brands

It is the first week of July, which means we are officially halfway through the year. And what a year it's been! Brittany sat down with NPR Politics reporter Elena Moore and co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour Stephen Thompson, to take stock of what's happened so far in 2024.

Then, remember when brands weighed in on politics? Like when Gushers said Black Lives Matter or Pepsi made that Kendall Jenner ad? However, in the past few years brands seem to have shied away from touching on "woke" politics. And if advertising reflects culture, what does that say about our culture now? Brittany sits down with Michael Serazio, professor of communication at Boston University – who specializes in the study of advertising - to uncover what's at the root of the reversal.

Remember Juicy Couture and Pier 1? They went under, but not all the way under. Someone still makes millions of dollars off these names. And the hunt for revivable brands is big business.

Big mainstream consumer brands, which have owned our cupboards and closets, face a turning point: a time to evolve or wither. The Internet and the echoes of the recession have changed us as shoppers.

One-click online shopping is changing how we shop. Stores with leases as short as a day are proliferating — meaning a storefront can be a designer clothing store one day and a test kitchen the next.