Hey Snackers,
June 2020: The corona-conomy month in which plants began to enjoy a richer cultural life than humans — 2,000 potted plants were seated in the red velvet chairs of Barcelona's prestigious opera house, where a string quartet played them a private Puccini concert. Not a dry cacti in the house.
Markets jumped on Monday as investors shrugged off coronavirus surges and rollbacks of reopenings in the US.
No one keeps up with the Kardashians... as well as cosmetics giant Coty. In January, the beauty company bought 51% of Kylie Cosmetics for $600M. Now, almost-billionaire Kylie Jenner has an almost-billionaire sister to contend with:
Extreme Makeover: Kardashian Edition... Coty is a 116-year-old company that wants to appeal to the new generation (see: entire website in lowercase). But its biz is a little outdated:
Coty wants the "Instagram Model"... Sales of Coty's owned and licensed products have been declining. Meanwhile, it has to shell out big bucks for their marketing/distribution. Coty's Kardashian investments reduce some of that expensive grunt work, while tapping into a younger market:
Good thing there's no "dislike" button... Facebook is getting hit by a wave of corporate thumbs downs, as part of a boycott called "Stop Hate for Profit." The goal is stronger policies on Facebook to combat misinformation and hate speech from spreading on online:
Heating up... While boycotters like Patagonia have a history of activism, investors were concerned to see less outspoken (and bigger) corporations involved. Case in point: FB stock plunged 8% after Unilever joined the chat. That's when FB said it'll start labeling political speech that violates its rules and banning hate speech on ads. That's a shift from the laissez faire approach it took on controversial Trump posts. Boycotters say it's not enough.
Facebook might be too big to cancel... thanks to its 3B users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. FB platforms are so deeply ingrained in the world's social psyche that the 2018 #deleteFacebook movement barely made a blip on numbers. Since the world's population isn't dropping FB, most companies probably can't either:
The old college try... Four years after signing the biggest apparel deal in the history of college sports, Under Armour wants out. The $280M, 15-year deal gave UA the exclusive right to design all uniforms for UCLA's Varsity teams. But UA isn't feeling the team spirit anymore:
Protect this Balance Sheet... This move is more about cost-slashing than UCLA marketing. In May, UA said it was planning to cut $325M in costs for 2020. UA got hit hard in the corona-conomy:
Under Armour is too much ‘ath’, not enough ‘leisure’... Consumer preference is shifting toward versatility — especially in the corona-conomy, where 1 pant can triple as a workout, Netflix, and grocery shopping outfit. UA has been highly focused on technical performance, not as much on leisure. That's why UA's stock is down 55% this year, while leisure-friendly Nike is down only 6% and leisure-obsessed Lululemon is up 25%.
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Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Twitter, Microsoft, Luckin, Lululemon, and Starbucks
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