🍏 Apple's gold-plated dud, Trump's tariff pause, and the struggle of boys and their phones—plus all the latest brand news

Weekly Exhale

There I am, standing in the Oval Office with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. As leader of the free world, I am about to receive an honorary gift, crafted uniquely for me by Apple’s finest. I brace myself. I envision something sleek, innovative, and beautiful—the kind of design magic that only Apple can conjure.

The crisp white lid lifts off the iPad-sized box with that signature Apple swoosh. Inside: a round disc of glass and a gold plinth. Say what? It’s clunky. Dated. Almost faux. I smile as I’m told it was fresh off the Corning line, unit of one, designed by a former U.S. Marine, and—believe it or not—the base is 24-carat gold.

In other words, a $3 trillion company—the most celebrated brand in consumer design—has just presented the 47th president of the United States with what looks like a participation trophy from a small-town charity golf day.

“He’s done well,” the president says warmly of the U.S. Marine’s effort. Reddit was less restrained: Tim Apple garling Trump’s balls, one meme read, reminding us that this was the same president who, back in 2019, famously confused Cook’s name with his company.

It’s another White House charade, but a necessary one. The president needs to make America great again, and Tim Cook needs crystal-clear assurances.

Because on America’s farm, Apple is the golden goose laying billions in iPhone-shaped profits. It’s the morning rooster for the entire tech sector. With a 6% weight in the S&P 500, Apple sets the tone for America’s economy.

Lately, the goose has been less...regular. Not the kind of daily constitutional Wall Street likes to see. Apple absorbed $800 million in tariff costs last quarter. iPhone sales surged, then slumped, as consumers rushed to buy ahead of tariff-based price hikes.

We can’t have the golden egg supply slowing down now, can we?

Enter the “American Manufacturing Program” (or “AMP”—these things always sound cooler once acronymed): a $600 billion pledge over four years to make iPhones in the U.S. So, the Corning plant in Kentucky will now produce all the cover glass for iPhones and Watches sold globally. As a direct result, Apple gets an exemption from a proposed 100% tariff on semiconductors—a move that would otherwise be like bowl cancer for our golden goose.

But cover glass is just that, the surface layer. It’s not the circuitry or processors.

When asked whether we’d ever see an all-American iPhone, Cook was clear: final assembly will remain overseas for the foreseeable future. But the president already had what he needed. They’re coming home...Isn’t that nice, doing things here in the United States rather than in other far-away countries?

Is AMP real? If Apple spent $42 billion on manufacturing investment last year, the idea that it will now spend more than double that every year for the next four years is...ambitious. Probably a distraction. After all, the iPhone doesn’t get better based on where it’s made. These days, it barely gets better with each new release.

And that’s the problem. We need Apple to focus on what’s next, not reworking what is. At some point, with AI reshaping the way we interact with technology, the smartphone’s central role will decline.

In that respect, the ceremony does the brand no favours. We’re a long way from the moment Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket and asked: Are you getting it yet? Back then, we were held in awe. Today, we get Tim Cook—Tim Apple to the president—clumsily assembling a golf plaque.

Welcome to another day of performance over policy, announcement over innovation. And in that respect, Cook delivered. The optics—literally—were what mattered. For now, it works. Apple stock surged 13%, its biggest weekly gain since 2020.

--

I don’t know why, but goodbyes at the airport feel sadder. They’re nothing like a “see you later” at the front door or the school gate. Airports have a way of making separation official. The steel beams, the security lines, the glass barriers. Once you’re through, you’re gone. And when it’s your twelve-year-old son flying across the Atlantic for a couple of weeks without you, it’s more than a lump in the throat. It’s a full-sized golf ball.

We go through the usual choreography, parking, wobbling the scuffed old case up to bag drop. I busy myself with tiny details that don’t matter: sticking the two ends of the bag tag together, checking the gate number again. Little rituals to distract from the moment I don’t want to reach.

Sure, he’ll be back soon enough. But my soul knows the truth—he’ll return another step further away from me. Each trip forges a new version of him, and each version seems to vanish faster than the last. When they’re tiny, you can hold them tight. As they grow, it’s like holding sand.

The last check is his phone. Is it charged? Packed? “Keep it on you,” I tell him. Not just because his boarding pass lives in Apple Wallet, but because for as long as it’s in his hand, he’ll carry me with him. Fooling my heart into believing that, even 4,000 miles away, he isn’t far at all.

I know I’m not supposed to encourage his bond with that phone—our bond with it. But I do. And standing there in the airport, feeling like an over-emotional dad who really should pull himself together, I don’t feel sorry for it.

We’ve turned phones into the villain lately—teens and their screens, boys and their stalled development, boys disconnecting from the real world and coming undone. It’s a doom loop of Haidt interviews and podcasts about “Adolescence.” The companies responsible just shrug: Hey parents, we made it, we profit from it, but it’s your problem now.

Sort of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t.

A friend was at breakfast with Jony Ive last week, who was seemingly lamenting what the iPhone had become. Maybe. A generation or two got burned up like moths to a flame. But that’s just creative destruction, right?

What Jony is certain of is this: AI calls for a faster, more intuitive way to live inside the loop of the human condition. I see shades of that in my son. Addicted as we both are to screen time, he’s also tired of it—impatient even. Sometimes that slab of glass just isn’t smart enough.

So, I want to believe Jony when he hints that something more intuitive, more humane and more connective is on the way. Because connection—whatever form it takes—is what these devices need to get back to.

My mom used to beg me to call her. I didn’t, not enough. Now I understand why she begged. And even if my son's replies rarely stretch beyond “yh” or “k” or “ik”, he feels close by. Asking me to take the phone out of his life would be like asking me to cut the last cord between us.

Back at the airport, we reach the point where I can’t go any further.

“Be good. Remember—“ I’m fumbling for something final to say, but my words dissolve. The golf ball in my throat has stretched so tight I can barely breathe, let alone speak.

He gives me a perfunctory slap on the shoulder. “Yeah, yeah." He begins to step away.

Then stops. Spins. Runs back in for a hug. Half a second, pressed right into me.

“Love you, Dad.”

My lips pinch tight. I can feel heat behind my eyes. The moment passes too quickly. He lets go, walks through, turns, waves.

And then—gone.

The feeling of loss is instant.

Let's rise together with every issue. ♡

Market Moves

Trump announces 90-day pause on US-China tariffs | The Guardian

UK economy sees job losses in July | Financial Times

Bank of England cuts interest rate to 4% | BBC News

Brand Beat

Apple logs best week since 2020 after White House visit | CNBC

Marketers’ 2025 social media spending and measurement strategies | Digiday

Everything to know about Warby Parker’s $95 glasses | The Wall Street Journal

Krispy Kreme launches its most fleeting treat today | Fast Company

Hasbro CMO Jason Bunge on digital play’s future | Adweek

Joanna Allen steers Little Moons back from freefall | The Grocer

Beyoncé’s star power elevates a denim ad | The Cut

L’Oréal hires OnlyFans star to promote teen makeup | The Guardian

Molly Baz turns former McDonald’s into a vegan paradise | Fast Company

Overcoming marketing’s culture of short-termism | Marketing Week

The new DTC rebranding playbook | Business of Fashion

Gen AI will transform the e-commerce experience | CNBC

UK watchdog bans Zara ads for dangerously thin models | Marketing Interactive

YouTube’s slow rollout of scalable creator ads irks marketers | Digiday

Men turn to Reddit to shop: what brands need to know | Vogue Business

Burberry returns to London aboard a red double-decker bus | Women's Wear Daily

Harry and Meghan ink multi-year Netflix content deal | BBC

Early data shows ad controversy didn’t boost American Eagle sales | Adweek

Why are we obsessed with TikTok’s trending age filter? | Vogue

'Loud luxury' is back as high-end brands look to rebound | CNBC

Starting Up

Open-AI-for-marketing backed by Adobe opens to investors | Barchart

Founder of unicorn ed-tech, Euan Blair, on having a prime minister dad | Sifted

Inside World introduces first-ever human verification brand | Fast Company

General Catalyst leads $11m series A funding for Pronto | Tech In Asia

Tech Tidbits

GPT-5’s is here | OpenAI

Mark Zuckerberg declares war on the iPhone | The Wall Street Journal

Google and IBM see first workable quantum computer within reach | Financial Times

NASA plans a nuclear reactor on the Moon | The New York Times

Amazon’s Starlink rival reaches 100 satellites in orbit | Slashdot

Venture Vibes

The venture capital money machine is spinning again | Financial Times

Slow Ventures backs woodworking founder using $60M creator fund | TechCrunch

Luxury jeweller Fabergé sold to tech investor for $50m | The Guardian

How podcasts hosted by VCs made a new media industry | Bloomberg

Design Driven

Michele de Lucchi’s whimsical sketches spark creative reflection | Wallpaper

Creative writing with GPT-5 | OpenAI

Advice for brand-building with creative soul | It's Nice That

Happiness

Quiet cracking: a new workplace threat | Fast Company

Summertime sadness is a real thing | Financial Times

The doggy route to happiness | Creative Bloom

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