Snoop Doggâs new THC-infused Snazzle Os are getting positive reviews, being compared to a tasty, âmore onion-yâ version of Funyuns.
In todayâs email:
McDonaldâs:Is all-in on nostalgia.
Chart:Humans love subscriptions.
GIFs:Might be on the way out.
Around the Web:Better meetings, a giant otter, a techy camo jacket, and more cool internet finds.
đ§ On the go?Listen to todayâs 10-minute podcastto hear Rob and Juliet discuss Boo Bucket nostalgia, YouTubeâs new handles, what killed the GIF, and more.
THE BIG IDEA
McDonaldâs is cashing in on nostalgia
In a gust ofspoopynostalgia, McDonaldâs Halloween Boo Bucketsare backin participating US stores Oct. 18-31.
After a successful test run in the NYC and Boston areas, the buckets first debuted in 1986,perhorror blogNightmare Nostalgia.
Between 2010 and 2016,the buckets featured pop culture tie-ins, including Mr. Potato Head,Minions, andItâs the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
McDonaldâs occasionally tried other Halloween toys, but the pails have always been the most popular,perMcDonaldâs archivist Mike Bullington.
They could also lure millennials
The 2022 versionsriff onthe classic â89 buckets, which wereobviouslythe best â and the ones millenials likely remember from childhood.
As adults, millennials havenât taken to McDonaldâs like previous generations have.
In 2016,TheWall Street Journalreported that80%of millennials hadnât tried a Big Mac, and that many preferred health-focused chains or newer options like Shake Shack.
Still, McDonaldâs is reportedlyselling outof its âadult Happy Mealâ collaboration with streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market.
BTW:In â91, McDonaldâs replaced the pails with vinyl treat bags, but a collector found thelost designsfor the buckets that never were.
TRENDING
Ouch:Multiple TwitchCon attendees were seriouslyinjuredafter jumping into a foam pit exhibit that wasnât deep enough.
SNIPPETS
Oof:The Nasdaq compositeclosedat its lowest point since July 2020 on Monday, due in part to a dip in semiconductor stocks like Nvidia and AMD.
YouTubeannouncedit will begin rolling out account handles for all users starting this week.
Amazonwillinvest$972m to electrify its delivery network of vans, trucks, and cargo bikes in Europe.
Getir,an Istanbul-based delivery app, is inadvanced talksto acquire fellow delivery app Gorillas in an effort to gain scale in the UK and Germany.
GooglehasjoinedApple in removing The OG App, an app that promised an ad-free Instagram experience, from its app store.
US consumersare expected to spend$209.7Bonline this holiday season, up 2.5% YoY.
Prize:Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and economists Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvigreceivedthe $886k Nobel Prize in Economics for their research on bank runs.
A Dutch courtdecidedthat forcing employees to keep their webcams on at work is a human rights violation.
Tinderpartneredwith BallotReady on an in-app election center where users can register to vote and get polling and election info.
Balancing the checkbook:Wages, loans, insurance â need help tackling your business expenses? Check outThe Hustleblogâs deep dive intostartup costs.
CHART
Singdhi Sokpo
Americans really, really love their subscriptions
If it wasnât clear already, us humans â we really love paying for things on a monthly basis.
New data from theNational Research Groupfound that while 44% of consumers have tried to cut back on spending at the grocery store amid ongoing high inflation, only 18% did so with their streaming subscriptions.
Among subscriptions generally, NRG found Amazon Prime is among the least likely to be canceled, trailing cloud storage and music streaming services.
Most likely to be canceled? Dating apps, at 76%.
With subscription businesses so widespread, consumers say companies must now innovate to grab attention, with NRG citing examples like Netflix offering mobile games and Onâs subscription-based running shoes.
Weird history:One Swiss sock companyproudly claimsthey beat Netflix in inventing âthe first online subscriptionâ service in 1999, dubbed the âsockscription.â
GOODBYE GIFS?
Is this the end of the GIF?
In 2016, a Tumblr executive called GIFs âthe file format of the internet generation.â
Six years later, the looping image format is beingdescribedas âcringeâ by younger generations, perThe Atlantic.
What happened?
In short, a combination of things:
Accessibility:GIF-searching features on Facebook, Twitter, and iMessage brought the format to the masses.
Over-usage:As using GIFs became easier, more people started using them, often selecting the same ones over and over.
As older adults started using the same GIFs as their children and grandchildren, the format lost its cool factor.
But are GIFs really going away?
GIF database Giphy reported declining uploads on its platform and said younger users describe GIFs as âfor boomersâ in a filing with the Competition and Markets Authority.
Further,another file type has emerged:MP4 video files, which can display a similar effect to GIFs at a smaller file size, have been embraced by most social media platforms.
Of course, as the latest wave of nostalgia proves â culture iscyclical. So as soon as we proclaim the death of the GIF, some trendsetters are sure to resurrect it once again.
AROUND THE WEB
đ€Ł On this day:In 1975, comedy variety show âSaturday Night Liveâdebutedon NBC.