Sniffing Boy Smells Poppers Candle in the Club
Plus my favorite polos for Summer, interesting CPG products, Toy R Us AI Ad, and Major Funding for Squared Circles
In Today’s Newsletter—
The Best CPG Products I Tried at Snaxshot’s Night Market
My Favorite Polos For Summer
Boy Smells is Dropping a Poppers Candle
Squared Circles Gets Major Funding
Toys R Us Used AI to Make an Ad
I am riding high off of last night’s
Night Market at Dr. Smood.It was a lovely event where I was able to meet some CPG founders making really unique products, investors in the space, and even some readers of this newsletter. I walked away with a massive goodie bag too and tried some absurdly expensive Oishii berries.
Let me quickly break down some of the more interesting brands I saw—
Cravers Hazelnut Spread
This hazelnut spread was to die for, and has a number of nutritional benefits over Nutella. The branding and packaging is on point, which makes sense as its the brainchild of two branding pros out of Berlin. The hazelnut balls are going to be my favorite nighttime snack.
L’Isolina Spaghetti Dust
L’Isolina’s pre packaged seasoning mix is meant to go perfectly with a fresh bowl of pasta, add some olive oil of course. I talked with the founder, who told me about the brand using ‘regenerative’ farming to grow their product line. I will be talking to him soon to learn more.
Moss
Founded in partnership with Dr. Smood and Michael B. Jordan, Moss is essentially sea moss you can drink. I had it paired in several cocktails alongside lemonade and mezcal. It was light, refreshing, and boasts some health benefits I’ll be learning more about soon (and you will be too ;)
My Favorite Polos for Summer
The high today in New York is going to be a sweltering 91°F. You need a polo if you’re going to make it through the Summer. I recently spoke with
and said:“The wrong polo can make you look like you work at an insurance company. The right polo should make you feel like a classic movie star like Paul Newman, Harrison Ford, or one of the kings of cool style, Steve McQueen,”
Erika spoke with myself and other stylish, cool guys to curate an incredible list of the best polos in The Strategist. Go read that! Here are some images on my Summer polo moodboard and me trying on of of my recommendations.
NEWS
Boy Smells is dropping a candle that smells like poppers. The candle company behind popular scents like ‘Cashmere Kush’, ‘Cowboy Kush’, and ‘LES’ is tapping into Pride Month with a poppers themed candle. The new scent features notes of ‘Citrus high of pomelo, black pepper + musks.’
Honestly, genius move, and Boy Smells has been really smart at creating novel candle scents that grab attention and get you to try it. No other candle brand has been able to move as many units from getting consumers curious as to what it will actually smell like when burned… except maybe Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina candle.
Squared Circles Received $40M in funding from L Catterton. The venture studio & brand incubator has dropped a number of science-focused consumer products such as Algae Cooking Club and Kelly Slater’s sunscreen, Freaks of Nature, thus far, with additional plans to launch 3 more brands in the next 5 years, all with a health focus. I’ve loved their portfolio products so far, and think their model of comprehensively building new brands is smart, as we are witnessing seismic shifts in the types of products consumers care about. This new funding is also really smart on the part of L Catterton, who is betting on the success of Squared Circles portfolio and positioning themselves to reap the rewards should one of the brands breakthrough in a big way.
Toys R Us made an ad completely with AI. I thought Toys R Us went bankrupt but apparently they are being revived in Macy’s, and to promote this, they partnered with the creative agency Native Foreign to create an ad using just OpenAI’s Sora model. Sora allows users to generate video using just text, similar to their DallE-3 tool or Midjourney, and OpenAI has been pitching the tech to Hollywood insiders under the radar.
Personally, I think the ad is… really bad. Just from a story perspective, marketing the brands revival by bringing up their toy obsessed founder is an odd choice for 2024. As for the visuals, they are creepy, jarring, and feel like one of those oddly realistic Robert Zemeckis films from the early 2000s (think Polar Express)
I am really concerned about AI visuals becoming the norm, they are so soulless and lame looking at the moment.
Watch the full ad for yourself, and please leave your comments.
Okay that’s all. Hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter. See you tomorrow :)
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, and designer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio