Omnicom said on Monday it will lay off more than 4,000 employees and fold several well-known advertising agency brands after its $13 billion acquisition of rival Interpublic Group.
The advertising industry faces a serious threat as artificial intelligence reshapes creative production and tech giants such as Meta make it easier for businesses to churn out ads at scale and speed.
Omnicom’s high-stakes acquisition of Interpublic Group, which was completed in November, aims to regain momentum in this shifting landscape, as it contends with fierce competition from French ad giant Publicis and UK’s WPP.
The company said creative agency DDB, founded in 1949, and creative marketing agency MullenLowe will be integrated into Omnicom’s TBWA.
FCB, one of the largest global ad agency networks owned by IPG with roots dating back to 1873, will be absorbed into Omnicom’s BBDO, according to the company.
Omnicom said more than 4,000 jobs would be cut as part of the IPG integration, mainly in administrative roles but some leadership positions will also be impacted.
After the job cuts, roughly 85% of the roles will be client-focused, while 15% will be administrative, the company said.
The financial benefits would surpass $750 million in annual cost savings initially projected to investors, it added.
“We will be delivering this news as promptly as possible to maintain transparency and privacy for those affected,” Omnicom said in an emailed statement.
The advertising giant said the cuts should be seen against the backdrop of similar restructuring at rivals such as WPP, which is also expected to axe jobs under new boss Cindy Rose.
Interpublic Group laid off about 3,200 employees in the first nine months of 2025, according to a regulatory filing. Omnicom last year reduced its staff by 3,000 to about 75,000.
The Financial Times first reported the developments earlier on Monday, citing interviews with Omnicom executives.
Jaspreet Singh, Reuters
Additional reporting by Anhata Rooprai.
Oxford Dictionary just revealed its official word of 2025. Its rage bait.
According to an official announcement post, Oxford Dictionarys team of lexicographers choose a shortlist of potential words each year by analyzing data and trends to identify new and emerging words and expressions, which our lexicographers think of as a single unit, and examine the shifts in how more established language is being used.
This years final contenders were aura farming, biohack, and rage bait. In the end, 30,000 members of the public voted for their top choices, and Oxford chose rage bait as the winner.
Per the Oxford Dictionarys editors, rage bait is defined as: Online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.
This year, rage bait has emerged as both a silly trend on platforms like TikTok and a legitimate marketing tactic for companies attempting to stand out onlineand its a perfect encapsulation of the digital landscape in 2025.
What is rage bait?
Based on Oxford Dictionarys analysis, the term rage bait was first used online more than 20 years ago, in a 2002 posting to Usenet.
In its earliest form, rage bait referred to a drivers reaction to being flashed at by another driver requesting to pass. Since then, Oxfords post reads, the word has evolved into internet slang used to describe viral tweets, often to critique entire networks of content that determine what is posted online, like platforms, creators, and trends.
In the last 12 months alone, online use of the phrase rage bait has tripled. On platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, describing something as rage bait has become a silly trend that frequently rakes in millions of views.
For example, a creator might purposefully rage bait their parents on Thanksgiving by stating obvious facts as revelations or poking fun at their political views; rage bait their partner by asking purposefully ridiculous questions; or even rage bait their cat by interrupting their grooming process.
In the real world, rage bait has also emerged as a genuine strategy that some companies rely on to catch potential customers attention in an overcrowded marketing landscape.
How rage bait has become a popular marketing tactic
Shock value marketing isnt a new concept by any stretch of the imagination. But our current era of political and technological divide has opened the door for companies to try a new kind of attention-seeking provocation.
This genre of rage bait marketing takes advantage of online algorithms, which are engineered to prioritize content that generates emotions like fear and rage to break through the deluge of content that users are looking at on a daily basis.
As Oxford Dictionary explains: [Its a] proven tactic to drive engagement, commonly seen in performative politics. As social media algorithms began to reward more provocative content, this has developed into practices such as rage-farming, which is a more consistently applied attempt to manipulate reactions and to build anger and engagement over time by seeding content with rage bait.
Examples of this trend include Nucleus Genomics, a genetic health company that recently debuted an ad campaign starring phrases like, Have your best baby and These babies have great genes; Friend AI, an AI wearable company that purposefully left blank space in a recent ad campaign to encourage vandalism; and even The New York Times, which, as Fast Company writer Joe Berkowitz explains in a recent analysis, has increasingly relied on inflammatory headlines to stoke readership.
Elizabeth Paul, chief brand officer at the award-winning advertising company the Martin Agency, told Fast Company last month that rage bait marketing, unfortunately, makes a certain kind of sense for brands that are threatened by our increasingly crowded digital landscape.
The reality is, according to Kantar, 85% of ads right now fail to meet the minimum threshold of attention for comprehension, Paul said. In other words, they are so bland and boring and invisible that people did not pay enough attention to even process what they said. In an environment like that, brand invisibility is a bigger threat than brand rejection.
President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of former investment manager David Gentile, who was convicted of defrauding investors the latest in a series of clemency actions Trump has taken in white-collar criminal cases.Gentile had reported to prison on Nov. 14, just days before Trump commuted his sentence, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to provide details of the clemency action. Gentile had been the CEO and co-founder of GPB Capital, which had raised $1.6 billion in capital to acquire companies in the auto, retail, health care and housing sectors.He had been sentenced to seven years in prison after an August 2024 conviction for his role in what the Justice Department at the time described as a scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the performance of three private equity funds.But the White House official said GPB Capital had disclosed to investors in 2015 that their capital might go to pay dividends to other investors, which the White House said undercut claims that the company had engaged in a “Ponzi” scheme in which new investments are used to reimburse previous investors.The government has agreed to no restitution in the criminal case, though various civil cases are handling repayments and damages to investors.
Josh Boak, Associated Press
The Salt Lake City Olympics planned for 2034 are now the Utah Games after organizers announced a new logo and name to reflect the multi-community work that goes into hosting the largest winter sports event on Earth. The state’s Governor, Spencer Cox, says the new logo has united peoplethough not in a good way.
“It’s really brought people together because everyone seems to not like it,” Cox said at a recent press conference.
[Image: Utah 2034]
The new logo is temporary until the final emblem of the Games is released in 2029. It spells out “Utah” in irregularly shaped characters (does that say “IJTAH?”) that are stacked on top of “2034.” Its launch color palette is just black and white.
Cox called the logo bold. “I’m a little old-fashioned and it’s certainly a bold logo,” he said. The comment section of one local Utah news site included reviews like “beyond terrible,” “a marketing disaster,” and “unreadable.” Some don’t like the name change that leaves out Salt Lake City. “It hurts,” Salt Lake County Mayor Erin Mendenhall told The Salt Lake Tribune.
[Image: Utah 2034]
A starting point, not a finish line
This bare-bones logo, though, is just the beginning of what will become an expansive visual brand expressed across venues, apparel, and more. It’s a starting point, not a finish line.
“I think that Olympics are uniquely a moment to do something new and different. And yet, many Olympics have bland and forgettable design,” Doug Thomas, an associate professor at Brigham Young University’s Department of Design and author of Never Use Futura, tells Fast Company. “Personally, I like that the Utah 2034 design team are swinging for the fences and trying something new and memorable.”
[Image: Utah 2034]
Utah organizers say the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows for “transition logos” to “help the host regions build early awareness and momentum,” but they’re limited to typography only.
The Utah 2034 mark, then, is a chance to introduce shapes through letters and numbers alone, the beginnings of a geometric visual language that could one day be revealed in a full Olympics brand expression.
Just as the “Chrystal Rhythm” pattern of the 2002 Salt Lake City Games appeared in the snowflake-like Chrystal logo and was repeated across assets like venue signage and the iconic jackets worn by volunteers, the shapes in the letterforms of the Utah 2034 mark could well be repeated in future expressions of the brand.
“The typography is recognizable, it is distinctive, and as such, opens space to create new meaning,” Thomas says. “The visual forms may not work in every application, but for a transition team logo, this is excellent as a starting point.”
[Image: Utah 2034]
Brand inspiration
Organizers say the shapes of the letters in the logo were inspired by Utah’s landscape. It’s most noticeable in the stylized A designed to evoke southern Utah’s Delicate Arch. Other characters were drawn to resemble rivers, mountains, canyons, and petroglyphs, and one can imagine these same angles and shapes showing up in Olympic pictograms that denote sports and venues.
[Image: Utah 2034]
The letterforms are monospaced and laid out on a grid. Inspired by the urban grids that Mormon pioneers laid out in cities across Utah and the American West in the late 1800s, it gives the otherwise unusual logo a sense of balance. The logo was designed by a project team led by Molly Mazzolini, cofounder of the Salt Lake City design studio Elevate Creative.
As for the name change, Salt Lake shouldn’t take it personally. Cox, the governor, says naming the Games for Utah instead of Salt Lake City was a decision made following decades of feedback from other cities and counties in the Salt Lake metro area that also hosted events during the 2002 Games but didn’t get credit. But it’s also aligned with the recent trend of Winter Olympics naming themselves after multiple cities or a region instead of a single city. The 2026 Milano Cortina Games are named for both Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy as they’re being held across a wide region, and they 2030 Games are named for the French Alps.
In Utah, where events will be held from Provo to Park City, organizers are going with the state name. And by embedding the geography of Utah into the very letters of their new logo, designers found a creative way to begin telling Utah’s story in just a few characters.
For many children, the experience of getting their first pair of glasses is an inevitable milestone, the first in a lifetime of visits to the eye doctor.But what if those lenses could actually help preserve the child’s vision and reduce the chances for more serious eye problems in adulthood?That’s the promise of a new type of lens approved by the Food and Drug Administration in September. While the technology has previously been available in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world, it’s now rolling out in the U.S.Here’s what to know about the new approach.
What is myopia and why is it increasing?
Myopia, commonly called nearsightedness, is when people can clearly see objects at close range but struggle with distant objects, which often appear blurry or indistinct.Studies conducted around the world have shown rising rates of myopia, which researchers have associated with increased time indoors looking at screens, books and other objects held close to the eyes.In the U.S., 30% to 40% of children will have myopia by the time they finish high school, according to Dr. Michael Repka, a professor and pediatric ophthalmologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.Until now, doctors had few options for treating the condition.“It was typically and simply: ‘Your child needs to wear glasses and they’ll live with it,'” Repka said. “‘It will be lifelong and it will likely get worse over the next few years.'”
How do the new lenses work?
The specialized glasses, sold under the brand Essilor Stellest, are approved by the FDA to slow nearsightedness in 6- to 12-year-olds.The FDA said it cleared the lenses based on company data showing children experienced a 70% reduction in the progression of their myopia after two years.Over time, myopia causes the eye to grow longer, worsening vision and increasing the risk of tears to the retina the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that is essential for vision.The new lenses use 11 concentric rings filled with tiny raised dots to refocus light onto the retina in a way that is believed to slow elongation of the eye.“Whether this hypothesis is ultimately proven to be true, of course, matters only in part,” Repka said, noting that the lenses appear to work regardless of how the underling science works.In the company study, children wearing the lens showed a 50% reduction in eye lengthening when measured after two years. Currently, researchers in the U.S. and other countries are conducting their own independent studies to confirm those results.Ophthalmologists say the potential benefits go beyond preserving vision to heading off some long-term consequences of severe myopia, which can include cataracts, glaucoma and retinal detachment that can lead to blindness.“Now we have a way to slow that down and maybe we can prevent kids from having that really elongated eye that puts them at risk for blindness,” said Dr. Rupa Wong, a Honolulu-based pediatric ophthalmologist.
How much will the lenses cost?
The suggested retail price is $450, according to EssilorLuxottica, the company that makes the lenses.Major U.S. vision insurance providers are expected to cover the lenses for children who meet the prescribing criteria.
How do the new lenses compare to older treatments?
The only other FDA-approved product to slow myopia are contact lenses made by a company called MiSight. The daily disposable lenses, approved in 2019, use a similar approach intended to slow the progression of nearsightedness in children ages 8 to 12.But Gupta says many parents and physicians are likely to prefer the glasses.“A lot of people might be hesitant to put a child as young as 8 in contact lenses, so the glasses offer a really nice alternative,” she said.Some doctors prescribe medicated eye drops intended to slow myopia, but those are not approved by the FDA.
Which children are good candidates?
Under the FDA’s approval decision, the lenses can be prescribed to any child with myopia who’s within the recommended age range. There were no serious side effects, according to FDA, although some children reported visual disturbances, such as halos around objects while wearing the lenses.The studies that the FDA reviewed for approval were conducted in Asia. Repka said U.S. ophthalmologists and optometrists may want to see some additional research.“I think before it becomes widely used, we will need some data in the United States” showing that the lenses work, said Repka, who is conducting a U.S.-based study of the new lenses supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Matthew Perrone, AP Health Writer
“Zootopia 2” had a roaring and record-setting opening at the box office.The animated animal city sequel from the Walt Disney Company brought in $96 million in North America over the weekend, earned $156 million over the five-day Thanksgiving frame, and scored a staggering $556 million globally since its Wednesday opening, according to studio estimates Sunday.That made it the highest international opening ever for an animated movie, the fourth highest global debut of any kind, and the top international opener of 2025.“Wicked: For Good” stayed aloft in its second weekend for Universal Pictures, earning another $62.8 million domestically over the weekend for a North American total of $270.4 million. The second half of the “Wicked” saga has brought in $393 million internationally.The pair of PG-rated sequels combined to make the Thanksgiving weekend a glimmering exception to an otherwise dark year at movie theaters. The five-day holiday run brought in $290 million in total, $188 million of it coming Friday through Sunday.That could be a blip or an indication that a strong finish might salvage Hollywood’s box office year, with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” among the films still to be released in 2025.“This is a great result and a big momentum builder for the box office as we head into the final four weeks of the year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.“Zootopia 2” arrives almost a decade after the original, a hit that outpaced expectations and had a March domestic opening of $75 million.Like the first, it features the duo of bunny cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and small-time hustler fox Nick Wilde ( Jason Bateman ) in a city of comically domesticated wildlife.Dergarabedian said the sequel represented “a beloved franchise delivering what audiences were looking for around the world.”It was the sixth biggest North American opening of 2025. But its biggest market was China, which made for nearly half of the film’s global total with a whopping $272 million in ticket sales. No American-made animated film has ever opened bigger. It was the second best nonlocal film opening of all time in China, after “Avengers: Endgame.”Such a result in China was once almost commonplace for Hollywood. But in recent years, as geopolitical relations have grown uneasy, box-office results have turned unpredictable at best. Aside from a handful of exceptions, like the “Jurassic World” films, Hollywood has come to virtually write off Chinese theaters and recalibrate blockbuster budgets accordingly.The big bounty in China for “Zootopia 2” could be an aberration or a signal of a thaw in the freeze. In recent years, China, which censors which films that are released in theaters, has leaned more toward homegrown fare. Earlier this year, the locally made blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossed $1.8 billion in China.“Zootopia 2” had a clear path to a big Chinese opening. The first “Zootopia,” known there as “Crazy Animal City,” grew into a surprise hit, grossing $236 million. Shanghai Disneyland has a theme land devoted to the films.“Wicked: For Good” didn’t seem to be hurt by the beastly competition as Universal’s gamble of splitting the Broadway tale of Oz into two films continued to pay off. It brought in a worldwide weekend total of $92.2 million.“Hamnet,” certain to be a major player in awards season after a celebrated festival run, had a strong limited opening and landed in the overall top 10. In just 119 theaters it earned $1.35 million from Wednesday through Sunday and $880,000 on the weekend, with a per-theater average of more than $11,000. Director Chloe Zhao’s Shakespeare story starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal expands next weekend.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
“Zootopia 2,” $96.8 million.
“Wicked: For Good,” $62.8 million.
“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” $7 million.
“Predator: Badlands,” $4.8 million.
“The Running Man,” $3.7 million.
“Eternity,” $3.2 million.
“Rental Family,” $2.1 million.
“Hamnet,” $880,000.
“Sisu: Road to Revenge,” $810,000.
“Nuremberg,” $749,325.
This story has been corrected to show that “Zootopia 2” had the sixth biggest North American opening of 2025, not the fourth.
Andrew Dalton, AP Entertainment Writer
Even as the costs and challenges of doing business continues rising, there is a growing political effort creating artificial barriers that undermine business growth. Legislation and political directives are tying business leaders hands and limiting their choices in an increasingly diverse economy. National political rhetoric and autocratic use of federal and state agency authority preempt business leaders from doing anything with a hint of diversity, equity, or inclusion. This ultimately interferes with smart business decisions, restricts markets, and limits communities from achieving inclusive growth and shared prosperity.
Inclusive growth should be practical business, not a source of conflict. Inclusion is not just ethical. It can, and should, be profitable. Empowering communities creates widespread prosperity.
Inclusion improves the bottom line. Living Cities, the organization I run, has over three decades of experience building inclusive economies for community building and growth. We are witness to the power of people in organizing, governing, and nurturing economic environments that build wealth.
With an inclusive approach to development, everyone can benefit.
THE DIRECT IMPACT OF CAPITAL INVESTMENTS
Most recently, we successfully closed out our Blended Catalyst impact investment fund, which deployed capital around the country in inclusive ways for 10 years. Through that capital, we invested in business models and innovative capital structures that modeled new ways of doing business and delivering results.
Over 10 years, from 2015 to 2025, the Blended Catalyst Fund brought together financial and philanthropic partners to improve capital access and investment as a key driver for equitable and inclusive economic opportunity. With our operating partners, Known, we were able to:
Deploy over $25 million in capital, the majority going to small businesses and real estate or housing.
Leverage that capital 18x for almost $500 million in additional capital to communities that needed it.
Create over 6,500 jobs and offer 4,000 social services.
While those large-scale numbers are impressive, they do not speak to the direct impact of the capital in communities. After 10 years of investing for inclusion, we have found that inclusive capital does more than generate returns. It can create results that go beyond the balance sheet.
NEW BUSINESS MODELS
Inclusive capital creates new business models by unlocking financial resources for organizations and entrepreneurs in undercapitalized communities, giving space for innovative ideas that never had the chance to grow. By removing barriers, an inclusive approach to capital can empower entrepreneurs to create solutions tailored to their communities.
For example, in early 2025, Fortis Capital and Sunrise Banks offered a loan package to NATIFS, an Indigenous organization addressing economic and health disparities in Native communities. Their loan supported the transformation of a property into a hub featuring an Indigenous restaurant, commissary kitchen, and a center for expanding Indigenous food systems. This partnership shows how tailored financial strategies can fuel entrepreneurship and reveal community-driven solutions in undercapitalized markets.
MARKET EXPANSION
Expanding inclusive capital allows businesses to enter new markets. When entrepreneurs have access to personalized investments, companies can take advantage of market opportunities and rapidly scale.
OnShore Technology Group is a Chicago-based firm that provides validation solutions to life sciences companies, part of a regulatory mandate. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of OnShores clients, including Moderna, were hurriedly working to bring COVID vaccines and therapies to market. Systems validation was part of this process. Founders First, which received an equity investment from the Blended Catalyst Fund, developed an accelerator program aimed at supporting entrepreneurs like Onshores founder, Valarie King-Bailey. She participated in the program, and then secured a $500,000 revenue-based financing investment from the business accelerator and investment firm. After their engagement with Founder First, OnShore experienced revenue growth of around 90% in one year and have been named to the Inc. 5,000 list three years in a row.
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING
Inclusive capital is a catalyst for community wealth building, enabling local businesses to grow, create jobs, and foster social and economic connections within undercapitalized neighborhoods. By investing in a diversity of entrepreneurs through business expansion, inclusive capital helps transform small enterprises into engines of prosperity for their communities.
Victor Diaz built Renegade Running in Oakland not only as an athletic shop, but as a hub for community building. Diaz participated in Blended Catalyst Fund loan recipient ICA Funds business accelerator program in 2022. He subsequently applied for growth funding. With that initial investment, Renegade Running was able to increase its capital by 100% with an additional investment from retailer REI. The run club, and the company, has become a community hub for Oakland, and in 2024, expanded its operations into Los Angeles.
These are three of countless examples of how taking a broad and inclusive approach to capital can benefit everyone. The results from the Blended Catalyst Fund show that direct investment can help private enterprises lift entire communities. The evidence is here. It is time for business and investment leaders to act on the growing body of data proving that inclusive investment is both profitable and beneficial to a healthy local and national economy.
Joe Scantlebury is president and CEO of Living Cities.
Chain stores have Black Friday. Online marketplaces have Cyber Monday. For local businesses, it’s Small Business Saturday.In the last 20 years, more segments of the retail industry have vied for their own piece of the holiday shopping season. The travel trade has firmly joined the trend with another post-Thanksgiving sales push: Travel Tuesday.On the same day as the nonprofit world’s Giving Tuesday, airlines, hotels, cruise ship companies, travel booking platforms and tour operators get in on the annual spirit to spend by promoting one-day deals. Consumer advocates say there are legitimate savings to be had but also chances to be misled by marketing that conveys a false sense of urgency.“People see ’40 percent off’ and assume it’s a once-in-a-lifetime steal, without recognizing that the underlying price may have been inflated or that the same itinerary was cheaper last month.” Sally French, a travel expert at personal finance site NerdWallet, said.She and other seasoned travelers advised consumers who want to see if they can save money by booking trips on Travel Tuesday to do research in advance and to pay especially close attention to the fine print attached to offers.People hoping to score last-minute deals for Christmas or New Year’s should double-check for blackout dates or other restrictions, recommended Lindsay Schwimer, a consumer expert for the online travel site Hopper.It’s also wise to to keep an eye out for nonrefundable fares, resort fees, double occupancy requirements or upgrade conditions that may be hidden within advertised discounts, according to French.Shoppers should be wary of travel packages with extra transportation options or add-on offers, French said. Instead of lowering fares or room rates, some companies use statement credits, extra points, included amenities and bundled extras as a way to tempt potential customers, she said.“Many travel brands want to keep sticker prices high to maintain an aura of luxury, but they still need to fill planes, ships and hotel rooms,” French said. “Add-on perks are their workaround.”Consumers who are prepared rather than impulsive and on the lookout for the up-sell are in a much better position to identify authentic bargains, consumer experts stressed. Knowing what a specific trip would typically cost and comparison shopping can help expose offers based on inflated underlying costs and whether the same itinerary might have been cheaper at other times, they said.“Compare prices, check your calendar and make sure the trip you’re booking is something you genuinely want, not something you bought because a countdown timer pressured you,” French said. “What gets glossed over is that the best deal might be not booking anything at all if it doesn’t align with your plans.”Travel Tuesday came about based on existing industry trends. In 2017, Hopper analyzed historical pricing data and found that in each of the nine previous years, the biggest day for post-Thanksgiving travel discounts was the day after Cyber Monday.The site named the day Travel Tuesday. The number of offers within that time-targeted window and the number of travelers looking for them has since expanded.“Nearly three times as many trips were planned on Travel Tuesday last year compared to Black Friday,” Hopper’s Schwimer said. “We continue to see growth in the day, year over year, as more travel brands and categories offer deals.”The event’s origin story is in line with the National Retail Federation coining Cyber Monday in 2005 as a response to the emerging e-commerce era. American Express came up with Small Business Saturday in 2010 to direct buyers and their dollars to smaller retailers, credit card fees and all.A report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company last year noted that November and December tend to be slow months for travel bookings, making Travel Tuesday a “marketing moment” that could help boost revenue.Hotel, cruise and and airline bookings by U.S. travelers increased significantly on Travel Tuesday 2023 compared with the two weeks before and after the day, the report’s authors wrote, citing data provided by the travel marketing platform Sojern.While Travel Tuesday so far has been mostly confined to the United States and Canada, “European travel companies can anticipate the possibility that Travel Tuesday will become a growing phenomenon in their region, given that other shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have spread beyond North America,” the report stated.Vivek Pandya, lead insights analyst for Adobe Analytics, which tracks online spending, said consumers have more tools than ever this holiday season to help them determine if deals hold up to scrutiny.“Social journeys, influencers providing promo codes and values, and generative AI platforms taking all that in the prices, the social conversation, the reviews and giving guidance to the consumer, that’s a very different, dynamic kind of journey consumers are taking than they have in previous seasons,” Pandya said.Both he and French emphasized that prices rise and fall based on multiple factors, and that the winter holidays are not the only major promotional period of the year.“We now have dozens of consumer spending ‘holidays,'” French said. “Amazon alone keeps adding new versions of Prime Day. So if you don’t buy on Travel Tuesday, you haven’t missed your moment.”The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
Cora Lewis, Associated Press
Gustaf Westman, the homeware designer known for his delightfully chunky objects, just unveiled his latest project. Its a shelf inspired by classic puzzles.
Gustaf Westman [Photo: courtesy Gustaf Westman]
In a new video posted to his Instagram, Westman introduces the Puzzle Shelf, a modular unit that comes in the form of several components resembling giant puzzle pieces. Users can assemble the shelf however they see fit, as well as select their own piece colors, which include white, forest green, fire-engine red, pink, a range of blues, and even a metallic silver. Its currently available on a made-to-order basis, as each unique shelf is produced by a London-based 3D-print artist.
Westmans irreverent take on design, which evokes memories of childhood play and imagination, is the reason that he’s managed to amass a cult following in just five years since opening his eponymous studio in 2020. The Puzzle Shelf expands on his existing niche of products that turn everyday objects and home decor into whimsical, colorful statements.
[Photos: courtesy Gustaf Westman]
Designing a puzzle shelf
Westmans most beloved designs take ordinary itemslike a dinner plate or wine glassand reimagine them with a twist, often by inflating them to satisfyingly rounded proportions. More recently, hes also been delving into some more experimental designs, like a table specifically engineered to hold glass stems, a spiral bag made to carry a baguette, and a plate that perfectly cradles meatballs.
In an interview with Fast Company back in August for his first collection with Ikea, Westman explained that his designs are often inspired by memories from his own childhood. For this new shelf, he says, Ive always loved toy aesthetics, and puzzles have such a simple, fun function. The idea of pieces connecting to create something new felt like a great starting point.”
[Photo: courtesy Gustaf Westman]
To test the design, Westman first sketched the shapes out on paper before rendering them digitally. Then, he created a 3D-printed miniature model of the structure, small enough to sit on a table. In the final design, each long shelf puzzle piece is supported by two smaller puzzle pieces, which stack together like Lincoln Logs. Westman told Vogue Scandinavia that the design can be styled as a coffee table, a bookshelf, a bar, a side table, and even a desk.
A puzzle can take many forms, Westman said. I wasnt interested in copying the look of a flat puzzle pieceinstead, I focused on the function and the idea of pieces interlocking and creating something new when they come together.
[Photo: courtesy Gustaf Westman]
Major dairy producer Prairie Farms has announced a recall of select gallons of its popular Fat Free Milk due to concerns that the beverage may be contaminated with food-grade cleaning agents, which could make consumers ill if ingested. Heres what you need to know.
Prairie Farms recalls select Gallon Fat Free Milk
Last week, Prairie Farms announced that it had initiated a voluntary recall of select Prairie Farms Gallon Fat Free Milk products produced at its Dubuque, Iowa, facility.
The reason for the recall is that select gallons may have been contaminated with food-grade cleaning agents, according to the recall notice posted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The cleaning agents have the possibility of causing illness in individuals if consumed.
What Prairie Farms milk is being recalled?
Given the popularity and widespread availability of Prairie Farms milk, news of a recall may cause significant concern. However, the company says the recall is limited to one product and only a subset of the gallons produced.
Specifically, Prairie Farms says that the impacted product is the following:
Product Information:
Prairie Farms Gallon FAT FREE Milk
Code Date: DEC08
Plant Code: PLT19-145
Facility: Dubuque, Iowa
Impacted Production Window (Timestamp): 17:5121:23
UPC: 7273023117
In the recall notice, Prairie Farms states that only a specific segment of the product run DEC08 was affected by the cleaning agent.
The affected product was processed between 17:51 and 21:23, representing a portion of that days production, the notice explains. To ensure complete containment, Prairie Farms is recalling Gallon Fat Free Milk with the DEC08 code date, PLT19-145 plant code produced during the impacted timeframe of 17:51 to 21:23.
The company says that approximately 320 gallons of the milk product were sold before the discovery of the possible cleaning agent contamination.
Where was the recalled Prairie Farms milk sold?
Prairie Farms says the recalled milk was distributed to Woodmans stores in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The company says the remaining product distribution locations include:
Illinois
Bloomingdale
Buffalo Grove
Carpentersville
Lakemoor
North Aurora
Rockford
Wisconsin
Appleton
Beloit
Green Bay
Janesville
Kenosha
Madison
Menomonee Falls
Oak Creek
Onalaska
Racine
Sun Prairie
Waukesha
What should I do if I have the recalled Prairie Farms milk?
Prairie Farms says that if you have the recalled milk, you should not consume it.
Instead, you should return it to its place of purchase or safely dispose of it.
Full details of the recall can be found on the FDAs website here.
