sharpen up with content from around our media network:
Why are short-form videos so addicting? It all comes down to psychology.
This is a good one: Hear the stories of three people who took insane risks that paid off big time.
Switch up your marketing strategy:Listen in for unconventional approaches, from leveraging ChatGPT for persona building to treating your employees like creators.
THE BIG IDEA
The future will be a neutral shade of light brown
Mocha Mousse isnāt the misspelled name of a beloved cartoon ā itās Pantoneās official Color of the Year for 2025.
Also known as Pantone 17-1230, Mocha Mousse is a light brown that evokes, well, mocha and chocolate mousse.
Why brown?
Weāve discussed how Pantone chooses its COTY before, but itās all about charting and predicting trends in fashion and design.
Pantone tells Fast Company that Mocha Mousse is āfoundational.ā
Itās gender-neutral, not tied to a season, and pairs well with pastels and vibrant colors.
Itās a comfort color, hence the dessert imagery.
Itās all still business
Pantone picks the color in spring so it can line up merchandise deals, The Washington Postnotes.
Pantoneās website has Mocha Mousse merch already.
Motorola is releasing official Mocha Mousse phones, just like it did with 2024ās COTY, Peach Fuzz.
Knowing trends in advance allows the global supply chain to prepare for increased demand and reduce some guesswork, perForbes.
Even for Pantone, itās mostly about marketing: It claims to have 95% brand recognition in the design industry because of COTY.
What about Brat summer?
Color fans may be shocked to learn that the COTY is anything but āBrat green,ā an arguably hideous shade that graced a Charli XCX album cover and became a meme unto itself.
Pantone didnāt miss the boat on this one, it actually gave top honors to a similarly abrasive color in 2017.
It sees the popularity of āBrat greenā as proof that it correctly predicted the trend, per Fast Company.
The color was unavoidable on social media this summer, which saw restaurants selling carefully colored green drinks, an Etsy seller shipping 1k green āCharli lighters,ā and sizable search increases for green cars, per NBC News ā all to court virality.
Just wait until 2031, when some album with a brown cover is all the rage.
AI might be responsible for some scammingā¦ but it can also be used to protect your business. Hereās how.
Want to start a newsletter? Use these data-backed tips to build a killer content strategy.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Different jams youād enjoy if you purchased Bonne Mamanās Advent calendar. Bonne Maman, founded in France in 1971, debuted its Advent calendar in the US in 2017. Since then, the $45 assortment has become such a hot commodity that the company has increased production by 400%, perThe New York Times.
With flavors like cherry with pink peppercorn and apricot and orange blossom, we get the hype ā but more broadly, Advent calendars have become a big business filled with all manner of objects: hot sauce, alcohol, makeup, fragrances, and more.
Some luxury brandsā calendars can retail in the hundreds or even thousands, but the most expensive Advent calendar is perhaps a bespoke $10.3m affair made by artist Debbie Wingham, who specializes in expensive objects, for a Swiss family. Inside are designer watches and jewels, among other pricey trinkets ā though weād rather have the jam, TBH.
AROUND THE WEB
š On this day: In 1933, James Joyceās Ulysses was ruled not obscene by a federal judge. The 1922 novel had been banned in both the US and England due to its sexual content.
