Brands Go Wild
Shaun White gives snowboarding the Formula 1 treatment, brand advertising goes nutty, and Joe Rogan gets presidential
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It’s Wednesday, TFP fam. If you’re getting married soon and thinking about what to put on your registry, you can join a trend that a lot of millennials are hopping on — asking for cash assistance in buying a home. That’s right. Move over, fancy towels, it’s time to focus on a down payment. Plenty has been said about how difficult it is for young people to afford homes, so asking for a little help may produce the ultimate present. Do you know anyone who’s tried this?
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Can Shaun White Turn Snowboarding Into Formula 1?
Snowboarding legend Shaun White is launching the Snow League to bring organization, sponsorship, and a sustainable living to the sport and its talent.
Why It Hits: With non-traditional leagues like F1 racing and pickleball attracting thousands of new fans and rich investment, a push to give snowboarding its due could mint the first cold-weather cultural juggernaut.
Between The Powder: With backing from Blackstone’s David Blitzer and former NFL star Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., and media counsel from Range Media Partners, Snow League is ready for action.
It’s the first year-round, competitive federation for snowboarding and freeskiing, which will kick off with four halfpipe competitions featuring 36 athletes from 15 countries.
The league will bring together the two things that athletes want most — a world title to go after and Olympic qualification so they’re not bouncing from competition to competition (usually on their own dime).
The first season will have a record-high prize purse of $1.5 million (split into $250,000 winnings for each event, with an additional $250,000 for season champions) — a huge upgrade from the four figures that winners currently take home from competitions.
White knows that the real money in snowboarding is from brand sponsorships and media deals, so he and his team are courting luxury and fashion brands (like F1’s LVMH deal) and are prepping a docu-style series (like Netflix’s Drive to Survive).
Closing Run: An all-in-one traveling snowboarding circuit steeped in luxury sponsorships and events is kind of a no-brainer — the competitions will likely take place in high net-worth locales like Aspen or St. Moritz. (F1 races ain’t a cheap ticket either.) In the US, snowboarding participation jumped 10% last season to 9.9 million, and 60% of the 4.6 million recreational snowboarders have an annual income above $100,000. The Snow League has the potential to make competitions a vacation destination in and of themselves.
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Brands Are Going Absurd
Consumer product brands are experimenting with absurd humor to stand out from the crowd and craft marketing campaigns that leave a lasting (or, at least, bewildered) impression. So far, it seems to be working.
The Big Picture: Crafting marketing that doesn’t offend consumers has become a tightrope, especially after a decade of message-driven, serious campaigns. By leaning into humor — specifically, the hyperactive absurdism popular with Gen Z and Gen Alpha — creativity is becoming more important than calls to action.
Behind The Joke: The state of digital marketing has become the Battle of the Bonkers, per Fast Company.
Nutter Butter has taken to TikTok to craft something between millennials’ Annoying Orange and Gen Alpha’s Skibidi Toilet to create a weird, interconnected universe of bizarre characters and in-jokes.
Duolingo has turned its own mascot into a passive-aggressive character who prods people to take their lessons or comment on their memes, shows up at Charli XCX concerts, and even appears in a Super Bowl ad, twerking.
Pop-Tarts debuted an edible mascot at its college bowl game last season, which was, yes, eaten by the game-winning players. The edible mascot is now a Halloween costume.
Liquid Death chose to market the water as something hardcore for hardcore people, including tapping celebrities like Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Barker as ambassadors.
The Punchline: Absurd marketing works. Nutter Butter’s videos have bagged millions of views. Duolingo saw its revenue growth soar 45% at the beginning of the year. Kellanova’s Pop-Tarts sales, well, popped 3% immediately after that fateful football game. And Liquid Death has a $1.4 billion valuation… for, and we can’t stress this enough, water. The overriding theme here is that even though no one likes to be sold to, everyone likes to have a bit of silly fun. Prepare for marketing to get way, way more ridiculous over the coming year… especially from the brands you least expect.
Go Weirder: Today’s crop of CMOs didn’t break ground with funny. Check out the “oddvertising” of just 20 years ago for a little history lesson.
DEEP DIVES
Read: NYT profiles the launch of Hearing Things — a new music site from five ex-Pitchfork staffers that hopes to return to the publication’s original mission and shun advertising.
Watch: WSJ profiles Charli XCX about everything that influenced her breakout album, Brat.
Listen: The Vergecast explores the history of the “podcast” and where the industry is heading.
Are you into skiing or snowboarding? |
69.8% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Are you a fan of Charli XCX’s album Brat?
“I don’t think I’m her target audience…”
“Just looked up Charli XCX on Spotify for the first time. Nope.”
“Haven’t felt compelled to listen but appreciate the aesthetic and energy.”
“I’ve been a fan of hers for over a decade now. She’s a true visionary, and I’m so happy she’s getting her flowers for shaking up pop music.”
Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.
QUICK HITS
→ Entertainment / Media
🎙️ Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump may book appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience.
🪩 The Sphere announced that it’s opening a second venue in Abu Dhabi.
🎧 Vinyl record sales have surprisingly dropped 33% this year to 23.3 million units.
→ Technology
🔋 Google has inked the first-ever deal to buy energy from up to seven small nuclear reactors set to be built by Kairos Power.
🚰 There’s a lot of flooding in Florida post-hurricanes, but not a lot of drinking water… so the state tapped Genesis Systems to pull clean water out of the atmosphere.
🤖 Tesla’s Optimus robots that went viral at its recent We, Robot event were actually remote-controlled by humans.
→ Fashion / E-commerce
🤳 OpenAI wants to court influencers with the creation of a new Head of Internet Creators role.
📇 Instagram wants to replace business cards with its new “profile cards” feature.
👴 Millennial moment: Grampa Simpson is the star of some very funny viral memes.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.
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