Good morning. Today, alcohol brands cater to cost-conscious adults.

Buying drinks out at night has gotten so expensive that grown-ups are pregaming like they did in college or sneaking mini liquor bottles into venues. And marketers are following their cues.

“You’re seeing consumers gathering at home or a friend’s house before going out,” Suntory CEO Greg Hughes tells the Journal’s Laura Cooper. “They’re trying to stretch the dollar by pregaming. You can see that’s what’s growing.”

The average price of a cocktail in America is now $13.61, according to market-research firm Technomic. In places like New York City, it’s much higher.

Manhattanite Alexis Candee said with those prices, she can make four drinks for the price of one cocktail. On a recent Tuesday night, a martini at home before going out to see “MJ the Musical” kept her from splurging $36 on a vodka soda.

Big brands are catering to price concerns by selling smaller bottles.

Last year, Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila brand debuted airplane-sized bottles, designed as both a fashion accessory and a way to drink tequila on the go. Diageo put its premium Don Julio 1942 extra Añejo tequila into 50 mL containers. And Angel’s Envy will soon sell 50 mL bottles of one of its whiskeys.

Up next? Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, a major alcohol distributor, included “half-sized cocktails at half the price” on its list of emerging drink trends spotted at bars in London and Paris. [Southern Glazer’s]

The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Megan Graham reports from an unusual publicity event yesterday:

Diapers and dining out don’t typically mix for non-parents, but they did for me Wednesday afternoon when I found myself at Wild—the gluten-free West Village restaurant from Thinx co-founder Miki Agrawal—eating a slice of pepperoni while jars of diapers biodegraded mere feet away. (You might think this would work as an appetite suppressant for me, but apparently you would be wrong.)

The occasion was a new art installation to promote Hiro Diapers, Agrawal’s newest company, which makes high-end diapers with a little fungi packet that can be thrown in the used diaper to break down the plastic over time.

“Each Hiro Pouch contains a proprietary blend of shelf stable SuperHiro Fungi, that when discarded, can activate in a couple of weeks,” the company’s website reads. “Hiro’s vision is to break down soft plastics in under 12 months in landfills.”

Halfway through lunch, a man in a mushroom cap and bell-bottoms roller-skated into the restaurant, beseeching us to come outside. There, guests were invited to do a countdown until a tarp was pulled off the installation to reveal a structure meant to represent the 6,000 diapers a baby typically goes through in infancy. Strangers from the street immediately rushed to get inside the giant pile of diapers, further proof that New Yorkers will stand in line for just about anything.

Hiro plans to drive the installation across the country in the coming months, making stops in cities including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle.

The main outside group supporting Democrats’ efforts to regain control of the House is reserving $272 million in television and digital advertising ahead of the November midterm elections, with most of the money targeting seats currently held by Republicans, Ken Thomas writes for the Journal.

The House Majority PAC outlined its plans Thursday to spend substantially in media markets from Miami to Phoenix to Philadelphia, offering a road map to Democrats’ strategy, Ken writes.

Nearly 80% of the ad reservations are focused on GOP-held seats, reflecting a more optimistic outlook from the committee, which reserved about half of its advertising in 2024 to protect Democratic-aligned seats.

Some of this year’s reservations include nearly $20 million in Florida, the first time the PAC has reserved advertising in the state since the 2020 election cycle.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC tied to House Republican leadership, hasn’t yet specified its ad targets.

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“I Love LA” creator Rachel Sennott stars in a micro-drama for Marc Jacobs about a chaotic night trying to go viral to get into the Met Gala. [Adweek] 

Serena Williams is the new face of alcohol-free Heineken 0.0. [Drinks Business] 

Former Spotify, Condé Nast and CW executive Dawn Ostroff has joined the board of AI advertising firm Moloco. [Deadline]

Influencers as young as 13 are receiving skincare products to promote to even younger followers despite dermatologists’ warnings. [The Guardian] 

Capri Sun is bringing electrolyte marketing to its pouches for kids. [Food Dive] 

The online medical scheduler Zocdoc has hired Lyft CMO Brian Irving to be its first chief marketing officer.
[Adweek]

Why Starbucks’ Strawberry Açai Lemonade Refresher is the go-to after-school order for New York City teens. [Grub Street]