Amazon vs America, YouTube turning 20, and McDonald's slips
Issue #54
Weekly Exhale
You could argue that Amazon is the most American brand ever built.
Founded in Washington. Listed on New York's NASDAQ with a market cap just shy of $2 trillion. Seven times bigger in revenue than Coca-Cola and Disney. And if you bought $10,000 of Amazon shares twenty years ago, you'd be a millionaire today.
No, Amazon doesn't wrap itself in red, white and blue the way Budweiser does. But half of all Americans are Amazon Prime members. That's 196 million people, more than the U.S. labour force, more than voted in the last presidential election.
On the frontline, there are 300,000 Amazon drivers, handling 65 million orders a day—six times the size of the U.S. Coast Guard, passing through American neighbourhoods at any given moment. Most of the time, they sling a parcel at your door or interrupt you at the worst possible moment. But they also pick up the slack. Head over to TikTok and you'll find drivers pulling ducklings from storm drains, guiding elderly people with dementia back to their homes and generally lending a hand. In February this year, Nainam Elmore, a driver in Shelby County saw smoke filling the sky while dropping off a package. She ran into the burning house, carried a mother down the stairs, went back to retrieve the mother's wheelchair, and then finished her shift.
Then there's the founder. CEO. Entrepreneur. Born in 1964. Jeffrey. Jeffrey Bezos.
The cowboy hat and the space rockets began with just a computer and a garage in Bellevue. He's now the second-richest man on Earth. Yes, Amazon made others' margins their opportunity. That's creative destruction. That's the free market. That's what makes Amazon a star on the flag of American enterprise.
And yet, not long ago, Jeff was standing in the Rotunda, marble floors, hushed reverence, bowing ever so slightly to a new monarch. A scene that the U.S. Constitution may have frowned upon. No kings, it said.
So it was interesting, in a climate of corporate compliance, that Amazon dared to speak up.
On Monday, in an article it sponsored, Amazon announced plans to display how much of an item's cost came from tariffs, right next to the final price. Amazon is the first responder to the smallest impulse to buy something. Clarity is paramount. But transparency isn't. The products you're shown are prioritised and ad-funded to maximise Amazon's profits. Your perfect match might be on page three, but you'll never get there.
So this move toward transparency felt...surprising.
The White House shut it down fast. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it "a hostile and political act." She waved a printout of Bezos' mugshot in front of the cameras, citing "recent" reports that he was tied to Chinese propaganda. And ended with the punchline: "Another reason to buy American."
I was confused at this point. Amazon doesn't get more American. And if tariffs were listed openly, consumers might—who knows—start seeking out American-made products.
Okay, okay, Amazon was dying to show people how policy actually affects them in the interests of self-preservation. And the U.S. government responded: Transparency is treason.
No matter, Jeff made a phone call. Amazon quickly issued a statement saying it had no such plans. Headlines softened. Jeff was back to being "a good guy" who "solves problems quickly." I imagine he's relieved. He's got the next Blue Origin stunt to plan. And I'm sure he'd rather be climbing into a space rocket than being stuffed on a plane to CECOT.
They don't offer phone calls there.
I must have been reflecting on loaded choices when my scroll landed, not for the first time, on the wise words of entrepreneur Amani Simpson. It's always compelling to watch someone who's honed their craft. In this video, Amani was speaking to a new cohort of mentees. No rotunda. No marble floors. No bowing. Just a big, open office space and a group of young people paying close attention.
"In life, no one asks for the cards they were dealt," he said. He wasn't talking about luck. He was talking about judgment. Respecting that many people are just playing the hand they've got. A simple premise: Winning or losing, there's progress in how you treat the players beside you.
It reminded me of a case study they teach at business school, involving two Capuchin monkeys. Each monkey is asked to perform the same task. One receives a slice of cucumber as payment. The other gets a grape, which is a far more desirable reward. If unaware, the cucumber monkey is content. Does the job. Gets paid.
But once that monkey sees another getting grapes, all hell breaks loose. It throws its cucumber slices back. Screams. Refuses to work. Refuses to eat. Rattles the cage.
Talk about market logic all you want, it still has to go up against millions of years of instinct. We're hardwired to track fairness and to reject naked imbalance.
So, what happens when your weekly shop gets more expensive and no one explains why...When one company collapses under tariffs while Apple sails on untouched...When Amazon drivers are saving lives while their founder saves himself (Bezos is due to cash out over $4.5 billion in Amazon shares over the next 12 months)?
Amazon's actions this week revealed two things. First, corporate America is not happy with the U.S. government's policy direction. Second, the game is rigged to protect those already holding a full house.
What Amani said next poked the middle of my chest. I can feel it now as I type the words. As guidance for the work ahead, he told his group:
"We're going to journey with each other. And we're going to give each other grace."
In a week where even trillion-dollar companies get told to sit back down, grace feels kinda quiet and unfashionable. But at least the gift of grace doesn't pretend the game is fair. It simply asks for the goodwill of noticing what's going on beyond your own hand.
For those holding all the grapes, that's surely a small clue. As small as it is big. After that, we're not far from cages starting to rattle.
Let's rise together with every issue. ♡
Market Movements
FTSE notches up its longest winning streak | The Guardian
UK growth forecast cut | BBC
US jobs stable despite expectations | CNBC
Brand Beat
The United States of Amazon | Kyla Scanlon
McDonald’s surprise sales decline in a shaky economy | The Guardian
This is not just a cyber attack, this is an M&S cyberattack | The Grocer
Tutorial: Create your own brand framework using Claude AI | Paul Dervan
Nike’s marathon campaign’s Holocaust backlash | New York Post
"It had to be binned", Natwest CMO on derailed campaign | MarketingWeek
YouTube turns 20 years old, how it changed TV forever | LA Times
The headline act at a punk festival? 7-Eleven | Wall Street Journal
Deliveroo share price surges on Door Dash acquisition News | Sky
Zuckerberg says social media is over | The New Yorker
Duolingo jumps aboard the “AI-first” train | The Verge
Former WPP exec patches staff for new agency | The Times
Ads next to unsafe content perform better | Campaign
Functional soda craze: Alani Nu surpasses $1bn in sales | Fast Company
Is this the end of fashion's international shipping? | Vogue Business
Lavazza ad ban, coffee pods are not ‘compostable’ | The Guardian
System1's ad of the week is for Breyers | System1
Trending: Sleep or Die | Thingtesting
Starting Up
Think you can be a founder? Here’s the test | Sifted
Perimenopause brand Valerie raises £514k pre-seed | Future Fem Health
Caroline Hiron’s Skin Rocks lands investment from JamJar | Business of Fashion
Gorgie energy drink raises $24.5m after just 3 years | yahoo!finance
Tech Tidbits
Why hackers hit UK household retailers | Financial Times
Waymo may sell you a personal robo taxi, Google hints | Reuters
Zuck and Satya Nadella discuss how they’ve replaced developers with AI | Fortune
ChatGPT wasn’t supposed to kiss your ass this hard | Intelligencer
Everybody wants to buy Google's Chrome | Vergecast
Venture Vibes
Zopa profits double amid IPO speculation | CityAM
Iconic pasta brand, Chef Boyardee sold to PE for $600m | Wall Street Journal
Vinted launches VC arm “Vinted Ventures” | Sifted
Canva backer, FPV Ventures, raises new $525m fund | Bloomberg
Design Driven
The kerning on the Pope’s tomb is a travesty | Fast Company
Mr Doodle has designed a Keenex box | Marketing Beat
"Work Hard and Be Nice to People" turns 21 | It's Nice That
Obituaries as a creativity hack | Big Think
Happiness
Study finds young people still not happy | New York Times
"Group Therapy" on Prime Video is actually an ad | Marketing Brew
Meditation podcast: Take in the small wins | Retreat & Rise Up
Stay gold 🙏🏻