Oui, Need to Talk About Paris 2024

May 10, 2024

Happy Friday! This week, we examined why the Paris Olympics are off to a rocky start ahead of opening festivities. But first...

📡ON OUR RADAR

After the beef between hip-hop stars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling last weekend, Rolling Stone (and most rap fans) crowned Lamar the champion. In Lamar’s latest diss tracks, “Not Like Us” and “Meet the Grahams,” the rapper flexed his writing skills that put him in the running to win a Pulitzer Prize. Unlikely rap war commentator PC Mag weighed in to say Drake lost the moment he used AI-generated verses from Tupac and Snoop Dog in “Taylor Made Freestyle.”

Many iconic food brands, including McDonald's, Starbucks, and Kraft Heinz, are adjusting tactics in response to consumer pushback against price hikes. These companies are now offering pricing specials, smaller pack sizes at lower costs, and plan to communicate changes swiftly to win back consumer trust—and wallets.

And in politics, two laughable wipeouts grounded in the written word. RFK Jr. revealed that “a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” Not a great look for a presidential candidate with medical positions well outside the Overton window. Meanwhile, Trump VP hopeful Kristi Noem faced continued blowback for, ahem, executing her disobedient dog. Turns out her comms team told her for years that this story wasn’t a good look, but she put it in her book anyway.

💡ON OUR MINDS: Let the Games Begin?

Source: Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters

The Olympic torch was met with fanfare as it reached French soil on Wednesday to complete its traditional relay to this year’s host country. But as summer approaches, it’s clear that the road to the 2024 Games is not without its hurdles.
Paris put accessibility at the heart of its bid to host this year’s games, and advocates are concerned that the city is not doing enough to prepare for its expected influx of 15 million visitors — with an estimated 350,000 having disabilities
Despite retrofitting public infrastructure and beefing up private solutions as well (Uber will add more than a hundred wheelchair-accessible vehicles to its fleet), the city is separately running into trouble changing the public mindset about those with disabilities.
The city is also under fire for its forceful dispersal of migrant encampments in preparation for the games, forcing many to either join a government-aid program, or leave altogether.
Preparing for an event of this magnitude is no small feat and under intense public scrutiny, but thoughtful PR is not an Olympic sport. All to say: Paris has a long way to go in beefing up its reputation before putting it on a global stage this summer.

🥊QUICK HITS:

In case you missed these reads:

Reading rates are dropping among kids. Librarians and teachers are working to convince them that reading is fun without a new “Harry Potter” to hook children in.

The Boy Scouts are rebranding as Scouting America, but achieving a name change badge might not be enough to salvage a sullied reputation.

The NFL is huddling over its current ownership rules, debating whether to allow private equity firms to buy stakes in teams.

Thanks for reading,

===

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by the future of dating and finding yourself in a situationship with ChatGPT.

OUT OF SCOPE