Jeremy P

New Coke, Classic Coke, Passover Coke, Sugar Coke? With Coke announcing a new sugar-based product (notice that it's a new Coke, not replacing Coke Classic), it'll be interesting to see the pricing and the name. www.axios.com/2025/07/22/t...

Reports of Deno's Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated | Deno Addressing recent Deno criticisms and sharing our vision for the future

A corporate blog is still a good place to counter rumors, as shown by Deno. And while there's the question (valid) about how AI and GEO are treating corporate sites, and how PR is becoming king again as third-party outlets matter more, when I asked ChatGPT about the company, the post came up first.

Belkin shows tech firms getting too comfortable with bricking customers’ stuff There’s no easy alternative, and IoT customers are paying the price.

I mean, this was one way for @Belkin to get back into tech news (I forgot that they were still around, let alone sorta LA tech, until these stories).

This is more than a Belkin ruining its brand name with customers story, it's questioning whether or not the public can trust smarthome tech.

Inside the Big Ten’s love of traveling rivalry trophies — Pigs, axes, buckets and beyond The Big Ten possesses 21 recognized traveling trophies, with a majority of them over seven decades old.

There's something about nostalgia, historical rivalries, and weird trophies. And that's all part of what makes the Big 10 the best football conference out there (plus its focus on academia, one of the few if not only conferences that does that).

A look at all the trophies that change hands.

Threads is nearing X's daily app users, new data shows | TechCrunch Threads' mobile app for iOS and Android saw 115.1 million daily active users, representing 127.8% year-over-year growth.

With Threads nearing X's daily app usage, and BlueSky keeping up with new bells and whistles, it's hard out here for a social media manager.

Jim Shooter, Editor Who ‘Saved the Comics Industry,’ Dies at 73 He brought order and profits to Marvel in the 1980s and helped establish the genre as a popular-culture tent pole for decades to come.

Lessons from Jim Shooter, a literal giant in the comic industry (he was 6'7") include that every comic book should be an introduction to the characters so people could just pick up anywhere and become a fan, and that every story is based on a character, an action, a climax and a resolution.

Sometimes, you just need a little Celebration in your life (or Kool and the Gang).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gwj...

‘Less Burnout, More Babies’: How Conservatives Are Winning Young Women The wellness influencer universe is resonating with people who might not otherwise be drawn to politics.

Reading the MAHA/trad wife/whatever you want to call it movement press - this is the second such article I've read about conservative movements and women, and I'm sure there will be more - just reminds me that there's media and spaces for everyone, and my job in PR is to be aware of them all.

Why a16z VC believes that Cluely, the ‘cheat on everything’ startup, is the new blueprint for AI startups | TechCrunch Andreessen Horowitz explains why its new investment philosophy prioritizes the "build as you go" approach embodied by Cluely.

This is what happens when people have no knowledge of the past, and think that what's happening now is the end-all, be-all because they just don't know.

The TLDR is that first movers in the space (this time, AI instead of dotcom or Web 2.0) will be the winner, so companies need to launch fast.

Bluesky backlash misses the point | TechCrunch Not only is Bluesky more than just a Twitter/X alternative, it's just one app in a wider social ecosystem built on open technology.

This was an interesting (and odd, IMO) story from TechCrunch that essentially was a piece on why Bluesky is so important and not what people are characterizing it. (Except, well, it's the public that defines companies and services).

Opinion | How American Sports Leagues Sold Out and Shattered Sports Culture The major sports leagues are destroying one of our few remaining sources of shared community.

Are the major sports leagues losing their fans due to costs of games ... in-person or on TV/streaming/wherever? This piece in the @NYTimes from @JoonLee thinks so, and I would have to agree that the costs have gone a bit out of control for the average family.

I've always wanted my own theme song. I think part of it is growing up in the era of the best TV theme songs, the 70s. Now, finally in the 20s (the roaring AI 20s, I guess), that dream has come true.

Go download the Jeremy Pepper ringtone, and make sure it's what rings when/if I call.

Chefs on the Films That Always Make Them Hungry Nancy Silverton, Daniela Soto-Innes and more talk about the movies that have inspired and continue to reignite their love of cooking.

This seemed a fitting article to show up in my feed, after a conversation with a food reporter. We were talking about how food speaks to culture, community and has such a huge impact on our lives.

The @NYTimess asked top chefs what food films make them a hungry - a cute way to get them to share.

More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation, study finds Guardian investigation reveals promotion of dubious advice, questionable supplements and quick-fix healing methods

From a UK study, that more than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation is a pretty scary thing.

That the response from TikTok is that it is personal expression and that it is people sharing their stories ignores that audiences are taking it as mental health advice.

Exclusive | Wonder Acquires Tastemade for Its Latest Quest: to Make a ‘Mealtime Super App’ Wonder CEO Marc Lore hopes the company will one day offer AI-powered autonomous food ordering for all three meals of the day.

Everyone wants to be the "super app" and it really doesn't seem to matter what the industry is. Wonder (food delivery) has bought Tastemade (food videos, including cooking) to build out that app that is takeout, delivery, meal kits, production company, content studio and advertising business.

Costco Has a Magazine and It’s Thriving Each month, 15.4 million copies of Costco Connection are mailed out to members. Another 300,000 are distributed via Costco warehouses. It is now the nation’s third largest magazine.

I love Costco and, like Jimmy Kimmel, remember when they were Price Clubs in Arizona (and my membership goes that far back). And I remember when the magazine started arriving and how yes, we would thumb through it to see what was new at Costco.

Skype is dead. What happened? Microsoft is shutting down Skype. It will go offline in May 2025. “We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years,…

Reading all the pre- and post-mortem posts on Skype, I remember my small role (that I never talk about) in the launch. I was hired to track coverage and started seeing the groundswell of love for the product amongst bloggers.

Read this from @Om, a great review of what could have been.

Millennials Might Hate Cruises—but a Yacht Trip? That’s Another Story. Affluent millennials often dismiss cruise travel as crowded, cramped and insufficiently exclusive. But elite hotel chains like the Ritz-Carlton are convincing them to set sail on luxury “yachts.”

It's all about messaging, right? Millennials won't take cruises, but call it a yacht trip and they're overpaying for a brand name slapped on a cruise ship. There's a norovirus joke in here somewhere ... if you pay more for that yacht trip, is it a higher class of norovirus?

More Americans couponing out of necessity than as a hobby, survey shows A new survey from The Krazy Coupon Lady highlights a new shift: while couponing used to be a hobby, for many, it is now becoming a household necessity.

Both offline and online couponing are a fascinating business. There would be the news segments showing clubs trading coupons, the experts who would walk out of grocery stores paying nothing, and it was even part of a poker scene in Mr. Mom (go see it again, Teri and Michael are great).

Tech CEOs are using AI to replace themselves They’re using AI avatars to talk to investors.

Is this an eating the dog-food move or an avoidance of real engagement and transparency move? It seems to be both at the same time -- showcasing that the companies are going all-in on AI (and likely to cut staff, because earnings and bottom lines) and avoiding to have to answer questions.

You don't know anything about community until you start a community. Five… | Sean Garrett | 36 comments You don't know anything about community until you start a community. Five years ago this week, I did just that. And, now I feel like I know a little. Inspired by the first couple weeks of Covid…

Community building is not easy -- in fact, it's probably one of the harder things to do in marketing and communications in an organic way. Kudos to what Sean has built with Comm(s)unity, especially on Slack.

Ulta Strategies: How Ulta is tapping in-store associates for content creation with new 'Ulta Beauties’ internal ambassador program Ulta Beauty exec Stacy Coblentz gives Glossy an insider’s look into the retailer’s "Ulta Beauties" associate ambassador program. Made up of 28 in-store associates and two corporate staffers, the…

How @ultabeauty built out its internal ambassador program should be the gold standard (IMO). By opening up the program to its in-store employees, having the program run by an influencer/employee and paying for the content on or off the clock are all key.

How apparel brands like Madewell, American Eagle and M.M.LaFleur are building 'a different brand personality' through Substack More fashion companies like Madewell and American Eagle are publishing Substack newsletters filled with styling tips and long-form essays.

When one thing is hot in marketing - the return of the printed publication - it only makes sense that there are other content plays that become the new hot thing as well.

Fashion brands are jumping to Substack, which makes a ton of sense to me as creating their own fashion magazines with advice.

A very cyclical thing in corporate America: the launch of the corporate magazine. It seems to be an every 10-year thing (and if I go through my X timeline when it was Twitter, I'd be able to find my last tweeted story), but it wouldn't come back if it didn't work.

‘Thanks for showing his profile like a psa’: She finds her boyfriend’s Tinder. Then she drives him to a landfill A woman on TikTok was applauded for allegedly “dumping” her boyfriend, literally, after she caught him cheating.

A viral TikTok video about a girlfriend catching her boyfriend cheating and driving him to the dump since he likes picking up garbage turns out to be a campaign for an app to catch cheaters.

I'm waiting for any follow-up story that notes an FTC fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Aisle hopping: Why major food and beverage brands are entering new parts of the grocery store Nestlé, Kraft Heinz and J.M. Smucker are among the CPG giants leveraging the brand equity of well-known products to expand into different categories, boost recognition and grow sales.

Brand extensions always are a good and easier bet than launching a whole new product or category. With the food business having its moment of pricing uncertainty, I'm sure we'll see more of it as outlined in the article.

In Touch, Life & Style, Closer and First for Women Magazines to Shutter, Lay Off Entire Staffs “Despite the best efforts of many of our talented colleagues, we have been unable to develop a profitable business model for four of our magazine titles,” a McClatchy spokesperson tells THR.

The media landscape continues to lose jobs (and outlets) with In Touch, Life & Style, Closer and First for Women shutting down (print and onine) and laying off all staff.

What's weird? The editorialized line in the article: While Hollywood’s talent publicists may not be shedding tears today ...

Trump tariffs set to collide with back-to-school shopping The worst impacts of President Trump’s tariffs could hit just in time for back-to-school shopping. Whether or not Trump reaches new deals with China and other trading partners, spikes in pric…

If it seems like you're being inundated with clothing sales and hype -- and that the Memorial Day weekend sales seemed to last longer -- you're not wrong.

With the on-again, off-again tariffs (TACO!), brands are scrambling with back-to-school promotions despite school barely being out of session.

True! Forgot about that (but also don't eat a lot of steak despite loving it).

Bluesky has caught on with many news influencers, but X remains popular The share of news influencers in our sample with a Bluesky account roughly doubled in the four months after Election Day 2024, from 21% beforehand to 43% by March.

From @PewResearch, Bluesky is taking off (especially on the left of politics journalists) but X is still king of the hill for journalists and news influencers.

And if you're in sports, there's no where else you really can be for the audiences.