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Whats in your office starter pack? La Colombe cold brew and a New Yorker subscription? Bose headphones and Brooks Brothers? Thanks to the latest ChatGPT trend making the rounds, you can now find out. By uploading a few photos and using a specific prompt, OpenAIs GPT-4o image generator will spit out a personalized action figure or Barbie box in your likenesscomplete with miniature accessories and sealed in plastic. In the past week, the trend has started popping up across TikTok, X, andwhere trends go to dieFacebook and LinkedIn. The Strategic Data & AI Consultant Starter Pack Now in limited-edition blister packaging, one LinkedIn user wrote alongside their post. Unleash Your Inner Leader: The ‘Passion-Driven AI Impact’ Starter Pack! wrote another. A marketing agency in Texas called it a cute way to re-introduce yourself to your audience, re-introduce your employees, or even make an action figure, (or a few action figures,) of what your ideal target audience/consumer looks like. Brands like Starbucks and NYX Cosmetics have also jumped on the trend. Even Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted her own AI-generated figure, complete with Bible and gavel. The Congresswoman MTG Starter Kit If I was a doll! I love all my accessories, including my Bible and gavel for DOGE Committee chair! pic.twitter.com/2fEWYH1Ubt— Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) April 10, 2025 As with other recent AI trends, reception has been mixed. People on LinkedIn turning themselves into cheap, plastic, replaceable products is the least surprising thing, one X user posted. Can we please stop mass using AI to create social media trends (for example, the action figure trend happening rn)? another wrote. People on LinkedIn turning themselves into cheap, plastic, replaceable products is the least surprising thing.— akreon (@_akreon_) April 10, 2025 The counter-hashtag #StarterPackNoAI quickly began circulating among creatives pushing back against what they see as the erosion of artistic labor. The starter pack trend follows closely on the heels of the controversial Studio Ghibli AI trend, which sparked debate over whether OpenAI was unfairly using the work of artists, including Studio Ghiblis Hayao Miyazaki. Environmental and cultural concerns aside, some users simply hate to see the TikTokification of LinkedIn. “Went over to LinkedIn for a break from tariff world is ending doomscrolling. Got a feed full of ‘I made myself an action figure, another X user complained. Take me back doomscrollers.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Bodyarmor just unveiled the brands biggest-ever packaging refresh after nearly 15 years on the shelf. The sports drink brands new look coincides with the debut of a new national TV advertising campaign called Choose Better, which will air beginning this weekend during the National Hockey League playoffs and stars professional athletes including NHL all-star Connor McDavid and Womens National Basketball Association champion Sabrina Ionescu. Bodyarmor says the rebrand was a nearly yearlong effort and includes newly designed labels across the entire portfolio, placing nutritional claims more boldly on the front of the packaging, a refreshed wordmark, and a brand new icon that evokes a battle shield. The company developed the new visual identity with Jones Knowles Ritchie, the agency behind the rebrands for Impossible Foods and Burger King. The investments in a new look and Bodyarmors largest-ever media investment reflect the companys view that the nearly $20 billion sports and performance drinks category has gotten more competitive and that consumers are craving more functional products, which now include newer innovations like rapid rehydration and single-serve powder sticks. This is a consumer thats evolving and we need to evolve to continue to have that edge, says Federico Muyshondt, CEO of Bodyarmor Sports Nutrition. Coca-Cola is the second-largest sports drink seller in the U.S. with the beverage giants Powerade and Bodyarmor brands, the latter fully acquired in an all-cash deal valued at $5.6 billion in 2021. But PepsiCos Gatorade still commands roughly two-thirds of the market, according to beverage insights publication Beverage Digest. Volume of Cokes sports drinks slipped 1% in 2024 from the prior year, while the trademark Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, sparkling flavors, and tea all grew. Muyshondt says the sports drink category has doubled in size over the past decade and will continue to grow in the years to come, adding that his north star goal is to become the top sellermeaning he wants to usurp Gatorades market dominance. Thats what were focused on, says Muyshondt. Market researcher Mintel has estimated that total sports drink category sales are projected to reach $27.5 billion by 2028. Bodyarmor Chief Marketing Officer Tom Gargiulo says the new packaging will help differentiate the brands more expansive product range, which includes the mainstay sports drink along with low-calorie and zero-sugar options, as well as an alkaline water and Flash I.V. Bodyarmor also incorporated real imagery of fruit on pack. [Photo: Bodyarmor] We wanted to make sure that flavor was front and center and super prominent at the top of the bottle, says Gargiulo. Bodyarmor says 59% of consumers always read the ingredients or nutrition facts on new foods and beverages they buy, citing data from food industry marketing researcher the Hartman Group. That helped influence the decision to list more nutritional claims and ingredients for the core sports drink range, including the use of coconut water, natural flavors and sweeteners, vitamins, and even the precise level of electrolytes in each drink. Laurie Demeritt, CEO of the Hartman Group, says consumers have gotten more savvy about hydration and understanding that not all beverages quench thirst equally. This idea of hydration has really changed, in terms of how consumers perceive it, says Demeritt. It used to be: I’m thirsty and I need to hydrate. Hydration now has this multifaceted meaning in most consumers minds. Demeritt cautions that while consumers do want to know more about what food and drinks they consume, typically only one or two considerations are top of mind before making a purchase. We have to guard against a proliferation of claims being made across packaging, says Demeritt. Theres limited real estate. Bodyarmor acknowledges that it will need to do some work educating consumers on electrolytes. The standard Bodyarmor sports drink has 1,390 mg of electrolytes, but that figure isnt as easily digestible to consumers as more familiar numbers for calories and sugar. We talk a lot about the science of hydration, why hide it in the back? asks Muyshondt. This category has existed for 65 years and people are not familiar with the number of electrolytes. Electrolytes come from the food and fluids that humans consume and include sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, and calcium. They are essential for basic life functions, including controlling the nervous system and keeping muscles functioning. Katherine Brooking, a registered dietitian, says food industry trade shows like Expo West are often inundated with powders and drinks that make big claims regarding their ability to replenish electrolytes. But she says electrolytes can also be obtained through a balanced diet that includes fruits and vegetables, nuts, beans, and whole grains. Always look at labels and be mindful of the calories you might be consuming in these products and the amount of sugar, because they can get really high, really quick, says Brooking. Sabrina Niland, VP of innovation at Bodyarmor, says the brand has also sought to differentiate itself from the crowd by selling sports drink mainstays like fruit punch, but also more unique combinations like strawberry banana and peach mango. What we have found is people that love Bodyarmor, really love the unique combinations of flavors that we have, adds Niland. [Image: Bodyarmor] The Choose Better campaign will also be featured throughout programming by sports media website Barstool Sports, in social media content created by the comedy baseball team the Savannah Bananas, and in partnership with sports and comedy group Dude Perfect. Created by Bodyarmors in-house team and the advertising agency Cartwright, the TV spot depicts a dystopian world with athletes mindlessly going through the motions of lifting weights, running on treadmills, and riding on stationary bikes, always with an unbranded, glowing orange sports drink beside them. But the scene quickly changes and shows athletes running outside, on a basketball court, and biking through the forest, all powered by Bodyarmor, of course. Prior Bodyarmor ad spots focused exclusively on star athletes and as a result, the brand says it struggled a bit with relatability. The new campaign features McDavid, Ionescu, and the NFLs CeeDee Lamb and Joe Burrow, but Bodyarmor is also featuring nonprofessional athletes. We see an opportunity to speak to people outside of hardcore sports, says Gargiulo. Now, were really focusing on everyday people as part of the campaign.
Category:
E-Commerce
U.S President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s termination “cannot come fast enough”, while calling for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates. Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, reiterated his stance on rate cuts, saying that Powell “should have lowered interest rates, like the (European Central Bank), long ago, but he should certainly lower them now.” The Fed’s benchmark interest rate is currently 4.25%-4.50%, where it has been since December following several rate cuts late last year. Trump’s comments come a day after Powell said at an event at the Economic Club of Chicago that the Fed’s “independence is very widely understood and supported in Washington and in Congress where it really matters.” Trump in his post said Powell was “always too late and wrong”, and critiqued the speech Powell made on Wednesday, calling it “another, and typical, complete mess!” Powell, who on Wednesday spoke for the first time since Trump paused some tariffs, also characterized the ongoing market volatility of recent weeks as a logical processing of the Trump administration’s dramatic shifts in trade policy not a sign of stress that warranted a Fed response. Powell warned Trump’s tariff policies risked pushing inflation and employment further from the central bank’s goals and said the Fed was “well positioned to wait for greater clarity”. Angela Christy and Gursimran Kaur, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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