Good morning. Today, selling protein bars is harder than it looks. Plus: Nike walks back a Boston Marathon ad.

America’s protein craze ought to mean boom times for Simply Good Foods, which sells protein bars, drinks, chips and more under well-known brands like Quest and Atkins. Instead the company is looking for a turnaround, The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Megan Graham writes.

Net sales fell 9.4% in the latest quarter, driven by a 27% decline for Atkins and 17% for plant-based brand Owyn, while Quest was essentially flat. 

The company now expects net sales to decline 7% to 10% this fiscal year, replacing a prior guidance range of minus 2% to plus 2%.

And rival Barebells has overtaken Quest for the top spot in high-protein bars.

“We are not pleased with our performance,” President and Chief Executive Joe Scalzo, a former CEO of the company who was brought back in January to reinvigorate growth, said on an investor call.

I asked Megan how hard it could really be to sell protein at a time like this.

Of course there’s a lot of competition, but the demand for protein right now just seems like a classic rising tide. I don’t even want to talk about how often someone says “protein” in my household. So what’s separating the fast-growing protein brands from the rest?

Megan: So much has happened in the way of food innovation in the past several years that protein content alone isn’t enough.

One contingent of consumers is unforgiving about weird texture or aftertaste when certain emerging brands taste more like candy bars than nutritional products. (For instance, I can’t stop eating coconut Built Puffs, which are just about as good as Almond Joys.) Meanwhile, other consumers are much more picky about nutrition labels; they don’t just want the 20 grams of protein. They want to avoid certain ingredients or products that are too processed.

The products winning right now seem to be those that are either delicious and keeping new flavors coming often enough to keep the novelty alive, or that meet the strict criteria for more health-conscious consumers. If you’re missing both of those targets, you’re going to have a tough time winning right now.

You haven’t made it big in tech if your personal brand hasn’t inspired company merch.

• Palantir last year introduced a limited-edition, $75 T-shirt showing CEO Alex Karp in watercolor, neck muscles taut and eyes hidden by dark sunglasses, above his favorite motto, “Dominate.”
• Attendees at Nvidia’s annual conference could buy a $178 green sweater with a cartoon depiction of CEO Jensen Huang.
• And Anduril sells $79.99 Hawaiian shirts inspired by founder Palmer Luckey’s attire.

Startup founders often share a “brazen, somewhat bizarre personality” that fans want to connect with, the executive coach Alisa Cohn tells Robbie Whelan.

Putting their faces on corporate merchandise is a sign that the companies want people to associate the startups with the personas of their CEOs, she said.

“It’s silly and funny. It’s like, ‘Let your freak flag fly,’” Cohn said. “But it’s also about building a cult.”

Nike’s attempt to get in on the Boston Marathon (official footwear sponsor: Adidas) kicked up a fuss before the race, Megan Graham reports for the newsletter:

A Nike store last week briefly hailed participants in today’s Boston Marathon—some of them, anyway. “RUNNERS WELCOME,” a bright-red window poster said in bold lettering. “WALKERS TOLERATED.”

Fiery online debate ensued.

Some commenters called the ad overly negative toward those who choose to or need to walk. “It is kinda pace shaming isn't it?” one Instagram commenter said.

“This is just such an elitist mentality,” another added. “The reason why so many people don’t want to join running groups or races [is] because they feel beginners or walking will be frowned upon or that they’re less than.”

Others said the backlash was excessive. “It’s not shaming—the race is about running,” one of the defenders said. “If you feel offended that says something about your low self esteem.”

Now it’s the ad that stopped running.

“We want more people to feel welcome in running—no matter their pace, experience or the distance,” Nike said in a statement after pulling the poster down. “During race week in Boston, we put up a series of signs to encourage runners. One of them missed the mark. We took it down, and we’ll use this moment to do better and continue showing up for all runners.”

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Influencers including some Make America Healthy Again advocates are promoting nicotine as the next great natural health supplement. [NYT] 

David’s Bridal is trying to modernize its marketing strategy with an ambassador program using hundreds of creators and company employees. [Modern Retail]

Anthropic introduced an AI design tool to help users create slides, decks and other marketing and sales collateral. [Adweek] 

Sam Altman’s proof-of-human company World announced new integrations with services including Zoom, DocuSign, Okta and Shopify to help users show that they’re not AI agents, bots or deepfakes. Tinder will expand a trial from Japan to the U.S. [Axios] 

The publicity tour for “The Devil Wears Prada 2” has the “distinct flavor of late ‘Sex and the City’ rot, when the movies became an out-of-touch montage of luxury fashion brands and five-star resorts,” Emma Rosenblum writes. [WSJ] 

The peptides phenomenon is spreading from topical skincare to makeup and other beauty products. [Glossy] 

Check out Heineken’s light-up, music-based matchmaker and seven more big brand activations from Coachella. [Future Labs]