1 in 3 Gen Z adults have seen a horror movie in theaters in the past month; Taylor Swift is the first artist in history to occupy the entire top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100; Drake and 21 Savage faked a Vogue cover for their new single; and on TikTok, sadness — and, by extension, “crying makeup” — is a trend.
MUSK TEAM WORKING TO REBOOT VINE THIS YEAR, axios
Apparently Elon’s been keeping his ear to the ground! Twitter engineers have already been assigned to look at Vine's old code base, which hasn't been changed or updated since the shutdown. I would say TikTok should be scared, but I frankly don’t think Elon’s got it in him.
WILL TIKTOK EAT THE MICHELIN GUIDE’S LUNCH?, wapo
Of course not, but this does pose an interesting question: How can the Michelin Guide possibly remain relevant in a food world dominated by TikTok and Gen Z?
YOUR CHALLENGE? TURN AN OLD RUG INTO A NEW FALL JACKET., nyt
“Upcycle Nation,” a new television fashion competition, is “Project Runway” for Gen Z.
Thommy Douglass had just five hours to whip up a men’s coat made from a heap of castoffs: jeans, an old wedding dress and threadbare tweed jackets…He tackled the project, as one of two dozen contestants culled from a pool of aspiring designers and artists known for reworking and reinventing secondhand finds into wearable clothes on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
RALPH LAUREN TO LAUNCH FORTNITE FASHION LINE WITH FIRST POLO LOGO MASHUP, bloomberg
A super-smart way to build brand affinity with Gen Alpha: Featuring a mashup of the Polo logo with its iconic jockey riding the Fortnite llama, this collab marks the first time in Ralph Lauren’s 55-year history that the logo has been redesigned. The designs are inspired by the 1990s, and the partnership includes a limited run of physical hoodies, button-down shirts, and polos.
HEARST WANTS GEN Z’S SOCIAL SHOPPERS TO USE ITS NEW COMMERCE PLATFORM, FIRSTFINDS, digiday
The shopping site, which launched in beta last week “with over 1,000 products that were hand-selected by a five-person team,” feels like a cross between Reddit (because you can upvote or downvote) and TikTok (because of the scroll-heavy interface and because pretty much all of the “finds” are obviously sourced from there).
The commerce curators were tasked with finding new products — 50 per day — that met at least one criteria on a 16-point list of requirements, including “if you see it all over your feed” or “it’s never on sale but it is today” or “you ordered it and can’t stop checking the tracking for when it will arrive,”
One last thought: