It's time to get spoooky

Hi everyone! For those of you who are new here, Friday Finds is a weekly newsletter highlighting articles, thought-pieces and news I've stumbled upon throughout the week. Feel free to forward along to anyone else who might be interested. If you want to be on the mailing list, you can sign up here. Cheers and happy Friday!

Halloween spending is going to be quite a treat

This year's Halloween is predicted to be a spooktacular one. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), consumer spending will be around $8.8 billion (approx $86/person) - the third highest in the survey's 14 year history. Costumes, candy and decorations account for the majority of that with nearly $500 million of that dedicated to costumes for pets. (Yes, I did buy Lilac a pumpkin costume this year. No, I don't regret it.)

68% of people surveyed plan to celebrate Halloween this year and they're looking online for inspiration. 35% of people plan to search online for their Halloween inspo and 28% plan to look in-stores. And brands are, of coures, getting into the spirit. Below are some tricks and treats from this year.

• Budweiser's "Drink Wiser" campaign uses mugshots of real people who were arrested for drinking and driving on Halloween. 
• This vintage... hot dog ad from Armour Star Franks. 
• Natty Natural Light is asking fans to dress up as real life nightmares.
• This AR, geo-located, Four Square ad that reminds me of a boo-zy version of Pokemon Go from everyone's favorite herbal liquor brand (aka Jagermeister).
• Jose Cuervo's short documentary about the Mexican holiday of Día De Muertos, the Day of the Dead.
• Burger King is feeding it's ghost whopper to actual ghosts.
• Canned water company Liquid Death hired a witch doctor to curse it's water. 
• Spotify is throwing a pop-up Halloween party in NYC on Saturday. Costumes and music are included.

Gold Stars:

• Scientists have figured out a way to harness energy from night-time temperature drops. That's pretty cool.
• Macy's and Bloomingdale's will be fur free by the end of 2020. 
• Alibaba is going green for Single Day (a Chinese shopping holiday furing which people celebrate being single). They'll be using renewable energy to process orders and offer services to shoppers to help them recycle their packaging. 

Yikes:

• Amazon has an expiration problem. ~40% of food sellers have more than five complaints about expired food. 
• The Brew Battle continues. AB InBev is claiming that Miller Coors stole their secret beer recipe. 
• A lot of HR organizations in America are breaking interview laws. According to a new survey, 25% of female interviewees are asked whether they have children and 14% were asked if they plan on having children.

Quick Tidbits:

• Thought was as trendy as it could get? Think again. Molson Coors is launching CBD-infused water in Canada.
• LA is considering a $30/hour ride hailing minimum wage. Pro: bills like these are supposed to help support America's most vulnerable citizens. Con: your ride shares are likely going to cost more. Poll: yay or nay?
• Roku just bought demand side platform (DSP) dataxu for $150 million as part of their effort to strengthen their ad offerings.
• If you thought we were over our instantpot phase, think again. Walmart just debuted frozen meals made specifically for pressure cookers.
• Patron is now accepting tequila orders through Instagram stories. They're the first liquor brand to allow ordering directly through the gram.
• There's a new apple release on December 1. And by that I mean an ACTUAL apple. The Cosmic Crisp is the first-ever apple developed in Washington and has a $10 million marketing budget.
• Soon you'll be able to make sure your edible is credible. TraceTrust is working on the first global, third-party certification program for cannabis consumables.

On my GoodReads:

Raise your hand if you've ever heard someone say that we're all going to lose our jobs to AI? If you're not raising your hand, I'm assuming you're lying. As AI continues to grow, people become more concerned about what that means for people. But, what they don't think about is how AI is powered. In fact, AI needs people to work. Ghost Work explores the jobs that AI has created and what we need to do to protect the people that power the technology we rely on.

Buy it here

PS: if you, like me, feel bad buying paper books all the time I highly recommend downloading Libby (e-books app, but you have to get a library card which you can normally do online) or buying used books on Amazon.