Nike's punchy new spot, Gucci's reinvention, and Meta's Llama AI is free and risky

Issue #17

Jul 26, 2024

Rise Up is a weekly newsletter with can’t-miss headlines on consumer brands, marketing, startups, ventures, tech, and happiness.

Weekly Exhale

This year’s aesthetic is saturated chartreuse green and plastered with the word ‘brat’. I don’t know much about Charli XCX, but “brat summer” seems a political campaign people can get behind, hijacking anything they want with a spunky, carefree vibe. Not a moment too soon. If you went out in 2005, you’d have your choice of over 3,000 nightclubs in the UK. Today, there are less than 1,500.

‘Just like a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a white strappy top’ described Charli, which took me back to an iconoclastic moment in 1994, when Ethan Hawke turned to Winona Ryder in Reality Bites and said, “This is all we need. A couple of smokes, a cup of coffee and a little bit of conversation.”

This afternoon, we celebrate the life of a dude who infected everyone with a carefree spirit, creativity, music, love, and light. RIP Justin Rees.

Let’s rise together with every issue. 🧡

Market Movements

Rate cut hopes, as one mortgage lender offers below 4% | BBC

US growth continues to ramp up, 2.8% in second quarter | The Guardian

Not-so-magnificent week for AI-forward tech giants | Fast Company

Brand Beat

Big ticket ad campaigns are back | CityAM

Nike releases a punchy new Olympics ad | Creative Review

Unilever boosts brand and marketing spend by €700m | Marketing Week

Spotify’s second-quarter results are really good | Billboard

But, Spotify should stop trying to be a social media app | Wired

Gucci’s reinvention in 2024 | WSJ

Go Daddy’s CMO on turning away from Super Bowl spots | Digiday

More than half of men now use facial skincare, Mintel reveals | Fashion Network

The coolest kids will be wearing Zara x SEA | WWD

Why LA’s Ehrewon store isn’t as cool as you think | Bloomberg

Euros powers ITV ad revenue jump by 17% | The Guardian

Cadbury feels the pressure of cocoa price rises | The Grocer

Reckitt brands like Air Wick and Cillit Bang are up for sale in shake-up | The Standard

System 1’s ad of the week stars Adam Garfield in singing spot for Sky TV | System 1

Startup Spotlight

A Manchester-based startup founded by ex-Nvidia engineers raises funding | Business Insider

Young fashion brands are heading to Substack for sales | Glossy

Jake Paul’s W brand raises $11 million to compete with Old Spice | Wall Street Journal

The best new food brands coming out of Bread & Jam | Food Navigator

Trending: College Skincare and reusable eye masks called Butter | Thingtesting

Tech Tidbits

Meta’s New Llama 3.1 AI is free, powerful and risky | Wired

Silicon Valley’s must-have item: A leather jacket as cool as Jensen’s | The Information

Google abandons plans to remove cookies | FT

Alexa is costing Amazon billions in losses | Wall Street Journal

AI is now going to help us live longer, of course | Sifted

The great computer outage, what the h*ll happened? | The Verge

Venture Vibes

The deal is off: Wiz rejects $23bn offer from Google | The Guardian

Female founders have raised $15.5bn, but its still bad news | TechCrunch

LVMH’s fund is interested in buying Barbie | Nasdaq

Six health tech ideas VCs want you to pitch | Sifted

New $60m consumer tech fund from Zoom’s backers | TechCrunch

Design Driven

It’s a Summer of chartreuse green - the CharlieXCX “brat” trend broken down | TikTok

Designing for a brand that’s all about cannabis | It’s nice that

6 logos in 3 hours: Kamala Harris’ design team shares historic rebrand | Fast Company

Paris Olympics opening ceremony will be unlike any before | Wired

Hello, Happiness

Should you protect your free time from the demands of your job? | Maddyness

Your guide to having the ultimate brat summer | Her Campus

Be more brat 🟢 this week. DM me anytime if you want to talk to me. Stay gold. 🙏🏻