Thursday, September 10, 2026 · New Jersey
Brand & Consumer Culture
RMN dispatches tagged Brand & Consumer Culture.
The Black Market Behind the Fryer
Once restaurant grease became renewable-fuel feedstock, the bin behind the kitchen became inventory — and thieves with pumps and tanks followed the value into the alley.
Fine, Knorr Got Us
We do not usually write about limited-edition pantry products. We also do not usually have the brand already sitting in our pantry before the press release arrives.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
The Family Costume Has Four Legs Now
PetSmart's 2026 Halloween collection looks like a seasonal retail story. It is also evidence that pets are no longer adjacent to family rituals. Increasingly, they are cast in them.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
More Data, Less Understanding
Zappi's latest industry study finds companies connecting more consumer data while growing less satisfied with insights — a paradox about judgment that AI speed cannot solve by itself.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
Parenting Now Comes With a Research Department
More information was supposed to make caregiving choices easier. NIQ's new U.S. research suggests that, for many mothers, abundance has created another job: deciding which advice deserves to be trusted.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
Manufacturing the Prediction
Two days before Apple's September 9 event, Velvet Caviar already had more than 100 iPhone 18 Pro Max cases in stock — turning an unreleased phone's shape into warehouse inventory.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
Your Dog Is Becoming a Data Source
For most of human history, knowing a dog meant watching the dog. Connected collars are turning that relationship into a stream of location, activity and behavioral telemetry, and increasingly asking software to tell us what the animal means.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
When an Object Becomes Part of You
EPHEMERA is bringing Seoul's OIKEIOSIS MUSEUM to the U.S. with handmade ceramic rings and keyrings built around a Stoic idea: objects become part of you through use, not purchase.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
New Jersey Joins FTC Challenge to Amazon’s Advertising Auction System
Regulators say undisclosed reserve pricing changed what advertisers were paying. Amazon says the case misunderstands how its ad marketplace works and ignores performance gains for advertisers and shoppers.
Reported Feature New Jersey
Even the Dog Gets a Girl Scout Cookie Now
Patch Pals, the first Girl Scout cookie made specifically for dogs, is more than a novelty line extension. It is another sign that pets are no longer standing beside American family rituals. They are being formally invited into them.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
When Healthy Becomes a Moral Category
A new analysis of TikTok and Instagram wellness posts found restrictive rules, “clean” eating ideals and widespread misinformation. The more interesting problem is what happens when nutrition advice starts grading the person holding the fork.
Reported Feature Somerset County, New Jersey
Liberty Biberty Did Not Need a Body
Liberty Mutual spent years building a weird, scrappy advertising universe one decent joke at a time. Then somebody looked at the funniest accidental character in the whole thing and decided what he really needed was to become a fuzzy yellow blob.
Culture Somerset County, New Jersey
The Sandwich Has Acquired Counsel
Smucker spent decades turning a crustless PB&J into a recognizable industrial product. Now a federal court is being asked where sandwich architecture ends and brand identity begins.
Culture Northern District of Ohio