In Todayâs Newsletterâ
Vogue has a new political correspondent
NYC finally has trash cans
Japanâs luxury market is booming
Sydney Sweeneyâs awkward AI moment
David Proteinâs excellent design
NEWS
Vogue has an unlikely new political correspondent for election season. Its Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of John F. Kennedy, who went viral a few months back on TikTok for his off-the-cuff political, âsilly gooseâ political (and often non-political) videos.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserSchlossberg certainly falls into the oft-mocked camp of ânepo babiesâ but he does boast a law degree from Harvard, and is the heir of Americaâs once great political dynasties, so he does know his stuff presumably despite his demeanor on social. I think this honestly a genius move from Vogue, as all eyes have been on him and now heâll be doing what he does best for them. Plus, he got announced in perhaps the best new-hire editorial shoot of all time.
NYC is finally launching⌠trash cans. Any NYC hater will often look to the trash filled streets as a sign of how run down and gross this city can be. Yes, its gross, but our universally loved Mayor (JK!) unveiled a new trash can that âall properties with one to nine residential units will be required by law to useâ The can was wheeled out at a press conference scored by Empire State of Mind (obviously) The funniest part of this story, is that the city contracted McKinsey to consult on this issue, paying them a reported $1.2M to tell us we need⌠trash cans. If you have imposter syndrome, donât.
Japanâs Luxury Market is Booming. LVMH reported a 31% Q1 sales surge in Japan, as well as major gains by Kering and Prada. This sales boost is being attributed to âdestination shoppingâ where tourists fly to a particular country to access shopping items or deals they canât back home. In this case, its due to the extremely favorable conversion rate between the Japanese Yen and U.S./Chinese currencies. (1 Yen = $0.0062) Overall, the Japanese luxury market is now worth upwards of $31B. A direct flight to Tokyo from NYC is only $800âŚ
Sydney Sweeney Gave the Face We All Make When We Look at AI Images. Sweeney is an ambassador for Samsung (odd) and so she is legally obligated to attend and promote Samsung events. At Samsung Unpacked, where the company unveils products no one youâve ever met buys, one of their speakers touted a new phoneâs generative AI features, demonstrating by showing Sweeney an AI generated image of herself, to which she responded with the most forced âCool, I love Itâ reaction of all time. Iâve made this forced reaction many times, mostly when people buy me gifts I donât want.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserDavid Proteinâs Art Direction Is Looking Great. The new protein bar, from Peter Rahal: founder of Rx Bar, is piquing my interest. I wrote about the packaging a few months ago, and Iâve started to see a slow trickle of additional photography that gives us a lens into the brandâs direction. I love this photo/graphicâŚ
No word on launch date, but I am seeing more fitness/wellness drinks take a more refined approach to branding. For example, Cadence, a new sports hydration beverage recently launched in an incredibly minimal can, and boasts some amazing photographic direction and content. Iâll dive more into this trend soonâŚ
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
David creative looks so cool! Kind of surprised they didn't lean more into the Statue of David/ Roman Empire vibes more from their landing page but I do like it. Clean, and excited to see more...
Kinda surprised yet another brand is launching with the name Cadence? Feels like we have a lot of confusing Cadences already?