World Cup Hooky

PRESENTED BY HUBSPOT

Happy Monday, Future Party. A very World Cup-themed newsletter is in store today. But first, a quick mention of the other big cultural event that happened this past weekend: the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

The Universal blockbuster notched the filmmaker’s biggest global debut of all time with an astounding $264 million. With nearly 23% of that coming from IMAX screenings (and insane demand for the company’s rare 70mm presentations), it’s about time IMAX and theater chains put their heads together and figured out how to make more of those projectors — no matter how difficult it may be. They have “at least” three years to figure that out before Nolan’s next movie.

American workers have missed more days of work to watch the World Cup than for any other major cultural event in recent memory.

The Big Play: As US interest in the World Cup has reached unprecedented levels, it was only natural that workers would fake a cough to stay home and watch the game or meet up with friends at a bar to catch it together. The ratings on Peacock and Fox prove as much, especially considering that most matches are played during working hours.

Behind The Absences: A new study by workplace management and security platform Envoy found that Americans have been calling in sick to watch World Cup matches.

Final Time Sheet: All the absences do have a material effect. HR software provider UKG found that the World Cup has cost the US economy $11.7 billion in lost productivity and $17 billion worldwide. That seems like a fair trade-off for the $40 billion in economic activity FIFA expects the tournament to generate in the US (although many analysts believe that number is inflated).

Still, there’s simply no avoiding the distraction. It occurs to some degree during every major cultural event, from the Olympics to the Barbenheimer phenomenon. FOMO always beats work.

Next Tournament: Maybe next time around, a majority of companies will just show matches at the office — talk about a great team-building exercise.

Your spreadsheets aren’t a CRM. They just think they are.

HubSpot’s free CRM gives you a single, unified view of every customer — their history, deals, and conversations — all in one place, with no credit card required.

You’ll get everything you need to build real customer relationships and grow faster, including:

And when you’re ready for more? Just upgrade. No data migration. No starting over.

It’s the CRM that grows as you do.

Get started for free.

Spain wasn’t the only big winner of the World Cup — ranch dressing has emerged as the tournament’s unexpected victor.

The Big Dip: International visitors have discovered several uniquely American things to love, but nothing has inspired quite the same awe as zesty ranch — which somehow goes with everything. That’s fitting because ranch is a very American invention. It was created in Alaska in the 1950s and perfected in California a decade later, and it’s still primarily distributed here. Now, the dressing is ready for a global rollout.

Behind The Dressing: Who doesn’t love ranch?

Final Bite: Ranch has been a bestseller for decades, especially around cultural events and during the summertime — US sales of bottled ranch surpassed $1.5 billion over the past year, making it “bigger than ketchup,” per WSJ.

But Hidden Valley and rival Kraft want that to be the floor, not the ceiling. Both companies are putting advertising everywhere, sending “ranchbassadors” to games to distribute tens of thousands of free packets, and, yes, stocking bottles at airport gift shops.

Just remember to buy an extra piece of luggage.

The Future: Prepare for an explosion of new ranch-inclusive recipes to pop up around the world, potentially changing international cuisine.

With Cash App, it can.

Round up your spare change from coffee runs, save a portion of every paycheck with direct deposit, and make your savings work for you with up to 3.25% interest. Plus, there are no monthly fees, hidden fees, or minimum balance requirements.

Save and transfer money whenever you want, and know your money is protected with 24/7 fraud monitoring and proactive security features.

Reach your goals faster with a better way to save that fits seamlessly into your everyday life.

Start saving with Cash App.

41.1% of you voted No, and I’m not considering one in Friday’s poll: Do you drive an EV?

“No desire to drive an EV, ever! Unreliable and far too time-consuming to charge on road trips.”

“I was seriously considering a Tesla because my nephew had one and took me for a driverless drive. I was very impressed. I quickly changed my mind when we met in Colorado after he traveled 575 miles — it took him 11 hours and three charging stops. Totally impractical for me, since the majority of my trips are over 500 miles. And the thing is, they never charged it to 100%. Guess I don’t understand the theory behind it. Needless to say, I purchased a hybrid Lexus ES.”

“Two-hybrid household. 50+ mpg, no range or charging anxiety, and I can refuel in under five minutes. Win, win, win.”

“Mustang Mach-E — really enjoy it!”

“My county has incredible, grant-supported public charging infrastructure. At 18¢ per kWh, it costs me about $15 to fill the tank.”

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.

🤳 YouTube released its annual US impact report, which found that it contributed over $60 billion to the American economy last year.

🎤 Shane Gillis broke the Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for a solo comedy show, with 76,212 seats sold for last Friday’s set at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

💥 Marvel Comics is moving its HQ from NYC to LA after 90 years in operation.

☁️ Meta is hiring senior AWS exec Dave Brown to help lead its data center rollout and potentially launch a cloud service.

🤖 Microsoft is set to release a Mythos-like AI model that can identify and fix software bugs.

👀 Chinese startup Moonshot AI has rolled out an open-weight model called “Kimi” that can apparently rival top American systems at a fraction of the cost.

🎮 Epic Games is debuting 36 AI-powered characters in Fortnite that developers can use as NPCs.

🛑 Patreon is blocking AI crawlers from scraping creators’ content on its platform.

📱 Trump Media is attempting to sell real-time access to top users’ posts on Truth Social.