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👋 Good morning. If you have young children at home, maybe keep a close eye on your phone. A woman in Kentucky learned that the hard way when her son accidentally ordered 70k Dum-Dum lollipops on Amazon for $4.2k. The oopsie wasn’t discovered until 30 cases of candy showed up on her doorstep. Luckily, after talking to news stations and working with her bank, Amazon offered a full refund.

🎧 On the pod: How Sprite’s lemon-lime empire beat out Pepsi to nab the spot as America’s No. 3 soda.

NEWS FLASH

A statue of Mickey Mouse at Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World

🎡 Disney says Yas to a new park: The Walt Disney Co. is opening its seventh theme park resort on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island. Disney is partnering with immersive destination and experiences company Miral on the park, with its imagineers leading the creative and operational sides of the project. Yas Island, a popular tourist spot and home to Warner Bros. World and SeaWorld, saw 34m+ visits in 2023, a 38% increase from the year before. And Abu Dhabi itself is going all in on boosting tourism: It announced plans to invest $10B+ into tourism infrastructure.

💼 Looking for a remote, six-figure role as a puppy cuddler: LinkedIn is rolling out a new AI-powered tool that lets users search for job opportunities using plain language. The LLM-powered feature interprets the user’s intent, matching them with roles that might’ve otherwise been missed with a traditional keyword search. LinkedIn, which currently lists 15m+ job postings, is seeing job seekers apply to more roles than before — 11k+ users apply for a job every minute. Its other new feature, “job match,” helps applicants assess their qualifications for a role before applying.

✈️ Newark Liberty International Airport is having a rough time. Hundreds of flights have been delayed or canceled this week as the airport grapples with bad weather, air traffic controller shortages, and the three-month closure of its busiest runway for departures due to repairs. Also concerning: Air traffic controllers at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, which works with Newark, lost communication with planes last month for 30-90 seconds — a long time for air travel — leading several employees to take time off due to stress, per the FAA and the controllers’ union.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Remember WeightWatchers? The 62-year-old company filed for bankruptcy this week after getting outpaced by GLP-1 weight loss drugs and succumbing to $1.5B in debt. Also, there was that time Oprah Winfrey exited the company’s board shortly after revealing she’d been using weight loss drugs.
Netflix is vying for your itty-bitty attention span. The company is testing a new short–form video feature on mobile that will let its 300m+ subscribers scroll through clips of its shows, to either watch immediately, save to their list, or share with friends.
Real IDs — or another compliant ID, such as a passport or green card — are now required to fly domestically in the US as of yesterday. The legislation passed in 2005 but was delayed numerous times. Now that it’s finally happening, DMVs are seeing long lines and airports are expecting chaos.

FROM OUR FRIENDS AT MINDSTREAM

A pixel art image of a closet with clothes and plants

Let your eyes do the talking on Pinterest

The problem: You laid eyes on the perfect vibe for your new apartment, but don’t have the words to search for a photo.

The solution: Pinterest’s new generative-AI tool.

The app’s latest upgrade suggests keywords based on what you might like about a Pin.
It’s powered by visual language models, AI that can recognize images.

And the tool aims to make it easier for users to find alternative styles and materials as they browse products.

Is this the shopping revolution we’ve been waiting for? Read more to find out.

THE BIG IDEA

How Sprite overtook Pepsi as America’s No. 3 soda

Last year, Dr Pepper surpassed Pepsi as the No. 2 soda in the US, falling only behind the behemoth that is Coca-Cola.

Dr Pepper’s strength came from its 20+ flavors, and the fact that it’s owned by Keurig Dr Pepper. Many establishments serve either Coke or Pepsi, but most also serve Dr Pepper regardless.

But now, Pepsi has dropped yet another spot as Sprite — Coke’s lemon-lime soda — has cinched the No. 3 spot, despite PepsiCo’s efforts to compete with Starry, its lemon-lime Sierra Mist replacement.

How’d Sprite come out on top?

Sprite has long leaned on culture to market its brand, specifically basketball and hip-hop. It continues to do so today, updated for a modern audience.

In 2024, Sprite relaunched its 30-year-old “Obey Your Thirst” campaign with two sports stars: the NBA’s Anthony Edwards, and track-and-field sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, the brand’s first female athlete partner.
The move plays on nostalgia while targeting a new generation: In Edwards’ commercial, he assumes the same role that NBA star Grant Hill did in the ‘90s — and Hill performs the ad’s voiceover.
Sprite is on trend, tapping Doechii before the rapper blew up; Richardson’s commercial dropped just months before she won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
QR codes on packaging lead to online experiences, like a collab with Black House Radio, a platform for Black DJs.
Sprite became a founding sponsor of Unrivaled, a women’s basketball league.

Also…

… Sprite scored a pretty significant flavor win.

Sprite Chill, a limited-edition soda featuring a proprietary “cooling sensation,” is now a permanent product after becoming Coke’s top seller in 2024 with $50m in sales in 21 weeks. Again, Sprite hired an NBA player, Trae Young, to star in ads.

Sprite Chill has since sold $100m in the past 12 months. Josh Kroo, VP of sparkling flavors at Coca-Cola, told Adweek, “It’s not just another flavor; it’s an experience.”

Experiences are what younger consumers are looking for, whether that’s a unique vibe, a digital experience, or a new flavor. Speaking of which, the latest TikTok hack is a fountain Sprite with three pumps of vanilla syrup, which apparently tastes like cotton candy.

People are ordering this at McDonald’s… which has primarily served Coca-Cola products since 1955.

🔗

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

The number of public-company CEOs that left their posts in 2024, up 24% from 2023.

At US businesses with 25+ employees, 2.2k+ CEOs said sayonara last year, the most since executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas started tracking in 2002.

What’s making the C-suite run for the hills? A looming recession and an uncertain economy, artificial intelligence, and tumultuous tariffs could be to blame, per The Wall Street Journal.

While the perks can be pretty sweet — the median pay for a S&P 500 CEO hit a record $16.4m last year — being at the top can be a stressful gig.

Heck, being in charge at all can be stressful: Managers are 1.7x more likely to report high levels of stress in the workplace than employees who aren’t in leadership roles, according to HR consulting firm McLean & Co.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1852, Little Women author Louisa May Alcott published her first short story, “The Rival Painters: A Story of Rome” in the Boston Olive Branch.

🦆 That’s interesting: The history of wine brand Decoy’s wooden duck label.

💡 Opportunity: Apply for Boardroom Members Club, a professional development community from Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Boardroom launching this June, to access an elite network of industry leaders via monthly events, panels, and more.

♟️ Game: "One Million Chessboards" is absolute chaos.

🐄 Aww: Cowchella.

QUOTE OF NOTE

Quote: "I don't have to talk to anyone. I can fart, pick my nose, do whatever I want, and the driver never gets offended... And you don't have to tip!"

Everyone hates robots and AI for taking our jobs — until they take a ride in a driverless Uber.

Vanity Fair’s Nick Bilton says that everyone he knows who’s ridden in one swears they’ll “never” hail a human-helmed Uber again, including his very honest (but kinda gross) friend, who simply said what we’re likely all thinking.

Whose input hasn’t he heard? We’re guessing human Uber drivers (and also probably people who love small talk).

SHOWER THOUGHT

Institutions can’t save money using thin toilet paper. Everyone just doubles or triples up the amount used each time. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman, with help from Singdhi Sokpo and Kaylee Jenzen.
Editing by: Ben “Intentionally bought 70k Dum-Dums” Berkley.

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