I hope you’re watching the Olympics. 

Our whole house tunes in, separately during the day, then together for the replays at night. Peacock only allows three concurrent streamers, which means there’s been at least one angry text exchange on the Dick family thread. And yes, if you and I had a Zoom meeting this week, I probably had an event playing on my second monitor. I was paying attention to you, I promise.   

The drama, feats of athleticism, triumphs over Father Time, adversity of all manner overcome, redemption, and comeback stories – it’s all riveting. You don’t even have to like sports. If nothing else, tune in to see the adventures of Snoop Dogg, one of our most precious national treasures.

Also, it’s a borderline civic duty. 

If you purport to care about America’s greatness, however better it may or may not have once been, and you choose not to cheer for our team on some principle, your patriotic credibility is shot in my book. These athletes worked their asses off, bearing sacrifices most of us can’t imagine, for the reward of representing their country. Protest something else.   

Also, if you’re aggrieved over an ill-informed interpretation of the opening ceremony, let me know. I can recommend a few intro-level art history books for you to read. 

The Olympics are America at her best. The full flavor and variety of our collective stew are on global display. A black woman and an Asian woman took two of three gymnastics all-around medals. A Jewish woman was key to our (first-ever) medal-winning rugby team. Our indigenous sisters rocked volleyball, skateboarding, and surfing. The deepest rural red, plenty of white, and the brightest urban blue showed out. 

“DE&I” has lost serious brand equity in the past many months, eroded by those who would call for a perfect meritocracy, whatever that means. I’m not here to debate that today. But if that’s your jam, then you should be glued to the Olympics, standing with your hand over your heart when the Anthem plays. The multifariousness of America’s winners is most certainly earned, even though some had much steeper hills of opportunity to climb.

Otherwise, you could simply watch because our athletes, like our economy, are the very best in the world. Or because we have a fleeting two weeks of uplifting commercials before embarking on three months of nonstop, repugnant campaign ads. 

Whatever your reason, turn on the Olympics right now. You’ll be glad you did.  

Here’s what we’re seeing:   

Consumer confidence is on a heater right now. Our Economic Sentiment Index had the biggest two-week jump in its 11-year history this week, jumping nearly three whole points since we last reported. The surge was powered by a whopping 8-point increase in our collective optimism for the overall U.S. economy and a 4-point increase in outlook for the job market. Notably, views on personal finances were the only ones to fall, slightly. I know we had a couple of good economic reports lately (yesterday’s jobs report notwithstanding) – and I can’t prove it – but you’ll never convince me it’s not a function of the recent shakeups in the presidential race. Economic views are emotional, in case you haven’t been paying attention. 

In related news, emotional well-being was in a freefall until late July. I’ll stop short of calling this proof, but our Emotional Well-Being Index had its biggest drop in four months across the entirety of July. The huge asterisk is that you have to be a client to see the daily and weekly numbers, which showed a major rebound in the last week of the month, driven almost entirely by the one group most responsible for the prior malaise. See for yourself. 

Streaming services seem to be doing a much worse job of delivering persuasive ads to their viewers. It’s a little bit of inside baseball, but this study stopped me in my tracks this week. When asked whether they’ve seen one or more TV/video ads that negatively impacted their opinion of a brand, streamers were more than twice as likely to say ‘yes’ than those who still watch cable or satellite. Those same streamers were likewise much more apt to switch to a competitor’s brand as a result. Connected TV – and the advertising services (not named CivicScience) who power their targeting – have a long way to go apparently. 

Even if the ads have room for improvement, Peacock is doing a bang-up job with the Olympics. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with NBC’s streaming service this week. The breadth of coverage, the ease of navigation, and the signal reliability have been stellar. And, in our 3 Things to Know, we found that Peacock is significantly outperforming the intent-to-watch signals we reported in March. We also looked at the positive reaction among Democrats after President Biden bowed out of the race. Finally, we examined the epidemic of sleep problems and their causes among U.S. adults (77% of us, in fact). 

Value menus are seeing a spike. Like clockwork, as out-of-home dining finally began to slow in recent months, quick-service restaurants played their go-to card. Value menu items and promotions are now all the rage. It’s no surprise then, that interest in these items hit a new high in July, particularly among loyalty app users. Wendy’s “Biggie Bag” has attracted the most customers among the large QSR brands, with McDonald’s Meal Deal close behind and gaining. In fairness, the Wendy’s deal has been around for a bit, while the McDonald’s promo is much newer. Expect the Golden Arches to take the top spot in a minute.  

More awesomeness from the InsightStore this week:

  • Financial literacy is in decline, which isn’t great;
  • Job satisfaction, however, is on the rise – and you should definitely dig into this study if you hire or manage people;
  • People have started shopping for Halloween already;
  • Burger King and Five Guys fans are very different people.

The most popular questions this week:

Would you rather be taller or shorter than your current height?

Do you usually prefer boneless or bone-in chicken wings?

To what extent do you agree or disagree that money is the key to happiness?

Do you prefer indoor or outdoor concerts in summer?

Do you prefer your corn on or off the cob?

Answer Key: Neither; Bone-in, especially drums; It certainly helps; Outdoor by far; On, as long as I don’t have to watch other people eat it.

Hoping you’re well.

JD

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