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Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the companys stock price surged a massive 36.4% yesterday. As of the time of this writing, BYND is up an additional 12.6% in trading before the bell. But is anything more than another round of meme stock mania driving the rising price? Heres what you need to know. A volatile December The first day of asset trading for December kicked off yesterday, and already the final month of the year looks to be shaping up to be a volatile one. Yesterday, cryptocurrencies plunged across the board as nervous investors sold off the digital tokens amid ongoing uncertainty about next weeks potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and growing fears of an AI bubble. The broader markets seemed to be impacted by the same concerns, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending yesterday down 0.9%, the Nasdaq down 0.38%, and the S&P 500 down 0.53% according to data compiled by Reuters. Yet despite the risk-averse stance taken by many investors yesterday, some traders in so-called meme stocks seemed to be throwing caution to the wind. Meme stock investors go crazy for Beyond Meat While cryptocurrencies and the broader markets were selling off yesterday as mainstream investors appetite for risk diminished, meme stock investors were bullish on their latest stock darling, Beyond Meat. BYND shares surged 36.48% yesterday, closing at $1.34 per share. Thats a level that Beyond Meats stock has not traded at since November 11, according to Yahoo Finance data. Its also just the latest surge for Beyond Meat shares in the latter part of this year. In October, the companys stock price surged from $0.52 per share to $7.69 per share over about a week after it signed a partnership agreement with Walmart. However, as the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meats stock price surge seemed to have been primarily driven by meme stock traders who had found a new favorite stock. After its quick rise, BYND shares sank back down to well below $1 per share in the final weeks of November. Now the shares are soaring again. Yesterday, the companys stock price was up 36.4% and today, in pre-market trading, as of the time of this writing, BYND shares are up another 12.6%but why? As the Motley Fool notes, Beyond Meat did not have any material changes to its business or financials in the past day. That means speculation among meme stock traders is likely the main driver of the stock’s higher price. This speculation also suggests that, unlike cryptocurrency traders, not all investors are risk-averse right now. Beyond Meat has still had a horrible 2025 Despite Beyond Meats December stock price surge, investors in the alternative meat company have not seen great returns this year. As of yesterdays close, BYND shares were still down more than 64% year to date. In November, the company reported its Q3 2025 results, and they left much to be desired. For the quarter, net revenues were down 13.3% year-over-year to $70.2 million. The companys gross profit was $7.2 millionnearly half of the $14.3 million in gross profit it brought in the same quarter a year earlier. The disconnect between these fundamentals and this week’s surging stock price suggests that risk-taking by meme-stock traders is the primary driver of BYNDs most recent advance. Beyond Meat isnt the only meme stock to have gained over the past several days. Other meme stock favorites have also risen over the past five days, including GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME)up 13% AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC)up 6.8% Opendoor Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: OPEN)up 5.7%.
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Amazon Music just dropped its 2025 Delivered, an annual recap of your most streamed songs, artists, podcasts, and audiobooks, and the platform’s answer to the popular Spotify Wrapped. Here’s what to know, and how to access the feature. What is Amazon Music’s 2025 Delivered? 2025 Delivered transforms your streaming history on Amazon Music into a virtual music festival poster with your “dream lineup of artists. Users are given special Trendsetter and Headliner badges for being an early album adopter or an artist’s top listener, respectively. From the moment you snap on your virtual festival wristband, 2025 Delivered will share personal insights from the year, including your most-played artists, tracks, and genres. Who is eligible for 2025 Delivered? 2025 Delivered is available for eligible Amazon Music customers with a few hours of listening history in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Canada, and Australia. Where do I find my Amazon Music 2025 Delivered? To find your 2025 Delivered, open the Amazon Music app on iOS or Android, head to the Library page, and look for “2025 Delivered.” In addition, fans can head to the Best of 2025 page in the Amazon Music app to see the platform’s highlights. What are some of the streaming service’s 2025 highlights? In the U.S., these include: The Top hits of 2025 playlist includes tracks such as Taylor Swift’s The Fate of Ophelia, Bad Bunny’s DtMF, sombr’s back to friends, Alex Warren’s Ordinary, and Morgan Wallen featuring Tate McRae’s What I Want. The Top podcasts, favorite new shows, staff picks, and more includes MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark, & Mysterious Stories, Morbid, Crime Junkie, and The Mel Robbins Podcast. The Editors picks playlist features a mix of curated fan-favorite tracks including Olivia Dean’s Man I Need, Geese’s Cobra, Dasha’s Like It Like That, Laufey’s Lover Girl (Amazon Music Songline), and Tyler, The Creator’s Ring Ring Ring.
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Over the past year, these nine beauty and skincare brands on the list of 2025 Brands That Matter found innovative ways to make customers see their inner beauty. Some pulled back the curtain on behind-the-scenes processes, offering masterclasses in makeup and lessons in cosmetic chemistry. Others embraced humor, leaning into viral moments with ad campaigns all about angry arachnids and dirty-talking grandmas (yes, really). Here are the brands proving beauty is more than skin-deep in 2025. Bubble Skincare Though every brand would love to be a favorite among Gen Z (and, increasingly, Gen Alpha, as it ages into purchasing power), not many have the chops to pull it off. Bubble is among the rare few that understand their young audience both monetarilyevery product from moisturizer to lip balm to sunscreen retails for $20 or lessand culturally, as evidenced by its booming ambassador program. In 2024, its ambassador community nearly tripled, ballooning to more than 84,000 members. These Bubble lovers test new products and tout them across social media free of charge, driving more than 133 million social impressions last year. In the past months, Bubble has broken into the beauty space with products that fuse skincare with makeup, like its first-of-their-kind color-correcting balms, which combine clinical care and complexion without sacrificing quality or cost. @bubble Dark spots? Redness? Mission accepted. Our new CC Balms instantly neutralize the look of imperfections for a flawless finish. In an independent consumer study: 93% of UNDER COVER Dark Spot Fix users said their skin tone looked more even 99% of SECRET AGENT Redness Fix users said it helped to reduce the look of redness Shop both on hellobubble.com and @Ulta Beauty Passion – Milky Chance Dieux Dieux does more than sell its customers skincare: It teaches them the science behind it. In 2024, the brands following on TikTok increased by 656%, thanks to its informative and entertaining content demystifying all things skincare that consumers are often in the dark about, from the methodology behind their packaging to intimidating skincare terms like comedogenicity (which is a measure of how likely a product is to clog your pores, FYI). That transparency has earned Dieux a loyal customer base with over 50% customer retention. Dieuxs launch at Sephora, its first-ever retail partnership, blew sales expectations out of the water, selling five times more than predicted. The brands collaborations in the fashion world reflect its ideals about beautyacting as the skincare sponsor for no-makeup makeup looks at New York and Paris Fashion Week for Collina Strada, supporting women over 40 at the Met Gala, and raising funds for Black trans-led advocacy group G.L.I.T.S. with a limited-edition eye mask. EltaMD For the second year of marking March 13 as National Dermatologist Day, in 2025 the skincare brand launched its Derm Difference campaign, calling on real dermatologists to share personal stories of the trade, including why dermatology matters to them. Its just one way that EltaMD, a brand renowned for its dermatologist-recommended sunscreens, celebrates the doctors that define its industry and earns itself credibility in the process. EltaMDs dermatologist-forward content strategy earned the brand 63% year-over-year follower growth on TikTok in 2024. Offline, the brands commitment to skincare extends beyond its products, delivering more than 4,000 skin cancer screenings in collaboration with the Skin Cancer Foundation and the Sun Bus. This year, its new all-mineral UV Skin Recovery sunscreen caught the beauty worlds attention, nabbing recognition from Allure and awards Cosmopolitan, Womens Health, and NewBeauty. Eos Products In the wrong hands, a brands social media being flooded with NSFW reviews from customers could be cause for alarmbut for Eos, it was an opportunity. The long-beloved lip balm brands expansion into body lotions in 2024 came with an unexpected side effect: consumers touting the new products as aphrodisiacs. This year, rather than avoiding the conversation and its potential controversies, Eos joined in the X-rated fun with its DirtyDMs and Obsessedimonials” campaignwhich featured real comments from customers raving about the new productsthe former featuring an elderly woman reading the titillating testimonials aloud. Hearing a granny say that Eoss Vanilla Cashmere Body Lotion can get you flipped like a pancake packs a punch of comedy thats too often missing from advertising, and for Eos, it worked like a charm. Its new product line quickly became the fastest-growing body lotion in mass retail and the top-selling body lotion on Amazon. Glow Recipe Pop stars arent the only ones who can go on world tours: As Glow Recipe proved in 2024, skincare brands can do it, too. In honor of the companys 10th anniversary, its founders set off across North America, South America, and Europe to share the Korean skincare philosophies that made their brand a hit. Glow Recipe continues to dominate the indie skincare space: Sales of its flagship products, including Dew Drops and Watermelon Toner, continue to grow year over year, while the launch of the brands Hue Drops, a tinted version of its signature serum, sold well following its fall 2024 launch. Additionally, the brands messaging helps break down stigmas around skin, avoiding all-too-common language like Perfect Skin and Anti-Aging and showcasing real skin in its advertising, thanks to a commitment not to retouch models photos. Makeup by Mario Makeup maven Mario Dedivanovic has two major claims to fame: his years-long trendsetting work with Kim Kardashian and popularizing the makeup masterclass. Now, as part of an excluive partnership with Sephora, his eponymous makeup brand is bringing his signature educational experience to social media. Makeup by Mario invited tastemakers like Paige DeSorbo, Suni Lee, Katie Fang, and Steph Hui to be part of mini masterclasses, reimagining Dedivanovics formula to massive success: The brand reported record-breaking engagement online, with 154% global EMV growth on TikTok. Meanwhile, the brands products are now stocked in nearly 2,100 Sephora stores worldwide, including a recent launch at Sephora Mexico. The brand retains a strong following on Instagram and TikTok, with nearly 16 million follower between the two. Maybelline New York Appearing on all three of Love Island, Saturday Night Live, and Hot Ones is a pop culture hat trick in the 2020s, and over the past year, Maybelline pulled it off. The classic makeup brand has kept up with the times: In 2024, its TikTok campaigns garnered more than 100 million impressions, and its interactive content on Pinterest (a platform itself undergoing a Gen Z renaissance) boosted Maybellines follower engagement there by 30%. In addition to its buzzy media appearances, Maybellines stayed true to its values. That includes doubling down on its commitment to mental health advocacy through both a $20 million partnership with the WHO Foundation and expansions to its Brave Talk program, developing the in-person peer support program into a digital experience. Neutrogena The brand in 2025 has worked with John Cena to recontextualize his iconic You cant see me! catchphrase from the wrestler/actor’s WWE days. Cena’s Neutrogena campaign applies it to the brand’s Ultra Sheer sunscreen while sharing how two skin cancer diagnoses made him realize the importance of UV protection. That personal level of storytelling has become a hallmark of Neutrogenas messaging, which makes use of celebrity spokespeople to reach new audiences. Take its collaboration with Gen Z pop star Tate McRae, who reintroduced Neutrogenas Hydro Boost products to a younger generation for the lines 10th anniversary, or its utilization of actor and singer Hailee Steinfeld to address young Millennials and recommend products to minimize collagen loss. No matter a consumers skincare needs, Neutrogena has a product to meet them (and, odds are, a celebrity to pair it with). Sol de Janeiro The Brazilian skincare brand turned the stuff of marketing nightmares into a win. When a review for Sol de Janeiros Delícia Drench Body Butter, claimed that it attracted wolf spiders, the rumor mill went to work, with other reviewers jokingly agreeing that the product was a spider magnet, while arachnophobes worried that the memes were based in truth. Sol de Janeiro took it all in stride, capitalizing on the viral moment in 2024 with a joke of its own: a fake product, Aranha Spider Salve, that the brand said actually did attract spiders, unlike the real lotion that started the social media frenzy. The meme was a hit, earning Sol de Janeiro 9.76 million views on TikTok and 2.3 million impressions on Instagram. It was a testament to the brands adaptability. This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
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Increasingly, the media and entertainment brands that thrive are ones that can build on their core business in creative ways. Two of the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the media and entertainment worldEbony and Essenceare legacy Black publications that have grown their audiences and cultural cachet by building events around their flagship editorial product. Overtime is partially a sport brand, but it’s also a company that knows how to engage with younger consumers around sportsthat’s how it’s gotten noticed by major brands and other sports leagues. Those three examples of the six outlined below, are just some of the ways companies are rethinking what a media brand canand shouldbe. Afropunk In its 20 years of existence, Afropunk has expanded beyond just being a festival organizer. It’s a brand that engages with issues facing the Black community globally and bakes that into everything from its social media to its live programming. That global focus has helped it catch on in Brazil, where Afropunk reaches the largest Black audience outside of Africa. Meanwhile, Afropunk Bahia has become a key event for the brand, and a moment for bringing the global Black diaspora together in Salvador, Bahia. More than 60,000 people attended in 2024, and the 2025 edition, held in early November, also listed artists’ countries of origin on the lineup announcements. The two-day event was headlined by American singer Coco Jones on day 1 and Nigerian singer/songwriter Tems on day 2. View this post on Instagram Ebony As the preeminent magazine for Black news, culture, and entertainment celebrates its 80th anniversary, Ebony is making clear that it has grown into a modern media brand. Its annual Power 100 list has grown in visibility, and its 2024 iteration was the brand’s most-covered installment, with coverage of its gala bringing in 7 billion media impressions. This year, the Power 100 Gala, held in early November, took on a new format, with honorees focused on past, present, and future, including Tracee Ellis Ross as this year’s Pathbreaker of the Year. As it builds out the gala, Ebony also keeps its journalism in focus, bringing on longtime Essence writer and former deputy editor Cori Murray as its executive vice president of editorial content, adding a veteran Black journalist onboard to grow its storytelling capabilities. View this post on Instagram Essence With its editorial focus on lifestyle and culture for Black women, Essence has turned two of its flagship eventsthe Essence Festival of Culture and the Black Women in Hollywood Awardsinto cultural moments unto theselves. Though the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture saw lower ticket sales and fewer vendors than the record-breaking 30th anniversary edition in 2024, it remained a tentpole event for New Orleans over July 4th weekend. And this year’s 18th installment of the Black Women in Hollywood Awards honored the likes of Cynthia Erivo, Teyana Taylor, and Marla Gibbs. Overtime With four of its own sports leagues (men’s basketball, women’s basketball, 7v7 football, and boxing) and a TikTok following of more than 60 million across its accounts, sports media brand Overtime has provided brands, athletes, and leagues a major platform for reaching generations Z and Alpha. In 2024, the brand logged more than 115 million social media followers across platforms and over 3 billion engagements coming from 30 billion-plus views of its content. That was enough to get the National Women’s Soccer League on board for Overtime’s first partnership with a women’s league ahead of the football clubs’ 2025 season. Overtime got NWSL footage and behind-the-scenes access to players, and the league got the eyeballs of the 3 million people following OvertimeFC on TikTok, plus access to its broader audience. In 2025, major brands have continued to take notice of Overtime’s reach, with Therabody’s fall 2025 national ad-buy including Overtime alongside networks like NBC Sports, Peacock, and ESPN. @overtimefc The AUDACITY to even try that @NWSL @Orlando Pride #marta #panenka #nwsl original sound – overtimefc Revolt When Revolt cofounder Sean “Diddy” Combs departed the television and media company in 2024, selling his majority stake, the brand knew exactly who its new owners should be: its employees. In its year-plus as an employee-owned company, Revolt has continued its focus on hip-hop and youth culture, including a record-breaking weekend for the 2024 edition of its flagship Revolt World festival. In 2025, it has worked to capitalize on youth interest in sports, launching its Revolt Sports vertical with a podcast hosted by former NFL player Brandon Marshall and cultural commentator Kayla Nicole. The brand has also grown its podcast network, launching more than 20 new shows in the past year, including The People’s Brief from social media personality Lynae Vanee, in which she explores news, culture, and history. View this post on Instagram USAFacts In a golden age of misinformation, USAFacts has positioned itself as a brand that audiences can turn to for one thing reliably: the unvarnished truth. That resource was particularly needed as the 2024 election ramped up, which was why USAFacts worked with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for its “Just the Facts” campaign. The series saw Ballmer breaking down topics like immigration, federal spending, and healthcare in explainer videos. The brand found an appetite for the content, racking up 40 million video engagements, which helped bring in 367,000 new subscribers to the USAFacts newsletter. The partnership has continued throughout 2025, with Ballmer explaining issues on everyone’s mind: tariffs, government assistance, and federal spending. This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
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Health and wellness is a product category littered with broken promises and bad pitches. These Brands That Matter honorees have created work for products that aim to uplift, help, and encourage across a wide range of challenges and issues, big and small. Bobbie Many new mothers feel pressured to breastfeed their children but cannot for a variety of reasons. Bobbie has been working to change the narrative around using formula through advocacy and education efforts, while offering an organic product that still meets the FDA’s nutrition requirements. Its Ask for Help campaign with Meghan Trainor revealed that 86% of mothers felt frequent or constant negative emotions postpartum, and 63% of mothers experienced extreme or moderate stress over feeding choices in their babys first year. And 61% of mothers felt shame, anxiety, or discomfort in turning to their support systems about feeding choices. The brand encouraged new parents to ask for the help and support they need, sharing Trainors relatable and raw postpartum mental health struggles as inspiration. Dame Products Committed to fighting taboo and living up to its goals for creating products and awareness around sexual pleasure and wellness, Dame Products had a big year in both products and advocacy. It launched its most affordable vibrator to date, Zig, in over 1,000 Walmart stores. Though designed specifically for this retail partnership, Zig retains the same medical-grade silicone and thoughtful design as Dames premium productsunderscoring its belief that everyone deserves quality pleasure tools, regardless of income or geography. The Walmart launch marked a pivotal step in destigmatizing sexual wellness in mainstream spaces and bringing its mission to more communities. It’s not often you see a brand have a partnership with Planned Parenthood and appear on Fox News to talk about what tariffs mean for its business. At a time when companies are backing off from politics, Dame Products has found a way to effectively engage in the issues it cares about. Eli Lilly This past year, Eli Lilly and Company doubled down on its efforts to reach audiences through marketing campaigns crafted around breast cancer awareness and prevention, obesity, and Alzheimers. This work built maximum reach with thoughtful and unique media placements across culturally relevant moments like the womens NCAA tournament, the Grammys, and impactful partnerships, including with Team USA. The Olympics campaign made people think differently about Lilly, with an 81% increase in unaided brand awareness, a 30% boost in brand favorability, and a 30% lift in brand trust. The brand’s Grammys spotraising awareness about checking for early signs of breast cancerwas a highly visible moment that came amid a strong lineup of women performers. Home Instead Figuring out how to help aging relatives is a heavy topic, but it’s one that in-home elder care brand Home Instead has managed to demystify with its marketing. the brand’s “A Better What’s Next” campaign reframes the idea of hiring home aides around family empowerment rather than a loved one’s decline. With two spots, “A Better What’s Next” achieved 585.7 million impressions and 25.8 million full video views, which drove 1.9 million clicks to the Home Instead landing page. The campaign’s launch event, held in New York City with celebrity chef Joy Bauer received 7.5 million social impressions and more than 300 million media impressions. The Honor Technology brand’s latest ad stars Macauley Culkin reprising his character from Home Alone and grappling with how to help his aging mom. Liquid I.V. Following a brand refresh in 2024, hydration company Liquid I.V. made inroads at music festivals and F1 events, while centering social responsibility focused on bringing water to more people around the world. Its fall 2024 “Water Is Basic” campaign picked up more than 4.5 million TikTok views and become its highest-scoring commercial among consumers, helping fuel Unilever’s 6.5% growth in beauty and well-being sales. In 2025, it underscored its role as a recovery product and took over Times Square for a Liquid I.V. O’clock promotion, rolling out delivery robots full of its electrolyte mixes to the busy tourist hub. The brand also expanded its Confluence platform, investing $1.89 million across 10 organizations, accelerating sustainable clean water solutions. Listerine How does the worlds first mouthwash, and century-old brand, remain relevant in 2025? Start by kicking off the year. The brand sponsored CNN’s New Years Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, with branded moments and the Listerine countdown clock getting viewers to midnight. Once 2025 kicked off, the brand expanded its Clinical Solutions linedeveloped with dental professionals to address specific oral health conditionswith a product for sensitive teeth. To promote it, Listerine partnered with Food Network star Esther Choi, who talked about tooth sensitivity. Its influencer strategy also delivered millionsof earned media impressions, with standout content from celebrities like Jessica Simpsonand creators such as Danielle CarolanandNoelle Simpson. This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
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