Michelle Eisen, a 15-year Starbucks veteran, is a barista for the coffee chain at a location in Buffalothe first Starbucks store to unionize back in December 2021, in fact. But on a Tuesday in March, Eisen was at a Pittsburgh Starbucks, to participate in what Starbucks Workers United members have dubbed sip-ins. A spin on sit-ins, they involve union workers and allies hanging out for hours in a Starbucks store, ordering drinks under names like Union Strong and leaving tips for workers.
In the weekend leading up to that Tuesday, union members held more than 100 sip-ins across the country. It was a message to Starbucks management: Union workers were calling attention to the fact that, more than three and a half years after organizing their first store, they still didnt have a contract.
Negotiations between the union and the company have broken down, members say. Since September, the union has presented the company with a number of suggestions around wages, benefits, and guaranteed hours, all of which are meant to be negotiations, but it says the company wouldn’t even counter those offers. The union (and the National Labor Relations Board) argue that Starbucks hasn’t been bargaining in good faith.
But the Pittsburgh action was more than just a sip-in. Partway through, the workers at that store announced that they were on strike and walked out. Most of the attendees followed, forming a picket line on the sidewalk. Eisen and four others stayed in the store, refusing to leave. The sip-in had turned into an occupation.
The stores manager called a manager from a different store for help. They would periodically come over and they were like, We need you to leave and wed say, We’re not leaving. We don’t know what you don’t understand about this, but we will sleep in the store, Eisen says. The five of them, all current or former Starbucks workers, were asking that company executives, including CEO Brian Niccol, talk to them and respond to the union’s demands.
The crowd outside grew louder; there were speeches and chants from people on the picket line. Eventually the store manager called the police, who gave the occupiers three warnings to exit the store. When Eisen and the others refused, they were arrested, handcuffed, and walked out the front doors.
That action was a form of civil disobedience, a nonviolent tactic in which people intentionally break the law or disobey orders in order to highlight actions they say are unjust. It has long been used by activistsduring the civil rights movement, the fight for womens suffrage, and frequently by labor unions looking to improve worker conditions.
For Starbucks Workers United, the decision to engage in acts of civil disobedience didnt happen overnight. It’s a natural evolution or escalation for where we are on the campaign, Eisen says. After three and a half years, still in bargaining, and . . . with an offer [from Starbucks] that is very far from sufficient given what this company can provide to its workers, we felt like we needed to take a stand.
Starbucks sit-ins spur action
Starbucks Workers United has been doing various strikes since its inception in 2021, but recently, those protests and strikes have been escalating to arrests. A January sit-in at a Park Slope store was first. That was a union location that the company was permanently closing. Ahead of the closure, union members peacefully protested, and at least seven were arrested.
Those arrests got a lot of media coverage, and Eisen says it pushed the company to agree, in writing, that they were willing to go to mediationa process in which a company and a union meet with a neutral third party mediator to assist in negotiations.
That agreement to use a mediator was the first progress the union has seen in weeks, Eisen says. Before that, there had been a December bargaining session at which the company proposed an economic package with no wage increases for union baristas. The union opposed that proposal, and then conducted a five-day strike across multiple cities.
The day of the Pittsburgh occupation coincided with two others, at a store in Chicago and also in Seattle. (In Chicago and Pittsburgh, 16 people in total were arrested.) The timing was intentional: The next day, March 12, Starbucks was holding a shareholder meeting. We wanted them to go into that meeting having to defend their actions when it came to how they were dealing with the union stores [and] union workers, Eisen says.
This week, we took direct action to show @Starbucks the urgency of finalizing contracts with the wages, staffing, and protections we need to thrive.Were doing what it takes to win. And we won't stop until we do. pic.twitter.com/OQ60OOGUEO— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) March 13, 2025
At that meeting, Starbucks executives were asked when the company would negotiate its first union contract. Though she didnt give a timeline, Sara Kelly, executive vice president and chief partner officer for Starbucks, answered in part that, When a partner elects a union to represent them, we are committed to engaging in good faith with that union and the partners who have selected that union to negotiate fair contracts.
In a response to a request for comment about these actions and the current bargaining process, a Starbucks spokesperson said the company is focused on creating the best job in retail, and added that the company and the union have held more than nine bargaining sessions since last April and three mediation sessions, reaching over 30 meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them. They reiterated that the company is committed to good faith bargaining.
Why Starbucks workers say civil disobedience makes sense
Workers are willing to risk arrest to draw attention to their fightand that fact alone should show the company how desperate its employees feel, the union says. You’ve got people you employ who feel so strongly about the way you are mistreating them that theyre willing to put their body, their being, at risk to demand change, Eisen says. I just think you have to take that seriously. The union and Starbucks have come to some tentative agreementsaround issues like safety and dress codebut not on economic issues.
The union says the minimal concessions from the companyno raises in the firt year and a guarantee of just 1.5% in future yearsamounts to less than 50 cents an hour for most baristas. The union also still wants progress around guaranteed hours and staffing; they say some workers have had their hours cut below the threshold to qualify for benefits, even as stores are understaffed. Starbucks Workers United filed an unfair labor practice against the company specifically alleging that its refusal to negotiate on economic suggestions, instead coming with a “fixed economic position,” is against the spirit of bargaining in good faith.
Though Eisen was calmly walked out of the building when she was arrested, she says the sit-in was still nerve wracking: there are a lot of unknowns in terms of how the police will respond or how things may escalate. Though civil disobedience itself is nonviolent, it can provoke violent reactions from others.
The union knew that if they were going to engage in actions that come with safety risks or potential arrest, they had to prepare their members. Starbucks Workers United reached out to labor activist Bill Fletcher Jr. to run workshops on civil disobedience, mostly talking about the tactics history and what the union should know if it wanted to carry this out.
The most important thing is that you have a critical mass of your membership that embraces this and feels the need for it, he says, because if you dont, you will find yourself quickly isolated and ultimately defeated.
When some people think of civil disobedience, they might think of the civil rights movement and the Greensboro sit-ins in which young Black students protested racial segregation. To some, the plight of Starbucks workers may seem, in comparison, less serious or not deserving of such drastic action. Unionized Starbucks workers have heard criticisms of their efforts since they began. When, in April 2022, an employee mentioned unfair labor practice charges against the company to then-CEO Howard Schulz, he told her, If youre not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company.
Workers have also been criticized for being just baristas, implying that the title isnt deserving of raises or worker protections. Baristas, though, have been trying to communicate just how chaotic and difficult their jobs areand how understaffing exacerbates that. They’ve also highlighted issues with mobile ordering (asking for pauses or limitations during busy times) and their concerns about low pay.
Eisen adds that its a pervasive American viewpoint that some jobs are just bad, and people should try not to end up there. But theres very little recognition, she notes, of the fact that these are jobs that need to be done. And they are in a lot of ways essential. Why do we look at a job and say, ‘Well, that’s not a skilled job? Working at Starbucks has been the most physically demanding job shes ever doneand shes put in years to develop her skills, get to know regular customers, and make friends with coworkers. Why should I walk away from all that? she says. Why not try to make it better?
Starbucks unionand civil disobediencesits in a bigger context
Diego Franco, a union member and Starbucks worker at a Chicago store, is trying to get a better jobby making his at Starbucks better. He was one of the people arrested at the Chicago sit-in, and though he said he felt nervous ahead of the action, it helped knowing he wasnt doing it alone. [Civil disobedience] comes with a lot of risk, but with that risk, it shows dedicationnot just to get a contract, but to the people who you work with, he says.
Starbucks workers all over the country are participating in a strong showing of solidarity today.Civil disobedience, strikes, solidarity actions, and more are happening at $SBUX locations all over the country.Hear us yet, @Starbucks? ITS TIME TO FINALIZE CONTRACTS NOW. https://t.co/e9GXWHFlFS pic.twitter.com/6hpxshl7l1— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) March 11, 2025
That camaraderie is key, Fletcher says. When speaking to the union, he emphasized the risks and hard realities of civil disobedience, how these actions require preparationand the fact that workers need to know they’re not alone in order to get through it.
The Starbucks unions cause has reached beyond the company. It helped spur a larger revitalized labor movement that has seen record-high strike actions and led to the highest U.S. support for labor unions since 1965. Starbucks workers sit in that broad labor contextas does civil disobedience as a tactic. People are standing on the shoulders of others, he says. Theres a history to this.
Since the first Starbucks store unionized in December 2021, it has been joined by more than 550 stores, encompassing more than 11,000 workers. Though labor experts have long said that penalties under current labor laws are so weak that they’re essentially toothless, the Trump administration has already been even more hostile toward unions, adding to the challenges workers face. Still, Eisen is hopeful about the future of Starbucks Workers United.
I know these members and I know this campaign, and I know that for every one of us who gets exhausted and has to take a step back, there are 10 more Starbucks workers who are willing to step into their place. And so the company is fighting a losing battle, she says. We will keep growing [our actions] and getting bigger, until the company just has to recognize that.
When it opened in 2001, watchmaker Timex’s new headquarters building in Middlebury, Connecticut, was an architectural wonder. Its all-glass walls and open floor plan put the entire 275-person company in one big, light-filled workspace, covered by a swooping arched roof. It was a radical embrace of the ideals of openness, collaboration, and anti-hierarchical social interaction. On top of all this, the award-winning building had one additionaland uniquefeature: a hole in the top that shines sunlight down on an ancient time-marking device known as a meridian line. Covering the building at the time, Fast Company noted the building itself is a watch.
But now the building is on the verge of being demolished, decades earlier than most buildings of its generation would be threatened. A distribution center has been proposed for development on the site, and Timex, which is now majority owned by a hedge fund, is planning to move out. About the only thing standing in the way of the wrecking ball is a man named Nicholas Stuller.
In 2020, the 61-year-old and his family moved to Middlebury, where he runs a financial technology startup. The town of about 8,000 people sits 25 miles outside of New Haven, and is mostly green and bucolic. Its the kind of place where not much changes. So in 2023, many residents were surprised to learn of plans for a speculative 670,000-square-foot distribution center that a group of developers wanted to build there, not far from Interstate 84. Part of the complex, named Southford Park, would sit right on the footprint of the Timex building, known as Watch Hill. To build the distribution center, the Timex building would have to be torn down.
[Photo: M3Media Productions]
Stuller learned the news at the same time as the rest of the community, but he was even more in the dark: Still relatively new to the town, he didn’t know Timex was located there, or about its unique headquarters. Curious, he took a detour one morning in October 2023 on the way to dropping his daughter off at grade school.
Stuller and his daughter pulled up to the building and walked in the front door to take a look. They ended up going on an impromptu tour led by a group of eager company employees. They rolled out the red carpet. An hour and 15 minutes later, I had to take my daughter to school, but they kept on talking about the building, about the company, Stuller says.
[Its] a magnificent building, he adds. It’s so unusual. I’ve been in a lot of buildings around the country and the world, and this is a really unique building. I walked out of there saying, wow, something’s got to get done. Irrespective of the distribution center, this building needs to be preserved.
So Stuller launched a nonprofit called Save Historic Middlebury with the goal of creating preservation laws in the town, which currently has none. The intent is to establish the legal framework to stop the demolition of the Timex building. For now, there’s little to prevent the building’s owners from knocking it down.
Save Historic Middlebury is trying to get the building recognized as a significant historic property. It’s the only building, we think, in the world, let alone the U.S., where the building itself is a working example of the product the company makes, Stuller says. His group has gathered support from a range of preservation groups, including the Sierra Club of Connecticut, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Docomomo US.
[Photo: M3Media Productions]
Former Timex employees are also supportive of the preservation effort. Lou Nugai worked in computer operations for Timex from 1968 until his retirement in 2012, spending time both in the company’s previous headquarters in an office park on the edge of town and in the current building from 2001 onward.
It was nice. The floor plan was open. There was good visibility. I liked it quite a bit, he says, noting it was a particular improvement on the previous headquarters. They were completely opposite. I wouldn’t say it was a dungeon, but it wasn’t as bright or cheerful as Watch Hill.
Last August Save Historic Middlebury made a formal application to the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office to have the building added to the National Register of Historic Places. When we applied to put the building on the register, not surprisingly the developer who owns the building said, no, we don’t want you to put it on, Stuller says. But because anybody can apply for a building to be included on the National Register, Stuller and his group moved forward.
In December, the application was denied at the state level, ostensibly because the building is not at least 50 years old, a general guideline often used to gauge a building’s historic character. It’s one particular person at the state level who just doesn’t like new buildings, Stuller says. Save Historic Middlebury is amending its application and plans to reapply. (The group also briefly filed a lawsuit under the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act to stave off demolition, but withdrew the suit in December.)
Timex plas to vacate the building this spring and move into another office building in nearby Shelton. Once it’s vacant, theoretically the property developer could knock it down, Stuller says. Timex did not respond to requests for comment.
[Photo: M3Media Productions]
In the meantime, other groups in Middlebury have lobbied to stop the development project that would result in the Timex building’s demolition. The Middlebury Small Town Alliance has led a lawsuit against the distribution center’s developers.
It doesn’t match our community, says Jennifer Mahr, president of the alliance. Her organization is opposed to the distribution center, but is also in favor of preserving the Timex building. A lot of us agree that something else could be done on that property as is, says Mahr, who was subsequently elected to the town’s governing Board of Selectmen. It’s a perfectly fine building.
In January, the group got a favorable ruling from the local superior court judge, who decided that permits issued to the developers were in violation of the town’s wetlands and zoning regulations, effectively halting the project. But an appeal is now being prepared. Lawyers for the developer declined to comment.
I’ll be surprised if the appellate court takes the case, Mahr says. I do think that their appeal has run out of steam.
Even if the distribution center project falls through, Stuller and his group of volunteer preservationists are concerned that the Timex building is still in danger. He says the group plans to filed its amended National Register application directly to the National Park Service within the next month or two. They’re hoping for a positive response the second time around, but aren’t relying on protection from the top down.
Stuller says the building’s fate may hinge on how much support he can gather from the local community and beyond. Once we continue to beat this drum and get the word out, he says, I think there’s decent odds we can convince the people that do control the building to change their plans.
Coral reefs are vital to the health of the oceans, but in recent years they’ve been decimated by climate change, pollution, and overfishing. While this has been widely covered, a new documentary sheds light on the groundbreaking efforts to restore these fragile ecosystems, and the scientists and communities working to bring them back to life.
Reef Builders showcases the work of the Sheba Hope Grows initiative, part of one of the largest coral reef restoration efforts globally, led by Mars Sustainable Solutions. Sheba, a cat food brand owned by global conglomerate Mars Inc., has been supporting reef restoration through its Hope Grows program since 2019.
Threats Endangering Coral Reefs
As environmental disasters intensify in a warming climate, the destruction of coral reefs can be overlooked. Oceans are key to world health as they regulate the climate and weather, provide food, and support billions of people around the globe.
Coral reefs are probably the most important ecosystem that drives the health of oceans. A quarter of all marine life is found on coral reefs, although they occupy a very small percentage of the ocean surface, says David Smith, chief marine scientist and senior director at Mars Sustainable Solutions, a program run by Mars Global, which tackles environmental threats through science-based actions. The other side of the story, unfortunately, is that they’re on the edge of extinction. The best science that we have today suggests that we could lose up to 95% of coral reefs in the next 20 years.
Destructive fishing practices, water pollution, and land development all contribute to reef degradation, while climate change intensifies natural threats like ocean acidification and marine heat waves, which lead to coral bleaching, according to Smith. Just this week, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced that 84% of the world’s coral reefs have been affected by the worst bleaching event ever.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
Work Behind the Restoration
MSS has worked on coral reef restoration since 2006, investing millions in research, builds, and community engagement. It says approximately 1.3 million coral fragments and 87,000 “reef stars” (metal structures designed to support coral growth) have been installed, all using locally sourced materials.
In collaboration with local communities, organizations, and stakeholders, restoration sites are carefully chosen based on both need and feasibility. Teams then deploy reef stars to create expansive, interconnected webs across degraded reef areas. This approach enables coverage of an area the size of a basketball court within days, with dozens of reef stars installed each hour. These structures help stabilize loose coral rubble and provide a solid foundation for coral to grow.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
After a few years, corals colonize the reef stars, eventually integrating them into the natural reef. The result is a restored habitat for fish and invertebrates, alongside the return of native coral species.
Many coral reefs around the world have got to a stage where they’re not able to recover without any assistance, and that’s where restoration comes in to aid the recovery in those systems that have lost their ability to recover naturally, Smith says.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
The first Sheba Hope Grows project was launched in 2019 in Salisi Besar, a reef off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Within five years, the reefs had grown back. The organization now uses it as a model to show the impact reef stars can have.
That success proves that large-scale restoration is possible, says Mindy Barry, Shebas global VP of marketing. That’s what gives you hope, and that’s what ideally will inspire consumers to say this is an issue that not only matters, that I need to care about, but there are things that can be done.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
The Making of Reef Builders
Reef Builders follows coastal communities in Indonesia, Hawaii, Kenya, and Australia that are working to restore their disappearing coral reefs, essential for their food and livelihood.
“There’s a huge science program that underpins the restoration, Smith says. But actually what was unique, and one of the most rewarding parts of my job, is when you have that knowledge, you’ve done that research, but then you talk to the people who are at the coral face, which is actually in the local community with harbors that depend on that reef.
This intersection of science and community was at the heart of the project featured in Reef Builders, which now spans 72 restoration sites across the world.
Coral reefs form a natural belt around the planet stretching across the world’s oceans, but they’re concentrated most heavily in the Indo-Pacific. Within this belt, distinct regions emerge, each with its own unique ecological and social characteristics. The team selected sites to ensure broad representation of these different regions, focusing on areas where strong local community involvement could drive meaningful restoration.
It’s not us necessarily restoring. It’s those communities that are restoring,” Smith says. “What we can do, and what we’ve done, is demonstrate that it’s possible to restore a reef effectively, rapidly, in a way that’s accessible to local communities around the world.
While each region has its own environmental challenges, the human stories remain strikingly similar.
The emotion of the individuals, of those local members whose lives were being impacted by the loss really shines through, Smith says. It’s that beautiful combination between, yes, you’ve got all the white-coated science and numbers and spreadsheets but actually, ultimately, it’s people’s problems. People are there to try and find a solution for it.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
Call to Action
People often underestimate the crisis facing coral reefs. According to a Sheba survey conducted by Wakefield Research, 70% of people believe that coral reefs have little to no impact on their daily lives. But reefs are essential ecosystems that support a wide variety of fish species, many of which are commercially valuable and eaten by people around the world. Reefs also play a crucial role in producing a substantial amount of the oxygen humans rely on. Between 1957 and 2007, research shows that more than 50% of coral reefs vanished.
But the crisis is escalating, and so is the need for action. Barry says that through the documentary Sheba aims to rally people to recognize that saving coral reefs is not a solitary mission but a collective effort. Smith echoes that goal. Who’s going to start to make those first steps on that journey? And then who can you bring along with you? he asks. I hope that people feel that’s a trajectory that we can get on together.”
Reef Builders is available to stream worldwide on Prime Video. Through June 29, Amazon will donate $1 for every hour of the documentary thats streamed in the U.S.up to $100,000to the Kuleana Coral Restoration foundation in Hawaii.
Reading just got a whole lot cooler.
Online Ceramics, a cult East L.A. clothing brand that makes hand-dyed apparel for artists like the Grateful Dead and André 3000 and helped A24 win the movie merch game, has a new capsule collection with the biggest trade publisher in the world that celebrates the freedom to read.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
The Reading Is a Right collaboration with Penguin Random House comes against a backdrop of increasing book bans across the country. Penguin Random House is among the publishers suing states like Idaho and Florida over recent laws they say are onerous and could lead to public and school library bans on books by beloved authors like Maya Angelou, Ernest Hemingway, George R. R. Martin, and Toni Morrison. The collaboration is an attempt to fight back through merch, raising awareness, and fundraising.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
The collection includes Online Ceramics cream and tie-dyed T-shirts with the publisher’s penguin mascot and an opened book that says “Practice Magic: Read. Prices range from $5 for a “Read a Banned Book” bumper sticker to $35 for “Reading Is a Right” socks. Hoodies are priced as high as $135, but 100% of Penguin Random House’s net proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit American Library Association (ALA).
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
The gesture is welcomed. “This message is incredibly timely in this climate when censorship is rampant and federal funding for libraries has been gutted,” ALAs president, Cindy Hohl, said in a statement.
There were book challenges against 2,452 unique titles in 2024, according to ALA data, a figure far above the average 273 unique titles challenged annually over the period from 2001 to 2020. And President Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides federal funding to libraries.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
Penguin Random House publishes more than 14,000 new works annually. It’s the parent company to subsidiaries that have published bestsellers like former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Becoming and classics from George Orwell’s 1984 to Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Online Ceramics cofounder Elijah Funk called Penguin Random House “the absolute epicenter of all things books” in a statement, and for him, teaming up for “Reading Is a Right” was a long time coming.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
“I’ve always wanted to partner with them, and once I found out about their work standing up for the fredom to read, I knew we needed to highlight their efforts as a positive force for good and bring more visibility to this issue,” Funk said. “There’s a reason books are usually one of the first things to be burned or banned from communities. Books are about justice, freedom, history, and imagination: some of the most powerful tools a person or community can have. And the library makes them free and accessible for every person.”
With book bans on the rise, “Reading Is a Right” gives people a new way to show their love of reading on their sleeves and raise some money to support U.S. libraries in the process.
In a February 2025 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump declared a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.
So far, this golden age has entailed an executive order calling for the federal agency that funds local museums and libraries to be dismantled, with most grants rescinded. The Trump administration has forbidden federal arts funding from going to artists who promote what the administration calls gender ideology. Theres been a purge of the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with Trump appointing himself chair. And the administration has canceled National Endowment for the Humanities grants.
Suffice it to say, many artists and arts organizations across the U.S. are worried: Will government arts funding dry up? Do these cuts signal a new war on arts and culture? How do artists make it through this period of change?
As scholars who study the arts, activism and policy, were watching the latest developments with apprehension. But we think its important to point out that while the U.S. government has never been a global leader of arts funding, American artists have always been innovative, creative and scrappy during times of political turmoil.
A rocky relationship with the arts
For much of the countrys early history, government funding for the arts was rarely guaranteed or stable.
After the Civil War, the Second Industrial Revolution facilitated massive concentrations of wealth, in what became known as the the Gilded Age. Private arts funding soared during this period, with some titans of industry, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, seeing it as their duty to build museums, theaters and libraries for the public. The heavy reliance on private funding for the arts troubled some Americans, who feared these institutions would become too exposed to the whims of the wealthy.
In response, Progressive Era activists and politicians argued that it was the governments responsibility to build arts spaces accessible to all Americans.
Efforts to fund the arts expanded with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, as the country was reeling from the Great Depression. From 1935 to 1943, the Works Progress Administration provided jobs with stable wages for artists through the Federal Art Project. However, Congress famously terminated the program in response to a 1937 production of The Revolt of the Beavers, which conservative politicians denounced for containing overt Marxist themes.
Nonetheless, over the ensuing decades, the federal government generally signaled its support for the arts.
Congress established the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1965 to fund arts organizations and artists. And since 1972, the General Services Administration has commissioned public art for federal buildings and organized a registry of prospective artists.
The NEA gave US$8.4 million in direct funding to artists in 1989 via fellowships and grants. This might be considered the high-water mark for unrestricted government funding for individual artists.
By the 1980s, sexuality, drugs and American morality had become hot-button political issues. The arts, from music to theater, were at the center of this culture war. Pressure escalated in 1989 when conservative leaders contested two NEA-funded exhibitions featuring work by Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe, which they deemed homoerotic and anti-Christian. In 1990, Congress instated a decency clause guiding all future NEA work. When Republicans regained control of Congress in 1994, they slashed direct funding for the arts.
With direct funding to artists largely eliminated, todays artists can indirectly receive federal government support through federal arts agency grants, which are given to arts organizations that then dole out a portion to artists. Local and state government agencies also provide small amounts of direct support for artists.
The stage of democracy
Artists and arts organizations have a long legacy of persistence and strategic organizing during periods of political and economic upheaval.
In the pre-Revolutionary colonies, representatives of the British government banned theatrical performances to discourage revolutionary action. In response, activist playwrights organized underground parlor dramas and informal dramatic readings to keep arts-based activism alive.
Activist theater continued into the antebellum period for the purposes of promting the abolitionist cause.
These dramas, often organized by women, would take place in living rooms, outside of public view. The clandestine staged readings the most famous of which was written by one of the earliest Black American playwrights, William Wells Brown seeded enthusiasm and solidarity for the antislavery cause. These privately staged readings took place alongside public performances and lectures.
Craft the world you want
Dozens of experimental schools like the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee and Commonwealth College in Arkansas were founded in the 1920s and 1930s to train activists.
Supporting adult learners of all ages but specifically young adults they initially focused on arts-based techniques for training workers in labor activism. For example, students wrote short plays based on their experiences of factory work. In their rehearsals and performances, they imagined endings in which workers triumphed over cruel bosses.
Many programs were residential, rural and embraced early versions of mutual aid, where artists and activists support one another directly through pooling money and resources. Tuition was minimal and generally provided directly from labor organizations and allies, including the American Fund for Public Service. Most teachers were volunteers, and the learning communities often farmed to cover basic necessities.
Although these institutions faced perpetual threats from local governments and even the FBI, these communal schools became testing grounds for social change. Some programs even became training sites for civil rights activists.
Linda Goode Bryant attends the opening reception of an exhibition honoring Just Above Midtown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Oct. 3, 2022. [Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art]
Curate the world you need
Black artists have long created spaces for community connection and career development. The Great Migration brought many Black American artists and thinkers to New York City, famously spurring the Harlem Renaissance, which lasted from the end of World War I through the 1920s. During this period, the neighborhood became a fountain of culture, with Black artists producing countless plays, books, music and other visionary works.
This legacy continued at Just Above Midtown, or JAM, a gallery and arts laboratory led by Linda Goode Bryant from 1974 through 1986 on West 57th Street in Manhattan.
At the time, arts organizations primarily supported artwork by white men. In response, Goode Bryant launched JAM to create a space that supported and celebrated artists of color. JAM provided arts business workshops, cultivated collaborations and launched the careers of Black artists such as David Hammons and Lorraine O’Grady.
The future is now
Whether or not they realize it, many artists and arts organizations today are integrating lessons from the past.
In recent years, theyve promoted the unionization of museum workers and created local mutual aid networks such as the Museum Workers Relief Fund, which was one of many groups fundraising for arts workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theyre building networks of financial support to share space and money with other artists and arts organizations. And theyre forming cultural land trusts, which create land cooperatives where artists can work and live with one another.
Whats more, new philanthropic models are reshaping arts funding by elevating the perspectives of artists, rather than those of wealthy funders. CAST in San Francisco helps arts organizations find affordable gallery and performance spaces. The Community and Cultural Power Fund uses a trust-based philanthropy model that allows artists and community members to decide who receives future grants. The Ruth Foundation for the Arts makes artists the decision-makers in giving grants to arts organizations.
While the current challenges are unprecedented and funding threats will likely reshape arts organizations and further limit direct support for artists were confident that the arts will persist with or without government support.
Johanna K. Taylor is an associate professor at The Design School at Arizona State University.
Mary McAvoy is an associate professor of theatre at Arizona State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
New Jersey has a million acres filled with towering pitch pines. Its springtime and the trees stand straight, bare and bonelike, above a carpet of winter needles that worry state fire service professionals. This week, a swath of the Pine Barrens went up in flames, a stark warning of what might be a treacherous fire season.
About 11,500 acres were affected by a fire that started Tuesday morning in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area of Ocean County, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said midday Wednesday. The Garden State Parkway was shut down for miles as thick smoke wafted into neighborhoods and thousands of households and businesses were evacuated for hours and had power cuts. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service said 50% of the blaze was contained by Wednesday evening.
Foresters had warned in March that New Jersey was particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year because of below-average rains, near-drought conditionsand a delay in prescribed burns by authorities that have typically helped to reduce risk.
A Smokey Bear sign warns against wildfire in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. [Photo: Anna Mattson/Inside Climate News]
The pitch pine is considered resilient to fire. Its bark is dark and scaly and can endure the periodic wildfires that are part of the natural ecological cycle. But the pinelands, the first national reserve in the country, also thrive because of forest service prescribed burns to rid brush. This year, foresters said they cut back on springtime burns because of on-the-ground conditions: It has been just too hot and dry to start prescribed fires.
The Forest Fire Service typically treats 25,000 acres in central New Jersey, across seven counties, with planned burns. So far this year, forest personnel have burned only 3,320 acres, a fraction of its work in previous years. Five years ago, 26,000 acres were burned. In 2024, 15,000 were targeted.
New Jersey entered fire season, from March to May, following its third driest January since records began in 1895. State fire officials are warning that a drop in rainfall and snow have made autumn leaves and winter needles ready tinder across what is called the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens.
Conditions have severely hampered efforts by the Forest Fire Service to conduct prescribed fire operations that are critical to preventing wildfires, Bill Donnelly, the states fire warden and forest fire service chief, said in an email before Tuesdays flames.
Donnelly and his team normally conduct prescribed operations through March 15 in the southern and central regions of New Jersey, and April 1 in the north.
[Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News]
When fire officials burn during dry conditions, theres a higher risk of burning into whats called the duff layer, which is the decomposed organic matter like leaves, twigs, and needles that sits atop the soil. If burned, Donnelly said, it could damage new growth and cause smoke that lingers, affecting communities and roadways for weeks.
Not sure what the rest of the years gonna hold for us, Donnelly said in a press briefing last month. If things continue the way they are, were going to have quite a fire season on our hands.
New Jersey, the countrys fourth-smallest state geographically, offers an example of Americas growing fire risk in the Northeast. The region is experiencing drier and wetter seasons, part of what is a changing and much less predictable cycle of drought and deluge. Evolving climate patterns are testing fire strategy from California to Connecticut as well as communities. Los Angeles suffered devastating fires in January, with billions of dollars in damages, and UCLA researchers, in an extensive survey, found residents reported emotional and financial loss for months after.
Beautiful broadleaf deciduous trees that color the Northeast in the fall are tightly packed so that, in less trying times, when the leaves drop they often hold a lot of moisture, according to Erica Smithwick, a professor of geography and ecology at Penn State University.
Not so in drier conditions. The leaves are parched for water as they fall and pose an increased fire risk. “If the leaves are dead and they dry out in the fall and they drop to the ground, all you need is ignition to get it all to burn, Smithwick said. Burns are meant to clear undergrowth safely and limit wildfire.
Last fall, multiple woodland fires broke out in the Northeast including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. In January, firefighters from a coalition of Northeast states met to discuss the increasing unpredictability of rain and drought across the region. Record-low rainfall allowed for blazes in October and November north of Boston, in Brooklyn, and in Connecticut. On New Jerseys border with New York, fire scorched 5,000 acres of land and one volunteer firefighter died.
Some experts, including Jaclyn Rhoads, executive director at Pinelands Preservation Alliance, suggest that prescribed burning should occur throughout the year. Fire personnel should be planning beyond seasons, she said, and considering month-by-month weather conditions.
We need to try to mimic the wildfires in a controlled way that allows for us to receive all the benefits without necessarily the damages, Rhoads said. There are plenty of exampls, like in Florida, where their forest fire service burns all year round.
Smithwick at Penn State noted that Northeast forests are close to cities and infrastructure such as roads and powerlines. Maps of wildlife urban interface (WUI)areas where wildland vegetation and man-made development intermingle and are particularly vulnerable to wildfiresshow an expansion of 2 million acres per year based on data from the U.S. Fire Administration.
Even a small wildfire could have more impact in the east because of all that built infrastructure, Smithwick said. In fact, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the mid-Atlanticsome of the highest WUI in the country is in the east.
Caryn Shinske, senior press officer of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said fire teams in the past month had been staffing fire towers, staging for initial response for possible fires, and readying equipment for the summer risks.
By Anna Mattson, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Before Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, U.S. factories and cities could pipe their pollution directly into waterways. Rivers, including the Potomac in Washington, smelled of raw sewage and contained toxic chemicals. Ohios Cuyahoga River was so contaminated, its oil slicks erupted in flames.
That unchecked pollution didnt just harm the rivers and their ecosystems; it harmed the humans who relied on their water.
The Clean Water Act established a federal framework to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nations waters.
As an attorney and law professor, Ive spent my career upholding these protections and teaching students about their legal and historical significance. Thats why Im deeply concerned about the federal governments new efforts to roll back those safeguards and the impact theyll have on human lives.
Amid all the changes out of Washington, it can be easy to lose sight of not only which environmental policies and regulations are being rolled back, but also of who is affected. The reality is that communities already facing pollution and failing infrastructure can become even more vulnerable when federal protections are stripped away. Those laws are ultimately meant to protect the quality of the tap water people drink and the rivers they fish in, and in the long-term health of their neighborhoods.
A few of the most pressing concerns in my view include the governments moves to narrow federal water protections, pause water infrastructure investments and retreat from environmental enforcement.
Diminishing protection for U.S. wetlands
In 2023, the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of waters of the United States. In its decision in Sackett vs. Environmental Protection Agency, the court determined that only wetlands that maintained a physical surface connection to other federally protected waters qualified for protection under the Clean Water Act.
Wetlands are important for water quality in many areas. They naturally filter pollution from water, reduce flooding in communities and help ensure that millions of Americans enjoy cleaner drinking water. The Clean Water Act limits what industries and farms can discharge or dump into those waterways considered waters of the U.S. However, mapping by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that upward of 84%, or 70 million acres, of the nations wetlands lacked protection after the ruling.
The Sackett ruling also called into question the definition of waters of the U.S.
The Trump EPA, in announcing its plans to rewrite the definition in 2025, said it would make accelerating economic opportunity a priority by reducing red tape and costs for businesses. Statements from the administration suggest that officials want to loosen restrictions on industries discharging pollution and construction debris into wetlands.
Pollution already harms wetlands along Floridas Gulf Coast, leading to fewer fish and degraded water quality. It also affects people whose jobs depend on healthy waterways for fishing, recreation and tourism.
This marks a shift away from the federal government protecting wetlands for the role they play in public health and resilience. Instead, it prioritizes development and industry even if that means more pollution.
Pausing investment for rebuilding crumbling infrastructure
Public water systems are also at risk. The Trump administration on its first full day in office froze at least US$10 billion in federal water infrastructure funding. That included money for replacing lead pipes and building new water treatment plants, allocated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Public water systems across the country have been falling into disrepair in recent decades due to aging and sometimes dangerous infrastructure, as cities with lead water pipes have discovered.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nations drinking water, stormwater and wastewater infrastructure grades of a C-minus, D and D-plus, respectively, in its 2025 Infrastructure Report Card. The group estimates that Americas drinking water systems alone need more than $625 billion in investment over the next 20 years to reach a state of good repair.
Congress passed the Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to help pay for updating drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems. That included replacing lead pipes and tackling water contamination, especially in the most vulnerable communities. Many of the same communities also have high poverty and unemployment rates and histories of racial segregation rooted in government discrimination.
Where I live in Detroit, this need is especially clear. We have the fourth-highest number of lead service lines, connecting water mains to buildings, of any city in the country, and these pipes continue to put people at risk every day. Just an hour up the road, the Flint water crisis left a predominantly Black, working-class community to suffer the consequences of lead-contaminated water.
These arent abstract problems; theyre happening right now, in real communities, to real people.
Dropping lawsuits meant to stop pollution
The Trump administraions decision to drop from some environmental enforcement lawsuits filed by previous administrations is adding to the risks that communities face.
The administration argues that these decisions are about reducing regulatory burdens dropping these lawsuits reduces costs for companies.
However, stepping back from these lawsuits leaves the communities without a meaningful way to put an end to the long-standing harms of environmental pollution. Few communities have the resources to litigate against private polluters and must rely on regulatory agencies to sue on their behalf.
Real lives are affected by these changes
What America is seeing now is more than a change in regulatory approach. Its a step back from decades of progress that made the nations water safer and communities healthier.
President Donald Trump talked repeatedly on the campaign trail about wanting clean air and clean water. However, the administrations moves to reduce protection for wetlands, freeze infrastructure investments and abandon environmental enforcement can have real consequences for both.
At a time when so many systems are already under strain, it raises the question: What kind of commitment is the federal government really making to the future of clean water in America?
Jeremy Orr is an adjunct professor of law at Michigan State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Conflict management is one of the most critical leadership skills today, yet many leaders are struggling to get it right. Companies are implementing return-to-office mandates; shifting stances on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and dealing with climate change and an uncertain economy. All of these factors put pressure on businesses and the people who work for them. Over 80% of workers report escalated tensions in the workplace, and 90% of workers say they have witnessed political clashes between coworkers.
Employees are feeling uncomfortable because they are unsure how they fit into company goals, or dont feel clear about where the company is headed. This tension leads to conflict, and its up to the leaders to manage the situation.
When we teach conflict management, there are several classic models and approaches. Some call for weighing goal achievement versus relationship orientation, while others look to balance assertion versus cooperation. In all scenarios, there is an underlying assumption: Leaders foster the climate that determines whether employees will engage in collegial discourse. In other words, people who disagree should be comfortable advocating for their position while listening to others points of view. While this notion works well in theory, the practical manager knows this is not always the case.
In recent years, hybrid work has made free-flowing communication opportunities and seeing things eye-to-eye more challenging, literally. While its widely recommended that you should not accept what you read, having a conversation to ask for more clarity is not always natural (or even possible) in a hybrid setting.
So, what do you do when mixed-work modality team members are in conflict with one another, with the company, or even with you? As the leader, your job is to manage the situation. The challenge is determining how to approach conflict in a way that is both constructive and comfortable.
The Remote Work Factor
There are many efficiencies afforded by flexible work arrangements, but a side effect of remote (and sometimes asynchronous) work is that conversations between coworkers are often limited to scheduled check-ins and meetings. Consequently, coworker interactions are relatively two-dimensional. Employees make inferences and judgments from emailed statements or Slack DMs that rarely, if ever, tell the full story of ones perspective and context.
Compounding this issue is the fact that todays multigenerational workforce has significantly different comfort levels using different modalities for collaboration. Gen Z and millennial employees have learned communication norms that entail a heavy reliance on direct messaging and video calls versus talking things through with one another. In fact, 46% of workers report they have engaged in full arguments over chat-based applications. Meanwhile, members of all generations have varying preferences for direct communicationwhether in person, via phone, or video.
The shift toward remote and hybrid work has complicated communication particularly as it pertains to giving feedback. In traditional office settings, mentorship and sharing feedback often occur naturally through hallway conversations, post-meeting discussions, or informal manager check-ins. One of the drawbacks of remote work can be the elimination of these spontaneous opportunities.
Without casual in-person interactions, employees must deliberately schedule feedback conversations, which can make the process feel more formal and high-stakes than a quick chat in the office. As a consequence, performance itself can become a source of conflict since remote employees are 32% less likely to receive real-time feedback, including what has been working well, and what needs to change.
Navigating the Next Era of Workplace Conflict
When teams realize that what they are doing is not working, conflicts will happen. Due to not having the opportunity to bring issues up until they become undeniable, conflicts may have festered and therefore may be emotionally charged. We recommend three considerations for those ready to rise to the challenge of hybrid or remote conflict management.
1. Be honest about what you’re seeingand why it’s a problem
A first crucial element to managing conflict is that leaders call out what they are seeing and then discuss observations with their team. For example, although sentiments are mixed when it comes to how politics should be brought into or left out of the workplace, there is no denying that stakeholders and stockholders alike have been impacted by various international events and executive orders. From the impact tariffs may have on a companys ability to import materials, to the impact layoffs may have on staffing, what needs to be considered in our work today is different than it was a few weeks ago.
Leaders cant ignore what is going on around them. One of the tenets of psychologist and author Daniel Golemans model of emotionally intelligent leadership posits that a leaders primary responsibility is to be in sync with their followers. In order to be able to react in a way that resonates with ones team, leadrs should know whether something may cause apprehension, excitement, or concern among their reports. In fact, if managers are oblivious to or ignore any elements of the world that concern their employees, they will cause further frustration or be dismissed themselves.
One option is for leaders to start their weekly check-ins with a current events update. Share top headlines and explain how news may impact the organization in the coming week or months. If a company does change its policies due to shifts in federal or state sentiments, acknowledge these and explain how this shift will affect your team members directly or indirectly.
If you dont know how to get discussions going, its likely that your companys communication department has created talking points for managers to use. In smaller companies, ask the human resources department for some guidelines on how to explain changes to employees. You should not feel alone in what you say, but you should take responsibility for bringing changes up.
2. Get to know your team
If a leader doesnt know what the team cares about in the first place, it will be impossible to connect their perceptions to conflicts that may erupt. Meanwhile, those employees who have not learned how to self-advocate may struggle finding the right time and place to raise their concerns (and voices) constructively. Leaders who bridge these two scenarios can mitigate conflicts or manage them when they arise.
As mentioned earlier, resonant leaders are those in sync with their followers emotionally. They understand that an employee who is seeking international relocation may see global affairs differently than one who has a domestic promotion agenda. If your company conducts business with countries involved in tariff discussions, some company leaders may worry about how financial reporting will be adversely impacted. Knowing what is important to your team enables you to proactively manage topics that may become conflicts.
Because of this, its important that leaders take the time to listen to their employees when they share what matters to them. Whether there is data from a formal performance review and goal-setting session, or youve gone to lunch with a member of your team, take inventory of what you know about each individual and what is important to them.
If you are not already in the habit of doing so, use your one-on-one meetings as opportunities to bring up what you know, and ask your team members to share how they are feeling about a related element of their job or development plan they had established.
If employees dont share topics of frustration or worry, ask open-ended questions that provide the opportunity to express their concerns or identify paths they wish to explore. And, if youre not having in-person or virtual on-on-ones, now is a very good time to start.
3. Learn to communicate proactively and address conflict remotely
If you were walking down a hallway and heard someone complaining, youd know they are unhappy. But if your interactions with your team members are limited to when they choose to turn their webcams and microphones on, you will not have the same windows of insight. Identifying potential conflicts and managing ones that have already come into focus require an adjustment of management techniques.
Similar to knowing and understanding what team members may value, its incumbent upon a manager to know some of their direct reports attitudinal tells. If an employee shakes their head a little more than usual in agreement or asks the same question more than once and does not seem to apply what they learn, these may be signs that remote workers are struggling to stay focused or engaged.
It has been said many times before, but when working with a remote workforce, you cannot overcommunicate. Leaders need to establish a cadence of regular meetings and also be sure to casually check in with informal conversations and temperature checks. Information that is verbally shared in a meeting should also be documented and distributed via written communiqués to avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding, which can also lead to conflict.
When remote employees are simply not performing according to expectations, leaders need to manage their performance in the same way they would for in-person employees. Letting issues go or looking the other way is not an option.
On the flipside, its important to understand that sometimes what youthe leaderare doing is the cause of the conflict. One-third of employees have indicated that their bosses are too aggressive in text messages. Therefore, to avoid greater conflicts, leaders must address the situation directly and manage just as they would if the employee worked in the office.
To preempt any issues, leaders must become comfortable saying, Hey, can you stay on the line for a minute? Use this time after the regular meeting to acknowledge what you are seeing and ask for feedback on the initiative, the players, or the process being employed to address the work.
If the opportunity to talk right after another meeting is missed, its okay to email or send a Slack message to an employee to ask: Do you have time later to hop on a quick Zoom? I want to go over X topic. Its important to be specific about the agenda so that there isnt cause for alarm as to the subject of the conversation. That said, we also suggest doing this when you are able to jump on a call in the not-too-distant future, as requesting a meeting may still induce anxiety.
Bring People Together to Manage Conflict
When workers are not in the same physical space, facilitating conflict management is not easy. While its easy enough to ignore what may be distressing your team or assume that everyone interprets things the same way, managers should openly address differences, ask questions, and demonstrate flexibility when conflict arises.
By deliberately managing communication in a way that normalizes healthy conflict, leaders create an environment where everyone feels heard and understood.
The European Commission is coming for SkinnyTok.
EU regulators are investigating a recent wave of social media videos that promote extreme thinness and tough love weight-loss advice, assessing whether TikTok is doing enough to protect children online, per Politico.
Frances minister for digital media, Clara Chappaz, recently reported #SkinnyTok to both the French media regulator Arcom and the EU. These videos promote extreme thinness. Protecting minors online is one of my priorities, Chappaz said in a TikTok video posted Friday.
@clara.chappaz Et si on parlait plutôt de #StrongTok ? Saimer, commence par se respecter. Ces modles dextrme maigreur peuvent faire beaucoup de mal. #skinnytok #fyp son original – clara.chappaz
Arcom told Politico it is collaborating with the European Commission to examine the trend given the public health risk it may pose. A Commission spokesperson also confirmed to Politico that it is aware of the issue and ready to cooperate.
This comes alongside an ongoing EU investigation into TikToks algorithm and its impact on minors. The Commission is already looking into how the platform promotes content related to eating disorderssuggesting that further action may soon follow.
Although the investigation is still in its early stages, discussions with TikTok are underway. The platforms community guidelines claim it does not allow showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors. Still, content that shows or promotes potentially harmful weight management is permitted for users over 18 and is excluded from the For You feed. Fast Company has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Search SkinnyTok on TikTok, and the first thing youll see is a platform-generated message stating, You are more than your weight. Tap it, and youll find links to resources for disordered eating support, including the National Eating Disorder Association.
But once you move past that well-meaning message, you’re hit with thousands of videos promoting restrictive eating, body checks, and before-and-after transformations. Unhinged skinny advice, one post reads. Another declares: Being skinny is an outfit. And, of course, the old favorite: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.
Weight-loss and pro-anorexia communities have long thrived on social mediajust ask anyone who used Tumblr in the 2010s. In recent years, this kind of content has surged on TikTok, coinciding with the rise of GLP-1 medications. Many credit these drugs with pushing back against body positivity and ushering in a resurgence of thinness as the ideal.
The effects arent just digital. According to a recent report by Trilliant Health, eating-disorder-related health visits among those youths younger than 17 have more than doubled in the past five years. From 2018 to mid-2022, these visits rose by 107.4%, with visits related to anorexia nervosa increasing 129.26%.
In 2021, a report revealed that Instagram had failed to protect vulnerable users from pro-anorexia content. Lets hope TikTok learns from those mistakes.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
A companys corporate brand name should be its hardest working marketing asset. Nothing will be used more often or for longer than the companys name. And in a world where competitors can copy almost everything else, they cant duplicate your name. However, sometimes the original name, chosen long ago, no longer fits and it’s time to rebrand. Rebranding a company is not just a superficial exercise; this strategic move can redefine your business, energize your team, and reshape your future.
Steve Jobs, a master at communication, understood that a brand is more than a name or logoits a story, a purpose, a promise, and the right name can make or break a brand. After all, the man turned a company named after a fruit into one of the most successful brands in the world. Here is some guidance on when to rebrand and the steps to make a rebrand successful, with inspiration from Steve Jobs.
When to rebrand
So, when is it time to rebrand? Maybe your brand no longer reflects who you are or what you stand for. If your company has evolvedexpanding into new markets, adopting new technologies, or shifting its missionyour brand must evolve too. Just as Jobs famously redefined Apples purpose to focus on innovation and simplicity, you must ensure your brand reflects where youre headed, not where youve been.
Perhaps your brand is facing increased competition. If customers cant tell the difference between you and your competitors, its time to stand out. A rebrand can help clarify what makes your business unique and why it matters. And most common, you are merging or acquiring another company. Mergers and acquisitions often demand a new identity that reflects the combined strengths of the entities involvedan opportunity to tell a fresh story.
Once a decision has been made to rebrand, here are five steps for success.
1. Tell the story first
We are all wired for story. When someone says, I have a story to tell you, we lean in. So the first step is to tell the story of the rebrand with emphasis on the benefits to the audiences. Why you are changing is a good start, but what does this mean for your customers? Craft a narrative that resonates emotionally and aligns with your audiences needs. As Jobs said, People dont buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Anchor your rebrand in a strong why. And an even stronger what!
2. Write your future headlines
Imagine the article you want to see in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times about your brand. What would they say about your rebrand? This exercise will clarify your vision and guide all creative efforts. While this sounds simple, the strategic exercise can be your compass as you prepare your creative and launch activities.
Take a recent Lexicon name, Lucid Motors. The companys mission statement expresses that through technology, we create exceptional experiences to drive the world forward. For this assignment, the client was looking for a name that would capture that notion while setting itself apart from any other auto brand. The name Lucid achieves this by working on our imagination, moving us from the literal meaning clear-headed to exceptionally efficient brain powerto exceptionallyefficient battery power. While this is going on in the intellectual realm, weexperience the shock of the names unexpectedness in its category. Of course, shock by itself is not enough. As we see, the name also moves us from the literal meaning of lucid to one that fits the character of the car.
3. Focus on the unexpected and emotion.
Humans like to think of themselves as rational animals, but it comes as no news to marketers that we are motivated to a greater extent by emotions. Logic brings us to conclusions; emotion brings us to action. Whether we are creating a poem or a new brand name, we wont get very far if we treat the task as an engineering exercise. True, names are formed by putting together parts, just as poems are put together with rhythmic patterns and with rhyming lines, but that totally misses what is essential to a name’s success or a poem’s success. Consider Microsoft and Apple as names. One is far more mechanical, and the other much more effective at creating the beginning of an experience. While both companies are tremendously successful, there is no question that Apple has the stronger, more emotional experience. What is that worth?
4. Identify your audience and speak directly to each group
Different stakeholders care about different things. Employees need inspiration; investors need confidence; customers need clarity on whats in it for them. Break down these audiences and craft tailored messages for each group.
Identifying the audience groups can be challenging. While the first layer is obviouscustomers, employees, investors, and analystsall these audiences are easy to find and message. However, what is often overlooked is the individuals in those audiences who can more positively influence the rebrand. It may be a particular journalist, or a few select employees. Once you have identified these influencers, develop more relevant conversations that help them understand the rebrand.
5. Plan for longevity
A successful launch must be roadmapped with events and reminders over a 9-18 month timeline. It is much more than simply reannouncing the name change; it becomes an opportunity to build stronger relationships with the audiences that matter most to your brand. Consistency builds trust. Plan events and marketing efforts over a longer timeframe to reinforce your new identity. For example, company or industry conferences are excellent venues to reinforce the change and show where the company is headed. Any event must be viewed as an opportunity to strengthen the reasons for the rebrand.
Steve Jobs approached branding with clarity, simplicity, and a relentless focus on storytelling and user experience. He didnt just change Apples logohe transformed its identity by aligning every touchpoint with its purpose: empowering individuals through technology. By following these principles, you can ensure that your rebrand isnt just a name change but a strategic leap forward that captures attention, inspires loyalty, and drives growth. As Jobs might say, Think different.
David Placek is founder and CEO of Lexicon Branding.
