🦉 Duolingo's viral farewell, TikTok's White House debut and Soho House going private—all the latest in brand news

Weekly Exhale

Zaria Parvez is leaving Duolingo after five years. “I’ll no longer be Zaria the owl on TikTok. I’ll just be Zaria,” she posted. She’s 26. Her first job out of college. Building and running socials for the world-famous owl just tryna vibe🦉. During her time, the company picked up over a billion in annual revenues, 26 million followers and a bottomless pit of attention.

Parvez has made social media history—full stop. She turned a cartoon owl into an empire of memes, wielding a unique combo of skills: a native feel for algorithmic media, the reckless clarity of a beginner’s mind, and the seasoned instincts of a brand marketer twice her age.

“Somebody call Harvard Business School,” one observer quipped.

And yet, there’s something tender in this departure. Something fragile. Something broken, now being pieced back together. Parvez has lived through the cracked ribs and concussions of a startup fighting its way on Wall Street.

From the start, Parvez’s “unhinged” marketing was perfectly tuned to its moment—and to the rise of the For You Page.

Duo could get cancelled—even for a misjudged Amber Heard comment during the Johnny Depp trial—but Parvez always moved fast to contain it. Besides, the audience was in on the joke: “Only Duo 😂", "Slay Duo,” they’d comment. Each line crossed only seemed to pull in more followers and feed the fame.

But by 2025, around the time TikTok was being saved from the brink of a ban, Duolingo was facing scrutiny. AI had entered the chat. Analysts thought the stock might have peaked. Sure, Dua Lipa flirts with Duo for reach, but she’s not conjugating verbs on a Duolingo Max subscription, is she?

Suddenly, the good chaos the company was known for was about to turn into—well, just pure chaos. In what Parvez described as a “culmination of the strategy”, she did something unusual.

She killed Duo.

Except she didn’t. It was a mock execution from the internet’s amusement. 1.7 billion impressions reacting to Duo as Cybertruck roadkill.

With earnings forecasts becoming less clear, the share price soared and fell. These swings weren’t small: a low of $12 billion and a peak of $24 billion.

But where social media and shareholder value came completely undone was over AI. Co-founder and CEO, Luis von Ahn, declared Duolingo an “AI-first” company. The market loved the efficiencies, but the backlash online was instant. “Language is what makes us human,” one fan pleaded on Reddit. Users rage-cancelled, creators called for app deletions, and follwers fell.

So, with earnings revised upward, Duolingo tested a blackout: socials wiped clean, “gonefornow123”.

Duolingo’s cold reality: 10.9 million paying subscribers out of around 500 million registered users—barely 2%. And the more Duo tickles the algorithm, the more it attracts casual meme watchers who never intend to pay.

So growth has to come from the product. Which means less fun. The playful Hearts system—a light-hearted punishment for mistakes—has been scrapped, replaced by an Energysystem designed to cap free use. And the fastest-growing subjects aren’t even languages anymore, they’re chess, music and maths.

Against this, Parvez delivers her sharpest pushback. What she really wants to kill is the question that haunts every social media manager: What’s the ROI?

“You should all start with just brand awareness and understand it’s an investment, a down payment. And, eventually, the mortgage will pay itself off.”

Parvez made the down payment. She paid off the house. Duolingo will collect the rent from here.

And Parvez? After sick leave for burnout last year, she’s surely ready to cash in too— a new role, talks, books, maybe a course. “I love to create,” she said, “on a smaller scale, judged on creative value, not on how viral it went.”

Value over virality are terms she and Von Ahm can finally part on.

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Cuski is a flannel toy that snuggles perfectly into a baby’s arms. A small miracle in those early years, stealing you a few extra hours sleep. At the top, a rounded plush head—round because that’s the first shape a baby learns to know. Below a flat, floppy square of cloth, unstuffed, that can scrunch between cheek and neck. Cuski isn’t so much held as absorbed—the comfort a parent can’t always be there to give.

Ours is matted and frayed now. Well, all three of them are. Yep, Cuski is too precious—too mission critical—to risk relying on just one. Backups are essential. One might vanish in a park, another thrown in the wash. My son discovered the spares. Three Cuskis meant three times the cuddles. Bedtime was one tucked into each side, and the third stuffed into the chest of his sleep bag. You’d wake to find him waddling down the corridor holding one, another dragging behind, the third hanging out of his nappy.

Later, during the pandemic years, when my son was afraid and washed his hands until his knuckles bled, it was Cuski who listened to the thoughts he couldn’t share with anyone else. And even now, when he sits down to watch TV, tired from the day, his hands drift to his neck, where Cuski used to rest.

As we know, children bond with their soft toys to navigate the jagged path from dependence to independence. The School of Life reminds us adults don’t really outgrow them either. We just swap them for subtler things. An old book, a worn-out college jumper, a pebble from a beach.

Or, who knows, maybe even a cereal-box bear, a Labubu doll, or a cartoon owl on an app.

Which got me wondering about Zaria Parvez and Duo. Barely in her twenties, hailing from the University of Oregon, a volunteer of the Raphael House of Portland, she gave her voice to an owl. Until the two were indistinguishable. Nobody ever said, “Zaria’s posts are great.” They said, “Duo is hilarious.” And as the business tightened its grip on Duo, did it feel like it was gripping more than a mascot? Her soul?

Killing Duo was Zaria’s way of leaving on her own terms—a final, multi-million dollar act to prove her importance, to protect Duo, and to find closure. A soft toy she made herself outgrow. If I keep holding on, neither of us will learn to stand on our own.

I’m back in the Hague Blueof my son’s freshly painted room, filling a plastic tub with cuddly old friends. Nona Bear. Octi, Flat Ted. One by one, I lift them from the duvet, their faces looking back at me as I press them gently, one atop the other.

There are just three left.

I line the Cuskis up side by side, their little round heads pressed together as if comforting each other. And for a moment, I just stand there staring.

I manage to roll two into the box. But I can’t bring myself to the third.

Instead, I check the room, making sure no one’s watching. I open the sock drawer of the new tall dresser. In my hand is the very first Cuski-the original, “Cusk.” The most worn and threadbare of them all, cloth rubbed down to the rubber underneath.

I fold his soft arms and legs carefully across his face, then tuck him into the back. Out of sight. Still close. And unless that giant pair of walking socks betrays his hiding place, Cusk can stay there. Just a little while longer.

In that moment, in my own cowardly way, I realise I’m not ready to box all that love away. Not now. Maybe not ever.

Let's rise together with every issue. ♡

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Market Moves

UK and eurozone inflation gap hits two-year high | Financial Times

UK business activity increases, hiring falls | The Guardian

The puzzle of the US economy | BBC

Brand Beat

I’m leaving my job at Duolingo | Zaria Parvez

Duolingo’s departing social media manager on virality and anxiety | The Wall Street Journal

Swatch pulls 'slanted eye' ad after backlash | Adweek

Ryan Reynolds toasts Wrexham’s success with Aviation Gin | Adweek

White House launches on TikTok despite US ban | TechCrunch

Target shares plunge 10% as new CEO steps in amid sales slump | CNBC

McDonald’s UK CEO, former CMO, to step down | Marketing Week

Walmart wins over more shoppers | The Wall Street Journal

White House’s official TikTok account already facing backlash | Mashable

TikTok Shop forces advertisers to cede AI control | Business Insider

Inside Topshop’s reboot: London brand’s journey to the world | Vogue Business

How Huckleberry is building its brand, one show at a time | Fast Company

How beauty plans to crack Substack | Business of Fashion

How AI is transforming the future of voiceovers | Creative Salon

Labubu could generate $1 billion in sales this year | TechCrunch

YouTube can’t decide if it’s TV or social media | The Media Leader

CTV to invest in creator content to boost ad revenue | Digiday

OnlyFans revenue hits $7.2 billion with 9% growth | Variety

Claude AI “Keep Thinking” ads hit Times Square | X

Starting Up

Musk praises $3,000 smart mattress cover—will consumers buy? | The Wall Street Journal

CodeSignal’s Cosmo AI app aims to be the Duolingo for job skills | VentureBeat

Keychain raises $30M to build in India and expand in US | TechCrunch

Tin Can: Seattle dad brings back landlines for kids | Caitlin Begg

Tech Tidbits

Duolingo’s AI worries were overblown | MarketWatch

Google’s Pixel event was a total cringefest | TechCrunch

Scientists build a bot-only social network with worrying results | Futurism

Microsoft AI chief warns chatbots may fuel psychosis | The Telegraph

Warren Brodey, 101, dies after pioneering the information age | The New York Times

New NASA chief urges complete abandonment of Earth | Vice

Meta freezes AI hiring after blockbuster spending spree | Mashable

Venture Vibes

Intel gives U.S. government a 10% stake | BBC

Soho House goes private in $2.7bn deal as Ashton Kutcher joins board | The Guardian

How founders turn fitness into networking opportunities | Forbes

United Airlines Ventures funds Astro Mechanica aerospace startup | PR Newswire

Venture capital markets take divergent paths | Bloomberg

Bill Ackman launches AI curriculum for schools | The Wall Street Journal

Design Driven

SharkNinja aims for world-class design | Modern Retail

Studio GOGO transforms Lego bricks into playful jewellery | Dezeen

IKEA launches meatball-shaped plate merging form and function | Wallpaper

Happiness

Why almost everything improves when you have company | The Times

Have more fun at work by thin-slicing joy and showing personality | The Guardian

Five Baha’i lessons for a happier life | The Atlantic

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