Marketers are setting the cultural conversation with their successes as much as their missteps. But which campaigns are creating healthy tension? When is the right time to walk back a rebrand? Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder breaks down branding and marketing lessons from the most high-profile campaigns of 2025, giving her unvarnished opinion on everything from Sydney Sweeney to Cracker Barrel and more.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian and recorded live at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
[Sydney Sweeneys American Eagle ad] sparked all kinds of controversy and discussion about jeans versus genes. You and I talked before about what is healthy tension and toxic tension. So was this healthy tension, toxic tension? What does the reaction mean about where we are?
Healthy tension is tension that moves the brand and the business forward. Great work must always have tension. If it doesn’t have tension, it’s not great and it’s not causing conversation. Healthy tension, when it moves the brand and business forward, it goes beyond awareness to drive actual acquisition and business results. Sometimes you can have awareness and instead of acquisition, you end up with alienation.
So that is where instead of it being healthy, it goes into the toxic space. I think that they checked the box on tension, they raised awareness, but was it healthy? There was a lot of alienation. You don’t need a focus group to know that in this very polarized world that we are living in, when you use the word genes, and by genes I mean, G-E-N-E-S, and then you show only one demographic, they’re going to be people with thoughts, right? And there’s going to be a lot of energy around that. You don’t need to do a focus group or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research to get to that point.
So there were some people that felt alienated. Did the awareness overall drive acquisition? We don’t know yet. I think a good example of a brand that jumped into the conversation and drove awareness and acquisition is Gap. They had a counter ad with Katseye and that drove a lot of acquisition and Gap sales on TikTok are through the roof. So that’s an example of healthy tension.
Of using the tension to help?
Of using the tension in a healthy way to drive not just awareness, but acquisition. I think, gone are the days where all publicity is good publicity. There’s some publicity we just don’t need, you know what I mean?
All right, let’s try. Let’s go to number two. When Cracker Barrel fans responded to the removal of this old timer from the logo, right? They walkedand we’ve seen other brands backtrack, like HBO walking back Max, right? So are there situations, do you know, in the situations where it’s like, this is a cultural conversation that I’m losing. I can’t drive this conversation versus like I just made a mistake.
First of all, brands have a lot of power because when we have brands where we’re having commentary from everybody, from the President, to your hairdresser, you’ve touched a nerve. And what I will say is, as a brand, Cracker Barrel had been experiencing a decline in sales. That’s why they said, what can we do to ignite or spark the next wave of growth for the business?
So we have to give them kudos for saying, “hey, we can’t just keep going down the path we’re going, we need to change something.” Now when you are evolving a brand, you have to either adapt or you die as a brand. You have to evolve. So they got, check, we need to evolve. Now there’s the heart of the brand or the soul of the brand because what is a brand at the end of the day? A brand is the sum of the promises we make and the experiences we deliver. That is what it is. It is the sum of the promises we make and the experiences we deliver. The soul of the heart of the brand is at the core of that.
For Cracker Barrel, it’s around that southern hospitality and comfort. That is a non-negotiable. I think with the logo change, I mean you all can see the second logo. It’s not exactly screaming Southern hospitality.
It’s not really screaming anything. It’s pretty sanitized.
It’s not screaming. It could be Panera Bread, you know what I mean? And so, if you are someone who, immediately you see this, you go to, this is changing southern hospitality and comfort. So all of a sudden you start to question what is this brand going to deliver? And so it affects the trust with the customer because you’re evolving something that is too core.
So I think Cracker Barrel learned, hey, this is too core. We can’t touch this. Let’s look at other things that we can evolve. So I’m going to give them kudos for actually saying, hey, we listened and we’re going to not touch the heart or the soul of the brand. We will evolve something else. I don’t actually think it’s capitulation, I think it’s smart. I think it’s good stewardship of the brand. We’re not in a perfect world. We’re all going to make mistakes. I give bravery and courage for saying, hey, we messed up this. We’re going to go back.
All right, so this is an image of the UK street wear designer, Tega Akinola. It’s part of Autodesk’s, Let There Be Anything campaign. Partnerships are so important for brands right now. So how do brands associate and get the most authentic partnerships with creators, celebrities? How do we think about making sure you get the right choice so you get the right ROMI, the right return on marketing investment?
Yes. Show me the ROMI. Everything has to start with business impact. First of all, you have to figure out, how is this going to advance my brand objective and ultimately drive the results that I’m going for? So there are three key things you look at.
First of all, is this an add? It has to be an add and a build. It should not be a detraction. And honestly, if it’s going to be neutral, don’t even do it. Do something else with your resources. So that add and that build is really important. The second thing is you need to be pushing not just for reach, but also resonance because reach does not equal resonance and you cannot compromise resonance for reach because if you are not getting both resonance and reah, you’re ultimately not reaching that new target audience and you’re not expanding your demographic to get the needed business results. I think the third thing is you have to make sure that whatever partnership you’re doing, it fits into the bigger picture and is a force multiplier, not a force divider.
So that’s a third thing you need to look at. I think when you check those three boxes, whether you’re working with a creator or it’s a brand partnership, that’s how you get to ROMI. And if you’re thinking, what should the math be? I like to use a 1:3 ratio. So if I’m spending a dollar, I want to make sure that I’m making at least $3. If I’m not going to make $3, there might be a better investment for those resources.
Speaking multiple languages may protect both your brain and body by slowing down the biological aging process, increasing resilience as you get older, according to a new international study.
Published in Nature Aging journal, the paper, titled Multilingualism protects against accelerated aging in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of 27 European countries, looked at data from 86,149 Europeans and found that those who spoke multiple languages experienced slower biobehavioral aging compared with those who only spoke one language.
It concluded that speaking multiple languages may slow the biological processes of aging and protect against age-related decline.
Researchers used what’s known as the biobehavioral aging clock framework to quantify biobehavioral age gaps (BBAGs), by using artificial intelligence (AI) models trained on thousands of health and behavioral profiles.
These models can predict a persons biological age based on physical markers such as hypertension, diabetes, sleep problems, and sensory loss, as well as protective factors including education, cognition, functional ability, and physical activity.
The difference between someone’s actual age and their “predicted” age indicates whether someone is aging in a healthier way and appears “younger,” or is aging in an accelerated way.
The study found that in countries where people commonly spoke multiple languages, study participants who only spoke only one were twice as likely to show early aging patterns, while those who spoke multiple languages were 2.17 times less likely to experience accelerated aging.
While it’s important to keep in mind that in many European countries, people speak more than one language (unlike in the United States), these effects remained significant even after adjusting for linguistic, social, physical, and sociopolitical factors, and were consistent longitudinally in predicting a lower risk of accelerated aging over the long run.
A grocery store is offering to buy pennies in a 2-for-1 deal. Sound like pennies from heaven? Too good to be true?
The news comes a day after the U.S. Mint pressed its final penny on November 12 in Philadelphia, following an order from President Donald Trump to stop making the one-cent coins back in February.
Market 32 and Price Chopper stores are inviting customers to double the value of their spare change by bringing in their pennies this Sunday, November 16 for Double Exchange Day. The only catch is that customers will receive a gift card instead of cold hard cash for their trouble, according to a statement on the company’s website.
Market 32 is an updated, rebranded name for some Price Chopper stores. Dual-branded Market 32 and Price Chopper stores are located in the Northeast, in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.
The reason for the 2-for-1 deal may be a bit less altruistic than it seems. Since pennies are going out of circulation, that means more businessesgroceries especiallywill need more of them in the short term.
Customers can bring in their pennies either the old-fashioned wayrolled up in a sleeve (remember that, Gen Xers?)or as loose coins to the customer service desk at the supermarkets. They can bring in up to a total of $100, which gets you a $200 gift card, or a minimum of 50 cents for a $1 gift card.
However, the offer is good for one day only.
Cash transactions remain an important part of how we serve our customers, and for those who prefer to pay with cash, we want to make sure we can continue providing the same great checkout experienceright down to the penny, Blaine Bringhurst, president of Market 32 and Price Chopper said in a statement. “We also know a lot of families across our six-state footprint are facing hardships right now, and this is another unique way our team is working to provide support.
A regional supermarket chain is offering to buy pennies in a two-for-one deal. Sound like pennies from heaven? Too good to be true?
The news comes a day after the U.S. Mint pressed its final penny on November 12 in Philadelphia, following an order from President Donald Trump to stop making the one-cent coins back in February.
Market 32 and Price Chopper grocery stores are inviting customers to double the value of their spare change by bringing in their pennies this Sunday, November 16, for Double Exchange Day. The only catch is that customers will receive a gift card instead of cold hard cash for their trouble, according to a statement on the company’s website.
Market 32 is an updated, rebranded name for some Price Chopper stores. Dual-branded Market 32 and Price Chopper stores are located in the Northeast, in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.
The reason for the two-for-one deal may be a bit less altruistic than it seems. Since pennies are going out of circulation, that means more businessesgrocery stores especiallywill need more of them in the short term.
Customers can bring in their pennies either the old-fashioned wayrolled up in a sleeve (remember that, Gen Xers?)or as loose coins to the customer service desk at the supermarkets. They can bring in up to a total of $100, which gets you a $200 gift card, or a minimum of 50 cents for a $1 gift card.
However, the offer is good for one day only.
Cash transactions remain an important part of how we serve our customers, and for those who prefer to pay with cash, we want to make sure we can continue providing the same great checkout experienceright down to the penny, Blaine Bringhurst, president of Market 32 and Price Chopper, said in a statement. “We also know that a lot of families across our six-state footprint are facing hardships right now, and this is another unique way our team is working to provide support,” he noted.
While a deal to make Grok available across the federal government is now in place, the agency facilitating the partnership with Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot has yet to incorporate it into its own flagship AI platform due to ongoing internal safety testing.Both lawmakers and advocacy groups have criticized the Trump administrations interest in Grok, over concerns about Musks deepening relationship with the US government and the chatbots antisemitic and otherwise offensive rants, from back in July. After the company said it fixed the apparent glitch causing the bot to call itself MechaHitler, the General Services Administration in September unveiled that Grok for Government,” an enterprise version of the xAI chatbot, would be available to federal agencies at a steep discount.
But as of Wednesday, a GSA-managed repository for an app designed to expedite the Trump administrations plans to deploy AI across the government does not include Grok, though it does feature chatbots from Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The USAi platform, launched earlier this year, is supposed to be a testing ground for government to experiment with a wide range of large language models and how they might integrate them into government work. (In that vein, the GSA has also developed some suggested prompts for government workers now communicating with their new AI agents and looking to keep them in check. They suggest that government workers tell these chatbots: You are a helpful assistant that works for a government agency Never knowingly make false statements or deceive users Remain neutral, factual, and nonpartisan at all times. … You do not prefer or recommend specific political views, groups, religions, companies, products, or enterpriseRedirect users’ requests around potentially controversial or polarizing topics quickly. )The GSA says that while Grok is now available to government agencies, its up to their respective officials to evaluate the technology for themselves, since its own evaluation, which is supposed to include bias and safety testing, of Grok is ongoing.
At GSA, Grok for Government and xAI are currently undergoing internal safety assessments a required step in the USAi review and authorization process prior to integration in USAi, a GSA spokesperson says. Agencies prepared to fully invest in their own AI solutions can now buy access to AI models directly through GSAs Multiple Award Schedule, many of which are currently offered at discounted rates via GSAs OneGov deals. In these situations, federal agencies are responsible for independently evaluating the AI models it intends to use.
Grumbles on Grok
Earlier this summer, government coders seemed primed to integrate Grok into USAi. After the chatbot started spewing antisemitic and other offensive content, the government initially defended its work with xAI. Still, a planned deal with the company was apparently put on pause, only to be relaunched following a push from the White House.
Around that time, GSA said that tools involving USAi, the government-wide AI app, are supposed to undergo pre-launch bias and safety evaluations. Then, in September, Grok went on sale to federal agencies, through a deal facilitated through GSA.Late last month, the Trump administrations nominee to lead the GSA told the Senate hed be open to reviewing the deal with xAI and assessing whether there was incompleteness to the process. It remains unclear whether any federal agency has taken xAI up on using Grok, though xAI also has a major Defense Department deal.The confusion is a reminder that the government is still figuring out its relationship with major large language model firms. For now, the government seems to be moving ahead with helping federal workers interact with ChatGPT, Llama, Claude, and Gemini.
This story was supported by the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.
The headache of planning a ski trip stands in sharp contrast to the freedom of effortlessly slicing down the slopes once you actually get up the mountain.
If youre tired of worrying about squeezing all of that gear into your car or wrestling with tire chains in the cold, Ubers latest option for getting you to the slopes is one way to go. The company continues to broaden the services you can book through its app, and now Uber wants you to not only hail one of its rides up the mountain, but also book your ski pass on the way.
Through a partnership with Vail Resorts, Uber is offering an option to buy an Epic Pass through the app. The Epic Pass, sold by Colorado ski giant Vail, is one of the big two multi-resort passes that avid skiers and snowboarders buy each season to unlock access to a huge swath of slopes. (The other option, the Ikon Pass by Vails rival Alterra Mountain Company, isnt available through the Uber app.)
The Epic Pass packs a punch as far as ski destinations go, offering unlimited access to Colorados Vail and Breckenridge resorts, Park City in Utah, Heavenly in California, and Whistler Blackcomb in Canada. Right now, the main pass will set a single adult back $1,121, though prices go up the closer it gets to opening day.
Other passes offer a handful of mountain days at a discount for what individual lift tickets would cost, but booking one through Uber doesnt confer any special perks. After the Epic Pass sales period closes in December, Uber users will apparently be able to book normal lift tickets to any Vail resort through the app.
We are thrilled to offer skiers and snowboarders alike a convenient and reliable way to get to the mountain this season, Uber’s director of engineering Adib Roumani said in a press release. “With Uber Ski, you can spend more time enjoying the fresh mountain air and less time worrying about how to get there.
Uber on ice
Uber will also continue to offer specially outfitted rides through Uber Ski, which is a special tile that pops up seasonally in the services area of the app. The company first added this option back in 2019, giving riders in many mountain-adjacent U.S. cities a way to know that their ride can a) actually make it up a mountain, and b) fit bulky skis and snowboards.
Since its launch, Uber has expanded Uber Skis area to include more snowy spots in the U.S., as well as in France and Switzerland in Europe. Support for Canadian slopes is on the way soon, according to the company, and all Uber Ski rides can be booked up to 90 days in advance.
Uber Ski is just the latest premium offering from the ride-booking company, which advertises a dizzying array of ride options, from UberXL (for groups of up to six passengers, like the ones available through Uber Ski) and Uber Premier (luxe rides) to Uber Pet (for when your non-human companion comes along). Ubers increasing push into niche and luxury optionsand partnerships like the one it just struck for the Epic Passcan help the company cash in beyond its core ride-booking business.
Unless youre a seasoned pro, the logistics of carting your gear up a mountain in inclement weather can put a damper on a ski day before it even gets started. For families and friend groups that travel away from home for an extended trip or only make it to the slopes a few days each season, Uber Ski offers a compelling transportation optionespecially if youre splitting the bill.
For decades, Adobes software tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, have been the universal language of visual communication, shaping how marketers, artists, and brands build the modern creative world. As artificial intelligence transforms the nature of work and how we define productivity, the 42-year-old creative tech company is reinventing itself once again, transforming the worlds creative supply chains through its AI ecosystem.
Designers and marketers globally are using Adobe Firefly for generative image creation, Substance 3D for photorealistic modeling and digital twins, Express for rapid on-brand content production, and Experience Manager for orchestrating assets across global campaigns.AI should help you work faster and with more precision, while you stay in control of the craft, says Hannah Elsakr, vice president of GenAI New Business Ventures at Adobe. Firefly Custom Models and our new Adobe Firefly Foundry allow large brands to build proprietary, IP-protected models trained on their own assets.
The impact is reaching every corner of the creative industry. At Tapestry, the parent company of luxury brands Coach and Kate Spade New York, AI is doubling as a force multiplier. The company is using Adobe Firefly Custom Models, an AI system trained on the brands patterns, textures, and archival details to accelerate design without losing the essence of its iconic craftsmanship. When ideas crystallize, Tapestrys design teams turn to Adobe Substance 3D to create digital twins: hyperrealistic 3D versions of handbags, shoes, and accessories that look and behave like the real product.
[Image: Adobe]
At Kate Spade, we are in an exciting phase of brand reinvention, and we are embracing innovative technologies to elevate our creative process, says Lissette Siesholtz, senior director of leather goods technical design at Kate Spade New York. AI serves as a tool to expand the possibilities of design, helping us push boundaries and explore new directions.
Siesholtz added that designers take ideas generated in Firefly and refine them across other tools, including Illustrator and Photoshop, to perfect each concept for commercialization. This leads to agility, as marketers can preview products earlier and campaigns can be built in parallel with the new design.
AI is rewriting the creative supply chain
AI is also powering the marketing muscle for some of the worlds most recognizable brands. Newell Brands, for instance, the company behind household names like Elmers Glue, Sharpie, and Paper Mate, is reimagining its entire content supply chain to keep pace with the speed of digital culture. When the team began planning Elmers massive back-to-school campaign, they faced a familiar challenge: too much to create, and too little time to do it.
Instead of traditional photo shoots, the team utilized Adobe Firefly to generate hundreds of visuals, from texture-rich close-ups to lifestyle scenes, with each uniquely tailored to Elmer’s distinct brand aesthetic.
A great example is the Elmers cut-paper custom model. Instead of physically cutting paper and gluing pieces, we trained a custom Firefly model to create that fun, energetic style at scale, says Samantha Tuttle, director of marketing & commercial excellence at Newell Brands. Our designers and insights teams actively monitor consumer perceptions around AI.
Paper Mate and Yankee Candle have since adopted similar workflows, using Fireflys AI capabilities to test illustrations and visual variations that improved engagement across global markets.
Nick Hammitt, chief marketing officer at Newell Brands, explains that the brands distinctive styles, whether Elmers playful paper-cut visuals or Paper Mates hand-drawn illustrations, were all originally crafted by hand. While AI now accelerates production, the human touch remains essential. People are at the beginning and the end verifying quality, brand alignment, and safety.
Adobes partnerships now stretch from Mattel, using Firefly to create packaging and storytelling for Barbie, to Coca-Cola, which codeveloped Firefly Design Intelligence, an AI-powered design system that helps brands maintain creative consistency worldwide.
AI can imitate style, but not soul
As brands increasingly use AI across design, marketing, and production, the creative workforce is racing to keep up. A new report from creative tech platform Envato, surveying more than 1,700 creatives globally, found nearly half of creative professionals use AI daily for client work, with 50% using AI significantly more than they did six months ago.
Artists believe the future depends on balance: using AI to enhance the creative process, but never allowing it to define or dilute human expression.
AI can never truly understand the emotional texture of human creativity, because it lacks the ability to feel, says Santanu Hazarika, a multidisciplinary visual artist. Art is born out of experience, conflict, reflection, and emotion, which can only be mimicked by the system.
Hazarika noted that when technology becomes universally accessible, the creative landscape fills with repetition, a kind of aesthetic homogeneity that emerges when tools are used without personal language or depth of intent. If AI is used merely to mimic or replicate an existing artists work, it becomes an act of duplication rather than creation, he says.
So the next time you glance around your desk: the coffee cup with its sleek label, the packaging on your favorite snack, the app you used to order lunch, AI was there somewhere in its creation, quietly shaping the world around you.
Verizon is planning to cut about 15,000 jobs in the telecommunications company’s largest-ever layoffs as part of a restructuring under its new CEO, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The layoffs, affecting about 15% of its workforce, are set to take place as soon as next week, the person said.
Verizon’s shares rose about 1.4% on the news. They have largely stagnated over the last three years, with a gain of 8% compared with the S&P 500’s near-70% rise.
A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment.
The cuts, following the appointment of former PayPal boss Dan Schulman as CEO in early October, are aimed at its non-union management ranks and are expected to affect more than 20% of that workforce, one source said. Verizon also plans to transition around 180 corporate-owned retail stores into franchised operations, the source added.
The Wall Street Journal reported the cuts earlier.
Verizon is battling rising competition as subscriber growth slows and cautious consumers are unwilling to buy premium wireless plans. It has faced mounting pressure from rivals AT&T and T-Mobile US as the U.S. wireless market matures.
Schulman said last month that Verizon understood it needs aggressive change, including “cost transformation, fundamentally restructuring our expense base.”
“We will be a simpler, leaner and scrappier business,” he added.
Schulman, a Verizon board member for seven years, has said he does not want to hike prices and seeks to be more customer-focused. “Our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases. A strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” he said last month.
Verizon had about 100,000 U.S. employees at the end of 2024, after cutting almost 20,000 over three years. Last year, it announced a reduction of 4,800 employees through a voluntary program and took a nearly $2 billion charge. In 2018, Verizon said about 10,400 employees would leave under a prior voluntary exit program.
Verizon maintains the highest price points in the sector, a strategy that analysts have said is difficult to sustain amid rising competitive intensity.
Craig Moffett, senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, said the new CEO’s first commitment was to stop the bleeding from subscriber churn, which would require subsidizing expensive handsets for a huge number of Verizon’s subscribers to keep them from leaving.
“The obvious question was how Verizon planned to pay for that. Now we know,” Moffett said. “What we don’t know is whether these cost reductions will actually help to offset the higher planned costs of retention” of customers.
In recent years, Verizon spent $52 billion to acquire key wireless C-band spectrum in a 2021 auction and struck a $20 billion deal to acquire Frontier Communications last year. It also spent $6 billion to acquire prepaid mobile phone provider TracFone Wireless.
By David Shepardson and Harshita Mary Varghese, Reuters
AI can do a lot of things. It can write your emails. It can make your grocery list. It can even interview you for a job.
But now, more and more people are depending on AI for things that require real human qualities: life coaching, therapy, even companionship.
Scott Galloway, best-selling author and professor of marketing at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, says the real problem with synthetic relationships is what they lack: any kind of struggle or challenge that comes with maintaining real relationships.
Leaning on AI
In a recent social media post, Galloway calls AI a rabbit hole that is “sequestering us from each otherand while it may mimic human relationships in some ways, it may actually take up space where human beings could be. Or should be. Thats driving us apart, Galloway argues.
He says that people are “leaning on” their AI relationships in ways that they used to lean on human beings. That may happen because, sure, other human beings aren’t always readily available. He says AI relationships are easier to maintain . . . but thats the whole point. In a bad way.
“You need to be mindful of the fact that these things are not real humans, he says. They are meant to keep you on the screen, and to sometimes be supportive to a fault.”
AI gives people exactly what they’re craving. Maybe even too much.
What’s still missing
Regardless of the comfort it may provide to many, Galloway says that AI is lacking in some key areas.
For starters, it can’t show real compassion or empathy. On top of that, it isn’t always honestor at least, not honest enough. The author says there is real danger in bots that tell people what they want to hear, rather than what they may need to hear.
According to Galloway, it’s prime territory for getting stuck in a cycle of consuming what he calls “empty calories: Basically, AI acts like a friend, but is a friend that tells you exactly what you want to hear a true friend? Not so much.
AI cooperates, where a human being might push back.
Galloway says that lack of “friction,” or any sort of real challenge, may be appealing. Who wouldnt want a drama-free echo chamber that validates your own worldview and offers no consistent pushback . . . that is, unless you specifically engineer a prompt for an LLM to do so?
That ease is a draw, but Galloway says it also takes away the true essence of a relationship. Because real human relationships are hard. But theyre kind of supposed to be.
The greatest reward
According to Galloway, it can be totally tempting to make friends with AI because while it’s easy to do, human relationships are exactly the opposite. It takes not just time and energy, but also really learning what other people need, how to respond, and show up for them.
Thats the key to making friendships or romantic relationships last. But its a lot of work.
“It is difficult to establish the pecking order of friends, and approach people and express friendship.” For some people, its easier to just avoid it altogether. And AI makes it even easier.
Still, according to Galloway? Human relationships are essential not in spite of the workbut because of it. It isnt about ease; its about the work, the challenge. And the payoff.
In essence, it’s the struggle to maintain relationships that helps people grow, or that makes the relationship worth it. Sending text dumps to ChatGPT just doesnt hit the same.
“People are messy, complex,” Galloway says. “And that is why it is so f****** rewarding.”
Disney reported $22.46 billion in revenue for the quarter, which just missed analyst expectations and resulted in a 5% drop in premarket trading on Thursday.
The entertainment divisionwhich includes the companys streaming, linear networks, and theatrical businesssaw a 6% drop in revenue.
Streaming did see some gains: Disney+ and Hulu ended the quarter with 196 million subscriptions, an increase of 12.4 million subscribers from the previous quarter.
However, Disneys linear networks dropped 16% to $107 million, compared to this time last year, while operating income fell 21%. The companys theatrical releases also saw declines with both the drop in linear networks and theatrical business driving the mixed results.In a letter to shareholders, the company attributed the decrease in its domestic linear networks to lower advertising fueled by the continued decline in viewership as well as political advertising, which had a $40 million negative impact on results compared to this time last year.
For sports, Disney reported a 2% increase in revenue to $4 billion, while operating income of $911 million, a decrease of $18 million compared to the year before with domestic ESPN operating income declining 3%. The company cited that higher marketing and programming and production costs were partially offset by higher advertising and subscription and affiliate revenues. Meanwhile, domestic advertising revenue in sports increased 8%.The overall decline across linear networks continues to fuel the trend of cord-cutting consumers who are migrating to streaming with ad dollars making a shift that way as well.
The recent quarterly earnings also come as Disney and Google continue their ongoing carriage dispute which resulted in several of Disneys networks going dark on YouTube TV. Some analysts estimated that a two-week blackout on YouTube could cost Disney about $60 million in revenue.
Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the feud on the earnings call saying that the company is working hard to close the deal: Were hopeful that well be able to do so on a timely enough basis to at least give consumers the opportunity to access our content over their platform.
