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Hello again, and thank you for spending time with Fast Companys Plugged In. Last October, I visited the Silicon Valley headquarters of 1X Technologiesthe startup behind a humanoid home robot called Neoand spoke with its VP of product and design, Dar Sleeper. Among the points he made was that long-standing public expectations have set a high bar for household robots. Naturally, he name-checked the worlds most iconic one. The ultimate, North Star, in a lot of people’s minds, is Rosie the Robot, he told me. A Jetsons world where you ask and receive, and it makes your life better, you spend more time with your family, you’re more present. Sleepers reference returned to the front of my brain last week, when I attended a Wired event in San Francisco featuring an interview with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. Explaining AIs transformative impact, he turned to an obvious precedent: George Jetsons reliance on Rosie. I keep watching reruns of the old cartoon show The Jetsons, Prince said. There are a lot of things that are anachronistic about it. But I think asking the question, Where does George get his information from? is a really interesting one. And the answer is Rosie the Robot. When he says, Hey, Rosie, I want a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Rosie doesnt say, Here are 10 blue links, go find one yourself. Rosie says, Heres a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Rosie comes up so often in discussions of the future of technology that its easy to tune out rather than nod in appreciation. But hearing two executives mention her by name got me wondering why this secondary character from a 1962 Hanna-Barbera prime-time cartoon, canceled after only one season (albeit rerun endlessly), has been such an extraordinarily durable touchstone. Its not an easy question to answer. Even if, like me, youve already spent more time contemplating the Jetsons cultural impact than most people. Before we go any further, a few Rosie factoids for you: Her name was originally spelled Rosey, but the more common Rosie won out over time. The very first Jetsons episode, Rosey the Robot, told the story of how she entered the Jetsons’ home, initially as a short-term rent-a-robot. She appeared in only one other episode among the 24 in the first seasonthat shocked mebut was much more prominent in the additional Jetsons shows Hanna-Barbera produced in the mid-1980s, including starring roles in the episodes Rosie Come Home, Mothers Day for Rosie, and Rip-Off Rosie. As a sassy-yet-kindhearted maid, she drew undeniable inspiration from the title character in the newspaper comic Hazel, which had been turned into a popular TV sitcom the previous season. (The rest of The Jetsons knocked off another comics mainstay, Blondie.) Her Brooklyn-tinged voice was provided by actress Jean Vander Pyl, much better known as Wilma Flintstone. If you need to catch up on Rosies adventures, as I did for this newsletter, youll find The Jetsons widely available on streaming servicesI watched the show on Huluand airing every day on MeTV Toons. None of this explains why technologists are still talking about Rosie. The most superficial reason is that it would be pretty cool to off-load tedious household chores to someone else. Most of us cant afford human help, making a robot maid an alluring proposition. (As shown in the first episode, even paying for Rosie was a challenge for Jane and George: She was a discounted previous-year demonstrator model, and they were able to keep her only because Mr. Spacely gave George a raise.) But if all Rosie did was the dishes, I dont think shed be so well remembered. She is a piece of sophisticated technology with an uncommonly humane user interface. Thats why the Jetson family loved her so much, and why she sticks in our minds. And given that her features are presently morphing from fantasy into stuff that might actually be possible to build, shes only growing more relevant. As with many things about The Jetsons, Rosie is both old-timey and prescient. At one point in the first episode, she opens her front and dumps in Judy Jetsons homework tapes to incorporate them into her knowledge base. Thankfully, magnetic tape petered out as a primary form of data storage well over 40 years ago. But Rosies ability to crunch Judys classworkand presumably help her with itsure looks similar to an LLM ingesting data. Rosie was an uplifting presence in the Jetsons’ household. [Screenshot: Hanna-Barbera] In todays buzzwordy AI parlance, Rosie is also agentic. She handles tasks with a sizable degree of autonomy, is fine-tuned to behave responsibly and, though engaging and supportive, never slips into sycophancy. If Elroy confided that he was planning to become a juvenile delinquent, we can be certain she wouldnt aid him. Instead, shed push back on the idea andif necessaryalert his parents. Our 2025 chatbots are crude by comparison, if not downright dangerous. Still another reason why Rosie remains resonant is the timeless appeal of The Jetsons optimistic air. As depicted in the show, the future is a pretty wonderful place, and Rosie is part of that. Even by the end of the 1960s, our culture had grown darker. 2001: A Space Odysseys HAL 9000 may be as famous as Rosie, but hes also a grim object lesson in the dangers of trusting technology to work in our best interest. You wont catch tech execs speaking approvingly of HAL as a font of inspiration. The Jetsons was never dystopian, but neither was it naive. A sizable percetage of its humor stemmed from the downsides of theoretically useful technology, often in ways that are, in retrospect, as forward-looking as any other aspect of the show. As youll recall, the end credits of every episode concluded with George becoming overwhelmed by a runaway automated treadmill and calling for Jane to stop this crazy thing. (In real life, Pelotons safety issues with its Tread treadmill werent so funny.) Rosie does not appear in another 1962 Jetsons episode called Uniblab. But its moralthat artificial intelligence in the office might be a pointless waste of moneyis the furthest thing from entertainingly quaint. Mr. Spacely introduces George to his new boss, Uniblab. It doesnt go well. [Screenshot: Hanna-Barbera] Uniblab is a workplace robot that Mr. Spacely acquires for $5 billion (!). Apparently an AGI true believerhe gloats that Uniblab has a higher IQ than GeorgeSpacely demotes George to serve as the robots assistant. It turns out that Uniblab uses his always-on microphone to spy on Spacelys employees. He also induces them to play rigged gambling games. And thats about all hes good for. After being sabotaged by the shows resident hacker, the Jetsons handyman, Henry, Uniblab suffers a hallucinatory meltdown in front of Spacely Space Sprockets board of directors. Hes unceremoniously decommissioned. Humanity triumphs, at least for the moment. When The Jetsons premiered in 1962, publicity materials explained that it was set exactly 100 years in the future, in 2062. That indicates that even 37 years from now, AI may struggle to definitively prove its worth. For now, countless present-day Mr. Spacelys are currently overspending on the technology based on unrealistic expectations. Rosie, meanwhile, is clearly based on more mature AI than Uniblab. But in the first Jetsons episode, Jane and other characters are astonished at her capabilities, a sign that domestic robotics will still be in the process of going mainstream in 2062. Which means that it may be several more decades until Rosie is truly, unquestionably real. May she continue to serve as an aspirational stretch goal for the entire tech industry. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company The case only Netflix can make for buying Warner Brothers DiscoveryEverything about its past suggests its the best future owner. Read More The Disney-OpenAI tie-up has huge implications for intellectual propertyThe House of Mouse is one of the most aggressive defenders of its IP. OpenAI literally just said itd welcome erotica. Whats going on? Read More This startup is building a network of home batteries to help solve the grids woesHaven Energy works with homeowners to install batteries and solar in homes that qualify for state incentives around areas where the grid is particularly overloaded. Read More AI is killing review sites. Can they fight back?With AI replacing traditional search, review sites must evolve fastor risk being cut out of the buying journey. Read More The Kalshi-fication of everythingThe predictions platform is revealing what a world of total financialization will look like.Read More OpenAI is clapping back at Googles Gemini 3 with a new GPT-5.2The new model displays expert-level skill in work tasks, and exceeds Gemini in several benchmarks. Read More
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E-Commerce
When life gives people lemons, most try to make the best out of a bad situation. Instead, Beau du Bois, vice president of bar and spirits at Marisi Italian restaurant in La Jolla, California, found himself with an incredible opportunity. In 2021, the Adler and Lombrozo families, owners of the Puesto Mexican restaurant chain, tapped du Bois to build Marisi’s bar program from the ground up. One of the first actions du Bois took when learning about this new venture was starting a batch of limoncello, using a lesser-known Amalfi Coast technique. They told me about Marisi almost exactly a year before we opened,” du Bois tells Fast Company. “And the very next day, even though I’ve got 364 days to get the restaurant open, I started making the limoncello right away.” Du Bois had excellent timing, as the appetite for limoncello in the United States has been on the rise. According to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, global limoncello volumes grew at a compound annual rate of 8% between 2019 and 2024. In 2024, the top three markets for limoncello were Italy, Germany, and the United States, in that order. The U.S. has seen steady average annual growth of 5%. The IWSR predicts the figure will continue its upward trend, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 2% from 2024 to 2029. Even though Du Boiss preferred preindustrial limoncello process has been a part of the restaurant since its 2022 opening, its recently made a big splash on social media. An Instagram reel documenting the procedure has garnered over four million views and reveals larger trends in the hospitality industry. View this post on Instagram
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E-Commerce
Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a 7.5-foot-tall Chewbacca holding a candy cane. At least, according to the team at Home Depot. Home Depot has long been known as a purveyor of holiday decor, from pumpkins at Halloween to a wide selection of real and artificial trees at Christmas. In recent years, though, its been upping the creative ante on its decor game to capture new audiencesand, in some cases, to score a viral hit on TikTok. This year, its doing just that with two new additions to its holiday lineup: life-size, animated versions of Star Wars Chewbacca and R2-D2 ($349 and $299, respectively), complete with movie-accurate, motion-activated sound effects. While Home Depot declined to share specific sales data about the characters, R2-D2 appears to have sold out within weeks of debuting, inspiring several TikTok videos with hundreds of thousands of views and resulting in multiple Reddit forums where users are discussing strategies for getting their hands on one of the units. Resellers are already pedaling the product on eBay for nearly double its original price. With its increasingly extravagant Halloween animatronics and now its suite of nerdy, high-tech Christmas decor, Home Depot is making the spectacle of extreme holiday decorating accessible to the average customer. [Image: Home Depot] Home Depot is turning extreme holiday decorating into an accessible sport Home Depot is no stranger to building head-turning (and TikTok view-farming) holiday decor. In fact, its towering 12-foot-tall skeleton, Skelly (who debuted in 2020), is what initially propelled the big box store to its current status as customers go-to shop for viral decor. Since then, Home Depot has leaned into both the scale and detail of its holiday decor, including with Halloween releases this year like a seven-foot-tall Frankenstein and 9.5-foot-long haunted pirate ship. Now bringing that same amped-up energy into Christmas. Chewie and R2-D2 are part of Home Depots range of IP-adapted characters, which include other popular characters like Chucky, a 13-foot-tall Jack Skellington from Disneys The Nightmare Before Christmas, and, also new this year, Olaf from Disneys Frozen. The company already sells a seven-foot-tall Darth Vader and six-foot-tall Stormtrooper. [Photo: Home Depot] Aubrey Horowitz, Home Depots senior merchant of decorative holiday, says Home Depots Star Wars line plays to a couple of different emerging genres of holiday shoppers. One is the seasonal decor enthusiast, who tends to like to refresh their decor from one holiday to the nextwhich is why characters like the Stormtrooper, Darth Vader, and R2-D2 all come with modifications to transition from Halloween to Christmas. Another is the holiday shopper thats interested in nostalgic aesthetics, from vintage-looking artificial trees to retro characters. That tracks with data Pinterest shared with Fast Company, which found that searches for nostalgic Christmas aesthetic were up 1,130% this November compared with last November. [Photo: Home Depot] With the majority of its IP collections, Home Depot is able to capture fans by keeping prices relatively low: For comparison, other life-size replicas of R2-D2 can run between $1,500 and $8,000. Clearly, the choice is resonating with fans online. A commenter under one video of R2-D2 with more than 130,000 views wrote, Take my money. Now I can put this alongside my R2D2 Pepsi cooler. And under a separate clip of Chewbacca, commenters are responding with photos of their own Home Depot Chewie surrounded by other Star Wars characters (and one dressed in a sports jersey). This holiday season, Home Depot is making sure that the most eccentric dad on your block can tap into his childlike wonder without breaking the bankand were not mad about it.
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E-Commerce
Leadership listening is in sharp decline, and the consequences run deep. A survey from People Insights found that only 56% of employees believe senior leaders genuinely make an effort to listen, which is down from 65% two years ago. We live in a world where algorithms reward noise. Visibility has become a proxy for value, and airtime is the metric that many use to measure leadership presence. But real influence doesnt come from speaking more. It actually comes from listening better. Influence grows through empathy, trust, and the ability to see and understand people. The disconnection crisis When leaders stop listening, people stop contributing. Ideas fade, trust erodes, and creativity retreats into silence. Ive seen this in large transformation programs with a sound strategy. Employees felt unheard, so progress stalled. When we paused to listen, everything changed. People began to share what was really going on. They talked about their fear of redundancy, exhaustion, and the loss of identity sitting just beneath the surface. Once they acknowledged those emotions (and responded with intentional action), we saw a decrease in resistance, and collaboration returned. This situation reminded me that change rarely fails because of poor strategy. It fails when we dont understand the why behind the resistance. Leaders might not be able to fix every concern, but giving people space to speak and be heard starts to rebuild trust. Listening is the first act of empathy, and empathy is the bridge back to psychological safety. The future model of influence There is another kind of silence thats intentional and not imposed. Its the pause that allows leaders to think, feel, and respond with awareness rather than react. This is where modern influence begins. Visibility and authority wont build the leaders of tomorrow. What will set them apart is their ability to build trust and lead with empathy to create psychologically safe workplaces. Todays leaders are juggling unprecedented complexity, whether thats shifting markets, hybrid work, rapid transformation, and multigenerational teams with diverse values and communication styles. Each generation might look for something different, but they all want someone to hear them out. Amid this constant pressure, few leaders have the space to slow down. Yet as complexity accelerates, active listening becomes essential. The most effective leaders create space for everyday check-ins rather than relying on quarterly surveys. These small moments of connection allow them to pivot quickly, address issues early, and stay in rhythm with their teams. You dont measure the pulse of leadership in reports; you do so in daily conversations. Empathy enables leaders to read emotions as fluently as they read information and to sense what people need before they can articulate it. It turns listening into awareness and awareness into intelligent action. This isnt performative listening or surface acknowledgment; its a disciplined practice of presence, understanding, and follow-through. Measuring connection While you can measure listening, you feel its actual impact through culture. Simple questionsMy manager genuinely listens to my concerns or Senior leaders act on employee feedbackreveal whether an organization values voice and transparency. Psychological safety remains the most reliable indicator of a connected culture. When people feel safe to speak, innovation thrives. Regular pulse surveys can track progress, but measurement only matters when it leads to visible action. Asking employees whether they see follow-through ensures that listening translates into progress. When leaders act on what they hear, empathy becomes motion. It builds credibility and reinforces the belief that every voice matters, which turns trust from an aspiration into a measurable outcome. The quiet revolution Influence today demands composure in complexity. Leaders need to find space to hear what their employees arent saying, reflect before responding, and make room for diverse perspectives. When empathy becomes part of daily leadership, it strengthens clarity, confidence, and connection across the organization. Empathy allows leaders to stay grounded in uncertainty and connected in complexity. Listening transforms disconnection into alignment and noise into meaning. This is human-first leadership that balances the rational with the emotional. I call it “rational empathy”where emotional awareness meets clear reasoning. Its the space where leaders respond, with both compassion and composure. Those who master it will build cultures that are open, resilient, and ready for what comes next. The leaders who will define the next decade wont be the loudest in the room. The next revolution in leadership will listen and balance confidence with curiosity. Are you listening deeply enough to understand what really matters and what could change in your team, your culture, or your impact if you started there? When leaders truly listen, they connect, and that connection is where real influence begins.
Category:
E-Commerce
Six years ago, when Michael Buckley returned to True Religion‘s offices as CEO, the denim brand looked nothing like the one he had built a decade earlier. Buckley was the brand’s president between 2006 and 2010, when True Religion was a luxury brand that sold jeans priced between $300 and $500 at Neiman Marcus and Barneys. Buckley helped grow revenues to more than $300 million a year, but after he left, the brand hit hard times, as it struggled to adapt to e-commerce. It filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and again in 2020. In 2019, after serving as CEO of Differential Brands Group (which owns Hudson Jeans), Buckley came back to True Religion to clean up the mess. He’s executed a remarkable turnaround, doubling the company’s revenues and leading it to its highest profitability ever. Buckley’s strategy is interesting. He’s rebuilt the business around the Black and Latino customers who have been loyal to the brand from the beginning. Under his leadership, the brand has rethought everything from pricing to design to marketing with these consumers in mind. (While none of True Religion’s top leadership is Black, Buckley says the company’s employees “reflect the brand’s consumers.”) “We didn’t change our target demo,” Buckley says. “This was the True Religion demographic all along, and it was our job to embrace them.” In the past, True Religion’s ad campaigns featured predominantly white models, but today, its website and social media features exclusively models of color. The brand partners with rappers and hip-hop artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Quavo, and 2 Chainz as ambassadors. True Religion is now back at the center of culture, seen on celebrities like Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner. Thanks to collaborations with brands like Von Dutch and Supreme, the brand is regularly featured in fashion blogs. Ciara [Photo: True Religion] Buckley believes that the future of True Religion lies with Black consumers. The brand is now focused on winning over the next generation; it’s going on a college tour with a focus on historically Black colleges and universities, like Spelman and Morehouse. But experts say that for True Religion to build an enduring relationship with Black consumers, it needs to go beyond just marketing to them; it must also forge authentic partnerships with these communities. Megan Thee Stallion [Photo: True Religion] “It’s awesome that the brand is serving the Black consumers that stuck around when others abandoned them,” says Marcus Collins, a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business and the author of For The Culture. “But to take it to the next level, the question is, how are you showing that you’re invested in the community? Are you collaborating with the community in a way that shares equity?” A Loyal Customer Historically, Black consumers have been sorely neglected by fashion brands, despite having significant economic power. Their spending on apparel and footwear is expected to grow by 6% a year to $70 billion by 2030, and yet, many fashion brands don’t tailor their products or marketing to their Black audience. A 2021 McKinsey survey found that Black consumers were profoundly dissatisfied with their fashion options and did not see themselves in most brands’ marketing campaigns. “Black consumers are so underserved and marginalized that they will gravitate towards brands that aren’t even targeting them,” says Collins. When True Religion first hit the market in 2002, its advertising campaigns rarely featured people of color. Its pricingwhich was astronomically expensive for jeanswas also designed to signal exclusivity. When he was previously at the company, Buckley says products were designed for consumers with household incomes above $250,000. Jeff Lubell, who cofounded True Religion, had no apologies for this high price tag. Its not for everybody, even though I would love it to be,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. “Its like being in the club. When Buckley came back to True Religion in 2019, its price point and identity hadn’t changed significantly since its early days, but the style was no longer resonating in the market they had targeted. “The brad assumed the same luxury customer was buying, but when I walked the streets, it didn’t look like that at all,” he says. [Photo: True Religion] Buckley commissioned a survey to find out who was actually buying True Religion. The results were interesting: A third of customers were Black and 15% were Latino. Consumers skewed male and had an average household income of $65,000. For Buckley, this seemed like a big opportunity. “Years ago, when we were targeting wealthy consumers, we were touching 4% of the apparel market,” he says. “But the middle class demographic is enormous: it’s 150 million people. It seemed like a no-brainer to pivot.” According to Kristen D’Arcy, True Religion’s CMO, the brand has resonated with Black consumers because rappers and hip-hop artists had taken to it early on. The rapper Quavo, for instance, was such a fan of True Religion in his teens that he got a tattoo of the logo on his arm back in 2007. In 2014, rapper 2 Chainz name-dropped True Religion in a lyric. “The hip-hop world has always loved True Religion,” she says. “Even when we were selling to a different consumer, they were buying it.” Buckley has rebuilt the business around its current customers. For one thing, he lowered prices. Today, most of the brand’s styles are under $100, and thanks to frequent promotions, they’re often even cheaper. The aesthetic of the jeans is also very different now than it was in the early 2000s. In 2019, Buckley brought back Zihaad Wells, who had previously served as the brand’s VP of design from 2006 to 2017. Today, True Religion’s jeans still feature some of its original design elementslike visible stitching and the horseshoe iconographybut they now have a distinct Y2K streetwear aesthetic, which appeals to Gen Z as well as older consumers who are nostalgic for the early 2000s. It sells bedazzled jeans and sweat suits, baby tees, and grungy, distressed jeans. True Religion x Von Dutch [Photo: True Religion] “The aesthetic looks very dated to me, particularly with the large logos,” says Tina Wells, a marketing strategist and entrepreneur, with an expertise in multicultural marketing. “It’s certainly resonating with a subsection of Black consumers right now, but it will be important for the brand to keep their finger on the pulse, so that they’re not just creating products they think Black people want.” D’Arcy, for her part, has been focused on creating brand imagery that reflects this consumer base. With the brand’s $50 million annual marketing budget (which equates to 10% of sales), D’Arcy has launched campaigns with popular hip-hop and rap artists, including Megan Thee Stallion, Anitta, and NLE Choppa. YG [Photo: True Religion] Going Deeper The turnaround strategy has been effective. True Religion is projected to reach half a billion dollars in sales this year, up from $280 million in 2023. According to McKinsey’s survey, Black consumers show a strong preference for brands that resonate with them culturally. And when brands develop products for Black consumers and create diverse marketing campaigns, they will be rewarded with an influx of consumers. Saweetie [Photo: True Religion] D’Arcy believes there is even more room for True Religion to grow within the Black community. True Religion is popular across age rangesincluding the over-60 crowd, which makes up 15% of its audience. But to be an enduring brand, Buckley believes it is important to target the next generation of Black consumers who will hopefully stay with the brand as they enter adulthood. “We’re focused on acquiring millions of new customers in the 18-to-25 market,” says D’Arcy. True Religion is currently doing a college tour, where it hosts pop-ups on campuses, giving students a chance to take a study break while playing trivia games and browsing racks of clothing. Some of these colleges are HBCUs, including Morehouse and Spelman in Atlanta, while others, like the University of Florida in Gainesville and St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York, have large Black populations. Chelley B (Love Island) [Photo: True Religion] Both Wells and Collins say that the test of True Religion’s commitment to the Black community will be borne out by how much effort the brand puts into really getting to know these consumers. He points to Ralph Lauren’s partnership with Morehouse and Spelman over the past two years, which resulted in two successful collaborations. Ralph Lauren spent a long time working with scholars at these schools, along with Black designers and creatives, to create clothing and campaigns that authentically reflected the Black experience. “Their proximity to the culture allows them to do something that doesn’t feel opportunistic,” Collins says. “Black consumers immediately resonated with that campaign because it felt so authentic.” For Buckley, True Religion’s current success is proof that Black consumers are a scalable and profitable market. “We’re doing everything we can to embrace a customer that has loved us for a long time,” he says. “This is a growing, trend-setting population. I don’t know why any brand wouldn’t want to serve them.” Anitta [Photo: True Religion]
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E-Commerce
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