AI coding agents are suddenly everywhere, the latest thing Silicon Valley cannot stop talking about. From venture-backed startups to splashy big tech keynotes, the promise sounds the same: just describe what you want, and the AI will build it for you. It is a seductive idea, especially in a world where software projects are notorious for moving slowly. But inside large companies, that vision is already starting to unravel.
What looks impressive in a demo often falls apart in the real world. As soon as AI-generated code runs into actual enterprise data, the problems show up. Schemas clash, governance breaks down, and a supposed breakthrough can quickly turn into a liability.
Coding agents tend to break down when theyre introduced to complex enterprise constraints like regulated data, fine-grained access controls, and audit requirements, Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake, tells Fast Company.
He says most coding agents are built for speed and independence in open environments, not for reliability inside tightly governed systems. As a result, they often assume they can access anything, break down when controls are strict, and cannot clearly explain why they ran a certain query or touched a specific dataset.
This gap between what AI can write and what it actually understands is becoming one of the most expensive problems in enterprise AI. Gartner predicts that 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027 because they lack proper governance, and only 5% of custom enterprise AI tools will ever make it into production.
Ramaswamy says the core issue in enterprise AI is writing functional code in a way that is secure, transparent, and compliant from the start. He argues that companies need to put trust, accuracy, and accountability ahead of unchecked automation, and that most coding agents today sit outside existing data governance systems instead of being built into them.
Snowflakes answer is Cortex Code, a data-native AI coding agent designed to work directly inside governed enterprise data, not as a layer sitting on top of it. It comes alongside with a newly announced $200 million partnership with OpenAI. Together, they reflect a contrarian bet that the real battle for enterprise AI will be won at the data layer.
AI Coding Agents Dont Understand Enterprise Context
Most AI coding agents are great at writing code on their own, but they struggle once that code has to run inside a real company. Large organizations live with constant constraints, from security rules and uptime demands to shared business logic that evolves over time. Agents trained mostly on public code and synthetic examples rarely absorb those realities, and the disconnect shows up almost right away.
Enterprise data also lives across data warehouses, third-party platforms, and legacy systems, and it carries layers of organizational meaning with it. Most coding agents treat that data like any other dataset, instead of the most tightly regulated asset a company has. The fallout shows up fast in production. Some enterprises say they spend weeks cleaning up AI-generated code that ignores internal data standards.
In production, agents most often fail due to poor data integration, lax identity and security permissions, and hallucination for complex code workflows,” says Arun Chandrasekaran, vice president and analyst at Gartner. “Vendors often underestimate the gap because they assume that enterprises have centralized data and codified access policies, which isnt true in most large enterprises.
Chandrasekaran adds that AI agents are embedded into developer IDEs without grounding in enterprise system semantics, which is the key reason why this issue persists. This can result in trust erosion and security exposure,” he says, “which can hinder production.
According to a CodeRabbit study, AI-generated code introduces 1.7 times more issues than human-written code, including 75% more logic errors and up to twice the security vulnerabilities, conflicting with enterprise standards. Likewise, another study found that 45% of AI-generated code samples fail security tests, posing critical web application security risks.
Ramaswamy says the most immediate consequence is slowed development. In some cases, teams quietly abandon agents altogether after early pilots fail governance checks. Even when the consequences are minor in nature, the perception of risk alone can cause organizations to roll back or freeze AI initiatives until stronger guardrails are in place, he says.
According to Anahita Tafvizi, Snowflakes chief data analytics officer, this pattern points to a deeper design problem: Many coding agents can generate technically correct code, but they do not understand how business rules are applied, how access controls limit what is allowed, or how audit requirements determine whether a system can actually be trusted once it goes live.
Meaningful enterprise innovation depends on context, she says. When an agent understands not just how to write code, but why certain controls exist and how decisions are governed, teams can build with confidence.
Snowflakes Thesis: Context Beats Cleverness
Snowflakes latest product, Cortex Code, is a data-native AI coding agent built directly into its governed data platform, rather than layered on top of it. That distinction matters. Instead of trying to guess enterprise rules from prompts, Cortex Code is designed with built-in awareness of schemas and operational constraints. The company says the goal is to make AI follow the same rules people already do.
Ramaswamy says Cortex Code is not just about producing code faster than tools like Claude Code, but about understanding the realities of enterprise environments. Its value, he argues, comes from what he calls its deep awareness of the context and constraints that shape how large organizations operate, which allows a much wider range of employees to build solutions that are safe and reliable, even without advanced technical skills.
Snowflake’s $200 million partnership with OpenAI further reinforces its architectural bet. Its a direct, first-party relationship that allows OpenAIs models to operate natively inside Snowflake, on top of enterprise data, Ramaswamy says. By bringing OpenAIs frontier model capabilities into Snowflake, we remove the operational friction of stitching together disparate tools and significantly lower the barrier to deploying advanced AI responsibly.
An Inflection Point or a Higher Bar?
Industry experts say that while Snowflake is making a big bet on a data-first approach with Cortex Code, it is far from alone. Rivals such as Databricks, Google BigQuery, and AWS Redshift are moving in the same direction, putting governance and auditability ahead of raw speed.
Experts say Snowflakes main point of differentiation is how closely Cortex Code is tied to production data. As Doug Gourlay, CEO of data stoage company Qumulo, puts it, most companies have grafted increasingly capable agents onto developer tools and then tried to manage risk after the fact. Snowflake, he says, is flipping that model by treating governance and data semantics as the foundation on which AI operates. (While rivals excel in niche strengths like machine learning flexibility or platform scale, Cortex Code is built for teams that need governed, low-maintenance AI coding directly on live enterprise data.)
Over time, this approach is likely to become table stakes. Enterprises will increasingly view AI that operates outside their governed data fabric as an unacceptable risk, regardless of how impressive its capabilities appear in isolation, says Gourlay.
Coding tools such as Anthropics Claude Code, for instance, are largely optimized for developer-centric workflows, emphasizing controls like explicit change approvals and tight IDE integrations. Claude Code, in practice, requires being combined with additional governance layers or secure platforms for enterprise compliance. Snowflake and Anthropic recently partnered to enable the direct integration of Claude models into Snowflake Intelligence and Cortex AI, allowing its models to run inside Snowflakes governed data environment.
Snowflake says its edge comes from working directly with enterprise metadata and semantic context. The company is betting that as organizations grow more cautious, they will turn away from agents that appear powerful but act unpredictably. If that proves true, those who ignore data context may define todays hype, while those who embrace it will shape what comes next.
What can viewers expect from Bad Bunny’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime performance? So far, all we know is that he’s expected to perform solely in Spanish, bringing Latin identity at the center of America’s most-watched television event.But Bad Bunny could reveal more details Thursday in San Francisco when the Grammy winner speaks ahead of Sunday’s game.Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden will interview Bad Bunny and pregame performers beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday. The Puerto Rican superstar has become one of the world’s most streamed artists with albums such as “Un Verano Sin Ti” and “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which won album of year at Grammys Sunday night. It’s the first time an all Spanish-language album has taken home the top prize.Last year, Bad Bunny’s historic Puerto Rico residency drew more than half a million fans.Apple Music will broadcast the interview on its platform and social media sites like YouTube and Facebook.The pregame media session might reveal some details about the performance, but headliners often keep a few secrets. Rihanna sure did, waiting until her Super Bowl performance in 2023 to reveal she was pregnant with her second child.The Super Bowl will be held Sunday at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Seattle Seahawks facing off against the New England Patriots.
Who else is performing at the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl pregame show will open with several standout performers in Northern California: Charlie Puth will hit the stage to sing the national anthem, Brandi Carlile will take on “America the Beautiful” and Coco Jones will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”The national anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be performed by deaf performing artist Fred Beam in American Sign Language. Julian Ortiz will sign “America the Beautiful.”Before the game, Green Day will play a set to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Super Bowl. The band, which has its roots in the Bay Area, plans to “Get loud!” according to lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong.In a historic first, the halftime show will include a multilingual signing program featuring Puerto Rican Sign Language, led by interpreter Celimar Rivera Cosme. All signed performances for the pregame and halftime shows will be presented in collaboration with Alexis Kashar of LOVE SIGN and Howard Rosenblum of Deaf Equality.
For more on the Super Bowl, visit https://apnews.com/hub/super-bowl
Jonathan Landrum Jr., AP Entertainment Writer
Its a hard time to be an XRP investor. The token, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has been on a downward trajectory for nearly half a year. And this week, things have gotten much worse. Heres what you need to know about XRP and the beating the coin is taking.
Whats happened?
The price of XRP is getting pummeled today. In the last 24 hours, the tokens value has plunged nearly 14.5% as of the time of this writing, falling from above $1.50 per coin to around $1.36.
And thats just the most recent price shock for the coin. Looking back over the past month, XRP is down more than a staggering 41%, according to Yahoo Finance data. On January 5, the coin was trading as high as $2.41.
Even more astounding: XPR topped $3.60 a coin in July 2025, meaning it’s now down more than 60% from its summer high.
For XRP investors, the tokens fall over the past six months is difficult to stomach. Many had high hopes for the rising cryptocurrency star, especially after Donald Trump entered the White House for a second term last January, leading an administration seen as very crypto-friendly.
Why is XRP falling?
It’s important to note that XRP is not the only token that has been hit hard in the past several months. Most major cryptocurrencies are on the decline as of late, including Bitcoin (down nearly 25% in the past month), Ethereum (down 35%), and BNB (down 25%).
As Fast Company previously reported, two main factors are driving the fall of cryptocurrencies this year. The first is the renewed strength of the U.S. dollar (USD). At the end of last month, President Trump announced his pick for the new chair of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh. The news sent the U.S. dollar surging.
But because cryptocurrencies are generally priced in U.S. dollars, a stronger dollar means more tokens can be bought with the same amount of fiat currency, making them appear cheaper and thus lessening their value.
The rising dollar has led to a selloff in some cryptocurrencies as investors try to protect their digital gains before they fall further.
And then there is the seemingly unending geopolitical uncertainty rocking the world, most of it spurred on by Trump himself. First it was Americas attack on Venezuela, then it was Trumps threats to take Greenland from Americas allies by force, and now its the possibility of military strikes on Iran.
All this geopolitical uncertainty breeds risk, and increased risk typically sends investors into safe-haven assets: typically gold or U.S. dollars. Given that cryptocurrencies are historically highly volatile, the digital coins are seen as anything but a safe haven.
Ripple comments anger XRP ardents
Given that XRP is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, its no surprise the digital token has a large number of ardent supporters behind it. Recently, some of those supporters were angered by comments made by David Schwartz, CTO emeritus of Ripple.
Ripple is a private company that offers software to financial institutions that facilitate international money transfers. Ripple is also the largest owner of XRP tokens in the world.
This connection is one of the reasons why some supporters of XRP may have been angered by online comments that Schwartz had made earlier this month. As noted by Benzinga, Schwartz said he thought it was unlikely XRP would ever hit the $50 to $100 price range. But Schwartz noted that his past predictions had been wrong before.
While Schwartzs comments dont seem to be a big driver of XRPs price in either direction, they may have contributed to fears that astronomical gains for the coin are out of reach for the foreseeable future.
Indeed, as CoinDesk reports, XRP is now at its lowest level since October 2024wiping out all the gains it had achieved after the crypto-friendly Trump administration returned to office. And now there are fears that the token may fall to the $1 mark if its trajectory does not change course.
Whether that actually happens remains to be seen.
On most golf courses, silence is sacred. At the WM Phoenix Opens 16th hole, noise is the point.
Every year, tens of thousands of fans pack into a stadium-like enclosure at TPC Scottsdale, turning a short par 3 into one of the most recognizableand rowdiestsettings in sports. Missed putts are booed. Holes in one trigger cascades of beer. The atmosphere is closer to a college football rivalry than a PGA Tour stop.
But as iconic as the 16th hole has become, its future wasnt guaranteed by tradition alone. Behind the spectacle, the structure itself had reached a limitarchitecturally, operationally, and environmentally.
We made the decision that that was as good as that structure was going to get, says Jason Eisenberg, the 2026 tournament chairman. If we want to continue to have an amazing fan experience, if we want fans to come back and see something new, we were going to have to elevate that experience.
That realization sparked a full redesign of the 16th holeone that goes far beyond aesthetics. Whats emerging ahead of the 2026 tournament is a case study in how physical design, systems design, and cultural design can align to quietly change how large-scale events are built and run.
[Rendering: courtesy WM Phoenix Open]
The result isnt just a louder or flashier venue. Its a reusable, modular structure designed to last decades, embedded within one of the worlds largest certified zero-waste sporting eventsand supported by a culture that treats experimentation as essential, not optional.
TPC Scottsdale is a publicly owned course, operated by the City of Scottsdale and host to the Phoenix Open for decades. Its ownership structureand the regulatory constraints that come with itmeans that even the tournaments most iconic spaces must be built to appear and disappear each year.
[Image: courtesy WM Phoenix Open]
Design Change
Like every structure on the PGA Tour, the 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open is built from scratch each year and dismantled once the tournament ends. What makes it unusual isnt that its rebuilt annually, but that it has reached the practical limits of how much a temporary structure can evolve without fundamentally changing how its designed.
Every year, we would add to the 16th hole, says Danny Ellis, senior vice president of sales and business development at InProduction, the company that has built the structure for nearly three decades. Every year it would take on another section, another layer. Eventually, we reached a point where the footprint couldnt expand anymore.
[Rendering: courtesy WM Phoenix Open]
By 2020, the grandstand had reached three levels wrapping fully around the hole. The Thunderbirds, who operate the tournament, were satisfied with its location and scale. What wasnt sustainable was how it was built. The structure relied heavily on timber and cut plywood, requiring all three levels to be recut, modified, and refinished every yeara process that was increasingly misaligned with both modern fan expectation and the tournaments zero-waste ambitions.
Across the PGA Tour, temporary construction is the norm. Each week, courses are outfitted with general-admission grandstands, hospitality structures, media centers, broadcast towers, volunteer headquarters, and fan walkways, all designed to exist for a single event. A typical Tour stop might involve roughly 200,000 square feet of temporary flooring spread across an entire course. At most tournaments, those elements are distributed across multiple holes; at the WM Phoenix Open, they are concentrated, layered, and intensified within a single one.
From disposable to reusable
The 16th hole alone doubles that footprint. With approximately 400,000 square feet of flooring contained within a single hole, it operates less like a golf installation and more like a stadium buildrebuilt annually, but engineered for one of the most densely packed fan environments in sports. By both scale and construction method, the 16th hole now occupies a category of its ownwithout direct analogue on the PGA Tour or at any other sporting event worldwide.
The redesign addresses that mismatch by shifting from disposable construction to modular reuse. Levels two and three have been rebuilt using fully modular decking systems encased in metal frames, eliminating the need for annual cutting on two-thirds of the structure. Only the first level still relies on plywood, reducing constructionrelated waste at the 16th hole by roughly two-thirds compared to previous builds.
Designing for reuse also changed the structures internal logic. Long-span engineering allows for wider interior spaces, fewer vertical supports, and cleaner sight linessubtle changes that have an outsized impact on how fans move through and experience the space.
Robert MacIntyre of Scotland throws items to fans in the stands on the 16th hole during the third round 2025 tournament. [Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
The spans we created inside literally took out every other leg in the structure, Ellis says. Before, we had a support every 10 feet. Now, its every 20 feet.
[Image: courtesy WM Phoenix Open]
The materials themselves reflect a shift toward permanence without permanence. The structure is built from galvanized steel and aluminum, and incorporates I-beams, bar joists, and glass guardrailscomponents typically associated with fixed buildings rather than temporary events.
Reducing material use
Dismantling and load-out takes roughly eight weeks, after which the modular components will be stored locally at InProductions facility in Goodyear, Arizona. Because much of the structure is custom-sized for the 16th hole, about 20% of the decks and beams will be redeployed to other events, while the remaining components will be reserved for annual assembly. Across InProductions broader inventory, those same modular systems will be reused across roughly 300 events each year, allowing materials to circulate continuously rather than being rebuilt from scratch.
For InProduction, aligning with the tournaments sustainability requirements was a core design constraint. As Ellis explains, the shift to a fully reusable structure was driven in part by a long-running effort to reduce material usage, particularly wood, scrim, and paint that previously had to be recycled, donated, or discarded after each event. From the outset, the goal was to cut construction-related material use. While the cassette flooring system required a higher upfront investment than traditional lumber, Ellis says it delivers long-term savings while eliminating painting and significantly reducing scrim usage, bringing the rebuild into closer alignment with the tournaments zero-waste strategy.
This is a different interpretation of temporary architecture: one that still appears overnight and disappears just as quickly, but behaves more like infrastructure than spectacle. In doing so, the 16th hole becomes less a one-off anomaly and more a case study in how large-scale events can rethink durability, waste, and experience.
[Image: courtesy WM Phoenix Open]
Designing for Experience
The new structure firmly aligns with and reflects the Phoenix Opens long-standing zero-waste ambitions.
For Tara Hemmer, chief sustainability officer at WM, that significance of the redesign lies less in any single material choice than in how the structure fits into a broader closed-loop system. (Waste Management became the named sponsor of the Phoenix Open in 2010 and rebranded to WM in 2022.)
Reimagining the construction of the 16th hole and making it modular and completely reusable really speaks to the heart of what it means to be a zero-waste event, Hemmer says. This is just another step in that evolution.
The WM Phoenix Open officially became a zero-waste event in 2013, but Hemmer is quick to point out that it didnt start with a playbook.
When we decided to try this, we had no idea how to get to a 100% zero-waste event, she says. So we had to try a lot of different things.
What emerged is a system designed across time, not just space. The process begins months before the tournament, immediately after the previous one ends. The minute the tournament ends, Hemmer and her team are already working on matters for the following years tournament.
Aligning with vendors
WM works directly with vendors, specifying which materials can and cannot be used. We go to them and say, These are the types of materials that you can and cant use'” Hemmer explains. Those are selected by the WM team, embedded by the WM team.
Vendors can propose alternatives, but only if those materials fit into the broader system. Sometimes we take those and say, That might be a best practice for all of our vendors, she says. The goal is simple but demanding: How can each item that comes onto the course be reused, donated, or recycled.
That lifecycle thinking extends into unexpected areas.
One example Im really proud of on 16 is beverages, Hemmer says. There are a lot of cold beverages, kept cold by ice. Ice melts, and that water has to go somewhere.
Instead of discharging it, WM designed a reuse loop. Several years ago, someone came up with the idea: Can we take that water as its melting and use it as gray water for our portable toilets?, said Hemmer. Thats a great example of design thinking that happens throughout the year.
The WM Green Scene
At the Phoenix Open, there are no trash binsonly compost and recycling. The success of that approach depends as much on psychology as infrastructure.
We have to make things exciting but also easy,” Hemmer says. Especially on 16, which tends to be very crowded.
Signage, bin placement, and staff engagement are carefully designed to reduce contamination. But the ambition goes further. WM spends a lot of time in researching how fans take their messaging home, and apply it.
Compost and recycling bins at the 2024 edition. [Photo: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR/Getty]
The WM Green Scene, an interactive fan zone, functions as the tournaments sustainability classroom. Staffed by WM employee volunteers, the space uses golf-themed games and hands-on demonstrations to teach fans how to identify recyclable and compostable materials. In past years, visitors chipped items resembling cans, bottles, and food waste into the correct bins. This year, the space will also feature a three-dimensional WM Phoenix Open logo that allows fans to recycle bottles and cans directly. Free hydration stations encourage reusable bottles, while the tournaments 50/50 raffles tie sustainability engagement to charitable giving.
Weve learned so much by watching how fans interact, Hemmer says. And yes, weve also learned how many beverage containers can be consumed in a short period of time.
Behavior-led system design
Weve all seen those cup snakes [collection of stacked cups] going up the 16th hole, Hemmer says. Thats important because we need to think through what fans are going to do and how we get those materials back.
On the 16th hole, behavior is part of the system design. All cold beverages cups used on course are recyclable. WM anticipates misplacement, cup snakes, and even thrown cups, collecting materials from the course and manually sorting every bag to ensure proper processing.
[Photo: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR/Getty]
Why Sports Are the Perfect Test Lab
Sporting events offer a rare advantage for experiments such as the modular system: controlled chaos.
These events are remote, Ellis says. They always need infrastructure built temporarilyon a racetrack or a golf course. The level of detail increases every year.
Hemmer agrees. The Phoenix Open is a closed event across several hundred acres, she says. We can test things at the 16th hole that we test differently at the 12th hole and see what works.
The stakes are high, but so is the payoff. All of this depends on leadership willing to push past comfort zones.
The WM Phoenix Open is the WM Phoenix Open because we take chances, Eisenberg says. We do things that not just other golf tournaments, but most other events dont do.
Min Woo Lee of Australia and Akshay Bhatia, 2025. [Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
Nearly a century of community commitment
That confidence comes from trust that has been built over 90 years of community involvement. We have faith that if we build something and say its going to be great, our fans will support us, he says.
The Thunderbirds rotating leadership structure reinforces that mindset. There is no dictator sitting on the throne for 10 years, Eisenberg says. Everybody comes in with fresh ideas, each trying to make it better.
That culture extends beyond spectacle. Eisenberg points to accessibility improvements and the addition of a family care center as examples of design thats easy to overlook but deeply intentional.
I hope they dont feel any burden getting in and out, he says of fan accessibility. I hope it just runs in the background.
When asked what other tournaments would struggle to replicate, Eisenberg is blunt. Its hard to replicate the time weve invested, he says. We have 90 years of goodwill in our community. But he also believes the responsibility is clear. If we can do this at our size and scale, no event has an excuse.
This weekend, fans will pack into the 16th hole once again. Theyll cheer, boo, and raise their cups skyward. What they likely wont notice is the modular decks beneath their feet, the materials already destined for reuse, or the systems designed months earlier to make the experience feel effortless. I hope they walk away thinking it was the most incredible temporary structure theyve ever been in, Eisenberg says. And the best sporting event theyve ever attended.
The Super Bowl is mere days away and chances are youve seen most of the ads already. Right?
Lets rewind for a 10-second Super Bowl ad history lesson that goes like this: In 2011, Volkswagen decided to drop its full adcalled The Forceonline the Wednesday before the Super Bowl. This was brand marketer blasphemy! But it worked. Ever since, more and more brands began dropping ads earlier and earlier, which then evolved into creating teasers for the ads to run even earlier.
If youre confused as to why this happens, dont sweat it, even Christopher Walken wasnt sure in BMWs 2024 Super Bowl teaser.
Super Bowl commercials are no longer just Super Bowl commercials. They are Super Bowl campaigns that run for weeks before and after the game. Now, say it in your best Walken voice, Why would they do that?
So much more than $8M
The last time the Patriots and Seahawks met in the Super Bowl in 2015, 30 seconds of commercial time on NBC went for about $4.4 million. This year, a 30-second spot averaged $8 million, plus another $8 million in required spend for other NBC sports broadcasting and the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, according to Ad Age. That price tag could go as high as $10 million, when you consider expanding that to Peacock and Telemundo. And thats all before you spend a dime on actually making the ad.
With this much at stake, brands are investing even more to extend the life of their Super Bowl ads. Which is why we start hearing about them in early to mid-January.
Given the sheer size and scale of the Super Bowl season, we decided to do a power-rankings list to break down the five brands we believe have the most momentum heading into the game.
1. Budweiser
Created by BBDO New York, “American Icons” traces the friendship and bond between a foal and an eaglet. I mean, come on. Buds done it before with a puppy in 2014, so why not adapt the audience-winning concept to celebrate Buds 150th (horse!) and Americas 250th (eagle!) anniversaries?
Creative data firm Daivid analyzed early-release Super Bowl commercials to identify those that are most likely to resonate with consumers. This spot topped its pregame rankings after generating intense positive emotions among 54% of viewers11% higher than the U.S. average. It was also 155% more likely than the average ad to evoke intense nostalgia, and nearly twice as likely to generate strong feelings of warmth (+99%). Per Daivids analysis, the spot drove elevated feelings of adoration for its use of animal characters (+80%) and joy (+71%)and maintained above-average attention throughout.
Budweiser consistently puts out top-rated ads, from comedy with the frogs and Wassup to all the variations on heartwarming puppies, dogs, and horses. Its so iconic, even Jason Kelces Garage Beer made a funny Clydesdales spoof for this years game.
Here Bud is going full Murica, but manages to thread the nonpartisan needle to find a sweet spot that everyone can enjoy. Just dont be surprised if the guy next to you spontaneously holds his light in the air.
2. Pepsi
Back in 1995, Pepsi dropped an iconic Super Bowl ad in which a Coke delivery truck driver takes an impromptu Pepsi Challenge in a diner.
Many brands shy away from directly challenging their biggest rivals, especially on such a big ad stage, for fear of giving any oxygen to another brand. But Pepsi famously rode the Pepsi Challenge to success, constantly trolling Coca-Cola and scoring an impressive eight spots in the USA Today Ad Meters 10 Best Super Bowl Ads of the 1990s.
Here, the brand goes back to the well and puts Cokes famous polar bear mascot in the delivery truck drivers roleanother symbol of Coke choosing Pepsi.
The simplicity may seem like a waste of Taika Waititis talents, but its going to score big with Super Bowl audiences. According to the Daivid survey, the spot is 56% more likely to make viewers laugh than the average ad, and most likely to make viewers’ mouths water.
3. Rocket and Redfin
Heres an idea: Lets get one of the biggest pop stars on the planet to reimagine a childhood classic. Right then and there you have a potential winner. Thats exactly what Rocket Mortgage and Redfins teaser featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Lady Gaga singing Fred Rogerss Wont You Be My Neighbor? does.
This looks like it might be one of those vibe-shift adsthe one people shush the party for because they want to hear it.
The Daivid data backs this up, reporting it generated the most intense positive emotions of any teaser or ull Super Bowl ad so far.
4. State Farm
Just a Super Bowl shopping list of good stuff here: funny? Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key. (Check.) Celebrity? Hailee Steinfeld and Katseye. (Check.) Nostalgic sing-along? Bon Jovi remix. (Check.) And the teasers with McBride and Key doing full ads for Halfway There Insurance are also a nice touch.
This continues State Farms long-running formula for its Super Bowl ad campaigns. In 2024, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger making the brands tagline his own with “Like a Good Neighbaaa. Last year, it was Jason Bateman becoming a less-than-ideal version of Batman. (The brand actually pulled that spot out of the big game due to sensitivities around the Los Angeles wildfires, but ran it a month later for March Madness.)
CMO Kristyn Cook told me the strategy has been working. Insurance is very complex, and we’re able to break it down in a way that’s humorous enough for people to hopefully pay attention and get them thinking about it, she says. Do I have the right coverage? Are people going to be there when I need them? Just trying to create those opportunities for people to think about it and then drive action. It’s a formula for us, but it’s a big stage and we want to do it really well with the standards that we have that are very high.
5. Novartis
Im not saying this spot involves a poop joke, but its pretty close. And its not going full Raisin Bran, but were in the vicinity. Directed by Eric Wareheim, Relax Your Tight End stars celebrated NFL tight ends and a playful double entendre for prostate cancer screening awareness.
Set to Enyas Only Time (shout-out to Volvo and Van Damme), getting big tough guys talking about an uncomfortable health issue is important. Showing them all relaxing their buns when they hear its just a blood test will definitely clinch (clench?) some major attention.
According to Daivid, so far the campaign has generated intense positive emotions among 52.6% of viewers8% higher than the U.S. norm.
Chevrolet’s latest splashy ad has all the hallmarks of a campaign strategically tied to Americas 250th anniversary. Theres the modern interpretation of a 75-year-old jingle thats sung by an up-and-coming country singer. A birds-eye view of a pickup truck atop a natural landmark in Utah. A television debut on February 6 during the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics.
In every choice, Chevrolet is carving out friendly, apolitical terrain at a moment when Americans have mixed feelings about such patriotism. A record-low 58% of U.S. adults say they are extremely or very proud to be American, according to a Gallup survey from last year. Thats down 9 percentage points from 2024.
It feels like modern patriotism has to walk a fine line between celebrating what’s great about America but also being careful not to anchor to just glib symbols and slogans that potentially could be dividing or polarizing, Paul Frampton-Calero, CEO of digital marketing agency the Goodway Group, tells Fast Company.
A calendar built for America250
The United States SemiquincentennialAmerica250, A250, Quarter Millenniumwhatever one would like to call it, may be too enticing for marketers to ignore. This years calendar is overstuffed with holidays like Independence Day and Memorial Day, as well as major sporting events like the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, which align nicely with patriotism.
There’s just a little bit more attention on America, American pride, and what the Olympics spirit is about, Steve Majoros, Chevrolets chief marketing officer, tells Fast Company. Throughout 2026, Chevrolet will revisit some of the auto brands classic campaigns and update them with a modern interpretation that coincides with major American moments, including the beginning of the baseball season this spring and Independence Day.
Brands rush in, politics close behind
The allure of the semiquincentennial has led large corporations including Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Cracker Barrel to sponsor the bipartisan America250 initiative, which is planning programming to promote the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Patriotism is also a major theme in Budweisers Super Bowl campaign called American Icons, starring a galloping Clydesdale and flying bald eagle as Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd roars in the background.
But Americas anniversary was also the focus of a traditional values marketing campaign promoting faith and marriage between a husband and wife funded by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. That spot aired during the NFL playoffs.
A generational divide in American pride
The Gallup poll showed less U.S. pride among Democrats and even some independents, which may not be a surprise given that the Republican Party fully controls all branches of government in Washington, D.C. But there could also be a generational divide that brands may need to consider when activating around America250.
When contextual advertising platform Chicory surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers last month, it found that while 58% of Americans plan to celebrate the nations anniversary, enthusiasm was far weaker for younger adults. There’s a lot more hesitation within the Gen Z cohort, Yuni Baker-Saito, cofounder and CEO of Chicory, tells Fast Company.
The risk calculus for CMOs
Marketers who opt into messaging that celebrates the birth of the nation will largely aim to avoid wading too far into cultural war controversies that sparked boycotts and fiery criticism for marketing initiatives from Bud Light, American Eagle, and Cracker Barrel. Americans are divided on whether they want corporate entities to weigh in on political or social issues, and CEOs are also wary.
Target and Starbucks have been perennial targets for right-leaning activists for their more left positioning. But as they have moved to carve out more central and moderate corporate identities, both retailers have also angered more liberal-leaning consumers who have also called for boycotts.
Risk-averse CMOs will have to be thoughtful about every creative decision they make for any patriotism-themed ads this year. The board wakes up when choosing the wrong ad, the wrong song, or the wrong talent, says Frampton-Calero.
He believes that Chevrolets classic branding, which is frequently anchored in freedom of the moment, family, and road trips, avoids polarization. I think theyre quite a good example of staying on the right side of patriotism that connects into personal, collective well-being that resonates to an American, Frampton-Calero adds.
Nostalgia as a safe bridge
Nostalgic elements of Chevrolets See the USA in your Chevrolet include a song first performed by actress and singer Dinah Shore on her namesake TV variety show. The new version is sung by country artist Brooke Lee. Most new viewers wont make the connection to the old reference, but according to the company, it ties into the brands musical lineage. Chevrolet or Chevy has been name-checked in more than 1,000 songs, including Tim McGraw by Taylor Swift.
Airlifting a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 to the top of Castle Rock in Utah for the ad spot is also a nod to two of the brands past campaigns, when it put a Chevy Impala atop the 400-foot rock in TV and print advertisements that aired in 1964 and 1973.
From left: Stills from Chevrolet advertisements in 1964 and 1973 [Images: Chevrolet]
Universal values, global appeal
Majoros says Chevrolets patriotic-forward campaign rests on universal themes that most Americans can agree on, including hard work, hope, optimism, opportunity, building families, communities, neighborhoods, and creating memories.
Many of those values also surface in research thats conducted in markets ranging from China to South America. The brands current slogan, Together lets drive, is also intentional wording that allows Chevrolet to step to the side of that divisiveness,” he adds.
When asked about the Gallup poll, Majoros sees opportunity.
That means theres 42% of people who are thirsty to connect to something and who want to be pat of something, he says. The majority of people probably fall in that big, huge middle. If we can be the kind of a brand that speaks to the things that people are thinking aboutand longing forI think that number would be much higher.
After more than two decades as a psychosexual therapist, I have learned to listen carefully for what people are not saying. When vulnerability is close to the surface, uncertainty shows up quickly. Am I doing this right? Do I belong here? What am I allowed to ask for, and what will it cost me if I do?
At its core, psychosexual therapy is not really about sex. It is about how humans relate when the stakes are high, when power is present, and when much of what matters remains unspoken. It is about noticing how meaning is made in moments of vulnerability and choosing how to respond rather than react.
What continues to surprise me is how familiar these same dynamics feel when I step into boardrooms, leadership teams, and global organizations as a social psychologist. The context changes. The language becomes more polished. But the relational patterns remain strikingly consistent. Over years of working across more than forty countries, I came to realize that my clinical work and my leadership work were asking the same essential question: how do humans make meaning together when the cues are subtle and the consequences matter?
Our jobs are rarely just jobs anymore. Many of us are seeking purpose, belonging, and fulfillment beyond a financial transaction. This is where I often see a widening gap between traditionally informed organizations and leadership styles, and those that have evolved alongside shifting sociocultural norms. We talk a great deal about generational differences. What if instead we looked at work through a relational lens?
I am often described as a relationship architect. My work is about helping people make sense of their relational spaces so they can direct their energy, attention, time, and resources to where they actually bear fruit. Through this lens, I have come to see that thriving relationships, whether in the bedroom or the boardroom, are built on the same six fundamental ingredients.
1. Respect
Respect is often misunderstood as politeness, obedience, or walking on eggshells. In intimate relationships, respect looks like keeping the other persons priorities in mind, honoring boundaries, including your own, and practicing what I call the platinum rule: not treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated.
In professional life, respect shows up in much the same way. It is reflected in how leaders honor boundaries around time, attention, and capacity. It appears when managers understand that what motivates one team member may exhaust another. Cultures of respect are built through everyday actions, arriving on time, being fully present, and not being distracted by a phone call in the middle of a conversation.
2. Trust
Trust, in both intimate and professional relationships, is built through reliable and consistent actions repeated over time. Trust allows people to relax, to be vulnerable enough so connections could form, and to take risks.
This looks like doing what you say you will do, taking accountability when you cannot, and repairing when things go off course. It means saying yes only when you can follow through, and saying no early rather than offering a lingering maybe.
At work, trust functions the same way. Teams trust leaders who show up predictably and communicate clearly. Trust erodes when expectations shift without explanation or when people feel they must stay guarded. In organizations, low trust quietly taxes performance. People spend more time managing risk and protecting themselves than doing their best work. Over time, this shows up in burnout and avoidable turnover.
3. Attraction
Attraction is often reduced to chemistry, but in reality it is about reciprocity and choice. In intimate relationships, attraction grows when people feel wanted and when there is space to be seen and chosen again and again. Attraction can take many forms, intellectual, emotional, social, physical, or financial.
In professional settings, attraction shows up as engagement. Why do people want to be in the room? Why do they choose to stay with an organization or lean into a project? Leaders often underestimate how much attraction shapes retention. When attraction is absent, organizations rely on incentives. When it is present, people stay because they feel drawn to the work, the purpose, and the people.
4. Loving behavior
Loving behavior is not about romance. It is about how we make others feel. In intimate relationships, it includes making the other person feel seen, special, and given the benefit of the doubt. It often means responding with generosity rather than suspicion when something goes wrong.
At work, loving behavior translates into psychological safety. It shows up when leaders assume positive intent, acknowledge effort, and recognize unique contributions. People are more willing to stretch and innovate when mistakes are met with curiosity rather than punishment and they think their contribution is unique and it matters.
5. Compassion
Compassion is often confused with empathy, but they are not the same. Empathy is feeling with another. Compassion is staying present without making the other persons experience about yourself.
In intimate relationships, compassion allows partners to witness each others struggles without collapsing into them or turning away. In leadership, compassion means to be there for the other in a meaningful way. Leaders who can hold space for difficulty without over relating or becoming defensive are better able to guide teams through uncertainty and change.
6. Shared vision
Finally, shared vision gives relationships direction. In intimate relationships, it helps couples navigate priorities, negotiate and compromise intentionally, and make sacrifices that feel meaningful rather than resentful.
In organizations, shared vision determines where resources go, how decisions are made, and what success looks like. Without it, teams may work hard while pulling in different directions. With it, even difficult choices feel coherent and strategic rather than personal.
The architecture of effective human systems
What I have learned, sitting with couples and working with leaders across cultures, is that relationships do not thrive by accident. Across every context I have worked in, the relationships that truly thrive share these six foundations. They are not optional and they are not interchangeable. Respect, trust, attraction, loving behavior, compassion, and shared vision are the conditions that allow people to bring their full capacity into a shared space. When they are missing, no amount of strategy or incentive can make up for it.
The bedroom and the boardroom are not as far apart as we like to think. Both are spaces where power, vulnerability, and belonging are negotiated. These are not soft skills. They are the architecture of effective human systems.
At the end of the day, the way we do one relationship is the way we do them all.
Over the past two years, a troubling trend has started to take shape in the media; for a large majority of journalists, DEI framing became the default for covering Black businesses.
What should be stories about innovation, resilience, market disruption, and leadership have increasingly been flattened into a single, repetitive narrative: DEI. Not the company’s business model. Not the founders vision or entrepreneur journey. Not the problem being solved or the customers being served. Just DEI. And its often framed through the lens of rollbacks, political backlash, or cultural controversy.
This didnt begin overnight, but in recent years and especially amid the political climate shaped by the Trump administration, it has accelerated to the point of absurdity.
Today, if a business is Black-owned, media coverage almost reflexively treats it as a DEI case study rather than a company. The founder becomes a symbol, success becomes secondary, and the story becomes predictable before the first paragraph is even finished.
One Narrative, Over and Over Again
If you listen closely to news interviews from 2024 until now between reporters and Black founders, nine times out of ten a pattern quickly emerges. The questions sound eerily similar. How are DEI rollbacks affecting your business? What does the current political climate mean for Black entrepreneurship? How do you feel about corporate pullbacks from diversity initiatives?
My company, Brennan Nevada Inc. New York Citys first and only Black-owned tech PR agency, has been able to witness this firsthand through my daily interactions and interviews with members of the media. Ive prioritized spending more time and conducting the necessary due diligence that preps my clients on how to engage, navigate, or just not participate in the same DEI obsessed interview.
With these interviews between journalists and Black founders, the most important questions often go unasked, like What problem does this business solve? Or What makes it competitive? How did the founder build it? And What lessons can other entrepreneurs learn from its success? And when coverage does come out, it typically leads with the current administrations DEI rollbacks, and less like profiles of thriving companies. The rhetoric reflects commentary on diversity politics, with the business itself serving as a backdrop rather than the subject.
When Black-Owned Becomes a Category, Not a Credential
The underlying issue is subtle but very damaging: Black-owned has become synonymous with DEI in media framing. That equation is flawed and needs to be reworked. A Black-owned business is not inherently a diversity initiative or a political statement. It is first and foremost a business built by someone who just so happens to be Black. Thats it.
Yet most media coverage today increasingly suggests that Black success exists primarily within the context of diversity efforts, and worse, that it is somehow dependent on them. When DEI programs face scrutiny or rollbacks, Black businesses are often portrayed as collateral damage rather than as resilient enterprises capable of thriving on merit, strategy, and execution.
This framing does a disservice not only to Black founders, but to readers and audiences as well. It robs them of real business insight and reinforces the idea that Black success must always be explained through an external lens.
The media tends to shift its tone to whats currently happening in the cultural moment, especially when towards Black businesses. Five years ago during George Floyds murder and the Black Lives Matter movement that happened around Juneteenth in 2020, the media positively highlighted a lot more Black businesses alongside brands that pushed for DEI to address systemic barriers.
The Cost of Poor Storytelling
This media obsession with DEI is getting old really fast. It reduces complex entrepreneurial journeys into political soundbites. And it quietly undermines the credibility of Black founders by implying that their success is inseparable from institutional support rather than personal vision and capability.
Im not saying this is being done on purpose, because even well-intentioned coverage can fall into this trap, and oftentimes does. When every story leads with race rather than results, representation becomes reductive instead of empowering.
The irony is that truly compelling stories are being missed. There are Black founders building category-defining products, solving real-world problems, scaling companies, and creating jobs; stories that deserve the same depth and seriousness afforded to any other entrepreneur.
But those stories require more work. They require curiosity beyond a headline. They require journalists to move past the easiest narrative available.
Whats Next for Black Stories in 2026
As media organizations reassess their role in shaping public discourse, 2026 presents an opportunity for a long-overdue reset.
What would it look like to cover Black businesses the same way we cover all businesses, by focusing on innovation, leadership, and success first? What if founders were allowed to be experts in their industries rather than spokespeople for diversity debates? What if success stories were told as success stories?
None of this means ignoring race or pretending systemic inequities dont exist. Thats not what Im saying since that context absolutely matters. But its my belief that context should inform a story not consume it.
A Black-owned business should not automatically trigger a DEI narrative. And Black entrepreneurship should not be treated as a subplot in a political storyline. If the media wants to tell better stories in 2026, it needs to start by asking Black founders better questions, and by remembering that Black businesses are not symbols.
We are enterprises. We are innovations. And we deserve to be covered as such.
It’s Q1 2026. Your chief financial officer is cutting innovation budgets by 20%.
Your AI pilot showed 94% accuracy improvements. The LLM is yielding solid results. You’re getting defunded anyway.
The reason? You solved a problem AI can solve. Your budget-holder needed you to solve theirs.
Companies launch AI pilots that produce results, then stall at scale. The team’s diagnosis: “They don’t get it.” What’s really going on: These projects never earned budget-holder buy-in.
Passing the budget-holder test requires three things pilot teams fall short on: analytic proof that you move their needles, execution confidence that scale is achievable, and relational trust that you have their back.
As economic headwinds hit 2026, here’s how to know if your project will surviveand what to do about it now.
Analytic ProofDo You Move Their Needles?
Budget-holders don’t fund impressive technology. They fund solutions that move metrics they get credit for at bonus time.
Your pilot team celebrates: “Our AI improves processing accuracy by 40%!”
Your budget-holder asks: “Does that improve my customer retention rate? Lower my cost per acquisition? Move my net promoter score? Show me the math and where this shows up in monthly financial reports.”
Most teams can’t answer. They proved the technology works. They got great feedback from customers. They didn’t prove it moves the drivers of financial outcomes that matter to the person holding the purse strings.
One of the most challenging barriers I encountered in banking: We proved migrating customers to digital self-service generated huge impacts on customer segments aligned to product P&Ls. But accounting systems didn’t attribute these improvements to each P&L owner. They couldn’t “get the credit” in performance reviews.
Without attribution in the system of record, results almost didn’t exist. P&L owners had no incentive to shift resources from familiar approaches to digital initiatives they wouldn’t get recognized for.
You may prove improvements in metrics everyone claims to supportcustomer experience, innovation, digital transformation. But if those improvements aren’t attributable to line items on their scorecard, they won’t survive prioritization discussions.
This requires analytic work most pilots skip: understanding what drives the budget-holder’s financial metrics, connecting AI outputs to those drivers with causation and magnitude, and confirming results will manifest in financial reporting.
When the CFO asks “prove ROI,” showing AI accuracy improvements isn’t an answer. Showing how accuracy translates to their measured outcomes is.
Execution ConfidenceCan You Actually Scale This?
Your pilot worked in controlled conditions with a small team, friendly users, and tolerance for iteration. Your budget-holder knows what you might not: What you needed to test is totally different than what you need to scale.
They’re assessing execution risk. Can you articulate what’s different about scaling? Have you anticipated the capabilities to address those differences?
Four capability gaps erode budget-holder confidence.
Strategic optionality: AI evolves faster than traditional planning cycles. If your road map locks the organization into today’s context, you’re creating risk.
Human judgment integration: Edge cases that were 2% of your pilot become thousands of customer impacts at scale. Do you know where human judgment is essential, or will you create operational chaos?
Quantitative versus qualitative reality: Your dashboard shows 85% adoption. But are users completing tasks because the experience works, or because they have no alternative?
Sustaining motivation: Organizational anxiety about AI is realpeople fear being replaced. What’s your impact on the budget-holder’s team motivation to achieve 2026 targets?
Budget-holders who’ve seen technology work in pilots but fail at scale won’t fund projects where execution risks aren’t anticipated and addressed.
Relational TrustDo You Have Their Back?
This is the most critical dimension.
Your budget-holder is assessing: Do you understand my pain? Are you here to make me successful, or to pursue the latest “shiny object”?
The gap shows up in how teams frame problems. “We can use AI to automate customer service” starts with what AI can do. “Your call center costs are 15% above target and customer satisfaction is droppinghere’s how we address both” starts with their problem.
It shows up in how you treat pushback. If the budget-holder or their team are “obstacles” to what you believe should happen, you’ve already failed. Their messages are loaded with intelligence about what they need before they’ll get on board.
A team I worked with spent two years trying to get a test file of customer names from an operations team to validate a hypothesis. They kept asking without diagnosing the real issue: colleague fear of a new approach that seemed implausible and raised risks to predictable results. It could be overcome only through trust-building and patience.
Given anxiety about AI replacing jobs, are you building confidence or eroding motivation among the people who need to execute?
Budget-holders fund teams they trust understand their reality. Active champions invest in your success. Passive tolerance means you’re first on the cut list.
The MetroCard Lesson
In 2006, my team at Citi partnered with Mastercard and the Metropolitan Transit Authority to prove contactless payments worked in subway turnstiles. The technology performed. User feedback was strong. But scaling required three complex organizations to align business models, priorities, cultures, and decision-making. The execution capability took two decades to build.
Today’s AI leaders don’t have 20 years. You have until Q1 budget reviews.
What to Do This Week
Assess where you stand on all three dimensions:
1. Analytic ProofCan you draw a direct line from AI outputs to your budget-holder’s measured outcomes? Not “Our accuracy improved, but “Here’s how accuracy translates to the retention rate you’re accountable for and will show up in your results”?
If you can’t make that connection, do that analysis before asking for scale funding.
2. Execution ConfidenceCan you articulate what’s different about scaling versus piloting? Have you identified execution risksstrategic optionality, human judgment integration, what dashboards miss, organizational anxietyand built capability to address them?
If you think scale is just “bigger pilot,” you haven’t earned their confidence.
3. Relational TrustHonest assessment: Are you focused on making your budget-holder successfu, or on building impressive technology? Are you treating their concerns as intelligence or obstacles? What’s your impact on their team’s motivation?
If they’re not actively championing your project, you’re at risk.
The AI projects that survive 2026 won’t necessarily be the most technologically impressive. They’ll be the ones where teams built all three dimensions of budget-holder confidence.
Economic pressure doesn’t care about your pilot. It cares whether you solve their problem or yours.
An Olympic torch is a small, flaming time capsule.
Since the start of the modern Games in 1936, the torch has been passed by thousands of runners in a relay that goes from Olympia, Greece to the host city’s stadium. It’s a feat of engineering, since it needs to be durable enough to resist wind and rain, while keeping the Olympic flame arrive. But torch designers also imbue them with symbolic meaning.
1936 Berlin [Photo: IOC]
The Berlin 1936 torch was engraved with the Nazi iconography of an eagle. The Sapporo 1972 torch was a thin, cylindrical combustion tube that was a marvel of Japanese engineering. The Rio 2016 torch featured rippling blue waves celebrating the country’s natural beauty.
1972 Sapporo [Photo: IOC]
What kind of torch represents the world we now live in? Carlo Ratti, the Italian architect and designer tasked with creating the torch for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, pondered this question for a long time. Ratti’s work largely explores the future of cities, particularly as global warming looms. For him, the biggest issues of our time are climate change and political polarization. Three years ago, he began the process of making a torch that captured these big ideas.
2026 Milan Cortina [Photo: IOC]
His torch is perhaps the most sustainable one we’ve seen. It is made of recycled materials and it is designed to be refilled, so it can be used up to 10 times. It is minimalist to a fault, meant to fade into the background so that the world focuses on the flame within it. The flame, he says, is a powerful symbol of our joint humanity.
At this time of deep polarization and divisions, he says, we tried to strip down most of the things from the torch and really let the fire speak. Fire, after all, predates every nation that now passes it along. Its one of the first technologies of mankind, Ratti notessomething ancient, sacred, and shared long before borders existed.”
A Lineage of Torch Makers
Before sketching a single form, Ratti traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, where every Olympic torch is preserved at the Olympic Museum. Seeing them in person, rather than online, made the pattern unmistakable.
Everybody somehow tried to capture the moment of their time, Ratti says. Each torch, he observed, follows the same basic logic: a burner at the core, wrapped in a designed shell meant to convey meaning. Like car design, he explains, the engine is hidden beneath an eye-catching exterior. And then the second thing is capturing the momentconnecting with local motifs.
1992 Albertville [Photo: IOC]
Early torches, beginning with the relay introduced at the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics, leaned heavily on classical references. The London 1948 torch resembled a chalice, while the Rome 1960 torch was designed to look like a column.
1994 Lillehammer [Photo: IOC]
Toward the end of the 20th century designs were more sculptural and declarative, often mirroring national ambition. The 1992 Albertville torch, designed by Philippe Starck, was in the shape of an elegant curve and was meant to reflect French modernism. The 1994 Lillehammer torch had a distinct Viking aesthetic.
2000 Sydney [Photo: IOC]
In the 21st century, the emphasis shifted again to focus on technological innovation. The torch for Sydney 2000 famously combined fire and water. Beijing 2008 engineered its torch to survive the winds of Mount Everest.
2008 Beijing [Photo: IOC]
A Radical Shift
Against that backdrop, Rattis instinct was to do something quietly radical: design the flame, not the torch.
That idea led to an inversion of the usual process. Rather than starting with an expressive exterior, Ratti and his team began with the burner itself, shaping only the minimum structure needed to hold and protect it. The result is the lightest Olympic torch ever producedsmall, slender, and almost an afterthought in the runners hand. We just start from the inside, Ratti says, and we do the minimal shape around the burner.
[Photo: IOC]
The effect is intentional disappearance. In photographs, the torch nearly dissolves into its surroundings, reflecting sky, snow, or cityscape depending on where its carried. The runner and the flame take precedence; the object recedes. Ratti describes the earliest sketch as a runner with a flame in her or his hand instead of the torch itself.
1964 Tokyo [Photo: IOC]
There are a few earlier torch designers who had similar instincts. Ratti points to the torches designed by Japanese industrial designer Sori Yanagi for Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics and Sapporo 1972 Winter Olympics as key inspirationsboth exercises in restraint. What has changed, he argues, is technology. Today, advances in aerodynamics, materials science, and fuel systems make it possible to minimize the object without compromising the flame.
That same logic extends to sustainability. Milano Cortinas torch is not only smaller but engineered to be refilled and made largely from recycled aluminum. For Ratti, this approach is part of his broader philosophy. He argues that any designer working today must consider the environmental impact of their work.
This applies to his work as an architect, creating a floating plaza in the Amazon River where people can experience the impact of climate change to turning a former railyard in Italy into a logistics hub featuring a renewable energy plant. The first step in order to adapt is to use less, to use less stuff, he says.
[Photo: Andrea Amato/NurPhoto/Getty Images]
Looking back at Olympic history is bittersweet. Earlier generations didn’t have to focus as much on sustainability because the climate hadn’t yet been so damaged. But today, it is impossible to design a torch without thinking of its environmental impact.
For Ratti, it was important to imbue the torch with a clear message because the passing of the torch is seen by millionspossibly billionsof viewers around the world. By designing a torch that fades into the background, Ratti is making the case that we should pull back on overconsumption and excess, and focus our energies instead how we can work together to keep thriving as a species. Maybe humanity will lose interest in oversized ballrooms and gilded pastiche, he says.
