An unlikely body byproduct may be able to help doctors diagnose Parkinson’s Disease early.
According to a new Chinese study, which was published in Analytical Chemistry, ear canal secretion, or ear wax, contain chemical compounds which can be telltale signs of Parkinson’s.
During the study, researchers examined ear canal secretions from 209 people. About half (108 of the participants) had Parkinson’s. In their examinations, scientists were able to identify four volatile organic compounds (VOC) that were notably different in those with the disease. Those compounds, or biomarkers, were ethylbenzene, 4-ethyltoluene, pentanal, and 2-pentadecyl-1,3-dioxolane.
The scientists then trained an artificial intelligence olfactory (AIO) system on the biomarker data. And once training was complete, the AIO system was able to successfully determine which patients had Parkinson’s and which did not. The system was accurate 94% of the time.
Currently, Parkinson’s is a tough disease to diagnose. According to Mayo Clinic, it requires expensive imaging, neurological tests, blood tests, genetic testing, and more. And often, a diagnosis is still often not conclusive. Likewise, treatment is a work-in-progress, with current therapies aimed at slowing progression rather than curing it. Therefore, ear wax testing could be a breakthrough first-step screening tool that’s inexpensive, noninvasive, and accessible.
The researchers who worked on the study say the findings are a major step in Parkinson’s early detection, which currently, doesn’t exist, but that more research is needed. This method is a small-scale single-center experiment in China, study coauthor Hao Dong said in a press release.Hoa Dong continued, The next step is to conduct further research at different stages of the disease, in multiple research centers and among multiple ethnic groups, in order to determine whether this method has greater practical application value.
Not long ago, a client of minelets call her Mayashared something that struck me.
I had a rare Sunday with nothing urgent on my plate. My kids were with their grandparents. My inbox was quiet. I could have done anything. Instead of feeling relaxed, I panicked. I literally didnt know what to do with myself.
She laughed softly but tears were in her eyes. I realized . . . I dont know how to exist without a task list. If Im not accomplishing something, I feel like I dont matter.
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Maya isnt alone. In my coaching work, Ive heard this story many timeswomen who have full, meaningful lives yet feel theyre only as good as what they checked off today.
In a culture that rewards output and treats busyness like a badge of honor, its easy to confuse productivity with worth. But what happens when you slow downor are forced to? Who are you without the to-do list, the perfect calendar, and the high performance?
This article invites you to pause and honestly examine where your worth may be tied to how much you get done. Its about recognizing patterns that keep you in constant motionand beginning to loosen their grip so your value is rooted in something more lasting.
Warning signs you might be outsourcing your self-worth to productivity
You dont have to be burned out or in crisis to be stuck in this trap. Often, its invisibleespecially when things seem to be going well.
Here are some subtle signs:
You feel anxious or restless when youre not actively getting something done.
You judge your days success by accomplishments, not feelings.
You feel guilty or uncomfortable during downtime.
You struggle to enjoy activities unless theyre productive (reading must educate, exercise must burn calories).
You only feel good about yourself when exceeding expectationsat work or home.
Another client, Elenaa physician and mom of threesaid, I know rationally that Im a good mom and doctor. But the only time I feel that way is when Im accomplishing something measurablepublishing, presenting, finishing charts. Otherwise, I feel like Im failing.
Elena wasnt asking to do less. She wanted to feel enough even when she wasnt at full throttle.
That distinction matters. Reclaiming your self-worth doesnt mean abandoning ambition. It means building a foundation where your identity isnt tied to output highs and lows.
Why this runs so deep
Tying worth to productivity isnt a personal flawits shaped by powerful cultural forces. We live in a society that prizes output, where worth is measured by results, not relationships or inner experience. Women are socialized to be competent, accommodating, and endlessly availableto anticipate needs, keep things running, and never drop the ball.
Add motherhood, with its endless work and little feedback, and its easy to internalize that your value depends on how much you handle without breaking.
The pandemic intensified this. With work, school, and home merging, many working moms became the nerve centermanaging logistics, meals, meetings, and everyones emotions. The doing never stopped. And when people praised our resilience and ability to keep it together, we absorbed the message that being useful was what made us worthy.
The costs of outsourcing your worth
This isnt sustainable. Even if it works temporarily, it erodes well-being. Your sense of self rises and falls with accomplishment. Burnout looms as rest feels like failure. Disconnection creeps inyou struggle to be present with loved ones unless everything is tied up.
When things go off script, disappointment turns to shame, as if falling short means youre fundamentally flawed.
Most damagingly, this mindset convinces you rest, joy, and self-compassion are rewards to be earned, not essential parts of being human. When worth is always up for reevaluation, peace remains out of reach.
What reclaiming your worth looks like
This work is slow and layerednot a quick fix or a slogan. Its a recalibration of how you relate to yourself.
Start here:
1. Notice the NarrativesPay attention to thoughts that arise when youre not productive: I should be doing more, Im falling behind, I dont deserve to rest yet. Notice whose voice this echoesa parent, boss, or cultural script? Naming these is the first step to disarming them.
2. Redefine SuccessCreate space for a fuller definition of success: being present for bedtime without planning tomorrow, holding a boundary at work, or letting something be good enough. Reflect daily: What felt aligned? When did I feel like myself? Where did I honor my values?
3. Practice Being, Not Just DoingChoose small moments to simply be: sit with coffee without scrolling, walk without exercising, and rest without earning it. Your nervous system may resist at firstthats normal. Over time, youll build capacity to sit with yourself without judgment.
4. Anchor to Identity, Not OutputAsk: Who am I when Im not performing or producing? This can feel scary but also freeing. You are more than a multitasking manageryou are a person with humor, intuition, creativity, and resilience. Begin rooting your worth in being human, not heroic.
One client, a lawyer and mom of two, shared: I still work hard, but now I can pause during the day to breathe. I let dishes wait without calling myself lazy. And strangely, I feel more powerfulnot lessbecause my worth isnt riding on every task.
Being enough
High-achieving moms are admired for how much they handlebut that admiration can come at a cost. Beneath competence and reliability often lies a quiet desire: to feel whole even when nothing is getting done.
You dont need to give up your drive or goals. But you deserve a life where worth isnt constantly measured: a life where rest is allowed, not earned; where joy has space without justification; where being enough isnt something you proveits something you simply trust.
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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.
Exclusive Interview With Ciscos Jeetu Patel
Data centers are popping up all over the world to support the quickly growing demand for all kinds of AI apps and services. Cisco, of course, is no stranger to the data center, and its been working hard over the past few years to make itself a vital part of the AI technology stack. I asked Cisco EVP and chief product officer Jeetu Patel how he sees the current situation in generative AI, and about how his company fits into the picture. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you give me your 30,000-foot view of the transition to generative AI?
Were now moving from this mode of chatbots intelligently answering questions for us to us now moving into a mode where agents are conducting tasks and jobs almost fully autonomously on behalf of humans. As that happens, theres going to be an augmentation of the capacity of billions and billions of agents thatll actually get added on over the course of the next few years. But the requirements that you have around low-latency, high-performance, high-energy-efficiency infrastructure, as well as around safety and security so that the user can establish trust with these AI systems, is going to have to be fully reimagined.
Can you describe in simple terms how Cisco plays in the AI tech stack?
At the very baseline, we build our own silicon and ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] for the network itself. I think were the only non-Nvidia silicon provider that is part of Nvidias reference architecture where our networking is tied with their GPUs and we actually make sure that those work together in a reference architecture that an enterprise can deploy. We then have our own systems, which are the physical boxes for the networks and the servers on the compute side, and the optics and the optical systems that actually can do ultra-long haul data center interconnect, as well as interconnect between clusters. We then provide the safety and security platform thats needed to secure AI as wellwere one of the largest security players in the market. We provide a data platform in Splunk. Were actually building our own bespoke custom models for security and networking.
You mentioned latency as a key challenge. How critical is response time for AI applications?
If it takes three seconds for an AI voice agent to respond to you, you know its a robot and you dont want to talk to it. But if you do it within 500 milliseconds, you have a very different kind of behavior from the human. In our user testing, outside of efficacy, latency is one of the most important things. It has to be interruptible and it has to have enough training on EQ [emotional intelligence] and sentiment analysis, so that if youre sounding annoyed, it doesnt say, Hows the weather today?
How do you handle the security challenges with multiple AI models?
Most of these models are putting their own safety and security guardrails in the models. But models can get tricked through jailbreaking techniques. Weve built a product that not only does the visibility of what data is flowing through the model and when the model is getting fine-tuned, so you can do a continuous validation. . . . We validate the model within a matter of minutes through an algorithmic red-teaming exercise rather than it taking weeks or months for companies to validate the model. We jailbroke DeepSeek within 48 hours. We can take that model and then create runtime enforcement guardrails for every application developer. The end outcome is that no developer has to rebuild the security stack every time they build an application, and no model provider needs to be responsible for every single way that a model can be jailbroken.
So every app developer building on top of DeepSeek will benefit from this pool of knowledge that Cisco knows about how to jailbreak the model and how to protect against that?
Thats exactly right. We believe that you need a neutral party that provides a common substrate of security for every app developer, every model builder, every agent developer, so that the developer can innovate fearlessly.
Are AI companies putting big data centers in the Middle East because they have plenty of power and room to grow, or is it to better service customers in that region?
Its literally both. You dont have enough power to fuel all the demand for AI right now. The amount of usage that OpenAI is getting right now is literally like breaking the internet. They came up with $20 a usertheyre losing money on $20 a user, from what the industry says. So they added a plan for $200 a user. My guess is theyre going to lose money at $200 a user. They have a plan for $2,000 a user. They will lose money for $2,000 a user. Tha’s not a bad thing. It tells you that there is intrinsic demand. The demand for data centers is going to be insatiable for a very long time. As models get more efficient over time, youll have small models with very large context windowsyou might have a million-token context window, very small model, very small data set with a very small footprint to be able to get the inference done. But were not quite there yet.
Is it because of inference costs that they cant make money? Whats the big cost driver?
Right now its the usage and the cost of GPUs. Its expensive. But the beauty about this is its the wrong thing to focus on to get a company to profitability at this stage. What they should focus on is the acquisition of as many users as possible so that they can have the daily workflow fusion of ChatGPT for both consumers and enterprises. Once that happens, they can figure out a way to optimize later. But right now, starting to optimize would be putting cycles in the wrong thing.
There are two dimensions that are a really good signal for the AI industry: Nvidia is wildly profitable, and ChatGPT is losing money. Both those things tell you the future of AItheres such insatiable demand that even at a very high cost, people are buying GPUs and theyre willing to lose money because the adoption is so high.
More AI coverage from Fast Company:
Why OpenAI and Microsofts AI partnership might be headed for a breakup
AI is supercharging war. Could it also help broker peace?
AI tools collect your data across devices. Here’s how to be selective about what you share
The debate over state-level AI bans misses the point
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Research on misinformation and disinformation has become the latest casualty of the Trump administrations restructuring of federal research priorities.
Following President Donald Trumps executive order on ending federal censorship, the National Science Foundation canceled hundreds of grants that supported research on misinformation and disinformation.
Misinformation refers to misleading narratives shared by people unaware that content is false. Disinformation is deliberately generated and shared misleading content, when the sharer knows the narrative is suspect.
The overwhelming majority of Americans95%believe misinformations misleading narratives are a problem.
Americans also believe that consumers, the government and social media companies need to do something about it. Defunding research on misinformation and disinformation is, thus, the opposite of what Americans want. Without research, the ability to combat misleading narratives will be impaired.
The attack on misleading narrative research
Trumps executive order claims that the Biden administration used research on misleading narratives to limit social media companies free speech.
The Supreme Court had already rejected this claim in a 2024 case.
Still, Trump and GOP politicians continue to demand disinformation researchers defend themselves, including in the March 2025 censorship industrial complex hearings, which explored alleged government censorship under the Biden administration.
The U.S. State Department, additionally, is soliciting all communications between government offices and disinformation researchers for evidence of censorship.
Trumps executive order to restore free speech, the hearings and the State Department decision all imply that those conducting misleading narrative research are enemies of the First Amendments guarantee of free speech.
These actions have already led to significant problemsdeath threats and harassment includedfor disinformation researchers, particularly women.
So lets tackle what research on misinformation and disinformation is and isnt.
Misleading content
Misinformation and disinformation researchers examine the sources of misleading content. They also study the spread of that content. And they investigate ways to reduce its harmful impacts.
For instance, as a social psychologist who studies disinformation and misinformation, I examine the nature of misleading content. I study and then share information about the manipulation tactics used by people who spread disinformation to influence others. My aim is to better inform the public about how to protect themselves from deception.
Sharing this information is free speech, not barring free speech.
Yet, some think this research leads to censorship when platforms choose to use the knowledge to label or remove suspect content or ban its primary spreaders. Thats what U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan argued in launching investigations in 2023 into disinformation research.
It is important to note, however, that the constitutional definition of censorship establishes that only the governmentnot citizens or businessescan be censors.
So private companies have the right to make their own decisions about the content they put on their platforms.
Trumps own platform, Truth Social, bans certain material such as sexual content and explicit language, but also anything moderators deem as trying to trick, defraud, or mislead us and other users. Yet, 75% of the conspiracy theories shared on the platform come from Trumps account.
Further, both Trump and Elon Musk, self-proclaimed free-speech advocates, have been accused of squelching content on their platforms that is critical of them.
Musk claimed the suppression of accounts on X was a result of the sites algorithm reducing the reach of a user if theyre frequently blocked or muted by other, credible users. Truth Social representatives claim accounts were banned due to bot mitigation procedures, and authentic accounts may be reinstated if their classification as inauthentic was invalid.
Is it censorship?
Republicans say social media companies have been biased against their content, censoring it or banning conservatives unfairly.
The censorship industrial complex hearings held by the House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee were based on the premise that not only was misleading narrative research part of the alleged censorship industrial complex, but that it was focused on conservative voices.
But there isnt evidence to support this assertion.
Research from 2020 shows that conservative voices are amplified on social media networks.
When research does show that conservative authors have posts labeled or removed, or that their accounts are suspended at higher rates than liberal content, it also reveals that it is because conservative posts are significantly more likely to share misinformation than liberal posts.
This was found in a recent study of X users. Researchers tracked whose posts got tagged as false or misleading more in community notesXs alternative and Metas proposed alternative to fact checkingand it was conservative posts, because they were more likely to include false content than liberal posts.
Furthermore, an April 2025 study shows conservatives are more susceptible to misleading content and more likely to be targeted by it than liberals.
Misleading America
Those accusing misleading narrative researchers of censorship misrepresent the nature and intent of the research and researchers. And they are using disinformation tactics to do so.
Heres how.
The misleading information about censorship and bias has been repeated so much through the media and from political leaders, as evident in Trumps executive order, that many Republicans believe its true. This repetition produces what psychologists call the illusory truth effect, where as few as three repetitions convince the human mind something is true.
Researchers have also identified a tactic known as accusation in a mirror. Thats when someone falsely accuses ones perceived opponents of conducting, plotting or desiring to commit the same transgressions that one plans to commit or is already committing.
So censorship accusations from an administration that is removing books from libraries, erasing history from monuments and websites, and deleting data archives constitute accusations in a mirror.
Other tactics include accusation by anecdote. When strong evidence is in short supply, people who spread disinformation point repeatedly to individual stories (sometimes completely fabricated) that are exceptions to, and not representative of, the larger reality.
Facts on fact-checking
Similar anecdotal attacks are used to try to dismiss fact-checkers, whose conclusions can identify and discredit disinformation, leading to its tagging or removal from social media. This is done by highlighting an incident where fact-checkers got it wrong.
These attacks on fact-checking come despite the fact that many of those most controversial decisions were made by platforms, not fact-checkers.
Indeed, fact-checking does work to reduce the transmission of misleading content.
In studies of the perceived effectiveness of professional fact-checkers versus algorithms and everyday users, fact-checkers are rated the most effective.
When Republicans do report distrust of fact-checkers, its because they perceive the fact-checkers are biased. Yet research shows little bias in choice of who is fact-checked, just that prominent and prolific speakers get checked more.
When shown fact-checking results of specific posts, even conservatives often agree the right decision was made.
Seeking solutions
Account bans or threats of account suspensions may be more effective than fact-checks at stopping the flow of misinformation, but they are also more controversial. They are considered more akin to censorship than fact-check labels.
Misinformation research would benefit from identifying solutions that conservatives and liberals agree on.
Examples include giving people the option, like on social media platform Bluesky, to turn misinformation moderation on or off.
But Trumps executive order seeks to ban that research. Thus, instead of providing protections, the order will likely weaken Americans defenses.
H. Colleen Sinclair is an associate research professor of social psychology at Louisiana State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Rewards programs are getting revamps all over the place. Earlier this week, JPMorgan Chase announced major changes to its Chase Sapphire Reserve rewards credit card. That announcement came shortly after competitor American Express teased an upcoming overhaul to its premium Platinum rewards card.
And now, one of Americas most popular cruise lines, Carnival, has announced it will radically shake up its rewards program come 2026. Heres what you need to know about Carnival Cruise Lines upcoming overhauled rewards program.
Bye-bye, Very Important Fun Person (VIFP)
Carnival Cruise Lines current rewards and loyalty program is called the Very Important Fun Person (VIFP) program. The program has been in existence since 2012 and is beloved by many Carnival Cruise enthusiasts.
One of the reasons frequent Carnival customers love the VIFP program is its simplicity. You earn points based on how many days you cruisethats it. Theres no complicated earning structure or confusing rules.
The total number of these points based on the total number of days cruised slots you into one of five groups: blue, red, gold, platinum, or diamond. The higher the group (diamond is tops), the more perks you get, including everything from free bottles of water to priority reservations at Specialty restaurants.
However, Carnival has now announced that the VIFP program is being discontinued. Its last day of operation will be May 31, 2026.
Hello, Carnival Rewards
Carnivals VIFP program is being replaced with a new rewards and loyalty program called Carnival Rewards. The program will officially launch on June 1, 2026, and it represents a radical departure from the current VIFP program.
One of the biggest changes to the new Carnival Rewards program is that points are no longer earned based on how many days you cruise with the line. Instead, points will be earned based on what you spend with Carnival Cruise Line. This spend includes the cost of tickets, drinks you buy on board, and even what you spend in the ships casino. Points can also be earned through the use of a new Carnival Rewards Mastercard, which will be debuting.
However, you wont just be collecting points to move up the group rankings anymore. The new Carnival Rewards program will use a dual-earning structure. The dollars you spend will earn you both stars and Carnival Rewards points.
The stars will dictate which group you are slotted intothere are only four this time: red, gold, platinum, or diamond (blue is going away). The more prominent the group, the better perks you get, such as embarkation and debarkation priority, if you are a member of the diamond group.
The Carnival Rewards points you earn can be redeemed for anything from cruise fares, transfers, onboard purchases, and more.
Why is Carnival revamping its rewards program?
The business answer to this question is that Carnival Cruise Line likely believes that the revamped rewards program will lead to a better bottom line. As points and group tiers are now dependent on what you spend, customers who are keen to collect Canrival Rewards points may be more willing to spend more onboard to keep earning those points.
But Carnival would likely argue that the revamped program is now a little fairer than its current VIFP program. Under the VIFP, Carnival customers would receive the same amount of rewards regardless of whether they paid for the lowest or highest class of cabin on the ship. Thats because the rewards were simply linked to the number of days cruised.
The new program will mean that customers who book higher-priced cabins will now earn a higher number of reward points.
But there is some bad news for customers under the new Carnival Rewards program, no matter how much they spend: the new status tiers they earnred, gold, platinum, and diamonddont last forever. Under the VIFP program, when a customer earned a status, they could only move up, not down. That means someone who earned diamond status would keep it for life.
But the new status program will see customers lose their status after two years. And the points earned to achieve a status must be earned within a two-year period; otherwise, they do not count towards a status upgrade.
In a FAQ about the new rewards program, Carnival says that this move is consistent with loyalty programs across the travel industry. The company says it recognizes that change can be difficult, but the current program based on cruise frequency makes it difficult to properly recognize our loyal guests.
Carnival stock price still well below pre-pandemic levels
The owner of Carnival Cruise Lines, Carnival Corporation & plc, filed its most recent earnings report on March 21 for the first quarter of 2025. The company announced that its Q1 revenues increased by over $400 million from the same quarter a year earlier, reaching $5.8 billion. At the time, Carnival Corporation & plcs CEO, Josh Weinstein, boasted that the quarter was truly characterized by outperformance.
That growth is something investors are undoubtedly happy to see, especially after Carnival, like all other cruise lines, took a major hit in 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic. In January 2020, Carnival Corporation & plcs stock (NYSE: CCL) was trading at above $50 per share. But by April, it had fallen to below $8 per share.
As recently as October of 2022, CCL stock was trading below $7 per share. However, the stocks fortunes have improved as the cruise industry has slowly recovered from the pandemic’s impact, receding from peoples memories.
As of yesterdays close, CCL stock is trading at above $23 per share. However, that is still down more than 5% since the beginning of the year. We wont know whether Carnivals new rewards program will have a material impact on the companys business, and thus its stock price, until it launches next year.
PepsiCo is the latest big-name marketer to rev up alongside Formula 1, joining a growing roster of brands eager to tap into the surging popularity of the global motorsport.
The snack and beverage giant recently signed a multiyear partnership with F1 that includes TV-visible trackside ads, on-site activations at 21 races, and co-branded promotions for three of its marquee brands: Gatorade, Doritos, and Sting Energy. With this move, PepsiCo joins the ranks of luxury powerhouse LVMH, Qatar Airways, and tech heavyweights like Oracle, HP, and Amazon Web Serviceseach of which has struck sponsorship deals with either individual racing teams or the league itself.
Young, rich, global
While PepsiCo has long been a fixture in sports marketingteaming up with leagues like the NFL, NBA, WNBA, and the 2026 and 2027 FIFA World Cupscompany execs say Formula 1 brings something different to the table. The sports fan base skews younger, is more affluent, and appeals equally to men and women. And with 24 Grand Prix races spanning 21 countries, F1 offers marketers a unique chance to connect with both global and hyperlocal audiences on the same circuit.
It’s a pretty unique global property right now with great momentum, Adam Warner, PepsiCos vice president of global sports and entertainment partnerships, tells Fast Company. We see a great fit with many of the iconic brands in our portfolio.
It is also growing massively. Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2025, F1 commands a TV audience of 1.6 billion, 97 million social media followers, and in-person attendance that grew 9% to 6.5 million in 2024 versus the prior year, according to the leagues parent company Liberty Media. F1 generates the highest sponsorship deal spending across all major leagues, at $6 million on average, according to data analytics firm SponsorUnited.
Liberty Media, the mass media owner of Sirius XM and Live Nation Entertainment, gets much of the credit for boosting the sports popularity after it acquired F1 in a $4.4 billion deal in 2016. Since then, F1 has launched a fantasy league to increase online engagement, launched a female-only racing series in 2023, and most importantly to the U.S. market, added races in Miami and Las Vegas.
The U.S. markets F1 fan base grew by nearly 11% last year to total 52 million, according to analytics company Nielsen Sports. Marketers expect interest will increase after General Motors and Cadillac add an American team to the league for the 2026 season.
Theres not many sports in the world that travel around in the way that they do, to the amount of locations that they do, and actually bring fans in from two different directions, says Clare Lawson, global president of Ogilvy One, the ad giants customer engagement and experience division. Lawson explains that this core base is now made up of petro heads that love the data and technology behind the cars and the fans that are more into the glitz and glamor of the party scene thats developed around each race.
F1 is also benefiting from a more expansive position in pop culture. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and other drivers have become huge stars and tabloids are closely following their personal lives, as well as the women they date and marry. Netflixs popular TV documentary series based on the league, Drive to Survive, is widely credited for expanding the audience, particularly in the U.S. Later this month, Apple Original Films will release a sports drama film based on the league called F1.
Big brands, big money
What weve seen with Formula 1 is its become more part of almost the cultural fabric of people following the drivers themselves, says Alison Payne, chief marketing officer of Heinekens U.S. business.
[Image: Heineken]
The Dutch brewer has been an advertiser with the league since 2016 and this month debuted a new ad spot featuring the F1 film stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris to promote the nonalcoholic beer brand Heineken 0.0. Alcohol and driving never mixes, says Payne. It is a perfect platform to raise the awareness that you can still have fun and be part of the social scene, just without alcohol.
Brands say F1 is an exciting vehicle to build creative local campaigns that can match the unique vibe for each Grand Prix race. For Patrón, that resulted in sponsoring a live concert at members-only Soho House in Austin, tapping into the DJ and nightclub culture in Las Vegas, and toasting the glamorous party scene in Miami with the spicy margarita, as that race tends to run close to Cinco de Mayo.
[Photo: Patrón]
The tequila producer found a natural affinity in the motorsports league in 2021 when it kicked off a partnership with the only F1 driver from Mexico, Sergio Pérez. But that initial deal only involved his own name and likeness and Patrón had to ink a subsequent partnership with Pérezs former team, Oracle Red Bull Racing, to show him in his F1 uniform.
Those are the things you have to figure out as a brand, says D-J Hageman, VP of marketing at Patrón. What are the right IP [intellectual property] rights that I need and want to have to use in my marketing materials and assets.
Adidas accelerated their partnership with F1 by signing a multiyear partnership with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team in January, a collaboration that allows the German sportswear brand to create apparel and footwear to outfit both the pro team and fans. To coincide with the Miami race, Adidas debuted a Floridian inspired collection in burgundy and coral that featured a graphic of a mangrove tree leaf.
[Photo: Adidas]
We have to spice it up with local insights to make it more relevant for local consumers, says Michael Batz, general manager of Adidas Motorsport.
Capital Ones digital concierge service Velocity Black has been a F1 partner since 2023, working closely with F1s Aston Martin Aramco team. CEO Sylvain Langrand says particularly strong demand for races in popular destinations, including Monaco and Singapore, can make it hard for travelers to book high-end hotels and tables at popular restaurants and bars.
[Photo: Velocity Black]
Langrand says his service offers their clientele a full end-to-end F1 experience that includes transportation, hotel reservations, hospitality experiences, and even an opportunity to meet the Aston Martin team in person. Velocity Black offers F1 packages across the globe, but says that the U.S. events sell out first.
Even when you think about the entire F1 racing calendar throughout the year, these three events in the U.S. are very, very special, says Langrand.
Scroll through a TikTok feed, and you’ll eventually come across someoneusually incredibly photogenic, with perfect teeth and flawless skinextolling the virtues of some product or another, or a restaurant, or a destination. And then another. And another.
Influencer marketing is an unintended consequence of the social media revolution. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok allowed ordinary people to build followingsand, in a way, become celebrities. Brands and businesses soon latched onto these influencers, leveraging the trust they had with their audiences to advertise products.
Mia Maples and Linus Sebastian are the Serena Williams and George Foreman of the digital age: celebrities who can raise a companys profile with a single post, lending credibility to products with a young, energetic audience. Crucially, they allow marketers to reach consumers increasingly cynical toward traditional advertising, and even taking steps to shield themselves from it, whether by paying for ad-free subscriptions on YouTube and Spotify or using ad-blocking browser extensions.
That is, at least, the argument on paper. In practice, things are murkier. Reasonable questions remain about whether influencer marketing is as effective as once thought, or whether it still works at all.
What Even Is an Advertisement?
To understand the challenges facing influencer marketing, we first need to define what constitutes an advert. An advert is, in essence, any materialwritten, spoken, or audiovisualthat attempts to sell a product or service to a third party.
For brands, influencer marketing offers a way to connect with an elusive demographic. Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha don’t read newspapersand neither do many millennialsor consume much broadcast television or radio. Theyre tech-savvy, know how to block ads, and often pay to remove them from their services.
These consumers, skeptical of legacy media, likely feel differently about their favorite creators. When those creators tout a product, it can convey a level of credibility. These influencer-brand tie-ins may not feel like ads, but they are, and thats the intent behind them.
That is, at least, the theory. In practice, things work a little differently.
Waning Influence
Let me be clear: Influencer marketing still holds power, and value for brands. But its influence is often overstated, and were now seeing diminishing returns.
First, theres influencer fatigue. Brand deals are so common that almost everyone knows when their favorite creator posts a new video, a good portion will promote a VPN provider, budget headphones, or some other product.
These in-content ads are so ubiquitous (and often grating) that browser plug-ins now skip past them. SponsorBlock, for example, is the largest, with over two million Chrome users. Just as people might leave the room during TV commercials, theyre now doing the same for online content.
Similarly, on apps like TikTok and Instagram, the #ad hashtag (the telltale sign of an influencer deal) often prompts users to immediately scroll. This almost reflexive, negative response is called influencer fatigue, fueled by the overwhelming wave of promotional content on social mediaand a growing annoyance with influencers themselves.
Thats the thing: Influencers were once seen as a way to deliver advertising without it feeling like advertising. But over timethanks to saturationthats no longer true.
A Matter of Trust
Theres also a growing trust gap between consumers and brands that lean heavily on influencers. Take PayPal-owned Honey, once promoted by some of YouTubes biggest creators. It was pitched as a free browser plug-in that scoured the web for discount codes.
In reality, Honeylater described as a scamsiphoned affiliate revenue from those it was otherwise owed toincluding, ironically, the very creators who promoted it. It also manipulated which codes were shown, hiding the most valuable ones.
Honey isnt alone. Other companies, like BetterHelp, also leaned on influencers, only to later land in controversy.
These scandals chip away at the credibility of influencer marketing. They make consumers wary of creators promoting new productsespecially when those creators, often small one-person teams, lack the resources to vet what theyre endorsing. The result: a decline in trust for both influencers and brands.
Evidence suggests this decline is real. A 2023 study from EnTribe found that just 12% of people are likely to buy products promoted by influencersand 42% of those who did regretted it.
Then theres the issue of attribution. If a million people watch a video, how many truly saw the promotionand didnt skip it, either manually or via a plug-in? How do you measure impact, beyond simple conversions tied to affiliate codeswhich fail to capture brand awareness or perception?
Is Influencer Marketing Still the Future?
Thats the $33 billion question, isnt it? I still believe the influencer economy holds value. Without it, wed still face the same challenge: reaching an audience increasingly elusive to traditional advertising.
But as an industry, we need to recalibrate expectations and find more creative ways to reach younger consumers.
Though younger audiences live much of their lives online, they dont exist entirely behind screens. They leave the houseand outdoor advertising should be part of the strategy.
Podcasts. Streaming video. In-game advertising. And yes, even legacy mediawhen supported by the dataall have a role to play.
There’s room for influencer marketing, too. But it alone isn’t enough. And likely never was.
Any student of American history knows that there are hard truths to ponder about our past. Slavery certainly falls into this category. Today (Thursday, June 19, 2025), the United States commemorates the end of that horrific institution and wrestles with its lasting impact. As this occasion has only been formally established as a federal holiday since 2021, it may be confusing to know what will be open and closed. Lets take a deeper look so you can plan ahead.
A brief history of Juneteenth
Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.
The holiday is always held on June 19 because this is the anniversary of the day that federal troops reached Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Under the leadership of General Gordon Granger, troops took control of the state and made sure that enslaved people were freed in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation, which was enacted two and a half years prior.
Although celebrations of the holiday date back to 1866, the landmark day did not become a federal holiday until 2021 under President Biden.
Are banks open on Juneteenth?
No. Juneteenth is considered a bank holiday. The Federal Reserve along with most major banks such as Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo will be closed.
Are ATMs open on Juneteenth?
Yes. If you find yourself in a bind and need to complete some transactions on Juneteenth, ATMs located outside branches and online banking are available.
Is the post office open on Juneteenth?
No. The U.S. Postal Service locations are not open on the holiday. If you need to buy stamps, some grocery or convenience stores sell them. Additionally, you can buy them online at www.usps.com.
Is mail delivered on Juneteenth?
No. You will not receive letters or written invitations sent through the mail on Juneteenth. The silver lining of this is that you wont get any paper bills either. The only exception is Priority Mail Express, which is delivered 365 days a year, including federal holidays.
Are FedEx and UPS operating on Juneteenth?
Yes. According to its website, UPS is open for business as usual on Juneteenth. This includes store locations and deliveries. The same can be said for FedEx locations and deliveries.
State Department
Is the stock market open on Juneteenth?
No. It’s not possible to buy or sell stocks on Juneteenth. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq exchange are closed for the day. You can still trade Bitcoin to your heart’s content.
Are schools open on Juneteenth?
No. Because Juneteenth falls during the summer holiday, most schools are out of session already. Check in with your local summer camps or year-round institutions to double check how they are handling the holiday.
Are restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores open on Juneteenth?
Yes. Speaking in general terms, most retail locations will be open on Juneteenth. Target, Costco, and Aldi will all remain open. Olive Garden will serve its famous breadsticks.
Major pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens will be open, although they might be operating under limited hoursso check your local pharmacy hours to be sure.
Smaller mom-and-pop shops, meanwhile, might close for the day, so it is a good practice to double check those.
Any student of American history knows that there are hard truths to ponder about our past. Slavery certainly falls into this category. Today (Thursday, June 19, 2025), the United States commemorates the end of that horrific institution and wrestles with its lasting impact. As this occasion has only been formally established as a federal holiday since 2021, it may be confusing to know what will be open and closed. Lets take a deeper look so you can plan ahead.
A brief history of Juneteenth
Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.
The holiday is always held on June 19 because this is the anniversary of the day that federal troops reached Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Under the leadership of General Gordon Granger, troops took control of the state and made sure that enslaved people were freed in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation, which was enacted two and a half years prior.
Although celebrations of the holiday date back to 1866, the landmark day did not become a federal holiday until 2021 under President Biden.
Are banks open on Juneteenth?
No. Juneteenth is considered a bank holiday. The Federal Reserve along with most major banks such as Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo will be closed.
Are ATMs open on Juneteenth?
Yes. If you find yourself in a bind and need to complete some transactions on Juneteenth, ATMs located outside branches and online banking are available.
Is the post office open on Juneteenth?
No. The U.S. Postal Service locations are not open on the holiday. If you need to buy stamps, some grocery or convenience stores sell them. Additionally, you can buy them online at www.usps.com.
Is mail delivered on Juneteenth?
No. You will not receive letters or written invitations sent through the mail on Juneteenth. The silver lining of this is that you wont get any paper bills either. The only exception is Priority Mail Express, which is delivered 365 days a year, including federal holidays.
Are FedEx and UPS operating on Juneteenth?
Yes. According to its website, UPS is open for business as usual on Juneteenth. This includes store locations and deliveries. The same can be said for FedEx locations and deliveries.
State Department
Is the stock market open on Juneteenth?
No. It’s not possible to buy or sell stocks on Juneteenth. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq exchange are closed for the day. You can still trade Bitcoin to your heart’s content.
Are schools open on Juneteenth?
No. Because Juneteenth falls during the summer holiday, most schools are out of session already. Check in with your local summer camps or year-round institutions to double check how they are handling the holiday.
Are restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores open on Juneteenth?
Yes. Speaking in general terms, most retail locations will be open on Juneteenth. Target, Costco, and Aldi will all remain open. Olive Garden will serve its famous breadsticks.
Major pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens will be open, although they might be operating under limited hoursso check your local pharmacy hours to be sure.
Smaller mom-and-pop shops, meanwhile, might close for the day, so it is a good practice to double check those.
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There is a consensus among major publicly traded homebuilders that the spring 2025 housing marketespecially in many parts of the Sun Belt, where inventory has climbed above pre-pandemic 2019 levelswas softer than they expected.
While some builders have started focusing more on maintaining marginsand some have slowed their housing startsLennar has continued to push forward.
Instead of defending short-term profitability, LennarAmericas second-largest homebuilderis using this period of housing market softness as an opportunity to capture market share and maintain sales pace through bigger affordability adjustments.
The ResiClub team reviewed Lennars Monday earnings report and listened in on its Tuesday earnings call.
Here are our top nine takeaways:
1. Lennar: All of the markets we operate in experienced some level of softening
According to Lennar, it has observed at least some softening” across all its markets this spring. Even its “strongest” markets have lost some momentum. This aligns with ResiClubs reporting.
All of the markets we operate in experienced some level of softening [this quarter], Lennar co-CEO John Jaffe said on the companys June 17 earnings call. Even in our strongest performing markets, buyers needed the assistance of incentives. Incentives will vary across the different markets, but primarily in the form of assistance with mortgage rate buy downs.
Jaffe added: The markets that experienced more challenging conditions during the quarter were the Pacific Northwest markets of Seattle and Portland, the Northern California markets of the Bay Area and Sacramento, the Southwestern markets of Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Colorado, and some Eastern markets such as Raleigh, Atlanta, and Jacksonville.
2. Lennar is deploying bigger sales incentives
Lennars average sales price came in at $389,000 in Q2 2025thats down 8.7% from $426,000 in Q2 2024.
And oh, boy, is Lennar spending a lot on incentives.
In Q2 2025, Lennar spent an average of 13.3% of the final sales price on sales incentives, such as mortgage-rate buydowns. At that incentive rate, a home with a $450,000 sticker price would come with nearly $60,000 in incentives.
According to John Burns Research and Consulting [see its historical chart here], thats the highest incentive level Lennar has offered since 2009and its significantly higher than Lennars cycle low in Q2 2022, when it spent 1.5% of the final sales price on sales incentives.
Earlier this year, Lennar co-CEO Stuart Miller noted: “These are outsized [incentives] for the moment and normalized incentives should be around 5% to 6%.
Pretty much: Where and when neededespecially in pockets of Florida, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, where active inventory has bounced back and buyers have gained leverageLennar is cutting net effective prices through larger incentives to find the market and keep sales rolling.
3. Average price net of incentives is down across Lennars divisionseven more so in Florida
The biggest net price cuts occurred in Lennars East divisionwhich, while it includes Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, is dominated by operations in the Sunshine Statethe epicenter of housing market weakness over the past year.
4. Additional margin compression
During the pandemic housing boom, many publicly traded homebuilders achieved record profit margins as home prices soared and buyer demand ran red hot. Once the national housing demand boom fizzled out in the summer of 2022, many large homebuilders made affordability adjustments where and when needed to maintain their sales pace. Despite some profit margin compression, almost every major homebuilder entered 2024 with gross margins still above pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
However, in recent quarters, margin compression has returnedespecially for Lennar.
During the companys December 2024 earnings call, Lennar CFO Diane Bessette stated that the company anticipates further margin compression, with gross margins expected to range between 19.0% and 19.25% for Q1 2025.
Lennars Q1 2025 gross margin ended up being 18.7%, and its Q2 2025 gross margin on home sales came in on June 16 at 17.8%.
On the June 17 earnings call, Miller said he expects Lennars gross margin to be 18.0% in Q3 2025.
5. Lennar: Sales pace > margin
As highlighted above, amid the softening market, Lennar has chosen to maintain sales pace over margin. Among the big builders, it has been the most aggressive on that front. Its now spending 13.3% of final sales price on incentivesand doing some of the biggest net effective price cuts in the Sun Beltin order to keep sales up.
We are not there yet, but we are certain that we are finding a floor with margin and getting close to building it back even in a softer housing market environment, Miller said on the June 17 call. As the current market softness unfolded, we focused on consistent [sales] volume by matching our production pace with our sales pace.
Miller added: Although some have questioned why we have maintained volume rather than protect our margin, we are very clear and steadfast on our strategy. Historically, we protected margin as market conditions stalled, and we generally led the way in protecting short-term profitability. But we learned through those times that once we step backwards and lose momentum, it becomes increasingly more and more difficult to restart and recapture volume. The machine slows and does not restart easily. We have concluded that by maintaining volume, we can create new efficiencies and new solutions that are durable for the future and will result in meaningful long-term efficiencies in our cost structure.
6. Sales steady-ish across markets
Lennars Q2 2025 division-level performance was relatively steady once you account for its February 10 acquisition of Rausch Coleman Homes, which largely explains the sharp year-over-year jump in the South Central division.
The Western division was a bit softer, reflecting broader cooling trends across many Western housing markets over the past six months. In contrast, Lennar saw a bit more growth in its Eastern division, particularly in Florida. Why? Its likely that Lennars earlier and more aggressive discounting in Florida is now paying off, attracting buyers who are still encountering resale sellers resisting the shifted pricing environment in their local neighborhoods.
7. Lennar: No impact from tariffsyet
With respect to the question regarding tariffs, consistent with our commentary last quarter, we have had no impact to date on our costs from tariffs, Lennars Jaffe said on the earnings call. We work closely with the supply chain to prepare for alternative sourcing if it becomes necessary as well as the expectation that our trade partners will work with us to mitigate and offset cost impacts should they present themselves.
8. Lennar: Theres little evidence to support expectations of materially lower mortgage rates this year
Initially, many in the housing market held on to the hope that higher interest rates were temporary, expecting inflation to subside and rates to drift back to lower levels. However, this expectation has not materialized, Miller said on the June 17 call. Looking ahead, theres little evidence to support expectations of materially lower interest rates in the near term. As a result, elevated interest rates have solidified as the new normal. The environment is about recognizing that short supply is keeping prices higher and that only lower prices enabled by lower cost structures will define affordability.
9. Homebuilder stocks remain in purgatory following Wall Streets pullback late last year
