The Sweeney Pop

PRESENTED BY TIME-LINE

Happy Monday, Future Party. Here’s a bold claim — the owner of the revamped Just For Laughs festival, Sylvain Parent-Bedard, says that if attendees don’t laugh during the show, they’ll get their money back “without argument.” Amazingly, this isn’t a joke… but it’ll be hard not to be in stitches with sets by comedians like Roy Wood, Jr., and Michelle Buteau. Do you think the fest has cameras set up with laugh-tracking AI just in case everyone is suddenly trying to game the system for a refund? Ending up in the red would be no laughing matter.

Sydney Sweeney is turning into the ultimate stock booster, adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the stocks of brands she works with and even giving some enough clout to get acquired.

The Big Picture: There’s been a lot of debate in recent years over the current impact of celebrity-driven marketing, with naysayers arguing that digital influencers are much more likely to capture Gen Z’s attention. Well, Sweeney’s hot streak may have just put that debate to bed.

Behind the Scenes: Does your brand need a sprinkle of Sweeney?

Final Tally: Unlike many of her contemporaries, Sweeney has never been coy about being a brand ambassador, working with brands as varied as Bai, Miu Miu, and Ford. In all the campaigns, she gamely plays on her public image. But, just like with content creators, authenticity remains at the forefront of who she chooses to work with. American Eagle called her up because she was spotted wearing the brand in campaigns for other non-fashion ads, and she linked up with Ford because she had been restoring a classic Bronco for years.

Madison Avenue truly has no better mascot.

Guidance: We wouldn’t be surprised if Forbes announces next year that Sweeney has become the highest-paid actress in advertising history.

Starting in our 30s, some key cellular processes begin to slow down, causing us to feel increasingly tired and weak over time.

This decline affects not just our physical strength and endurance but significantly reduces our quality of life, making everyday activities harder to enjoy.

Luckily, scientists have discovered a way to shape how we age.

Mitopure®, by Time-line, targets the root cause of this cellular decline and is clinically proven to increase cellular energy, providing our bodies with the energy they need to function optimally.

The results? Double-digit increases in muscle strength and endurance — without any change in exercise.

Take aging into your own hands.

TheFutureParty readers get 30% off with code 30TheFutureParty for a limited time, while supplies last.

Order Now

Microsoft is introducing an animated virtual character of its Copilot chatbot. 

Why It Hits: More and more tech giants are trying to figure out a way to anthropomorphize AI — whether that’s Microsoft with Copilot, Meta’s various chatbot experiments, or X with its NSFW characters — in an effort to move past text and simple audio as the way customers interact with the technology.

Behind the Code: Growing up, millennials had Clippy. Gen Alpha will have Copilot (expect a nickname soon enough).

The Future: Copilot Appearance is being tested with users in the US, UK, and Canada, and Microsoft intends to roll out the feature gradually to avoid some of the controversies that have plagued companies like Meta, X, and CharacterAI. If it can be entertaining, helpful, and safe, it really could weasel its way into our culture the way Clippy did all those years ago.

Prediction: If Fluffy (our working title for Appearance) really does “age” with the user, prepare for the kid in your life to migrate the chatbot across devices for years to come — a constant revenue stream for Microsoft.

85.6% of you voted No in Friday’s poll: Do you think intense work culture contributes to faster innovation?

“It leads to burnout, mistakes, accidents, unintended consequences, family problems, as well as mental and physical problems.”

“There are diminishing returns as the hours roll by. You can pay someone to be there for those hours, but the productive time will be the same.”

“Innovation requires downtime — time for your brain to wander and reflect. In a high-intensity environment, the pressure is too focused on do, do, do — i.e., being a ‘success machine’ — to truly be creative.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, 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.

🤝 The Paramount-Skydance merger is expected to finalize on August 7th, with shares trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker PSKY.

🏈 The NFL is in talks to acquire a 10% stake in ESPN, with the network taking ownership of NFL Network and NFL RedZone.

🍿 New Line’s upcoming horror movie, Weapons, is getting an event inside Fortnite to scare up young audiences.

📱 Google is working on a vibe-coding app called Opal, which is already available to US users through Google Labs.

💻 The Internet Archive has been deemed an official depository for government documents.

🤖 Sam Altman would like you to know that your therapy chats with OpenAI are not protected by any legal confidentiality. Spill at your own risk.

👕 LVMH is looking to sell Marc Jacobs for $1 billion… and Authentic Brands, Bluestar Alliance, and WHP Global are already circling.

🚗 Lyft is adding US-made Holon autonomous shuttles to its fleet of rideshare services by next year.

🧥 Tremaine Emory’s Denim Tears is expanding outside the US with a new store in Tokyo.