👋 Morning, sunshine. Did your kid recently hit you with the classic “Why is the sky blue?” If so, prepare to knock their little socks off with a possible answer to “Why is Mars red?” New research shows that the planet’s rusty hue is caused by ferrihydrite, an iron oxide that forms in the presence of cool water. Obviously, water on planets gets all the nerds hot and bothered: The study suggests that Mars once had the oxygen and liquid needed to support life.
🎧 On the pod:Tropicana’s business is getting squeezed.
NEWS FLASH
🪡 Pour one out for Joann: After 80+ years, Joann — previously known as Jo-Ann Fabrics — is calling it quits, closing all ~800 US stores. The craft and fabric store enjoyed increased sales during the pandemic when we were all stuck inside DIY-ing, but has since lost ground to online retailers and rivals like Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Liquidator GA Group and Joann’s term lenders bought Joann and are expected to hold going-out-of-business sales across locations. And if your grandma gave you a Joann gift card for Christmas, you’ve only got until Feb. 28 to use it.
🔊 Hey, Alexa: Amazon showed off Alexa+ yesterday. Its updated AI-powered voice assistant can personalize itself to users’ routines and preferences, detect a user’s tone of voice, text your friends, send event invitations, order groceries, offer dinner recipes, book reservations, make you very, very frustrated when it doesn’t understand your instructions, and more. Alexa+ will roll out in the US over the coming weeks — free for Amazon Prime members or ~$20/month.
🎵 The sound of silence: Over 1k British musicians are releasing a new album titled “Is This What We Want?” but it doesn’t sound like much. That’s not a dig at their musical talent — the album contains 12 recordings of empty recording studios and performance spaces. The tracks are meant to protest proposed changes to British AI laws that would allow tech firms to use copyrighted material to help train AI models, unless creators actively opt out. Together, the titles of the tracks spell: “The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.” For a silent record, the message is coming through loud and clear.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Lose $10 in your couch cushion? Elon Musk has already lost $52B in 2025. Tesla’s stock has dropped 20%+ in the last month and the company’s market value dipped below $1T for the first time since November 2024. Don’t cry for the billionaire quite yet — he’s still the world’s richest person.
Still gonna hit “Skip” first chance we get: YouTube will inject its automated ads at “natural breaking points” and remove them from “interruptive” places to improve the viewing experience while aiming to earn more money for creators.
Cash injection: Eli Lilly announced a $27B+ investment in four new drug manufacturing sites in the US. The commitment, which comes as demand for weight loss and diabetes drugs skyrockets, brings the company’s recent US manufacturing investments to $50B+.
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American families in movies and TV shows have often been depicted as rushing to get to school and work — but not before toast and a big ol’ glass of orange juice.
But the once-popular staple isn’t doing so hot these days, and Tropicana — which holds ~30% of US market share for refrigerated OJ — is suffering.
It’s struggled with slipping sales over the last few years, and recently received a $30m emergency loan from PAI Partners, a private equity firm that took a controlling stake from Tropicana parent company PepsiCo in 2021, perCNN.
What’s causing the squeeze?
Several factors, actually:
Orange shortages driven by climate change, natural disasters, and disease, which have nearly doubled prices from 2020.
That turns off customers, who, amid rising inflation, have become more conscientious about their spending.
Competitors, including the cheaper Coca-Cola-owned Minute Maid and the bougier Simply.
Plus, we’re just not drinking juice like we used to.
Functional and better-for-you beverages are on the rise — prebiotic soda brand Olipop recently hit a $1.85B valuation — while OJ consumption has fallen in recent years due to health concerns over its high sugar content paired with a shift toward on-the-go breakfasts over traditional sit-down meals.
What can OJ brands do about it?
There’s not much anyone can do about a hurricane destroying crops, but Padilla, the marketing agency for the Florida Department of Citrus, has attempted to latch on to the functional beverage trend, touting 100% orange juice’s health benefits.
Tropicana is one of several juice brands to launch less- or zero-sugar lines, and it’s attempted to diversify through new lines of products, like Tropicana Refreshers. Rival Simply launched a prebiotic soda earlier this month.
But Tropicana has also historically had a tricky time with change: A loathed 2009 logo rebrand cost it $20m in sales in a single month, and recent attempts to change its bottle shape caused customers to cry shrinkflation.
Want your live event to rival a Blue Man Group performance? We have tips from the master consultant behind some of the world’s most famous events.
Why spend 10 years doing something when it can be done in 48 hours instead?A new AI tool from Google has something to say about that.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
The share of US consumer spending accounted for by the top 10% of earners, perThe Wall Street Journal.
If it feels like those wealthy influencers have a new designer bag each week, it might be because they do.
Households making $250k+ annually are carrying the American economy on their designer-clad backs, accounting for an estimated one-third of the country’s gross domestic product.
Between September 2023 and September 2024, the group increased spending by 12%. Spending by working-class and middle-class households, in contrast, dropped.
While it would feel really good to at least trash talk their spending habits, those high earners are also saving: The net worth of the top 20% of earners has grown 45% — $35T+ — since 2019.
AROUND THE WEB
🎥 On this day: In 1935, Shirley Temple, then 6 years old, received a mini-Oscar statuette. The Academy’s “juvenile” Oscar was discontinued after 13-year-old Hayley Mills won for her role in Pollyanna in 1960.
🎧 The Science of Scaling:How to concurrently build a product and a sales process, according to LinkedIn’s founding CRO.
Rita Contreras, a Brooklyn-based hairstylist, has found herself saying this more and more in recent months to the growing number of clients bringing in AI-generated inspo photos. While managing expectations is nothing new for beauticians, AI literacy coaching probably is — Contreras told the Washington Post she often has to explain the difference between real hair and the impossibly perfect hair represented in fake photos that now proliferate social platforms like Pinterest. Even if AI isn’t coming for jobs like hers, it hasn’t failed to disrupt them.
SHOWER THOUGHT
I would rather spend 10 extra minutes driving on an empty road than be in traffic.SOURCE
