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Can a Hemorrhoid Cream Be Cool?; How Ford Failed to Bottle Tesla’s EV Magic; CBS News Pulls ‘60 Minutes’ Segment on El Salvador Deportations
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Welcome back. Today, unspoken subjects give startups a chance to make noise; an iconic brand name weighs on the F-150 Lightning; and a new disagreement flares up at “60 Minutes.”
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Beauty and health brands like Norms aim to attract customers by repositioning formerly uncomfortable, private or embarrassing conditions. Colin Sheehan
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How to sell a product nobody wants to want? New packaging, no shame.
The matcha fro-yo stores and Korean beauty pop-ups of Manhattan’s SoHo were recently joined by a storefront promoting Norms hemorrhoid cream, Fiorella Valdesolo writes for The Journal.
“Hemorrhoid relief,” read the bubbly font in the window. “It’s Totally Normal.” Doughnut-shaped pillows on stools in front repeated the message.
Norms arrived on the market in September with investors including True Beauty Ventures, which also backed sunscreen brand Vacation, and Cardiff Giant, co-founded this year by comedian Pete Davidson.
Brand co-founder Josh Kataz and budding “medfluencer” Dr. Wendi LeBrett appear in videos about everything from how to wipe to what to do if you find blood in your stool. Product packaging features swirling, ’70s-style graphics.
Other brands reframing health issues include Hims for hair loss, Megababe for thigh chafing, Frida for postpartum recovery and Starface for acne.
“We’re seeing this powerful cultural shift toward destigmatization, and it’s really driven by younger consumers who value authenticity in terms of how they’re approaching purchases for themselves,” said Rebecca Watters, associate director of household and health at market research firm Mintel.
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Daisy Korpics/WSJ, Shutterstock, iStock
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But the trend is also playing out in holiday gifts:
People are buying friends and family health and wellness presents from microbiome tests to blood panels for hormone levels , Andrea Petersen and Sara Ashley O’Brien write.
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Darlene Fiske is giving her 22-year-old son a gut microbiome test kit that requires a DIY poop sample. The packaging doesn’t scream medical test. “It comes in this beautiful silver box,” Fiske said. “It looks like Apple made it.”
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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On the Board’s Agenda: Turn Disruption into Growth Opportunity
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By mapping out plausible futures, factoring in variables such as regulatory shifts, supply chain disruptions, or market volatility, directors can help organizations prepare for a wide range of likely outcomes. Read More
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Ford CEO Jim Farley said the electric F-150 Lightning ‘might as well have a Superman cape and a Captain America shield.’ Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
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Ford’s decision to give up on this generation of the money-losing F-150 Lightning was partly the result of a mismatch between the product and the audience, Tim Higgins argues in the Journal.
Calling the EV part of the F-Series, the bestselling truck line in the U.S. for almost 50 years, gave it an in with lots of traditional truck buyers. And announcing on stage that it “hauls ass and tows like a beast,” as Ford CEO Jim Farley did on stage, encouraged them to view it like, well, a truck.
So when buyers watched the Lightning’s range drop dramatically if they towed heavy loads, complaints took root.
Research executive Alexander Edwards broke down the problem:
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“Traditional Ford F-150 truck buyers are among the most truckiest of all truck people, and while the Ford F-150 Lightning, in my opinion, was a fantastic vehicle, it was not a fantastic vehicle for people who needed it to behave like a Ford F-150 truck all by itself.”
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Customer satisfaction scores were much higher for Rivian, whose less-trucky buyers didn’t mind having to recharge after towing a boat to the lake. They just thought it was cool that their EV could tow a boat.
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$3,750
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Starting rate for “toy soldier dinners” at the FAO Schwarz toy store in Midtown Manhattan after most shoppers are ushered out. Retailers are counting on personal, premium experiences as an antidote for physical stores sickened by e-commerce.
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CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss made the decision over the weekend not to run a ‘60 Minutes’ piece as planned, people familiar with the matter said. Leigh Vogel/Getty Images
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The “60 Minutes” brand continues its bumpy ride.
A “60 Minutes” correspondent called a last-minute decision to pull her report from last night’s episode “political,” intensifying the spotlight on the show and new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss.
CBS held the segment, on an El Salvador maximum-security prison where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, after running ads for it on Friday, Isabella Simonetti reports.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct,” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi wrote in an email to fellow correspondents, saying it had been cleared by CBS attorneys and the standards and practices department.
If the standard for airing a story became the government agreeing to be interviewed, Alfonsi said, the network would cede editorial control.
Weiss said in a statement that her decision was good journalism:
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“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason—that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices—happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
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Paramount boss David Ellison brought in Weiss earlier this year to run “news that reflects reality,” he said at the time, and journalism that “doesn’t seek to demonize, but seeks to understand.”
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“Some of this is about innovation and some is just to show that they could.”
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— Bart Watson, chief executive of the Brewers Association, on high-octane beers like Dogfish Head Triple Decadence World Wide Stout, weighing in at 15% alcohol by volume, and Sam Adams Utopias, which sold a version this year with an ABV of 30%.
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The community where marketing leaders drop the corporate speak and share what’s actually happening. The WSJ CMO Council unites leaders from the world’s most influential brands including Adobe, Audi, Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Meta, Taco Bell, P&G and Verizon.
Tap into the connections and WSJ intelligence that move careers forward and separate the prepared from the scrambling.
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The Avatar franchise’s importance to Disney extends beyond movie screens and into theme-park attractions. 20th Century Studios/Everett Collection
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The third “Avatar” movie got off to a slower start at the box office than its predecessor, setting up a long path for it to become another blockbuster by the franchise’s standards. [WSJ]
Larry Ellison agreed to personally guarantee $40.4 billion of equity financing for Paramount’s offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. [WSJ]
Ads for the new “Wicked,” Taco Bell’s Y2K menu and Levi’s x Beyoncé were the most effective TV commercials of the year, according to data and measurement company EDO. [Adweek]
Target is going on scouting trips, stockpiling raw material and using AI to try turning trends into products faster than ever. [Glossy]
Jewelry chain Zales has introduced a store concept called the Edit, targeting young shoppers with a customization studio, a charm bar and rotating displays. [Modern Retail]
A supposed design for the anticipated foldable iPhone calls for surprising dimensions and suggests some very Apple motivations. [GSMArena]
Have you tried to shop without cards or tap-to-pay lately? Here’s what happened when one man declared a no-swipe November. [WSJ]
Jake Paul badly lost that Saturday-night boxing match on Netflix, Jason Gay writes, but it still felt dirty and terrible. [WSJ]
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