Good morning. This is Megan Graham filling in for Nat Ives. Today, the sequel of "A Simple Favor" is a tricky marketing endeavor; making an all-American product isn't easy and Colgate-Palmolive's customers are spooked by economic uncertainty. 

The promotion of the coming sequel of the 2018 film "A Simple Favor" has been quiet compared with its predecessor, Allie Jones reports. 

Its starring actress Blake Lively is embroiled in a legal battle with Justin Baldoni, her co-star and director from her last film, “It Ends With Us,” which has blown up into the biggest Hollywood scandal of the year. In the midst of dueling lawsuits, Lively has a new movie to promote—a risky endeavor when any wrong move could be used against her, legal and public relations experts say.

“They will be combing through every single action, interaction and comment regarding the press around this movie,” Dina Doll, an attorney and legal analyst, said of Baldoni’s attorneys, “because the press around ‘It Ends With Us’ is a very key part of that initial litigation.”

Companies have long highlighted “Made in the U.S.A.” products even after much of the nation’s industrial base migrated overseas. Some manufacturing returned in the wake of the Covid-19 supply-chain disruptions, and President Trump has said his tariffs are meant to bring back much more, John Keilman reports. 

Manufacturers that already make products in the U.S. said it is tough to create an entirely domestic supply chain. Parts or materials vital to their products are no longer made here, they said, or are available only in quantities that are too low or prices that are too high.

Ricky Cousido is co-owner of Brooklyn-based Rapid Plastics, a six-person company that makes high-end coat hangers for department stores and other retailers. He said the domestic suppliers that furnished the metal hooks for his company’s hangers closed or went overseas more than two decades ago.

He now gets the hooks and other metal components from China, and the U.S. tariffs on imports from the country are rapidly boosting his expenses. The bar of a skirt hanger, which cost 40 cents before the duties were imposed, now costs 80 cents, he said.

Cousido said government policy should make exceptions for manufacturers unable to find U.S.-made components.

“I can’t beg some company, ‘open up, make this item for us,’” he said.

Colgate-Palmolive executives said consumers have been buying less toothpaste and soap as they brace for economic uncertainty, causing the company to lower its full-year earnings estimate, Katherine Hamilton reports. 

“Uncertainty creates a pensive and anxious consumer,” Chief Executive Noel Wallace said during a Friday call. “You see consumers destock their pantries and not necessarily buy that extra toothpaste tube or that extra body wash.”

The maker of Ajax and Softsoap lowered its full-year guidance based on the estimated cost of tariffs, which it expects to be around $200 million for the year. It now projects earnings will increase in the low-single digits, compared with previous guidance in January of mid-single-digit growth.

The New York consumer-products maker was already expecting somewhat lower demand in 2025 following high rates of inflation, Wallace said. But in February, in-store traffic and sales volume in North America dropped more sharply than expected as the stock market declined.

America’s leather economy has gone global, and now it can’t escape the trade war. [WSJ]

Big brands are officially worried about American shoppers. [NPR]

Label obsession grips Canada as shoppers shun American products. [WSJ] 

Chinese manufacturers are scouring the world for new buyers. [WSJ]

The trade war’s wave of retail shortages will hit U.S. consumers in stages. Here’s when. [CNBC]

Meta’s ‘digital companions’ will talk sex with users—even children. [WSJ] 

Marketing chiefs say film and TV biz will hang tough amid recession fears. [Variety]

How Chili’s won when America raged about fast-food prices. [WSJ]