Welcome To Friday Fives, Vol. 286
This week, we’re cutting our cravings, hitting the books, marketing down memory lane, predicting typeface popularity, and pondering career paths.
Since the dawn of salty mouth-watering chips and toothache-inducing sweets, the food industry has sold the masses edible products with the idea of irresistibility. But now with the viral rise of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy to curb the “food noise,” the food industry is worrying that their eat-by-the-handful approach may be losing favor. Will this new Ozempic-fueled era lead to brands centering their ads elsewhere, away fromcomfort-food bliss and more toward health and nutrition? Or will the cult of crave-ability win in the advertising world once again?
Gen Z and Millennials Are Booking It to the Library
The resurgence of libraries is long overdue. It seems that Gen Z and millennials are swapping out scrolling for page turning. A study found that 54% of them took trips to a library in 2022. And this sudden surge is not just because of the rise of #BookTok, a viral TikTok genre that favors engagement-worthy front covers. Libraries offer young reformed doomscrollers an oasis away from the social-media realm of commercialism, oversaturation, and info overloads. Plus, libraries have no dreaded ads or fees (that is unless you forgot to return that one book from fifth grade).
What do Grimace, Taylor Swift, and Barbie have in common? This isn’t a set-up for a joke. We’re really asking. The answer is that all of them were featured in prime examples of nostalgic pop culture marketing that dominated 2023. From the viral, and sometimes unsettling, Grimace’s Birthday campaign to Barbie’s $1.36 billion haul and 25% toy sale increase to State Farm going all in on Kelce-Swift mania, these brands proved that tapping into pop culture is always a safe bet. Look for more walks down marketing-memory lane as Mattel cranks out more movies and McDonald’s resurrects old characters from the McUniverse to sell sandwiches.
10 Fonts To Look Out for in 2024
We’re only a month into a fresh calendar, but we’re already noticing 10 typefaces you’ll come face to face with this year. In the serif family, we see typefaces like EVA and Heldane pay homage to trailblazers while forging their own distinct path forward. Over in sans-serif land, Homie and Exposit provide an eye-catching balance of iconic and dynamic. And who says cursive is dead? Secular is a modern solution to all your script needs. We’re not sure if they give out awards for the “most accurately named” typeface, but HVD Rowdy would definitely win this year.
If getting a new job is your New Year’s resolution then check out this list of increasingly in-demand positions. This guide gives you a sense of what skills are necessary for these jobs and tells you which roles can most easily transition into these positions. They even provide links to classes that can help you gain the talents needed to make a switch. The list includes everything from Chief Growth Officer to Artificial Intelligence Consultant to Head of Public Safety, although we were surprised we didn’t see “Newsletter Writer” on the list. It’s a pretty sweet gig.
