š We hope luckās on your side this week, like it was for the North Carolina man who found a $20 bill in a parking lot and used it to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket worth $1m. Not too shabby.
š§ On the pod: How Halloween beat inflation in 2024.
NEWS FLASH
šø Adidasā wildly expensive cautionary tale finally comes to a close: The activewear titan reached an out-of-court settlement with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, dissolving their disastrous partnership for good. The company lost $600m+ in sales when it paused the Yeezy shoe line following the artistās 2022 antisemitic comments, opening up various lawsuits and leaving them sitting on a mountain of unsold inventory. In March, Adidas posted its first annual loss since 1992, but its numbers are getting, ahem, harder, better, faster, and stronger ā its Q3 earnings, released yesterday, showed double-digit growth.
ā The return-to-office war rages on: Starbucks told 3k+ corporate employees that their jobs would be in jeopardy if they donāt work from the office three days a week under a new āstandardized process.ā The warning comes less than two months after new CEO Brian Niccol first let his preference for in-office work be known, saying, āWeāre all adults here,ā and that employees are most collaborative and productive in person. Weāre guessing free pizza wonāt fix this one.
š Kids apparently canāt walk in Crocs. Elementary and middle schoolers are falling down in their Crocs so much that schools are banning them. Though popular with young wearers for their colors and ājibbitzā customization, a podiatrist told Fortune that people ā not just kids who run around all day ā generally trip more in Crocs than closed-toe shoes. Crocs reported a 1.6% rise in sales in Q3, but is struggling with slumping sales of Hey Dude, the footwear brand it acquired for $2.5B in 2022.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Waymo is on a roll: The autonomous robotaxi company ā which is now completing 100k rides per week in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles ā closed its largest funding round to date with $5.6B raised.
Apple is developing a movie based on the classic computer game āOregon Trail.ā Itās from the team behind Blades of Glory and will feature original musical numbers, so get ready for a rousing song and dance about dysentery.
McDonaldās will resume selling its Quarter Pounder this week, sans onions, and will stop using onions from Taylor Farmsā Colorado facility, believed to be the source of the E. coli outbreak that has sickened 75 people, indefinitely.
YOUR NEW PLAYBOOK
The best way to do less work?
Weāre all about decreasing the degree to which we hurt our necks while sitting at our desks.
Thatās why AI plays are becoming so essential: to free up more time slots for sunlight and stretching. Use these five AI task delegation templates to assemble a playbook that saves you time at work, helps other hustlers on your team, and makes you feel like an employee of the future.
A triple threat, indeed. We wrapped it up for you.
Some celebrities are rollingin it in their graves, making more after death than most of us earn while alive.
Yes, itās that time of year: Forbes released its annual list of the highest-paid dead celebrities, a ranking itās maintained since 2001.
Topping the listā¦
ā¦ is King of Pop Michael Jackson, who has earned an estimated $3.3B since his death in 2009. This yearās $600m earnings were buoyed by MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical.
Moving down the list:
Freddie Mercury, $250m: The Queen front man pulled in $241m more than he did in 2020, largely due to the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Dr. Seuss, $75m: His earnings come thanks to licensing for myriad TV shows, movies, theme park attractions, and merchandise based on his characters.
Elvis Presley, $50m: His music and Memphis home still earn considerable revenue, with 600k visitors flocking to Graceland over the past year.
Ric Ocasek, $45m: In September, Primary Wave acquired the rights to the Cars front manās name, image, and likeness, accounting for the windfall.
Other celebrities on the list include Prince, Whitney Houston, and Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. New to the list is actor Matthew Perry, who died last October, and whose estate earned $17m+ in āFriendsā royalties.
As morbid as it seemsā¦
ā¦ it is interesting to see how a personās work can enrich their estates for years to come, how the list changes based on whatās happening in entertainment, and the importance of negotiating rights to creative work. For example:
Author J.R.R. Tolkien, who died in 1973, topped 2022ās list with the $500m sale of Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the rights to elements of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The āFriendsā cast negotiated 2% of syndication income, which still earns them millions each year. Yet in the streaming age, āFriendsā is an outlier ā thereās an oversaturation of TV and fewer deals, and the low residuals paid out by streaming platforms was a key part of the recent Hollywood strikes.
Now, some Halloween trivia: George Romeroās Night of the Living Dead (1968) is in the public domain because its copyright statement was accidentally omitted from the title screen.
Want to talk to pigs? A new AI tool can decipher pig language. Kinda.
An eye-popping stat: 95% of college donations over $5k are made by just 5% of donors. What could possibly go wrong? A lot, it turns out.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
How much Sothebyās thinks artist Maurizio Cattelanās infamous āComedianā could fetch at auction next month.
In case you forgot, āComedianā is the banana taped to a wall that appeared at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. The price seems high, even for a viral sensation, but Sothebyās told Hyperallergic that Cattelan has previously sold work for as much as $17m and āComedianā is iconic.
And yet, itās not even permanent: In addition to installation instructions and a certificate of authenticity, the auction winner will receive one banana and a roll of duct tape, which can both be replaced as needed. Given how quickly bananas ripen and rot, someone could be paying $1m+ for the art equivalent of the Ship of Theseus.
AROUND THE WEB
š On this day: In 1864, Helena, Montana, was founded by four miners who found gold at Last Chance Gulch.
š¹ Thatās cool: Hear a Chopin waltz, uncovered after ~200 years.
š§ Marketing Against the Grain: Everything you need to know about OpenAIās latest model.
š» Thatās interesting: Thereās an Italian garden full of monster sculptures.
