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An appeals court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.The Friday ruling came after the Trump administration asked for an emergency pause on a judge’s order blocking enforcement at roughly three dozen agencies and departments.A split three-judge panel in the nation’s capital sided with government lawyers in a lawsuit filed by unions representing federal employees. The majority ruled on technical grounds, finding that the unions don’t have the legal right to sue because the Trump administration has said it won’t end any collective bargaining agreements while the case is being litigated.Judge Karen Henderson, appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Justin Walker, appointed by Trump, sided with the government, while Judge Michelle Childs, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented.The government says Trump needs the executive order so his administration can cut the federal workforce to ensure strong national security. The law requiring collective bargaining creates exemptions for work related to national security, as in agencies like the FBI.Union leaders argue the order is designed to facilitate mass firings and exact “political vengeance” against federal unions opposed to Trump’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government.His order seeks to expand that exemption to exclude more workers than any other president has before. That’s according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which is suing to block the order.The administration has filed in a Kentucky court to terminate the collective bargaining agreement for the Internal Revenue Service, where many workers are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. They say their IRS members aren’t doing national security work.Other union employees affected by the order include the Health and Human Services Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Hellmanns. Axe. Ben & Jerrys. Dove. Nutrafol. Pepsodent. Vaseline. When a brand exists within a CPG behemoth like Unilever, it can struggle to get dedicated design attention. So often, it doesntand as a result, its brand can get a bit dusty on the shelf.Thats what happened to Lipton with an identity from 2014 that hewed closer to the 1999 Burger King logo than a modern leader of the tea industry. But now, with a new owner, Lipton is launching a fresh look as it celebrates 135 years in business and expands its product line.The big business of teaLipton is the titan of tea. Its products (which include Tazo, Pukka, PG Tips, and more) are sold in more than 100 countries and make up the largest tea business in the world. Moreover, tea is big business: Fueled in part by the focus on health in the beverage category, tea is projected to grow by more than 75% to $122.59 billion in 2033. CVC Capital Partners bought the Lipton family of brands in 2022 for $5.07 billion.[Photo: Lipton]Yet in spite of those that promise, the company has been facing what S&P Global dubbed weaker-than-anticipated performance last fall. And, well, thats a design opportunity. Following the acquisition, Lipton started taking stock of its core identity, and is now rolling out its new branding, with new plans and products to boot.If you look at what Lipton did from an innovation standpoint for the five years prior to 2023, it probably wasnt very much, says Racquel Harris Mason, president of Lipton Teas and Infusions North America. And what youll see in America [now] is Lipton launching over 15 new flavors, new SKUs, in the next six months. So its really a wonderful renovation of this historical brand.[Photo: Lipton]Sir Liptons legacyWhen he founded his eponymous tea brand in 1890, Thomas Lipton was on a mission to democratize a drink that was then traditionally associated with the upper classes. And as those numbers above attest, he indeed succeeded, and brought low-cost tea to the masses by setting up alternative distribution channels to circumvent the established trade.Of course, being a global tea behemoth in 2025 presents its own design problems, with rituals and aesthetic preferences varying by culture and country. Lipton Global Chief Marketing Officer Moritz von der Linden says the companys numerous markets previously operated in a relatively decentralized environment with a fair amount of autonomy. As a result, the packs had become crowded with added elements, Liptons trademark yellow branding was waning in some territories as other colors were being brought inand ultimately the product was becoming difficult to spot on shelves.Thats where we said, we need to do something, von der Linden notes. We need to make sure that we bring this back to the brilliant basics [and] play our distinctive assets to their strengths again, making sure that everybody can recognize [Lipton] when they walk into a store from 50 meters away.So von der Linden and his colleagues set out to establish Liptons first uniform global identity, partnering with the Paris-based agency Team Creatif. The team first looked to the pastin particular, Thomas Liptons original tin boxes.[Photo: Lipton]von der Linden says their bold lettering inspired the typography of the new logo, which returns to an all-caps treatment and is intended to play off of the pride the team feels around the brand and its status in the category. As an homage to the brands legacy, the team added the founding year of 1890 to its signature cartouche label, a move von der Linden says hadnt been done in decades.If you think about a lot of brands that are appealing to Gen Z . . . these heritage brands really do mean something, Harris Mason says. My children are 26, 24 and 21, and they were like, Oh, my god, thats so cool. In a weird way, that heritage does give us a modern cool factor because of the deep authenticity of the brand.[Photo: Lipton]To give the tea a bit more of a premium feel, the team tweaked the Lipton yellow to a slightly darker shade. They also added a leaf to od at the health aspects of drinking tea. [Were] bringing nature into the package, and reminding people in this era of everything being artificial that tea has been around for 3,000 years, says Harris Mason. Its crushed leaves in a bag.That little leaf differentiates the brand away from ready-to-drink beverages. Its a small element, but in its brutal simplicity, a tea leaf makes a big difference, says von der Linden.Finally, the team modernized the logo on the whole by paring down the 3D nature of the cartouche, greatly scaling back the sun element, and selecting Arpona as a primary typeface that echoes the letterforms of the refreshed logo.[Image: Lipton]A new LiptonThe new brand is currently making its way to shelves, and should be comprehensive in all markets by the end of the year. Currently, Unilever and Pepsi still operate a separate Lipton bottled drink venture, but Harris Mason says she regularly meets with the team there, and they love the new work. (I would be very surprised if this does not get adopted, von der Linden notes.)Ultimately, their hope is that the design work will bring more people to the brandand that innovation and new products will keep them there. To that end, they have launched a Lipton black tea speciality category, and the first two entries are an English Breakfast and an Earl Grey that tastes like the usual cardamom classic, but with a hint of citrus. Those products have officially rolled out with the new branding. On deck for the summer is a fruit and herbal range, as well as zero-sugar iced tea powders. Do they have any fears that the new products may cannibalize their other brands, such as Tazo? Harris Mason says the company is very intentional about Liptons positioninga tea thats more affordable and approachable.[Its about] making sure that weve kept the core but weve also innovated to have a broader portfolio of more relevant offerings, so that we can really have a tea for everyone and live up to what Sir Thomas Lipton wanted to do in democratizing tea, Harris Mason says. Theres so much new innovation coming. Its not just a new design; its a new Lipton.
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E-Commerce
In the entertainment industry, as in life, change is the only constant. It wasnt that long ago that streaming services such as Netflix were the outsiders making waves and altering the way audiences watched movies. Today, theres a new kid on the block rapidly growing in popularity. Vertical dramas, essentially a 90-minute soap opera broken down into one-minute episodes viewedyou guessed itvertically on smartphones, are here to shake things up even further. (I know this firsthand as an actor who has recently worked on some of these projects.) Joey Jia, the CEO of Crazy Maple Studios, is at the forefront of this movement. His content creation company was named one of 2024s TIME100 Most Influential Companies and has offices in Shenzhen, Beijing, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. Under this banner, Jia created ReelShort in 2022, a short-form video-streaming app, when he realized there was an opportunity to marry growing romance book trends and Asian micro dramas. I noticed there is a trend, Jia told Fast Company. People started shooting short-form content, especially five minutes long, 10 minutes long. That inspired me to have this idea: What if we revamp the video industry? Jia decided to put stories into one-minute bite-size content, made specifically for mobile phones as a way of testing how the market would respond. Spoiler alert: It responded well. ReelShortss production on track to triple in 2025 as compared to 2024. While Crazy Maple Studios declined to share revenue figures, it says it’s seen impressive growth in monthly active users, from around 45 million in October to between 55 to 60 million monthly active users. Suffice it to say, it’s in demand, paving the way for a story format that might be the future of scripted entertainment. At the intersection of art and tech The growing popularity of vertical dramas could never have occurred without the proper technology in place. The first smartphone, the Simon Personal Communicator, was invented by IBM in 1992, but it would take 18 years before these devices made their way to everyones pockets. Apples iPhone, famously announced to the world by Steve Jobs in 2007, played a big role in spreading the adoption of smartphones. The next stepping stone to verticals was social media. When TikTok was first released in 2016, it further trained users to create and view videos vertically. Instagram strengthened this habit when the app released its similar Reels feature in 2020. The stage was set for professional creators to monetize this technology. How China got there first In 2019, the Chinese company iQIYI released a special feature on its app dubbed the Vertical Video Zone, which comprised 25 sets of video, all shot in portrait mode to be viewed on a mobile phone. Around the same time, the Chinese social media platform Kuaishou unveiled “Kuaishou Small Theatre” on its app. This comedy-centered, short-form content would lead to the “micro-drama” brand Xingmang Micro Drama. By 2023, the platform would have over 94 million paid users. That same year, the larger micro-drama industry in China brought in $5.3 billion, making it 70% as large as the countrys traditional film industry. According to DataEye, a Shenzhen-based research firm, micro-dramas out-earned domestic box office sales the following year, as the Los Angeles Times reported. The American company Quibi, led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, tried to put its own spin on this trend, launching in April of 2020. This app utilized turnstyle technology that allowed viewers to watch content both vertically and horizontally. However, its short-form videos were expensive to make, running about 10 minutes utilizing Hollywood stars. Just seven months after its creation, Quibi was forced to shut down due to low subscriber counts. ‘Emotion-driven stories,’ made for humans by humans Jia saw a potential opening in the American market and learned from Quibis failure. He attributes ReelShorts’s success to its focus on emotion-driven stories. Plot is the missing component,” he says, “So our job is to come up with a feel-good moment, feel-good stories, and we always have data to make sure we are on the right track. So our stories are evolving. Vertical dramas tend to use well-known, over-the-top storytelling tropes, such as enemies to lovers, Cinderella-type makeovers, and corporate revenge. Some even explore fantasy plotlines, such as werewolves and different historical eras. ReelShortss subscription service differs from traditional streamers because it is not a flat monthly fee. The first 10 or so episodes are free, but to see the story’s conclusion, users have to pay based on consumption. This forces writers to make sure their content is fast-paced but not so quick that the audience gets lost. There is a fine balance between the story beats and the emotions. So this is really tricky, Jia mused. Jia trains directors, producers, and screenwriters in-house and does not utilize artificial intelligence. I think of creativity coming from a human being, so I don’t trust AI, to be honest, Jia explained. He also uses simple, inexpensive sets and costumes, and unknown nonunion actors. What does the future hold? When asked if Jia thinks vertical dramas complement or disrupt the traditional movie and television industry, he replied: I think it’s a disruptor. I think mobile entertainment will become a brand-new industry in the next few years. It will coexist with a traditional film industry, but it will bypass and beat the size so it gets bigger and bigger. He thinks colleges will in the not-so-distant future add this format to its film school curriculum. As more and more people forgo traditional movie theaters while staying glued to their phones throughout much of the day, his predictions dont feel that far-fetched. Indeed, the average ReelShort user might surprise you. We initially thought the majority of our audience is like a teenager and younger demographicbut no, it’s full spectrum, Jia explained. Jia has already been approached by big-name studios but finds it difficult to work with established intellectual properties because of all the rules and hoops to jump through. Verticals are inexpensive to make and move quickly, with a movie essentially completed in about 11 days. That doesnt mean he isnt open to bigger collaborations. In the next five years, Jia aims to prove that this space has merit, saying he feels there is still very much a stigma attached to it. There’s wide opportunity here, he says. So the door is always open.” Jia is not alone in this space. Shelly Caldwell founded DramaBox, a mobile TV series company, in 2022. Similarly, ShortMax, a Chinese-based media company, was created in 2023 by Jiuzhou Wenhua. Other players in the game include FlexTV and LokShorts. Even Netflix is dipping its toe in the pool. It recently announced that for some select users, its app will begin testing a vertical video feed. Meanwhile, ReelShort is expanding into new genres, such as action. Undercover Prison King, the story of a private prison owner who poses as an inmate to reveal corruption, is performing very well. The recent in-person premiere of Wings of Fire: The Dragonslayer Is My Ex-Lover in Culver City successfully signaled verticals legitimacy to the larger City of Angels. Jia also recently launched ReelShort Publishing House, a new division that will novelize popular romance titles on the app, a full circle moment for the man who saw the desire for this content early on. With a distribution deal with Amazon already in place, audiences may soon find themselves asking which came first, the vertical or the novel? As the way we consume media continues to evolve, Jias foresight appears to have been the fulfillment of a prophecy of sorts. What direction is the future of entertainment going? It appears to be vertical.
Category:
E-Commerce
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