Back in 2016, a small independent coffee company rocked the world with a powerful TV commercial in Super Bowl 50 they managed to get for FREE. The powerful story of Death Wish Coffee Company endures nine years later. Hopefully, it’s inspirational to all those small broadcasters, fighting the good fight year after year over the AM and FM airwaves.

One of the Super Bowl ads that had its work cut out for it was the ChatGPT commercial. It was designed to demystify AI and make this new technology the logical next phase in the time-honored history of technological progress. Whether you saw it or not, today’s post discusses the challenge of making new tech feel comfortable for consumers rather than making them fearful and angst-ridden. Was it effective and could it be the foundation for AI acceptability OR like so many other Super Bowl ads, was it too obtuse and conceptual? You be the judge.

Thanks to our data-driven world, there’s no shortage of numbers in our lives. And so far in 2025, numbers have told important stories about current tendencies and coming trends. I’ve picked out a handful of the most fascinating numbers I’ve seen in recent weeks, and what they may portend for later in the year. Today’s blog post features stories about “connected cars,” celebrity deaths, selfish Baby Boomers, Walmart, Amazon, and the “New York Times” – plenty to talk about on a frigid Winter week. So, dig in!