Good morning. Today, the Golden Arches tries to revive a brand promise, Target’s next CEO plots to bring back the chain’s style, the “happiness market” thrives in gloomy times and app makers get good news from Google.

McDonald’s is lowering the cost of its combo meals after customers got sticker shock from Big Mac combinations priced as high as $18 in some places, Heather Haddon reports.

The chain and its U.S. franchisees agreed after weeks of talks to keep the cost of eight popular combo meals 15% below the sum of the components’ prices, according to company materials viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The chain also will run $5 breakfast and $8 Big Mac and McNugget combo meal specials later this year, marketing them as Extra Value Meals.

McDonald’s has been trying to restore its reputation for affordability. Its new McValue menu is helping, but many customers still say its overall prices are too high. The new prices take effect in early September.

More value marketing: Chipotle introduced a loyalty club for college students, letting it time promotions to the school calendar and raise its value for young people without cutting prices chain-wide. [Restaurant Business]

Target named Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke to become its new CEO in February, choosing a lifelong employee to lift the company out of its funk, Sarah Nassauer writes.

He succeeds Brian Cornell, who was the company’s first outsider CEO.

Sales have suffered as shoppers concluded Target’s prices are too high, its products aren’t as exciting as they used to be and its stores are messy and understocked. Target also upset a range of constituencies with its 2023 Pride collection and its recent retreat from DEI.

Target lost some of its magic in the midst of the supply-chain chaos and skyrocketing sales of the early pandemic, Fiddelke said.

In certain product categories, “We leaned into the core of that category, and the second we did that, we lost a little bit of the fashion and trend that was our hallmark,” he said. “We need to bring that back.”

More retail: T.J. Maxx parent TJX reported higher-than-expected earnings and sales in the latest quarter, as consumers flocked to the company’s stores in search of value and deals. [WSJ] 

With the ugly-cute Labubu dolls hanging from purses around the world, Chinese entrepreneur Wang Ning has found a formula to keep shoppers shopping at a time of global economic uncertainty, Shen Lu writes.

Call it the “happiness market,” the niche of affordable pleasures like the now-ubiquitous Labubus that helped Pop Mart, the company Wang founded and heads, publish record-breaking results Tuesday.

Revenue for the year’s first half tripled compared with last year to 13.88 billion yuan, or $1.93 billion, surpassing the company’s sales for all of 2024. Net profit rose nearly 400% to the equivalent of $636.61 million.

The company is a rare bright spot in the gloomy Chinese economy. It and three other Hong Kong-listed companies—jewelry brand Laopu Gold, Mao Geping Cosmetics and ultracheap fast-food chain Mixue—have been dubbed the dream team of “new retail,” harnessing the desire of young Chinese for feel-good purchases.

Google will change its terms and conditions for developers using its Play Store in a bid to stave off a potential fine under European Union tech rules, Edith Hancock reports.

Google said in a blog post on Tuesday that it would alter fees it charges developers for app downloads and make it easier to lead users to deals and offers outside of its own app store.

The company also warned, however, that links leading outside the Play Store can expose users to security threats.

The move comes after the EU’s antitrust watchdog told Google earlier this year that Play Store rules might be in breach of the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s relatively new rulebook designed to rein in Big Tech’s market power.

How Sydney Sweeney became the most talked-about woman in Hollywood. [WSJ. Magazine]  

Why Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo’s efforts to use social media like Zohran Mamdani is “missing the point.” [Fast Company] 

Brooklyn art collective MSCHF, known for work like sneakers containing a drop of human blood, opened Applied MSCHF, a creative agency “of sorts.” [Ad Age] 

Netflix announced a deal with YouTube star Mark Rober to make a family-focused competition show for the streamer. [Tubefilter]

The Spectator’s U.S. edition will double its print frequency to 24 issues per year as publishers try to eke more money out of digital advertisers. [Axios] 

Scratch-and-sniff is making a comeback on billboards promoting razors, lip balm and lower body spray for men. [Adweek]