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When an influencer gets married, its safe to assume much of the cost, from venue decor to personalized invitations, has been comped in exchange for content. Now brides with smaller, more modest followings want in on the action. According to The Wall Street Journal, a new trend has brides-to-be flooding brands with requests for free swag in exchange for TikTok hauls and Instagram posts. @artfromthehart Bachelorette PR | Part 7!! @Avaline @Swisspers @eezcompany @Waterboy @Nemat Perfumes @wooshbeauty @Fruit Riot @Tillamook @GOODLES @Go Mouthwash Thank you to all of these amazing companies that were so generous in sending us PR to spoil the girls! #bachelorettepr #bachelorettebags #bridalpr #bacheloretteparty #bacheloretteplanning #pr #bacheloretteideas original sound – Emily Hartung Guides on how to score freebies are popping up on wedding sites like the Knot, while spreadsheets of brand contacts and ChatGPT-generated scripts are spreading online. On TikTok, one woman admitted to emailing more than 200 companies. Others are showing off hauls of what theyve managed to secureeverything from Octobuddy phone grips for bachelorette photos to LMNT packets for post-party hangovers. @maloreemedia Bachelorette PR Haul Thank you to all the brands that made this weekend and my girls Bach bags so special. @Lotus Plant Power @Good Molecules @Craftmix @Solely: Organic Fruit Snacks @OCTOBUDDY @LesserEvil Snacks @Get Lotza #bachpr #bachelorette #brandgifts #bachelorettepr #bachelorettebags Walking Around – Instrumental Version – Eldar Kedem Some brands told The Journal that theyre happy to oblige, calling it a win-win: Brides shave costs while companies gain exposure. But smaller businesses are pushing back, frustrated by the flood of requests. @chelseyibrown Brides – please stop asking for free gifts from small businesses Also – for those who keep saying its a mistake to not send my products to influencers with tons of followers: I get more ROI sending gifts to average people who need my products!! AND I LOVE the idea of sending gifts to people who wouldnt normally get PR – especially products this meaningful This business model has worked extremely well so far!! original sound – Chelsey Brown David Maffei, owner of Halfsies Cookie Co., went viral in 2024 after posting an Instagram Reel of an exchange with a bride-to-be. She asked for free cookies to include in her bridal boxes, describing herself as a beginner influencer with fewer than 1,000 followers. Maffei declined and called her out. Influencer is a wild label,” he wrote. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Halfsies Cookie Company (@halfsiescookieco) Critics say the requests are tacky. Others argue content monetization is simply the norm now. After all, if influencers can unbox more free products than they could ever use, why shouldnt brides try too? As the saying goes: Dont ask, dont get. The financial pressures are real. Bachelorette parties have ballooned into multiday trips, with the average cost hitting $10,800 in 2023, up 40% from $7,700 in 2021, according to Bach. Social pressure, comparison culture, and rising vendor prices have pushed costs higher. And thats before the actual wedding. With the stakes so high, its not hard to see why brides are tempted to cut corners where they can.
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Sometimes, when a friend from high school finds out that I write about money, they will tell me their retirement plan is to assume they wont survive the inevitable climate apocalypse. This is always said with an ironic smile, and often followed up with, Its not like Social Security is gonna be there for us, either. These dark comments dont surprise me, considering Im also a member of the generation that adopted Oh well, whatever, never mind as a rallying cry. I was born at the tail-end of Gen X, but I was card-carrying a latchkey kid who didnt trust authority, consistently prepared myself for disappointment, and wore a mask of ironic detachment that has served me well throughout my life. In fact, until I was asked to literally write the book on Social Security in 2015, I too believed that there would be no benefits available for me when I retired. It was what Id been told, and it fit my skeptical worldview. The truth is, our Social Security benefits may be in danger, but not in the way we Gen Xers have braced ourselves for. We need to recognize whats going right with this program so we can understand what might go wrongand then we can fight for the right to have a retirement party! Distrust for the trust fund Every few months, a new article will raise the alarm about the imminent depletion of the Social Security trust fund. According to current projections, the trust fund will be completely wiped out sometime around the year 2033. Such articles are 100% factually correctand completely beside the point. Because the trust fund isnt really a trust fund and it doesnt really matter if its empty. Heres why: The trust fund that isnt Social Security is designed as a direct transfer of funds from current workers to current beneficiaries. In the early days of the program, when the Social Security Administration (SSA) collected more in taxes than was owed in current benefits, the law specified that the overage would be invested in government debt (like Treasury bonds) at a guaranteed minimum interest rate of 3%. This is both the safest possible investment for government funds and the most responsible use of excess Social Security taxes, since such large amounts of money cannot sit around as cash. However, even in the 1930s, there were critics who accused President Roosevelt and the new Social Security Administration of embezzling those excess taxes. To end the controversy, the government created the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund at the Treasury in 1939. But the OASI is not actually a trust fund since it doesnt have trustees with legal title or beneficiaries with an enforceable legal right to the property in trust. Its just another account in the U.S. Treasury that FDR called a trust fund to get his critics off his back. The trust funds bottom dollar Semantics aside, the trust fund is on track to run out of money in about eight years. (This is the moment when most Gen Xers would put on Exile in Guyville and think about why righteous rage feels better than hope.) What you need to remember is that the trust fund is not the primary source of benefits. Once it has been depleted, the SSA can afford to pay 77% of promised benefits. At that point, all funds will come from direct handover from current workers to current beneficiaries. No one would claim that 77% of promised benefits is ideal, but its definitely not nothing. Another important point to remember is that weve been here before. Back in 1983, Social Security faced a shortfall that was mere months away. The 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act ensured the trust fund operated with a surplus from 1984 to 2009. Unfortunately, Congress in the 1970s (and earlier) knew the shortfall was coming in 1983. The U.S. government uses 75-year projections for its social insurance program, unlike any other country in the world. But if history is any guide, we may see Congress wait until the last minute to do anything, just like their predecessors in the early 80s did. What could keep Gen X from collecting Social Security The trust fund insolvency issue can be fixed by Congressional action, but thats rarely mentioned in articles discussing the imminent shortfall. There is nothing stopping Congress from acting to fix this shortfall. While the dwindling trust fund is a problem, its a workable one, provided Congress quits twiddling its thumbs. However, there are potential problems that could keep Social Security benefits out of Gen X hands. (And millennial, Gen Z, etc., if were interested in protecting the whippersnappers, too). Recognizing the actual potential disasters can help us put our considerable take-no-prisoners energy where it belongs. Worker-to-beneficiary ratio There has been quite a lot of ink spilled about lowered birth rates in America. Other than breaking a number of would-be grandparents hearts, this may seem to have nothing to do with Social Securitybut a country with a lower birth rate and an aging population will have fewer workers to pay into its social insurance program. While the current administration has suggested some pronatalist policy proposals to reverse our declining birth ratesincluding offering a $5,000 baby bonus to new mothersthere are better and more effective alternatives. Specifically, immigration is a huge net benefit to the worker-to-beneficiary ratio for Social Security. Noncitizens who are eligible to work in the United States receive a Social Security numberand they payinto the Social Security systembut they are not eligible for benefits. And new immigrants who become citizens help lower the age of the population, skewing the ratio toward workers. This is why making immigration easier is one of the best ways to protect our Social Security benefits while we wait for Congress to get going on fixing the shortfall. Privatization of Social Security Twenty years ago, President Bush made waves when he suggested privatizing Social Security via voluntary personal retirement accounts. The public wasnt impressed, and the idea was quietly shelved. Until now. Recently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the newly created tax-deferred investment accounts that have been dubbed Trump accounts could serve as a backdoor to Social Security privatization, although the Treasury has since backed away from the comments. Proponents of privatization claim that it would be more fair than the current system, since it allows workers to control how much they put aside and where it is invested. But such proponents misunderstand the point of Social Securityits a safety net for our most vulnerable citizens. Social Security is a guaranteed source of income backed by the full faith and credit of the United States governmentwhich is as close to certainty as is possible to get in this world. Privatizing this program would change it into just another investment vehicle with zero guarantees. Privatization might sound like a good deal if you think youre gambling with something that may not be there. But Social Security is a sure thing, making privatization more like playing dice with a game you were guaranteed to win. Social Security has long been called the third rail of politics, as George Bush quickly learned in 2005 (and at the height of his popularity)! Its our job to ensure our representatives keep their hands off itor else get a nasty shock. Believe in life after Social Security Being the bomb-proof generation thats never surprised by disappointment is a double-edged sword. Weve learned to navigate a lot of crap with grace and gallows humor, but its also left us vulnerable to fixating on worst-case scenarios. After a lifetime of being told Social Security benefits would dry up before we retired, Gen X may be unprepared for the real disasters this important program might face. Yes, the trust fund is projected to run out of funds in less than a decade, at which point beneficiaries can only count on 77% of promised benefits. But thats not the real issue, because Congress can work to fix it anytime they want to get off their rear ends. One of the real dangers is the change in worker-to-beneficiary ratio as the American birth rate declines and the population ages. Making immigration easier is one of the most effective and efficient ways to improve this problem and is something Gen X can vote for locally and nationally. The suggestion of privatization is another potential danger, since it would trade the surety of guaranteed Social Security incomebacked by the full faith and credit of Uncle Samfor the risk of another investment vehicle. These dangers are more likely to occur if youre sure Social Security wont be there for you. Why do you think The Man has convinced you that you cant retire?
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E-Commerce
The Lacoste crocodile logo was made in honor of founder René Lacoste’s nickname as a tennis player, and the French apparel brand’s codes prohibits it from being messed with. For the U.S. Open, though, Lacoste is making an exception. For a five-piece capsule collection for Novak Djokovic, the green embroidered crocodile logo has been replaced with a goat. The Paris-born Lacoste, known as “le Crocodile,” won 10 major titles and was the first foreign player to win the U.S. championship twice, in 1926 and 1927. After hanging up the racket, he founded an apparel company that embroidered a crocodile on its polos. It caught on. The company has grown over the last centuryin 2024, Lacoste had $3 billion in revenue, and increased sales 8% from 2023. In a 1973 interview with the Associated Press, Lacoste said he didn’t understand the logo’s popularity, but he wondered if it might have to do with a crocodile not coming across as friendly. “There are kinds of things that just don’t have any good explanation,” he said. “I suppose you could say that if it had been a really nice animal, something sympathetic, then maybe nothing would have happened.” [Photo: Lacoste] So what about a goat? Lacoste announced their new capsule in time for the U.S. Open to pay tribute to Djokovic, a Lacoste brand ambassador who it says is the greatest of all time, or GOAT. Though the animal is more cuddly than a crocodile, the meaning behind the goat is the same as the meaning behind Lacoste’s nickname as a player. It’s about tenacity, winning, and on-court excellence. [Photo: Lacoste] Who’s a GOAT? The greatest-of-all-time acronym has an entry on Urban Dictionary as far back as 2010 that names Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Willie Mays, Pelé, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods the GOATs of their sports, but the term has since crossed over to the mainstream. Now it’s the logo on a polo, T-shirt, tracksuit, jacket, cap, and trousers to honor Djokovic, who with 24 Grand Slam titles to his name holds the record for male players. “Novak Djokovic has been part of the Lacoste family for over eight years,” Lacoste CEO Thierry Guibert said in a statement. “Together, we have shared an exceptional period, during which he won 12 Grand Slam titleshalf of his career total. Beyond the extraordinary player, his tenacity, mindset and values have contributed to elevating and amplifying the brand.” [Photo: Lacoste] The designers behind Lacoste’s goat logo managed to reinterpret visual elements from the crocodile mark for the new emblem. The goat looks up and is facing right, giving it a similar sense of direction as the crocodile mark, and the tiny triangles that give the crocodile the look of a textured, scaly back are used to decorate the goat’s chest. Lacoste previously replaced its crocodiles with 10 threatened animals for the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2018. “This initiative reflects our ability to reinvent our codes while staying true to René Lacostes heritage. Guibert said. Like Nike turning its Swoosh on its head for soccer jerseys, Lacoste’s goat logo is an example of breaking brand guidelines to make a larger point. For Lacoste, that point is Djokovic’s icon status. Promotional material for the collection use the logos like emoji to write out the copy “From a crocodile to the goat.” Djokovic is an athlete worth breaking brand guidelines for, and Lacoste managed to pull it off in a way that’s memorable and fun. This a limited-run, once-in-a-century rebrand for a one-in-a-century athlete.
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