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Of all of its ingredients, it’s perhaps the signature pepperoncini at Papa Johns that most differentiates the pizza chain from its competitors. Papa Johns places one of its Mediterranean-grown pepperoncinis in every pizza box along with complimentary garlic dipping sauce. Like fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant or Andes mints at Olive Garden, these freebies are a bit of hospitality meant to delight customers and build loyalty in a notably unfaithful fast-food category. Now Papa Johns is taking the pepperoncini a step further by placing it right into your drink: “Cini Dirty Soda” is citrus soda with a zesty, pepper kick. How Papa Johns went all in on a pepper brand The brand expansion is happening at a time when Papa Johns is investing $25 million more in marketing this year to improve on its 1% year-over-year revenue growth. While such shocking food collabs are nothing new, in this case the pizza chain has been working pepperoncini deeper into its brand for a while now. Papa Johns released a new brand identity last year that includes a pepperoncini yellow-green in its color palette alongside colors like reds that evoke sauces and pepperonis. [Photo: Papa Johns] Coupled with a doughy custom font called Pappy, it’s a brand that’s designed to remind you of pizza with a free side of pepper. Now the pepperoncini has become the inspiration behind a limited-edition drink with Mountain Dew. Rather than selling the drink in its stores, Papa Johns made it as a limited-edition, do-it-yourself kit available only online. The Papa Johns recipe calls for 8 ounces of Mountain Dew and a quarter ounce of pepperoncini brine with a pepperoncini-brine-and-Italian-seasoning rim and a pepperoncini for garnish. It already sold out, and Papa Johns says it was one of the most engaged sweepstakes the chain has ever done. “The dirty-soda trend is on the rise, and with our revamped approach we thought it was the perfect opportunity to infiltrate culture with our iconic fan-favorite garnish,” Papa Johns CMO Jenna Bromberg tells Fast Company. “Our quality ingredients are our point of differentiation, which is where were focusing as a brand.” The “Cini Dirty Soda” taps into the dirty-soda craze of shops like Swig and Sodalicious while embracing the trend toward adventurous flavor profiles for products like the pickle soda Popeyes released last month. It also links the pizza chain to Mountain Dew, a soda brand that recently overhauled its visual identity and is making investments in becoming more culturally relevant. For a category as competitive as pizza, such small gestures as a free pepper and sauce can go a long way toward growing and cementing loyalty. Papa Johns is finding new ways to lean into its signature freebie.
Category:
E-Commerce
Recently, an ear infection and subsequent case of hives kept me in bed for a week. The first few days, I was tired and told myself to rest. But the rest of the week? Well, I enjoyed staying in bed, drinking coffee, and lingering over Wordle, Spelling Bee, and emails. So, the following week, I stayed in bed a little longer than usual, too. Turns out, I was hurkle-durkling. Hurkle-durkle is a Scottish term that originated in the 1800s. It means to lounge in bed when you should be up and about. While it was meant to be judgmental, it became a TikTok self-care trend with mindful mornings that prioritize mental health over productivity. In the U.S., the practice goes one step further. Bed rotting, a term added to Dictionary.com in 2024, refers to spending the entire day in bed under the guise of self-care. According to a recent survey by the mattress manufacturer Amerisleep, nearly three in five Americans hurkle-durkle. Gen Zers have embraced the practice, with four out of five choosing to hang out in bed; and women are 23% more likely than men to hurkle-durkle. Its Not All Dreamy, Though While lounging in bed for several minutes or even hours sounds like a wonderful indulgence, it can have unintentional negative consequences. In the Amerisleep survey, non-hurkle-durklers reported better mental health, physical health, and sleep quality than hurkle-durklers. For example, 48% of non-hurkle-durklers reported feeling satisfied with their careers, compared to 42% of hurkle-durklers. (Of course, it’s not clear that hurkle-durkling is the only cause. If you feel less satisfied with your job, you might be less inclined to get out of bed.) A more structured morning routine can help set a positive tone for the day, explains April Mayer, Amerisleeps sleep expert. Those who get out of bed promptly upon waking might feel a sense of accomplishment, which could lead to improved motivation and mental clarity throughout the day, she says. The survey also found that people who hurkle-durkle are five times more likely to procrastinate than those who dont. Thats because lingering in bed can make it harder to transition into an active mindset, says Mayer. We found that those who stay in bed long after waking are significantly more likely to delay responsibilities, she says. Additionally, delaying the start of the day may reinforce avoidance behaviors, making it easier to put off tasks and harder to build productive momentum. I have to admit that I felt this myself. For a week, I felt off. It was harder to get back into a productive mindset. I told myself it was the after-effect of antibiotics. Possible. Its also possible it was the tone I had set for the day. Finding the Balance Instead, Mayer recommends finding a balance between a gentle wake-up and excessive lounging. According to our findings, most people who stay in bed for around 5 to 10 minutes after waking dont experience negative impacts, but those who remain for 20 to 30 minutes or longer may struggle with procrastination and decreased productivity, she says. A brief period of wakeful relaxation can help ease into the day, but too much lingering may disrupt morning routines and make it harder to feel energized. What you do while lingering in bed also matters. Technically, checking emails in bed is an activity, but its not necessarily productive, says Mayer. If it leads to immediate action, like responding to urgent messages, it might be useful. However, if it turns into mindless scrolling or stress-inducing work thoughts before fully waking up, it could be counterproductive. Establishing boundariessuch as waiting until youre out of bed to check emailscan help create a healthier morning routine. I also found myself working in bed. While its convenient, Mayer says it could negatively affect my sleep quality and focus because it blurs the line between rest and productivity. Spending excessive time in bed outside of sleep can disrupt circadian rhythms, making it harder to fall asleep at night, she says. Working in bed can signal to the brain that the bed is a workspace rather than a place for relaxation, potentially leading to poor sleep hygiene. Thankfully, there are ways to start the day that also create the self-care you crave. For example, Mayer recommends doing some slow stretching exercises, such as toe touches or easy torso twists. You could also sit quietly for five minutes, focusing on your breathing. A brief mindful relaxation practice can serve as a gentle transition into the day. The goal isnt to eliminate comfort and rest from our mornings, Mayer says. Its to create intentional routines that energize us for the day ahead.
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E-Commerce
The companies behind AI models are keen to share granular data about their performance on benchmarks that demonstrate how well they operate. What they are less eager to disclose is information about their environmental impact. In the absence of clear data, a number of estimates have circulated. However, a new study published in Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv offers a more accurate estimation of how AI usage affects the planet. The research teamcomprised of scientists from the University of Rhode Island, Providence College, and the University of Tunis in Tunisiadeveloped what they describe as the first infrastructure-aware benchmark for AI inference, or use. By combining public API latency data with clues about the GPUs operating behind the scenes and the makeup of regional power grids, they calculated the per-prompt environmental footprint for 30 mainstream AI models. Energy, water, and carbon data were then consolidated into an eco-efficiency score. We started to think about comparing these models in terms of environmental resources, water, energy, and carbon footprint, says Abdeltawab Hendawi, assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island. The findings are stark. OpenAIs o3 model and DeepSeeks main reasoning model use more than 33 watt-hours (Wh) for a long answer, which is more than 70 times the energy required by OpenAIs smaller GPT-4.1 nano. Claude-3.7 Sonnet, developed by Anthropic, is the most eco-efficient, the researchers claim, noting that hardware plays a major role in the environmental impact of AI models: GPT-4o mini, which uses older A100 GPUs, draws more energy per query than the larger GPT-4o, which runs on the more advanced H100 chips. The study also found that the longer the query, the greater the environmental toll. Even short queries consume a noticeable amount of energy. A single brief GPT-4o prompt uses about 0.43 Wh. At OpenAIs estimated 700 million GPT-4o calls per day, the researchers say total energy use could reach between 392 and 463 gigawatt hours (GWh) annuallyenough to power 35,000 American homes. Individual users’ adoption of AI can quickly scale into significant environmental costs. Using ChatGPT-4o annually consumes as much water as the drinking needs of 1.2 million people annually, says Nidhal Jegham, a researcher at the University of Rhode Island and lead author of the study. At a small scale, at a message or prompt scale, it looks small and insignificant, but once you scale it up, especially how much AI is expanding across indices, its really becoming a rising issue.
Category:
E-Commerce
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