Happiness is taking control of a beloved comic strip.
Sony is buying a 41% stake in the Charles M. Schulz comic Peanuts and its characters including Snoopy and Charlie Brown from Canada’s WildBrain in a $457 million deal, the two companies said Friday.
The deal adds to Sony’s existing 39% stake, bringing its shareholding to 80%, according to a joint statement. The Schulz family will continue to own the remaining 20%.
With this additional ownership stake, we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the ‘Peanuts’ brand by drawing on the Sony Groups extensive global network and collective expertise, Sony Music Entertainment President Shunsuke Muramatsu said.
Peanuts made its debut Oct. 2, 1950 in seven newspapers. The travails of the little round-headed kid Charlie Brown and pals, including Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and his pet beagle Snoopy, eventually expanded to more than 2,600 newspapers, reaching millions of readers in 75 countries.
The strip offers enduring images of kites stuck in trees, Charlie Brown trying to kick a football, tart-tongued Lucy handing out advice for a nickel, and Snoopy taking the occasional flight of fancy to the skies. Phrases such as security blanket,” good grief and happiness is a warm puppy are a part of the global vernacular. Schulz died in 2000.
Sony acquired its first stake in Peanuts Holdings LLC in 2018 from Toronto-based WildBrain Ltd. In Friday’s transaction, Sony’s music and movie arms signed a definitive agreement with WildBrain to buy its remaining stake for $630 million Canadian dollars ($457 million).
Rights to the Peanuts brand and management of its business are handled by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Peanuts Holdings.
WildBrain also owns other kids’ entertainment franchises, including Strawberry Shortcake and Teletubbies.
The Trump administration is calling on white men who believe they faced discrimination at work to file their complaints to a federal civil rights agency.
The head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission urged white men to formally register their complaints with the government this week in a video posted to X. Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws, EEOC Commission Chair Andrea Lucas said.
Lucas urged white men who qualified to contact the EEOC as soon as possible and pointed them to the agencys website and its explainer on DEI-related discrimination. The EEOC is committed to identifying, attacking, and eliminating ALL race and sex discrimination including against white male employees and applicants, Lucas wrote.
The EEOCs priorities have shifted dramatically during the second Trump administration. The EEOC, born out of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was created to protect Americans from workplace discrimination and harassment. Given its origins, the agency had a historic focus on protecting minority employees from racial discrimination, but in more recent years its mission included investigations into instances of discrimination over gender, disability, age and national origin.
At the same time that the EEOC is collecting complaints from white men, the agency has dropped six of its own cases representing transgender people who alleged workplace discrimination based on their gender identities.
Dismantling diversity
The Trump administration has deployed the EEOC in a very specific way over the course of the year, steering the agency toward its broader goals of dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In March, the EEOC and the DOJ released a joint press release along with new documentation warning employers against unlawful DEI-related discrimination that could be interpreted to violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Far too many employers defend certain types of race or sex preferences as good, provided they are motivated by business interests in diversity, equity, or inclusion, Lucas said. But no matter an employers motive, there is no good, or even acceptable, race or sex discrimination.
While the subtext was clear from the EEOCs recent changes, Lucas said the quiet part out loud on X. The Trump administration is keen to highlight perceived examples of anti-white discrimination in the country, and its willing to pull all the levers of government in pursuit of that goal.
The White Houses framing of race in America increasingly reflects the language of once-fringe white nationalist theories, including debunked claims about a genocide of white South Africans and recent calls for remigration mass deportation for non-white immigrants. Trump himself has an extensive history of racist ideology, has repeatedly aligned himself with white nationalists and continues to promote a language of grievance around anti-white sentiment while stripping away federal policies designed to promote racial diversity.
The EEOC has an unusual structure, but that hasnt been enough to block Trumps efforts to weaponize it during his second term. The agency is a commission made up of five members, with no more than three allowed to be from the same political party. The president can appoint commissioners, who serve a five year term, and can designate a chair to steer the agency, but generally the EEOC is designed to be bipartisan by definition, limiting the potential influence of whoever sits in the White House and keeping the commission independent.
Quickly after taking office in January, Trump fired two of the federal agencys three Democratic commissioners an unprecedented departure from the commissions traditional five year terms. After filling one of the open slots with a lawyer who served in the Department of Education during his first term, two EEOC positions sit vacant, with one Biden appointee remaining in her role and two Trump appointees setting the agenda.
The livestream of a YouTube content creator talking about investments mysteriously appeared to take over a White House website, raising questions about whether the site was hacked.
The livestream appeared for at least eight minutes late Thursday on whitehouse.gov/live, where the White House usually streams live video of the president speaking.
It’s unclear if the website was breached or the video was linked accidentally by someone in the government. The White House said in a statement that it was aware and looking into what happened.
The video that appeared on the government-run website featured some of a more than two-hour livestream from Matt Farley, who posts as @RealMattMoney, as he answered financial questions.
Farley said in an email to The Associated Press on Friday that he had no idea what happened.
If I had known my stream was going to go super public like that I would be dressed a bit nicer and had a few more pointed topics! And it likely wouldnt have been about personal finance, Farley wrote.
President Donald Trump‘s administration and campaign have had a series of digital security breaches and challenges over the last year.
In May, government officials began investigating after elected officials, business executives, and other prominent figures received text messages and phone calls from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, the Republican president’s chief of staff.
Last year, Iran hacked into Trumps campaign. Sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trumps running mate.
Michelle L. Price, Associated Press
Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
The government took stakes in a number of private companies during 2025, and it’s likely to continue making equity investments while Donald Trump remains in office. Whether or not this is a wise long-term strategy is an ongoing debate, with strong opinions on both sides.
The practice represents a new industrial policy thats meant to tie the executive branch of government closer to companies it considers essential to national security and economic prowess. The Trump administration hopes its a more robust approach than subsidy grants in rebuilding critical supply chains domestically, reducing reliance on China, and ensuring key industries remain under U.S. control.
But it also puts the government in the venture capital businesswhich may not be a good fit for politicians and bureaucrats. The government now perceives itself as a source of capital and the markets perceive them as a source of capitalits not going to stop, said former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on a recent episode of The Informed Board, a podcast from Skadden Arps. And it may not be easy for a private company to say no. Any business that either sells a lot of stuff to the federal government or gets a lot of subsidies from the federal government is going to be a target, he added.
I think its extraordinarily dangerous. And the reason I think its not going to go away is that regardless of the outcome, I think this is where the Republican Party is, Mulvaney said. “And its where the Democrat Party has wanted to be for a long time.
The U.S. government has taken equity shares in private companies before, but only in times of war or economic crisis, and never as a normal feature of industrial policy, as the Trump administration views it.
The government took a minority stake in Chrysler in the early 1980s when the company faced bankruptcy. During the 2008 financial crisis, the government took equity stakes in AIG, General Motors, Citigroup, Bank of America, and others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Treasury received equity warrants in airlines, including Delta, United, and American, in exchange for payroll support.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has suggested that the administration is considering expanding the practice of buying equity to include defense contractors.
The U.S. and Intel
The governments biggest equity investment is the troubled chipmaker Intel. The Trump administration said in August that it would take a 9.9% stake, using $8.9 billion of CHIPs and Science Act grant money that had already been earmarked for the company. Intel finance chief David Zinsner said the governments investment was meant to incentivize Intel to keep majority control over its contract chip-fabrication business.
The bigger picture is that the U.S. economy, including the defense industry, is increasingly reliant on the powerful chips used to train and run AI models, and the vast majority of those are made in Taiwan by TSMC. The U.S. could benefit greatly if Intel could fabricate equally advanced chips in the U.S. Taiwan is a potential geopolitical flash point because its a mere 85 miles away from China, and while the island has its own government, the Chinese government denies its sovereignty and claims it as its own.
Other bets
In July, the Defense Department paid $400 million for a 15% stake in the rare earth minerals company MP Materials (MP), making the Pentagon the companys largest shareholder. The deal includes a $150 million loan to help MP build a heavy rare earth separation plant in California.
The government received a golden share in Nippon Steel in exchange for approving the Japanese companys proposed merger of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. The golden share doesnt represent equity in Nippon, but it does give the U.S. veto power in certain kinds of business decisions, as well as a right to appoint a board member.
In October, the Department of Energy loaned the Canadian mining company Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) and its Thacker Pass lithium mine project $2.26 billion in exchange for a 5% stake in both LAC and the mining venture.
In October, the Department of Defense paid $35.6 million for a 10% stake in the Canadian company Trilogy Metals, which is developing the Ambler Access Road infrastructure project in Alaska to access metals like copper, cobalt, and zinc.
In November, the Commerce Department said it intended to use $50 million in CHIPs Act money to buy a significant stake in the private rare-earth magnet producer Vulcan Elements. The Pentagon also intends to loan Vulcan another $620 million to help it build a large facility for neodymium iron boron magnets.
Risky business
There is a real purpose behind the stakes. The government isnt putting tax dollars into golf courses or TV networks (not yet, anyway). The investments are targeted at weak spots in the supply chains that the government and its suppliers need to support U.S. economic interests and national security. That was the core idea behind the CHIPs Act, too.
After the government dispenses grants to private sector companies, equity investments allow the government to have something to show for them. And the equity ownership often affords the government some direct influence over the operations and plans of the company.Prominent progressives have championed this sort of thing. In 2022, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren proposed that CHIPS Act beneficiaries give Uncle Sam an equity stake for that reason, but the measure failed. Sanders and Warren also wanted to attach prohibitions against CHIPs grant recipients from using the funds to buy back stock, to offshore U.S. jobs, or to discourage unionization.
Under Trump 2.0, the government is making bets on private-sector companies using tax money without the consent of Congress or the voters. What could go wrong? If the company falls on hard times, the governments equity could shrivel, and the tax dollars that bought it could vanish.
In a broader sense, Republicans, especially small-government conservatives, have historically been hesitant to back private companies, out of fear of appearing as if the government is picking winners in the marketplace. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned that the government’s buying into private companies could turn innovative manufacturers into state-owned enterprises and hrm U.S. competitiveness.
Still, the governments investment has been met with criticism. The Cato Institutes Scott Lincicome writes in a Washington Post op-ed that government equity stakes represent a dangerous turn in American industrial policy, adding that it abandons decades of market-oriented principles and risks politicizing Intels decision-making. With the U.S. government as its largest shareholder, Intel will face constant pressure to align corporate decisions with the goals of whatever political party is in power, he cautions.
All of these companies saw their stock prices rise, in some cases dramatically, after their government investments were announced. And most of the companies are still doing well. Intel stock has gained about 53% (calculated from the preannouncement opening price to the closing price on December 18). MP Materials shares have risen 8%. Trilogy Metals is up 113%. Lithium Americas is down 35%.
To tax tips or not? That is a question that will confront lawmakers in states across the U.S. as they convene for work next year.
President Donald Trumps administration is urging states to follow its lead by enacting a slew of new tax breaks for individuals and businesses, including deductions for tips and overtime wages, automobile loans, and business equipment.
In some states, the new federal tax breaks will automatically apply to state income taxes unless legislatures opt out. But in many other states, where tax laws are written differently, the new tax breaks won’t appear on state tax forms unless legislatures opt in.
In states that don’t conform to the federal tax changes, workers who receive tips or overtime for example will pay no federal tax on those earnings but could still owe state taxes on them.
States that embrace all of Trump’s tax cuts could provide hundreds of millions of dollars of annual savings to certain residents and businesses. But that could financially strain states, which are being hit with higher costs because of new Medicaid and SNAP food aid requirements that also are included in the big bill Trump signed.
Most states begin their annual legislative sessions in January. To retroactively change tax breaks for 2025, lawmakers would need to act quickly so tax forms could be updated before people begin filing them. States also could apply the changes to their 2026 taxes, a decision requiring less haste.
So far, only a few states have taken votes on whether to adopt the tax breaks.
States in general are approaching this skeptically,” said Carl Davis, research director at the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Trump’s treasury presses states to ‘immediately conform’
A bill Trump signed on July 4 contains about $4.5 trillion of federal tax cuts over 10 years.
It creates temporary tax deductions for tips, overtime, and loan interest on new vehicles assembled in the U.S. It boosts a tax deduction for older adults. And it temporarily raises cap on state and local tax deductions from $10,000 to $40,000, among other things. The law also provides numerous tax breaks to businesses, including the ability to immediately write off 100% of the cost of equipment and research.
Forty-one states levy individual income taxes on wages and salaries. Forty-four states charge corporate income taxes.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this month called on those states to immediately conform to the federal tax cuts and accused some Democratic-led states that haven’t done so of engaging in “political obstructionism. Though Bessent didn’t mention it, many Republican-led states also have not decided whether to implement the tax deductions.
By denying their residents access to these important tax cuts, these governors and legislators are forcing hardworking Americans to shoulder higher state tax burdens, robbing them of the relief they deserve and exacerbating the financial squeeze on low- and middle-income households, Bessent said.
But some tax analysts contend there’s more for states to consider. The tax break on tips, for example, could apply to nearly 70 occupation fields under a proposed rule from the Internal Revenue Service. But that would still exclude numerous low-wage workers, said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the nonprofit Tax Foundation.
Lawmakers need to consider whether these are worth the cost, Walczak said.
Only a few states offer tax breaks for tips and overtime
Because of the way state tax laws are written, the federal tax breaks for tips and overtime wages would have carried over to just seven states Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, and South Carolina. But Colorado opted out of the state tax break for overtime shortly before the federal law was enacted.
Michigan this fall became first and, so far, only state to opt into the tax breaks for tips and overtime wages, effective in 2026. The overtime tax exemption is projected to cost the state nearly $113 million and the tips tax break about $45 million during its current budget year, according to the state treasury department.
Michigan lawmakers offset that by decoupling from five federal corporate tax changes the state’s treasury estimated would have reduced Michigan tax revenues by $540 million this budget year.
Republican state Rep. Ann Bollin, chair of the Michigan House Appropriations Committee, said the state could not afford to embrace all the tax cuts while still investing in better roads, public safety, and education.
The best path forward is to have more money in peoples pockets and have less regulation and this kind of moved in that direction, she said.
Arizona could be among the next states to act. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has called upon lawmakers to adopt the tax breaks for tips, overtime, seniors, and vehicle loans, and follow the federal government by also increasing the state’s standard deduction for individual income taxpayers. Republican state House leaders said they stand ready to pass the tax cuts when their session begins Jan. 12.
Several states have rejected corporate tax breaks
In addition to Michigan, lawmakers in Delaware, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have passed measures to block some or all of the corporate tax cuts from taking effect in their states.
A new Illinois law decoupling from a portion of the corporate tax changes could save the state nearly $250 million, said Democratic state Sen. Elgie Sims, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He said that could help ensure continued funding for schools, health care and vital services.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, an outspoken Democratic opponent of Trump, also cited budget concerns for rejecting the corporate tax cut provision. He said states already stand to lose money because of other provisions in Trump’s big bill, such as a requirement to cover more of the costs of running the Supplemental Nutrition Assistanc Program.
The decoupling is an effort to try to hold back the onslaught from the federal government to make sure that we can support programs like the one were announcing today, Pritzker told reporters at a December event publicizing a grant to address homelessness in central Illinois.
David A. Lieb, Associated Press
Associated Press writer John O’Connor contributed to this report.
Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay $167.5 million to settle a long-running class action lawsuit. The suit, which was first filed back in October 2011, accused the two major credit card companies of conspiring to keep ATM fees artificially high.
If approved, the proposed settlement filed on Thursday in Washington will bring an end to “almost fourteen years of vigorously contested litigation.” The lawsuit alleged that both Visa and Mastercard “participated in an unlawful conspiracy” to block independent ATM operators from offering lower prices.
The settlement, if approved, will have Visa and Mastercard pay millions to ATM users who say they were charged an unreimbursed access fee to withdraw cash from independent non-bank ATMs. Per a Guardian report, Visa is set to pay 53% of the settlement ($88.8 million) while Mastercard will contribute 47% ($78.7 million).
Attorneys for the plaintiffs called the settlement an excellent result in light of the risks of continued prosecution. Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately reply to a Fast Company request for comment.
Last year, Visa and Mastercard also agreed to pay $197.5 million to ATM users who claimed they were overcharged at bank-operated ATMs. At the time, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said the settlement will “deliver immediate and assured relief.” That settlement followed a 2021 settlement in which major bankssuch as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargoagreed to pay $66 million to settle similar claims.
Still, the lawsuits against the two major credit card companies are not over, as a third lawsuit, launched by independent ATM owners and operators, is pending against the companies.
“The rules prevent ATM operators from passing on the savings to cardholders when their ATM transactions are handled by an ATM network other than Visa or Mastercard,” Jonathan Rubin, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in 2023 when announcing that the lawsuit would continue to move forward. At the time, he added that the suit will ask the court to eliminate rules that all but eliminate competition.
Despite Thursday’s settlement, the companies have denied any wrongdoing.
Ford is recalling more than 270,000 electric and hybrid vehicles in the U.S. because of a parking function problem that could lead to them rolling away.
The Detroit automaker said that the recall includes certain 2022-2026 F-150 Lightning BEV, 2024-2026 Mustang Mach-E, and 2025-2026 Maverick vehicles. At issue is the integrated park module, which may fail to lock into the park position when the driver shifts into park.
Ford said that it will implement a park module software update for free.
Vehicle owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332 for additional information.
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in November from the previous month, but slowed compared to a year earlier for the first time since May despite average long-term mortgage rates holding near their low point for the year.
Existing home sales rose 0.5% in last month from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
Sales fell 1% compared with November last year. The latest sales figure came in slightly below the 4.14 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
Through the first 11 months of this year, home sales are down 0.5% compared to the same period last year.
Its possible that 2025, unless December (sales) figures really improve, we may be technically slightly down from one year ago, said Lawrence Yun, NARs chief economist.
One factor limiting home sales is weaker demand for condominiums. Sales of condos are down 6% so far this year, Yun noted.
Despite sluggish sales, home prices continued to climb last month. The national median sales price increased 1.2% in November from a year earlier to $409,200, an all-time high for any November on data going back to 1999.
Home prices have risen on an annual basis for 29 months in a row, even as the housing market has been mired in a slump that began in 2022 when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.
Sales have been stuck at around a 4-million annual pace now going back to 2023. Thats well short of the 5.2-million annual pace thats historically been the norm.
Home sales got a boost this fall as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage declined at the end of October to 6.17%, the lowest level in more than a year.
Even so, affordability remains a challenge for many aspiring homeowners, especially first-time buyers who dont have equity from an existing home to put toward a new home purchase. Uncertainty over the economy and job market are also keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.
A shortage of homes for sale, especially in the more affordable end of the market, continues to weigh especially on first-time homebuyers. They accounted for 30% of homes sales last month. Historically, they made up 40% of home sales.
An annual survey of homebuyers by NAR showed first-time buyers accounted for an all-time low 21% of home purchases between July 2024 and June 2025, while the average age of such homebuyers rose to a record-high of 40.
Homes purchased last month likely went under contract in September and October, when the average rate on a 30-year mortgage ranged from 6.5% to 6.17%, according to Freddie Mac. Mortgage rates have mostly remained close to their October low in recent weeks.
Home shoppers who can afford to buy at current mortgage rates benefited from a wider selection of properties on the market last month than a year ago, although the number of homes for sale in November declined from the previous month.
There were 1.43 million unsold homes at the end of last month, down 5.9% from October and up 7.5% from November last year, NAR said.
The latest inventory snapshot remains well below the roughly 2 million homes for sale that was typical before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Novembers month-end inventory translates to a 4.2-month supply at the current sales pace. Traditionally, a 5- to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.
Yun is forecasting that existing U.S. home sales will jump 14% next year. Thats more optimistic than several other housing economist forecasts, which range from a 1.7% to 9% increase.
Economists generally forecast that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will remain slightly above 6% next year.
Alex Veiga, AP business writer
Its been nearly a decade since Netflix introduced fans to the fictional town of Hawkins, Ind., the Upside Down, Demogorgons, and the Stranger Things universe.
Since 2016, the sci-fi series has become a massive hit for Netflix making it one of the streaming services most-watched shows with the fourth season alone amassing over 140.7 million views globally, according to the company. The series has earned 12 Primetime Emmy Awards over the course of the last several years, has pushed its young cast into superstardom, and has become a global phenomenon inspiring several live events and pop-up stores in various cities. And its fifth and final season, which is premiering in three parts, is no exception when it comes to the scale.
While the streaming giant and showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have other spin-offs planned, the fandom was always at the top of their mind when planning the marketing for the show to give the original series a proper send-off.
Stranger Things is the first franchise for Netflix overall so we do different things year round to reach all the fans and we’ve done that for years and it just keeps building, Marian Lee, chief marketing officer of Netflix, tells Fast Company. The fact that we started our live experiences with Stranger Things and have continued to evolve them in different ways is exciting.To really build that excitement for fans heading into the final season, Netflix launched a massive global marketing campaign that includes a mix of real life, immersive experiences as well as social media components. And by the beginning of next month, Netflix will have launched several fan events across 32 cities across 23 countries from Tokyo to London and Berlin to Los Angeles.
Turning ‘Stranger Things’ into real-world experiences
[Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Netflix]
Netflix hosted a One Last Ride cycling event with CicLAvia with over 50,000 attendees; a transit station in Buenos Aires was turned into an Upside Down-portal at a transit station; a holographic featuring elements from the series was projected over the Sydney Harbour in Sydney; an old airport hangar in Berlin was transformed into the Stranger Things universe where visitors had the opportunity to enjoy a bike ride through pivotal moments from the show; and just last month in New York City, a Stranger Things-themed float was debuted at the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade to its three million attendees.
Other events are planned in London, Bangkok, Milan, Las Vegas, and Madrid later this month. In Las Vegas, fans will be treated to One Last Adventure: Las Vegas, a drone show that will feature 5,000 choreographed drones and pyrotechnics highlighting moments from the show complete with a musical mashup. Meanwhile, fans will be able to watch the final episode in theaters across the United States and Canada.
Earlier this month, Netflix House, the new live entertainment venue that launched in Philadelphia and Dallas this month, features Stranger Things elements at both locations. The Dallas location features an immersive Stranger Things: Escape the Dark experience with a brand new storyline, while the Philadelphia location features a Stranger Things: Catalyst game developed in collaboration with Sandbox VR. On top of that, visitors can enjoy food inspired by the show in the Netflix Bites food court at the Las Vegas location debuting next year.
But even before Netflix began heavily leaning into the experiences during the second half of the year, they also opened its Stranger Things: The First Shadow show on Broadway and West End earlier this year. According to the entertainment giant, demand across Broadway and the West End saw an almost instant sustained increase in sales, with sales at their highest levels since the initial launch of both productions.
The Upside Down takes over social media
Lee said when her team was planning the marketing for the final season, it was important to start early with a social campaign that focused on rewatching previous seasons to get ready for the new one.
Ahead of the final season, Netflix rolled out a pre-launch rewatch campaign, which has generated 5.7 billion earned global social impressions.Its a brilliant way for the team to really think about how to re-engage fans and to get them ready for this next season, Lee said. A lot of our strategy really leaned into those core moments.
A video featuring the four boys played by Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo, recreating a scene from the second season earned over 215 million impressions globally. According to Netflix, total earned social impressions for the fifth season has reached 11.5 billion and thats without the last two volumes of the episodes released yet.Since then, Netflix has also released many behind-the-scenes moments and audition tapes of the cast across its social channels, which all have millions of followers.
Powered by brands and 80s nostalgia
Lee said another essential part of the campaign was its various partnerships with brands and for this season, Netflix partnered with many companies across various lifestyle and retail categories like Spotify, Meta, Target, Walmart, Nike, Gap, and several food and beverage brands like Eggo, Doritos, Kellogg’s, Chips Ahoy, and Gatorade all infused with nostalgic elements inspired by the shows 1980s setting.
[Image: courtesy Netflix]
Netflix launched a collaboration with military quarantine snack Peanut Butter Boppers earler this month for a limited time, several other items and snacks inspired by the series with including a special collection with Target that included over 150 exclusive products like Demogorgon popcorn bucket, Demogorgon Bundle Box by Jazwares and exclusive Gatorade x Stranger Things apparel and accessories.Along with the partnerships with brands like Doritos and Discover, Netflix collaborated closely with each respective brand on a custom partnership that included commercials.
[Photo: courtesy Netflix]
Lee said her and her team set the bar really high when it came to working with its brand partners this season.
This fandom is so rich and unique and it just happens to also dovetail really nicely with brands and retailers who are seeing the nostalgia for that 80s aesthetic come back so it came together in a really serendipitous way for us to lean in, Lee said.
Ultimately, Lee said all the work her and her team really ties back to the fanbase the series has accumulated over the last five seasons.It is hard to even articulate the impact on culture that the Duffer Brothers has had, Lee said. To watch them tell their story of dreams they had of bringing this show to life and were lucky to be the home for that.
The seven states that rely on the Colorado River to supply farms and cities across the U.S. West appear no closer to reaching a consensus on a long-term plan for sharing the dwindling resource.
The river’s future was the center of discussions this week at the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas, where water leaders from California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming gathered alongside federal and tribal officials.
It comes after the states blew past a November deadline for a new plan to deal with drought and water shortages after 2026, when current guidelines expire. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has set a new deadline of Feb. 14.
Nevada’s lead negotiator said it is unlikely the states will reach an agreement that quickly.
As we sit here mid-December with a looming February deadline, I dont see any clear path to a long-term deal, but I do see a path to the possibility of a shorter-term deal to keep us out of court, John Entsminger of the Southern Nevada Water Authority told The Associated Press.
An essential resource
More than 40 million people across seven states, Mexico, and Native American tribes depend on the water from the river. Farmers in California and Arizona use it to grow the nation’s winter vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and carrots. It provides water and electricity to millions of homes and businesses across the basin.
But longstanding drought, chronic overuse, and increasing temperatures have forced a reckoning on the river’s future. Existing water conservation agreements that determine who must use less in times of shortage expire in 2026. After two years of negotiating, states still haven’t reached a deal for what comes next.
The federal government continues to refrain from coming up with its own solution preferring the seven basin states reach consensus themselves. If they don’t, a federally imposed plan could leave parties unhappy and result in costly, lengthy litigation.
Not only is this water fight between the upper and lower basins, individual municipalities, tribal nations and water agencies have their own stakes in this battle. California, which has the largest share of Colorado River water, has over 200 water agencies alone, each with their own customers.
Its a rabbit hole you can dive down in, and it is incredibly complex, said Noah Garrison, a water researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.
No deal emerges
During a Thursday panel of state negotiators, none appeared willing to bend on their demands. Each highlighted what their state has done to conserve water, from turf-removal projects to canal lining in order to reduce seepage, and they explained why their state cant take on more. Instead, they said, others should bear the burden.
Entsminger, of Nevada, said he could see a short-term deal lasting five years that sets new rules around water releases and storage at Lakes Powell and Mead two key reservoirs.
Lower Basin states pitched a reduction of 1.5 million acre-feet per year to cover a structural deficit that occurs when water evaporates or is absorbed into the ground as it flows downstream. An acre-foot is enough water to supply two to three households a year.
But they want to see a similar contribution from the Upper Basin. The Upper Basin states, however, dont think they should have to make additional cuts because they already dont use their full share of the water and are legally obligated to send a certain amount of water downstream.
Our water users feel that pain, said Estevan López, New Mexico’s representative for the Upper Colorado River Commission.
Upper Basin states want less water released from Lake Powell to Lake Mead.
But Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said he hasnt seen anything on the table from the Upper Basin that would compel him to ask Arizona lawmakers to approve those demands.
Within the coming weeks, the Bureau of Reclamation will release a range of possible proposals, but it will not identify a specific set of operating guidelines the federal government would prefer.
Scott Cameron, the bureau’s acting commissioner, implored the states to find compromise.
Cooperation is better than litigation, he said during the conference. The only certainty around litigation in the Colorado River basin is a bunch of water lawyers are going to be able to put their children and grandchildren through graduate school. There are much better ways to spend several hundred million dollars.
Jessica Hill, Associated Press
