TR.BIZ: 1.27.2025
From the Melania documentary to the Dr. Pepper jingle, this is your early-mid-week check-in ✨
Welcome to The Trend Report: Business Edition™, a midweek look at top stories, trends, and more of what’s happening online and off by Kyle of The Trend Report™. Today, we’re covering the rise of whistles, brands talking about ICE, the Dr. Pepper jingle, the loss of Vimeo, and why hotel shower heads are so complicated.
ALSO: If you’re in NYC, last call to make it to tonight’s live podcast recording with special guest Willa Bennett on the future of media. RSVP here and see you then!
👹 The Thing: Whistles
As the horrors of American fascism continue in Minnesota — to the point that even Republicans and ex-generals are raising the alarm — I want to zoom into a small but obvious trend we all may have noticed that is becoming a huge sign of the times: whistles. In the video of both Alex Pretti and Renee Good’s deaths, whistles are the shrill soundtrack of confrontation before gunshots. Around the necks and in the mouths of protestors: whistles. From Minneapolis to Los Angeles to Seattle to Chicago, whistle have become a strong symbol of community awareness, American autonomy, peace before violence, organized resistance, and the-future-as-analog, a means to protect yourself by trying to pierce through hate. “We are not wholly defenseless against the American Gestapo, much as they might like us to think otherwise,” Rachel Monk wrote for The Progressive in December on the subject. “As seemingly impossible as the macro-level logistics are to map out, it’s often pretty simple on the ground. People get word of an ICE sighting from a friend, or they hear whistles on their block; they step outside; they look for the helpers; they ask what they can do; and they grab a whistle to blow if they spot agents.” We often overthink what solutions look like and what the future may look like and the whistle is a great example of keeping it simple, stupid: sometimes it takes a high pitched call to referee ourselves back to reality, taking matters into our own hands when the persons in power we voted in to protect us have made themselves mute. Take it away, Sarah Schulman!
🏛️ Politicultural: Oh, Melania
It’s my last week in New York and the one thing I had to do — rain or snow, etc. — was see Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary!, which I got the chance to do during Sunday’s blizzard. It’s obviously an incredible political fever dream of a show, but I couldn’t help but think one thing during the quick eighty minutes: we’re witnessing our own Oh, Mary! moment in real time. As the exaggerated Mary Todd Lincoln blathers on about not knowing about wars or geography, this detachment from reality in pursuit of fame is a fitting joke for the times given that our Mary is Melania Trump — who has a documentary coming out Friday. The Amazon film recently had a star (“star”) studded screening at the White House over the weekend, as Mike Tyson and Brett Ratner and Tim Apple bowed before the queen. “I am deeply humbled to have been surrounded by an inspiring room of friends, family, and cultural iconoclasts at the White House last night,” she said of her cabaret documentary screening. “Our personal stories endure time and serve as a reminder of our mutual obligation to one another. It was an honor to present my new film, MELANIA, ahead of its global launch.” The symmetry between the historical fictional bozo and this real life bozo are uncanny, as they literally ate cake amidst what may become a defining moment in modern American history. Then again, she said it best years ago: “I really don’t care, do you?”
🩹 Branded, I: Should your brand melt the ICE?
Minnesota’s biggest companies are calling for a deescalation in the state, a list of brands that include Target, Hormel, Land O’ Lakes, 3M, Mayo Clinic, many sports teams, and more. But you know what’s funny? They — and their statement — doesn’t actually mention ICE at all: they simply cite “recent challenges.” This is…not a winning strategy, as this is the opposite of blowing a whistle, a safety dance performed for Trump that he will not care about and that is trying to appear as if “doing good” during tragedy. This won’t necessarily backfire, but take this when we compare it to Barack “Netflix Producer” Obama or even Billie Eilish and her brother: the moment to talk around the matter has past, as that moment was maybe during December. Now? You can’t “both sides” this and get away with it, which such a statement seems to get at and is made worse as this is the local response. None of this is surprising and, to play it safe, just stay out of it: take the L, go dark for the month, and accept your economic losses. Otherwise, do like Megan Stalter and stand the fuck up: say something, in solidarity, for democracy. No one has time for your crocodile tears.
🩹 Branded, II: Caged by Dr. Pepper
