Attack Of The Mascots

PRESENTED BY ADQUICK

Happy Monday, Future Party. Looks like LeBron James is readying a new sports career. No, not two more years playing with the Philadelphia 76ers… it’s the launch of a golf channel on YouTube. Simply titled “LeBron James,” the channel follows LeBron playing golf with his friends and dining at local restaurants, with new episodes dropping monthly. Amazing. Get that bag, Bron.

An AI startup called Mirage hosted a day-long, fully AI-generated news broadcast to show off its avatar tech.

The Big Picture: Every day, it seems like some startup is looking to replace humans with AI avatars. But relying on AI for the news isn’t just about whether it’s possible to pull off — it’s about whether people trust the tech to report it accurately.

Behind The Scenes: Mirage, which is already valued at $500 million, used its Avatar X model and $30,000 in tokens for Claude Code, ChatGPT’s image generator, and Google’s Gemini Text-to-Speech feature to pull off the 24-hour experiment.

Last Broadcast: The broadcast reached 50,000 viewers on X and garnered 824,000 impressions, partly from accounts that were paid to promote it (like Historic Vids, which has 6.1 million followers). Mirage CEO Gaurav Misra said the goal was never to fool people into thinking the broadcast was real, but to see if people might actually be interested in nakedly apparent AI-generated newscasters commenting on real headlines — there was plenty of signage announcing that it was all AI.

People may have been interested during this first livestream, but several national surveys show that Americans are really not fans of the idea… at least right now. In May, 40% of Americans told Gallup they would trust information less if they knew a newsroom used AI.

The Future: It wouldn’t be surprising if some companies in Silicon Valley — which has suddenly become interested in media outlets — decide to roll out an AI news channel in a bid to prove that it can be impartial.

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A new crop of brand mascots is showing up in ads, hoping to create an emotional connection with customers.

Why It Hits: Turns out, having a mascot is one of the best ways to build a relationship with customers, since it gives brands more control over their image than celebrities and can be more organically integrated into marketing. But brands need to be in it for the long haul, according to Vanessa Chin, SVP of marketing at ad-analytics firm System1. They need to use a mascot consistently for three years to see the most upside.

Behind The Creature: Maybe the best new metric for success is having a mascot that’s huggable.

Final Pitch: Mascots that truly take off in culture have the ability to give brands a boost any time they trot them out. Take General Mills’ Pillsbury Doughboy. When the company brought back the ticklish little baker last fall, cookie sales jumped 12.6% between September and December. That’s a lot of dough.

Why does that strategy work? Because, as Infosys CMO Sumit Virmani told WSJ, “Emotions play a disproportionate role in driving decision-making. A mere inanimate logo, font, or typeface goes only so far.”

Next Campaign: The new era of mascots is bound to lead to a lot of interesting mascot collabs.

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43.4% of you voted The basics in Friday’s poll: Do you know how to sew?

“How else were my Barbie dolls getting new wardrobes? Then it was dolls and critters for my nieces and nephews. I embroidered all over my jeans in the late ’70s.”

“I make pillows, curtains, Roman shades, and Halloween costumes; hem and alter basic garments.”

“As a Scoutmaster, I encouraged the boys in my troop to ask whoever in their household did the most sewing to show them how to sew on their first advancement patch, and then to sew on their own going forward. The troop was not the neatest, but they did learn an additional step in taking care of themselves.”

“My father learned in the Army and taught me. It’s a skill he still uses, and I can usually keep some of my favorite clothes around a little longer.”

“Losing a button on my cardigan earlier this year nearly broke me.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

⚽ K5 Sports, an investment group led by Jeff Bezos, is acquiring a minority stake in the Premier League’s Liverpool Football Club… with the option to turn it into majority ownership.

📺 The Season 4 premiere of Ted Lasso scored 296.6 million views in just two days — Apple TV’s biggest season launch ever.

🎤 Nate Bargatze broke the Guinness World Record for most stand-up comedy tour tickets sold, with his Big Dumb Eyes tour selling 2,016,254 tickets.

🎽 Dwayne Johnson is taking full control of his Project Rock brand after parting ways with Under Armour.

👀 Selena Gomez’s mental health startup, Wondermind, is being sued over allegations of investor fraud.

📈 The Cheesecake Factory is now a stonk.

📱 Reddit is officially joining the S&P 500.

🤳 Digital Brand Architects acquired creator-management firm V1sion Ventures for an undisclosed amount.

👨‍💻 X wants you to check if you’ve been shadowbanned.