Chick-fil-A is releasing its own entertainment app, with family-friendly shows and podcasts

Chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, milkshakes – and now TV shows and podcasts?

Chick-fil-A plans to launch a new app on Nov. 18, with a slate of original animated shows, scripted podcasts, games, recipes and e-books aimed at families.

While it’s an unusual move for a restaurant company to wade into the crowded media world, Chick-fil-A has been expanding outside of food for years already — with the ultimate goal of directing more people to its over 3,000 restaurants. Since 2019, Chick-fil-A has held the spot of the third-biggest U.S. restaurant chain by sales, trailing only Starbucks and McDonald’s, with many fewer locations than either. Last year, its revenue reached $7.89 billion, according to franchisee disclosure documents.

As it tries to drive more restaurant sales, the company has sold branded merchandise, like a sleeping bag that resembles its chicken sandwich’s packaging, and created a spinoff brand called Pennycake, which offers family-friendly games and puzzles. And for the last five years, it’s released animated shorts on YouTube during the holiday season as part of its “Stories of Evergreen Hills” series.

“We’ve been paying attention to some research and conversations we’ve had with families that are our customers, and insights bubbled up that content and games are both adjacent to mealtime,” said Dustin Britt, Chick-fil-A’s executive director of brand strategy, entertainment and media.

“Our belief is, as we add value to their experience, then we’re giving them a reason to want to enjoy more Chick-fil-A with us,” he added.

A preview of the app viewed by CNBC included the first 22-minute episode of “Legends of Evergreen Hills,” which continues protagonist Sam’s adventures in the fantasy world of Evergreen Hills; the first installment of “Hidden Island,” a scripted podcast about a family that shipwrecks on a deserted island; and a step-by-step cooking tutorial that uses a Chick-fil-A milkshake as a key ingredient.

Customers can pre-download the free Chick-fil-A Play app for their iPhones, iPads and Android devices ahead of the launch next month.

Chick-fil-A decided to create the app following years of discussions with customers and as consumer behavior shifts away from prolonged visits to its restaurants.

While many of Chick-fil-A’s customers still enjoy its in-restaurant playgrounds, more of its customers are now using its drive-thru lanes and ordering delivery, according to Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of brand strategy, advertising and media. Rival McDonald’s

has slowly been erasing its PlayPlaces, a change likely resulting from fewer children using the playgrounds, concerns about health and safety, and a shift away from marketing to children.

“We’re looking at this app as a way to have a digital playground for the entire family to enjoy, whether they’re in our restaurants, in the drive-thru, driving to soccer practice or even relaxing at home,” Cooper told CNBC. “We want it to be an extension of our in-restaurant signature hospitality and generosity.”

The content on the app focuses on themes like generosity, friendship, problem-solving, creativity and entrepreneurship, according to Cooper. Chick-fil-A designed the app’s content to appeal to children 12 years old and under and their parents.

After the initial launch, new episodes of “Legends of Evergreen Hills” will release weekly through the holidays; “Hidden Island” will follow a similar drop schedule. Next year, the Play app will launch “Ice Lions,” another scripted audio series based on the true story of Kenyan teenagers who want to form the country’s first ice hockey team.

Most of the content that will be available on the app was created with outside partners led by Chick-fil-A’s internal team, but some of it was licensed. The company didn’t disclose the names of its external partners.

“We’re constantly thinking about what additional elements we can add into the app over time,” Cooper said.

In August, media publication Deadline reported that Chick-fil-A has been working with outside production companies for content, including unscripted shows, like a family-friendly game show.

“I’ll say that we’re exploring a variety of different types of content, and everything right now is a potential opportunity for us. We’re going to keep learning and exploring and figuring out what things work,” Britt said.

As legacy media players like Disney

and Warner Bros. Discovery

have found out, making content is expensive and attracting viewers is difficult, given the glut of available options on streaming services.

For brands like Chick-fil-A, the calculus is a bit different. Rather than using content to make money from subscriptions or advertisements, they’re looking to sell more of their own products. That’s been the case since Procter & Gamble

first sponsored daytime radio shows to sell its soap – creating the soap opera.

“There’s a lot of content creation that happens from media houses for brands, and I think that brands want to tap into that because it feels more authentic. It feels more like content and not an ad,” said Stephani Estes, chief media officer for Goodway Group, a digital marketing agency.

More recent entrants include Starbucks

, which announced this summer that it will create original content through a partnership with Sugar23. And in January, Chuck E. Cheese said it’s working with “Top Chef” producer Magical Elves to create its own game show.

“I think the biggest question I would have, as a marketing professional, is what is the business problem that you’re trying to solve? And is the dollar invested in that content creation or particular initiative going to pay out more than spending that dollar somewhere else in the marketing funnel?” Estes said.

For Chick-fil-A, the branded content gives it a way to connect with kids – without the same stink as advertising directly to them – and foster goodwill toward the brand from their parents.

And unlike Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, Chick-fil-A has some flexibility to figure out if the investment is working. As a family-owned company, it isn’t beholden to shareholders who might push back against an expensive marketing endeavor.

Chick-fil-A also has cash to burn, especially given its meteoric growth over the last decade. From 2018 to 2023, its systemwide sales nearly doubled. Last year, it raked in net earnings of $1.07 billion. Chair Dan Cathy, who served as CEO from 2013 to 2021 and is father to current CEO Andrew Cathy, has a net worth of $10.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates.

Coincidentally, Dan Cathy owns Atlanta-based Trilith Studios, whose stages have acted as sets for many Marvel movies and TV shows, plus Francis Ford Coppola’s 2024 mega-flop “Megalopolis.” Tax breaks and cheap labor have helped Atlanta become the “Hollywood of the South” over the last decade. Cathy has previously drawn criticism for remarks he made in 2012 opposing same-sex marriage, and the company’s foundation donated to anti-LGBTQ groups during his time as chief executive.

Dan Cathy was not directly involved in the development of the Play app or making decisions related to the content, according to Cooper. Chick-fil-A also hasn’t worked with his studio – yet.

“We’ve not currently done any work directly with Trilith to date, but that’s something that we continue to explore, where it makes the most sense for both our businesses and brands,” she said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/21/chick-fil-a-to-release-entertainment-app-play-with-shows-and-podcasts.html

Angel Reese: My $73,000 WNBA salary can’t cover my bills—‘I’m living beyond my means’

Angel Reese may be one of the faces of the WNBA, but her time on the court hardly pays the bills. The Chicago Sky’s All-Star rookie last week revealed that her $73,439 salary isn’t anywhere close to enough to help her make ends meet.

“I just hope y’all know the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all,” she said during a recent Instagram live, according to ESPN. “I don’t even think that pays one of my bills.”

Reese said her monthly rent payment is $8,000, meaning that a year’s housing costs her $96,000 — more than she earns in a full season. “I’m living beyond my means,” she joked.

Her salary wasn’t even enough to “pay my car note,” she said, laughing that she “wouldn’t even be able to eat” and “wouldn’t be able to live” on her earnings from the league.

It’s not the first time that Reese has opened up about her pay, or lack thereof. Back in May, she told ESPN that her primary income came from her numerous endorsement deals, describing her WNBA earnings as “a bonus.”

“Being able to play for what, four to five months, and get $75,000 on top of the other endorsements that I’m doing, I think it’s a plus for me,” she said at the time.

Reese has partnerships with brands including Reebok, Beats by Dre and Reese’s chocolates.

She also spends part of her offseason participating in Unrivaled, a new 3v3 league whose inaugural season will take place in Florida, to earn some extra cash. In the past, WNBA players have traveled to countries like Russia to supplement their salaries.

“A lot of us never wanna have to go overseas, but some people do have to go overseas, unfortunately,” she said in August. “Being able to make six figures within three months [in Unrivaled], being able to be housed in Miami, just being able to get better …. I think it’s amazing.”

Currently, the highest paid WNBA player is Las Vegas Aces star Jackie Young, who earned just over $250,000 this season. The NBA’s salary leader, meanwhile, is Steph Curry, who earned $51.9 million from the Golden State Warriors last year and will make $55.7 million this upcoming season.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert emphasized at the CNBC Changemakers Event earlier this year that the league is making progress in catching up to men’s leagues that are “75 to 120 years old.”

“We’re tipping off our 28th season. I would say if you look at [the other leagues] 28 seasons in, we’re further ahead,” she said. “But we realize we still have a lot of work to do, and it’s all about the ecosystem around us that drives revenue.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/21/wnba-star-angel-reese-cant-afford-her-rent-on-73k-wnba-salary.html

'How one woman is planning to live to 150

5am

I wake naturally at around five and step onto my biometric smart scale, which measures my weight, fat mass, bone density (this is only an estimate; I have a proper DEXA scan annually) and water mass (the total amount of water in my body). It gives me a pretty good idea of where my body is at. My smart Oura ring, which I wear on my finger, also reveals my sleep metrics and where I am in my menstrual cycle. I typically have incredibly high sleep scores, such as very deep REM with no wake-ups.

5.15am

Afterwards, I begin my oral health routine. The oral microbiome is incredibly important for overall health. I scrape my tongue free from bacteria with a metal tongue scraper and, about three times a week, I do some coconut or ozone oil pulling, which means you swish oil around to make your teeth whiter and balance oral bacteria. Once a year, I also do platelet-rich fibrin injections. This is where my blood is extracted and spun, and then injected back in my gums to reduce gum inflammation and promote tissue regeneration.

5.30am

Next, I hook myself up to my Pulse Electromagnetic Field Therapy device. This reduces inflammation, which is known to be the cause of a range of chronic diseases and ageing. The therapy also improves my heart rate variability, which is the timing between heartbeats, and I find it very grounding.

6am

Typically, I will then do some breath work, prayer or meditation. I then have a quick protein coffee (a drink that combines coffee with protein powder), which gives me about 20g of protein. Then, I head to my gym for a workout. I do a mix of strength and cardiovascular training. Then, once the sun is up, I head outside to get sunlight into my eyes, which really signals to the body and brain to wake up. This is very important.

7am

Most days I have a sauna session, which promotes detoxification and blood flow. And three times a week, I use a sauna with red light therapy for about 15 minutes. This is good for mitochondrial health, which improves energy levels. It feels amazing.

7.30am

For my meals, I only eat organic and regeneratively-grown foods (an approach to farming that aims to improve soil health). For breakfast, I typically eat organic eggs and then fermented foods, such as carrots, and also a salad. I aim to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight, so I eat around 120g protein a day.

I might follow that with a small coconut yoghurt with dark berries. You want to have the protein and healthy fats prior to eating anything with sugars so you maintain more stable blood sugar. I only drink spring water out of glass to avoid microplastics.

8am

Now it’s vitamin time. I take around 20 supplements a day, dictated by my quarterly bloods. I also take longevity supplements, such as NMN, which helps the body produce energy and power, and spermidine, which is important for cell growth.

Once a week, I may do other biometrics, such as doing lung health testing with a spirometer, which measures the amount of air you can breathe out in one second. I also do my blood pressure and grip strength; poor grip strength is linked to a range of diseases.

11am

I try to fit work into 90 minute segments. If it is desk based, I keep my phone on the other side of the room so I don’t get distracted. I will do breathing exercises to reduce stress and also use a NanoVi device – a biohacking device with a nasal cannula – to reduce oxidative stress and repair everyday cell damage. I also use an Anthros chair which is good for posture.

If my work involves a call, I will do it while out walking in the Los Feliz hills where I live. This is really good for the cardiovascular system and I typically get in about 15,000 steps a day.

1pm

When back, I then do a cold plunge for a midday energy burst. I have my bath at around 55F (13C), so it is not an ice bath. I feel this might be a better temperature for women, and I only do it during the first half of my menstrual cycle as I’m not that resilient in the second half.

I used to do much colder plunges, but a lot of these protocols were designed by men for men, and I am trying to optimise health for women. Sometimes I will also take time out to focus on my skin longevity, such as having microneedling or laser therapy.

2pm

I spend a few minutes on a whole body vibration plate, which helps the lymphatic flow detox the whole body and improves bone density. Then I spend an hour a day in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Research shows this increase in air pressure can improve blood flow and oxygenate cells. Personally, I also feel it gives better cognitive function and focus.

5pm

After working for another hour or so, I then start preparing dinner. My husband gets home at about 5 or 5.30pm and we often eat straight away. It’s good to eat early as you want to give your body three to four hours to digest your food before you go to bed so it’s easier for it to get into the deepest stages of sleep.

We eat a variety of food, so sometimes it’s wild caught salmon or scallops or grass fed ribeye with a side of greens, avocado or roasted tomato. I mainly buy my food from a healthy LA store called Erewhon. Sometimes I make a bone broth and a few times a week, we eat a smart carb, such as a roasted sweet potato.

6pm

My husband and I then go on a 50 minute walk in the hills without our phones. It’s great for blood sugar levels, but it also allows us a chance to catch up. The walk reduces stress, as it’s nature bathing. I know community is a key pillar of longevity, so every Thursday my girlfriends and I also get together. They mostly come to my house for dinner; friends know that I eat early and don’t eat out, so they fit in with me. And I generally see other peers once a week at a health and longevity event.

7pm

My husband and I watch the sunset together. This is good for your circadian rhythm as it is giving our bodies advice as to what time it is. At this point, we switch all our lights to ‘red’. Blue light exposure can block melatonin, which is needed for good sleep, and the red light helps put us in a parasympathetic state where we are calm and relaxed.

8pm

My husband and I will usually wind down with reading or watching a relaxing show together. I didn’t used to have a TV in the house, but he is in the entertainment industry so likes to stay up to speed on things.

8.30pm

This is a hard stop. We go to bed and are asleep by 9pm at the latest. This gives us deeper and better sleep. We also sleep in a faraday cage, which is an enclosure used to block some electromagnetic fields. Our bedroom is also completely blacked out to the point I can’t see my hand. We also have multiple air filters throughout the house, and two in our bedroom to maintain air quality. We use an organic mattress with a grounding pad on it, which helps reduce inflammation. This ensures I get an excellent night’s sleep that sets me up for the next day.

https://archive.is/rwvtw#selection-3085.4-3085.44

State of things: Italy

https://x.com/RadioGenoa/status/1847822315524149455

'Pure Genocide': Christians Slaughtered in Nigeria and the Great Press Cover-Up

-Muslim militants slaughtered 16,769 Christians [in Nigeria] in just the four years between 2019 and 2023. That comes out to 4,192 Christians killed on average per year—or one Christian murdered for his/her faith every two hours. — Report, Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, August 29, 2024.

-The violence has reached the point, the report says, that many traumatized Christian children sleep in trees to try to avoid being butchered during the night, when Fulani are most prone to attack.

-[I]n 2014, there were 1.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria; as of 2023, there are 3.4 million. — "NO ROAD HOME: Christian IDPs displaced by extremist violence in Nigeria," Open Doors, September 1, 2024.

-Behind all these misleading euphemisms, the facts remain: the murderers are Muslim and their victims are overwhelmingly Christian.

-When Muslim terrorists slaughtered nearly 200 Christians last Christmas, the Associated Press failed to mention the identities of the assailants and their victims. Rather, it presented the atrocity, as so many now do, as a regrettable byproduct of climate change — which is, ostensibly, forcing "herders" (Muslims) to encroach on the lands of "farmers" (Christians).

-In another AP report on the 2022 Pentecost Sunday church bombing that left 50 Christian worshippers dead, the words "Muslim" and "Islam" — even "Islamist" — never appear. Rather, readers were told, "It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church."

-"Muslim" and "Islam" — even "Islamist" — never appear. Rather, readers were told, "It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church." To maintain this ambiguity, the AP failed to mention that Islamic terrorists have stormed hundreds of churches and slaughtered thousands of Christians "for sport" over the years in Nigeria….

-"It's tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn't a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black [like ISIS], chanting 'Allahu Akbar!' and screaming 'Death to Christians.'" — Sister Monica Chikwe, cruxnow.com, August 4, 2019.

-"Removing Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government there." — Sean Nelson, Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom for Alliance Defending Freedom International, catholicnewsagency.com, November 23, 2021.

-For the mainstream media and politicians, Christian lives taken by Muslims apparently do not matter.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21033/christians-slaughtered-in-nigeria

Satanic Temple opens an online abortion clinic in New Mexico called The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic

The devil works hard, but the Republican party works harder. Not a day seems to go by without anti-abortion zealots on the right advancing some cunning new plan to strip women of their bodily autonomy. As well as shutting down abortion clinics, Republican states are trying to essentially outlaw abortion pills: on Friday, Missouri, Kansas and Idaho renewed a legal push to drastically reduce access to mifepristone.

Amid this hellscape, help may be at hand from a somewhat unlikely source: Satan. Or, to be more accurate – and since the devil is in the details – the Satanic Temple.

Founded in 2012, the Satanic Temple (which is not to be confused with the very different Church of Satan) is not about devil worship. Rather, it is about raising hell to fight for freedom from the religious right’s crusade to impose their beliefs on everyone else. “Right now, we have a minority religious theocratic movement, so entrenched in politics and getting away with whatever they want,” co-founder Lucien Greaves told the Guardian earlier this year.

Recognized as a religion by the IRS, the Satanic Temple uses the religious right’s tactics, and their victories, against them. When a Ten Commandments monument was erected at the Oklahoma state capitol in 2012, for example, the temple submitted an application to put a 7ft-tall statue depicting Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, alongside it. In its application, it argued that the decision to have a Ten Commandments monument paved the way for satanic representation. (They weren’t the only ones protesting: the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also requested a monument.) In the end, the Ten Commandments statue was removed by order of the state’s supreme court and the Horned One did not get immortalized in Oklahoma.

Over the years, the Satanic Temple has taken on issues like prayer in the classroom, after-class Bible study groups, and the distribution of Bibles in schools. Now, for obvious reasons, it’s increasingly turning its not-so-evil eye to abortion rights. Last year, it opened an online abortion clinic in New Mexico called The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic, in reference to the conservative justice who wrote the majority opinion that overturned Roe v Wade. “In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options, and look what happened,” Malcolm Jarry, co-founder of the Satanic Temple said at the time.

As with its other causes, the Satanic Temple brands abortion as a core part of its religious beliefs. Women are asked to recite a ritual (“By my body, my blood, by my will, it is done”) before taking abortion pills to ward off “unjust persecution”. The temple has also sued states that have banned abortion, arguing that abortion is a religious rite for their congregation and that denying them access to these ritual abortions would be a constitutional violation.

All of this has had the desired effect of driving the satanists’ adversaries bonkers. The Christian Research Institute, an evangelical group, described the group as “troll lords” and said they were “exploiting their cartoonishly dark and villainous branding to agitate the public and pester the Christian Right into a judicial showdown”.

That showdown may be forthcoming because the Satanic Temple has just opened its second telehealth abortion clinic, this time in Virginia. It’s called the Right to Your Life Satanic Abortion Clinic. “We’re also actively working to increase access in other states, including taking legal action in restrictive states such as Indiana and Idaho to provide religious abortion services there as well,” the temple said in a statement. Truly, they are doing the Lord’s work.

https://archive.is/Cvz7J

Socialist politicians in Germany.