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IN THIS ISSUE
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| Executive shakeups, creepy dolls and the real reason we buy Halloween candy.
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The News Fix
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This week the chief executives of Nike and Under Armour both announced imminent departures from their companies. Nike’s Mark Parker and UA’s Kevin Plank will be out at the end of this year.
It’s been a big year for CEO departures, with about 1,160 U.S. corporations changing their leadership — an all time record, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. For retailers, specifically, big shifts in the way people shop mean companies now need leaders with different skill sets. Parker and Plank will be replaced by executives with strong backgrounds in technology and operations, both key to running e-commerce.
But the changeovers at Nike and UA come as the sports brands face deeper scrutiny of their culture and values. Under Armour came under fire after allegations that it fostered a misogynist culture, including using company funds for strip club outings. Nike has been sued for gender discrimination, and it recently shut down one of its athletic training programs amid doping allegations.
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Smart in a Shot
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This December marks the advent of a new kind of apple. Researchers at Washington State University have spent decades perfecting the strain, dubbed Cosmic Crisp, which boasts “perfect flavor, crisp texture, juicy interior, striking color [and] naturally slow to brown” in a promotional video.
The people behind Cosmic Crisp are spending $10.5 million on marketing — the “largest consumer launch in apple history,” according to its video. That level of investment worked famously well for the Cuties brand of clementine oranges (whose rising popularity, incidentally, came partly at the expense of the once-popular Red Delicious apple). If you’re comparing apples to oranges, it looks like it’s all going to boil down to advertising.
The growers have surely got their work sliced out for them. Already they’ve planted 12 million trees and are offering 450,000 40-pound boxes of apples for sale this year, a volume that’s slated to grow to 2 million boxes by 2020.
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The Numbers
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And now for something even sweeter. Halloween is around the corner, and it’s time to pick out some candy and get ready for trick-or-treaters. Let’s do the numbers.
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| $2.6 billion
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That’s how much Americans are expected to spend on Halloween candy this year. Costumes will gobble up another $3.2 billion and decorations will nab $2.7 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
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| 95%
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Among Americans celebrating the spooky holiday, that’s the portion who said they’re planning to buy candy — significantly higher than the percentage who plan to hand it out (69%). So go ahead, turn the porch light off and enjoy as many fun-sized treats as you like. You won’t be alone.
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| 36%
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That’s the percentage of adults, surveyed by Monmouth University, who chose Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups as their favorite Halloween candy — the clear winner. Snickers and M&M’s followed, at 18% and 11% respectively. (By the way Kai Ryssdal prefers Reese’s Pieces. Candy corn, he says, “is devil spawn.”)
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None of us is as smart as all of us
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| Tell us what’s making you smarter at
smarter@marketplace.org. We'd love to include your recommendation in a future newsletter.
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Netflix and drill down
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Marketplace reporter Janet Nguyen recommends Wired video series “Technique Critique,” where experts break down film and television depictions of what they do, from professional drivers to surgical residents and accent experts.
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What we hear depends on what we’re listening for
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Listener Zeb G. recommends this academic paper on how perceived patterns of speech can constrain economic mobility. He said it was interesting to consider how people might form impressions of each other “based on things that are, for the most part, outside of our conscious control.” (And hey, Marketplace’s “This Is Uncomfortable” podcast talked to a researcher about this — check it out here.)
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None of us is as spooked as all of us
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| Producer Kristina Lopez recommends this unsettling piece about the antique doll collection at the History Center of Olmsted County, Minnesota. The dolls weren’t intended to be frightening when they were made — that happened over time. The better-preserved ones used higher-quality materials, such as human hair.
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Elevate your understanding of what's trending, breaking and buzzing with Make Me Smart. Because none of us is as smart as all of us.
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