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From 6–9 June 2024, the tenth European elections will take place in the EU's 27 member states. The previous elections, in 2019, saw electoral turnout increase for the first time since voting began. That was mainly down to a surge in young voters turning up. Still, only 42% of voters 24 and under voted. In the Netherlands, the number was even lower, at 35%.  

Since declining voter participation is a threat to democracy, Ben & Jerry's is stepping in with a sweet reward to entice more young people to vote this year. After casting their ballot on June 6th, Dutch citizens can trade in their red voting pencils for free ice cream. Ben & Jerry's will be swapping pencils for pints at six locations across the country.

Beforehand, people can confirm their intention to vote and Ben & Jerry's will send them a reminder the day before the election. For those unable to secure a red pencil, showing the confirmation email will still earn them free ice cream.

LLMs have a dirty secret. They’re thirsty: a single ChatGPT conversation uses about half a liter of water 💧 Microsoft’s 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report reveals a similar picture. The company’s C02 emissions are up by 29.1% since 2020, mainly due to the construction and provisioning of more data centers to meet customer demand for cloud services. Which makes Microsoft's goal of becoming carbon-negative by 2030 an ever-greater challenge.

More likely than not, your own company is busy adopting AI technologies to drive innovation and enhance customer experiences. And that means grappling with associated environmental implications, too.

🔴 Risk assessment: With leaders fearing they'll be outpaced by competitors in the race to deploy, gen AI is pushing sustainability down corporate priority lists. How will you stay vigilant? For starters, track the energy consumption of your brand's AI integrations and keep it in line with your ESG goals.

🟢 Opportunity: As concern about greenwashing reaches new heights, AI's ability to analyze large datasets promises to open up new routes to accountability, particularly within sustainability reporting. Use that capacity to your advantage, or face data-driven condemnation.

Of online daters, 64% are now interested in leveraging AI as a dating coach, according to cyber safety brand Norton. No longer confined to merely finding a match, AI is assisting daters in making conversation, enhancing their profiles and even simulating trial dates to break the ice. All of which could reduce the average six hours per week users spend on dating apps.

The latest AI-powered dating tools to hit the market, from Rizz and Volar to relationship coach Couply, demonstrate the field's potential. However, AI's inroads into dating are coinciding with a concerning rise in scams. While Norton obviously has skin in the game here, its data reveals a 72% increase since 2023, with nearly one in three American dating app users targeted, and almost half of those falling victim.

Given the ease of crafting a flirty text with AI, ensuring dater safety is key. Can you teach users to spot red flags, or harness AI to intervene when catfishing is about to strike?

We first wrote about Stolp in 2021, calling it a signal-blocking butter dish for better phone habits. The concept is still the same: a small Faraday cage that blocks WiFi, 3-5G and Bluetooth signals for up to five phones placed inside. What's new is that the Belgian startup has gained a prominent new partner in Marie Kondo. They've collaborated on a limited edition Stolp phone box in two muted, matte colors: KonMari Brown and KonMari Sand. Each box comes with a guide to digital decluttering based on Kondo's famous joy-sparking philosophy.

Just as Kondo shaped contemporary views on home organization, inspiring many to adopt a more intentional approach to their living spaces, she and Stolp encourage people to take a thoughtful approach to their digital lives and the devices that distract them from focusing on what truly matters. By integrating Stolp into their daily routines, users can adopt a physical ritual for unplugging, making space for moments of calm and deeper connections with those around them.

Building on the classic pairing of a long soak and a good read, LUSH is entering into a committed relationship with The Poetry Pharmacy, an independent bookshop specializing in 'poetry on prescription.' Following a successful pop-up with the cosmetics brand, The Poetry Pharmacy will now have a permanent 62-square-foot home in LUSH's flagship store on Oxford Street in London.

Customers can browse curated poetry books organized by emotion, purchase offerings like 'Poemcetamol' pills, or simply relax with coffee and cake at the Dispensary Coffee Shop. The partnership developed after LUSH co-founder and CEO Mark Constantine met The Poetry Pharmacy founder Deborah Alma and connected over a mutual love of poetry. That resulted in a temporary retail collab and LUSH bath bombs with names like Wild Remedy, Broken Heart, Slow Down and The Humbug — each featuring a hidden paper insert with a relevant poem.

Bookseller Alma's mission is to "bypass the gatekeepers and bring poetry to more people in playful and engaging ways." With its novel bath products, whimsical branding and immersive retail experiences, LUSH has always delivered more than just soap and skincare. Its collaboration with The Poetry Pharmacy blends seamlessly with that vision, creating a space for customers to nourish their minds as well as their bodies.

The first refugee athlete to join Nike's elite roster, Cindy Ngamba is a member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for the 2024 Paris Games. She fled her native Cameroon at age 11 and now resides in the UK, where she's a three-time national boxing champion and youth coach. In addition to signing Ngamba and sponsoring the official kit for the Refugee Olympic Team, Nike is collaborating with the Olympic Refuge Foundation's Terrains d'Avenir program in Paris to create more inclusive play environments and provide trauma-informed coaching.

Emphasizing Nike's conviction in the power of sport to unlock human potential, an accompanying ad showcases Ngamba alongside judoka Mohammad Rashnonezhad, originally from Iran; cyclist Eyeru Gebru, originally from Ethiopia; and 800 m runner Perina Lokure, originally from South Sudan. In the face of the all-too-familiar query, "But where are you really from?" Ngamba and her fellow athletes respond with unwavering determination. "I'm from losing my flag, my country and my home. But never giving up. That's where we are really from. Now, watch where we are going."

Sustainable Australian fashion label Madre Natura recently broke from tradition by choosing not to debut a new collection at this year's Australian Fashion Week. Instead, the brand took a stance against wasteful practices by presenting The Last Season Collection — its previous line, which it is committed to selling out entirely before launching new designs. With Australians sending 500 million kilograms of clothing to landfills annually, Madre Natura declined to contribute further.

The brand live-streamed the runway show for The Last Season Collection on TikTok, where viewers could shop the looks in real-time as models walked. Its use of TikTok drove the show viral while emphasizing that Madre Natura's new collection would not appear until every piece from the previous season was sold. 

Madre Natura has already made a name for itself as an impact-driven, slow-fashion label; its clothing is made locally in Sydney, for example, and each piece comes with free lifetime repairs. But the brand's decision to opt out of showing new designs at AFW24 is a powerful demonstration of putting sustainability claims and values into direct practice. One for other designers and retailers to consider?

Hyatt is teaming up with Peloton to motivate guests to prioritize their wellness while traveling. The partnership aims to be the first global hotel loyalty program incentivizing members to exercise by rewarding them with points. Guests at participating Hyatt properties will have access to Peloton bikes and rowing machines in fitness centers and to Peloton workout classes streamed directly to their room's TV. 

Good behavior isn't just its own reward

By doling out points to World of Hyatt members for completing Peloton cycling and rowing classes during their stay, Hyatt is tapping into an enduring trend we call CURRENCIES OF CHANGE. It's the notion of appealing to people's desire to save money (or accumulate valuable points) while simultaneously working toward self-improvement goals.

As travelers increasingly prioritize their mental and physical health, hospitality brands have loyalty-building opportunities to move beyond tangible amenities and position themselves as partners in guests' overall wellbeing journeys.

Created by the National Library Board of Singapore, NLB Playbrary transforms classic books into interactive adventure games using generative AI. First, readers/players visit the Playbrary website, select a book and receive a custom prompt to use with ChatGPT.

Starting with a selected moment in the storyline, players act as the protagonist and choose from three options that shape the plot. ChatGPT responds based on the book's established universe, while users can introduce twists and explore new story elements through their own prompts. Playbrary is available across 1,000 books for ChatGPT Plus users, with a smaller selection available to free users.

A 2024 study called The ABC of Mobility shows that 51.4% of commuters across 794 cities in 61 countries travel by car. Although the negative impacts of congestion and combustion engine cars are undisputed — air and noise pollution, GHG emissions and inefficient use of public space, to name a few — the transition to more sustainable options is slow.

The study finds considerable differences between cities, correlating with income and region:

• In cities with twice the average income, 37% more trips are made by car.
• In cities in Asia, a significant portion of trips are by public transport. In cities in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, trips are mainly by car, regardless of city size. Within Europe, there are notable differences in the share of different modes of transport, from cities with predominantly active mobility (like cycling in Utrecht) to cities where public transport plays a crucial role (the subway in Paris or London), to cities where more than two out of three trips are made by car (such as Rome and Manchester).

French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain has released its first fully AI-generated campaign, consisting of photos introducing the team's 2024-25 home kit. None of the players were photographed for the images and none of their faces were photoshopped; the images were entirely generated by AI. The only parts that were tweaked in post-production were the logos on their shirts.

Says the campaign's creator, Benjamin Benichou of Drop: "In this case, using AI wasn't about replacing human creativity but enhancing it. It was also a busy period for the players, so shooting with them wasn't an option." He trained local generative AI models on existing images of the players, the new jerseys and various PSG brand elements. Benichou asks a question that's rapidly becoming a common refrain: "If I wouldn't have told you, would you have spotted that it was made with AI?"

In May 2024, Tencent and China Library for the Blind jointly launched Barrier-Free Theater, a free online movie-streaming service for visually impaired users. The accessible versions of films function like radio dramas, providing detailed narration and spoken descriptions to help people visualize what they can't see. Tencent Video’s large-scale AI model boosted production efficiency, reducing the time it takes to make a film accessible from 30 to 10 days. Barrier-Free Theater is set to release over 600 popular titles, including YOLO, The Long Season and The Three-Body Problem.

Lil Miquela 🇺🇸 Shudu 🇿🇦 Lu do Magalu 🇧🇷... AI influencers aren't new, but AI tools allow for a speedier and cheaper creation of AI personas, driving demand for the role on freelancing platforms like Fiverr. Global searches on Fiverr for 'AI influencer' flew up by 6,305% over the past six months.

In addition to AI mega influencers, new AI niche influencers like Spanish gamer/model Aitana and 23-year-old Kant reboot Manu are joining the AI creator economy. They won't replace human influencers, but they're yet another competitor for followers and marketing spend. While Gen Z-ers are excited about AI influencers, they also worry their dream career as an influencer is no longer feasible... 💸

So, why not support them in becoming what we've dubbed M.E.O.s, the one-person, maker C.E.O.s of tomorrow? Take a cue from Ariel Marie, who (unlike Scarlett Johansson) actually gave AI companies full consent to use her persona for AI-generated content.

Rotary clotheslines — the kind with a pole in the center, folding out like an umbrella — offer a cheap and sustainable way to dry laundry outdoors. But until now, households without a yard or patio have been out of luck. While indoor drying racks provide a viable alternative, they occupy precious floor space. And on damp days, laundry can take a day or more to fully dry.

Dutch inventor Ans Clements, who started developing new products twelve years ago at age 60, alongside her career as a hairdresser, came up with a solution. The SpeedDryer is a rotary clothesline designed for indoor use. It features a small motor that gently spins the lines to speed up the drying process. Most loads of laundry will be ready in just two hours — comparable to a tumble dryer's cycle. When not in use, the device folds up for storage.

Tumble dryers rank among the most energy-intensive home appliances, using an average of 230 kWh annually and adding EUR 260 to a household's utility bills. By contrast, the SpeedDryer consumes just EUR 6.50 worth of electricity per year. Priced at EUR 219, it's an innovative adaptation of a familiar product that will appeal to consumers seeking to reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs. One to bring to apartment dwellers near you?! We're guessing it might do double duty as a cat entertainment device, too ;)

PwC just published its first Global AI Jobs Barometer, analyzing AI's impact on jobs, skills, wages and productivity in 15 countries. One of the report's key findings? "Sectors most exposed to AI — financial services, information technology and professional services — are experiencing nearly five times higher labor productivity growth than sectors less exposed to AI."

That surge in productivity is paired with a rapid change in the kind of know-how required from workers. Parsing 500 million job ads, PwC found that skills demanded by employers evolved 25% faster for occupations most able to use AI than for roles that are less AI-enabled.

While skills that can be complemented by AI are in demand, so are those that are hard for AI to perform. Examples listed by PwC include laser hair removal, yoga instruction and ecological restoration — careers that lean heavily on inhabiting a human body. For now, at least 🙃