Raphael Stevens

Other automakers skipped Super Bowl advertising this year, but CMO Olivier Francois said it was critical for Jeep and Ram parent company Stellantis to air ads during the game.
Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, has become well known under Francois for symbolic, nontraditional ads that feature iconic celebrities or tell a story beyond just attempting to sell new cars and trucks.
The automaker, which had two spots, was aiming to show its dedication to the U.S. market.

Actor Harrison Ford touts Jeep and Americana while taking a dig at another Detroit automaker during Stellantis
Stellantis

DETROIT — A CEO’s exit, electric vehicles making the industry run around like “headless chickens” and a company’s U.S. revival all came together to make Ram and Jeep parent Stellantis the only automaker with a Super Bowl 59 commercial.
That’s according to Stellantis Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois, who said while other automakers abandoned this year’s big game amid industry uncertainty and cost cutting, it was critical for the embattled trans-Atlantic carmaker to return to the Super Bowl.

Francois said Stellantis Chairman John Elkann, a scion of Italy’s Fiat carmaker, called him after CEO Carlos Tavares’ abrupt departure in December and told him to advertise during the big game as a recommitment to the automaker’s business in the U.S.
“We were not set to make a commercial. John Elkann called me in December, saying, you know, ‘I want something. I want to make a comeback. We want to show, to express, that comeback story. We want to show America how much it is important to the Stellantis group,'” Francois told CNBC.
Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, has become well known under Francois for symbolic, nontraditional ads that feature iconic celebrities that tell a story beyond just attempting to sell new cars and trucks.

Chairman of Ferrari and Stellantis John Elkann attends an event to inaugurate Ferrari’s new ‘e-building’ facility where the luxury sportscar maker is testing lines before an expected start of car production in early 2025, in Maranello, Italy, June 21, 2024.
Daniele Mascolo | Reuters

It started when the automaker was attempting to make a comeback from its 2009 bankruptcy. It aired a surprise two-minute Super Bowl ad in 2011 featuring rapper Eminem and the city of Detroit — tying the company’s revival to the Motor City’s grit and rebirth. The ad also featured a now discontinued Chrysler sedan called the 200.
Francois said Elkann, who’s leading the search for a new CEO, told him to recapture that kind of “comeback” spirit for the automaker, following years of cost cutting and lackluster sales in the U.S.

Elkann, Francois said, also told him to think of the late Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne when creating the automaker’s ads this year. Marchionne, who died in 2018, was a supporter of Francois and past Super Bowl ads.
“There is a kind of philosophy attached to Sergio, which is that he believed in playing like you have nothing left to lose. He used to say, ‘Mediocrity is not worth the trip,'” Francois said. “So this year’s Super Bowl creative execution and investment are very much the essence of the spirit.”

Bruce Springsteen (left) with Olivier Francois, chief marketing officer of Stellantis, during filming of the company’s Super Bowl LV ad for Jeep.
Rob DeMartin for Jeep

Since Eminem, the company’s Super Bowl ads have featured actors such as Clint Eastwood, Bill Murray and singer Bob Dylan, among others. Those spots haven’t necessarily prominently featured any specific vehicle, but they’ve discussed culturally relevant topics such as political divides and patriotism.
Stellantis’ Ram Trucks ad this year was a more traditional, comedic Super Bowl commercial. It starred “Twisters” and “Top Gun: Maverick” actor Glen Powell reimagining “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” with trucks.
But the automaker’s two-minute Jeep ad starring featuring “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” actor Harrison Ford was a true return to form for Francois.

Jeep Super Bowl ad

Francois said Ford turned down an initial pitch for a different ad. That’s when Francois said he and friend Edward Razek, a former marketing executive for Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands who resigned amid controversy in 2019, wrote the first version of the ad that aired.
CMOs don’t typically write scripts. It’s more common for those executives to approve a script from an agency, with guidance. Francois said agencies did assist ahead of the final ad, but the script and ideas started inside the automaker.

In the ad, Ford discusses freedom, heroes and people writing their own stories in life because there is no “Owner’s Manual,” which is the title of the commercial.
As Ford opined, several Jeep models can be seen driving and off-roading, including one that passes a Ford Bronco SUV — a newer competitor to the Jeep Wrangler SUV — while the actor talks about inspiring others.
“I said ‘yes’ to doing this commercial because of the script. It’s a very straightforward communication about life and ends with getting in a Jeep vehicle, that’s the hook. It didn’t require me to reintroduce myself, point to the fact that in my life I’ve been many things and known for specific projects or roles,” Ford said in a statement. “It’s just a quiet talk from somebody sharing an idea. I love the way it developed.”

Stellantis Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois (right) with “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” actor Harrison Ford, who starred in a Super Bowl 59 ad for the automaker’s Jeep brand. 
Stellantis

The Wrangler passing the Bronco is one of two references to the Jeep rival. The other comes from the actor at the end of the ad: “Choose what makes you happy. My friends, my family, my work make me happy. This Jeep makes me happy — even though my name is Ford. That’s my owner’s manual. Get out there, write your own.”
The Jeep ad was shot over two days with Ford in Santa Clarita, California, in early December, according to Stellantis. 

‘Headless chickens’

Automotive has historically been one of the top segments for Super Bowl advertising. Even during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009 when the industry was hit hard, several companies such as Toyota Motor, Hyundai Motor and Audi aired ads.
Francois believes other automakers likely didn’t participate in the Super Bowl this year because of a lack of payoff in prior years, when many automakers, including Stellantis, touted all-electric vehicles that weren’t on sale.
“In the last years, there was plenty of automakers, all of them [touting] EVs, EVs that didn’t even exist,” Francois said. “These guys are obviously running like headless chickens: EVs, EVs, EVs. I mean, that’s where we all were.”

Automakers regularly advertised during the NFL regular season and playoffs, including with sponsorships such as Toyota being the “Official Automotive Partner of the NFL.” But none, other than Stellantis, advertised during Sunday’s game.
Both of Stellantis’ Super Bowl ads this year featured electric vehicles, but they also included traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines as well as plug-in hybrid models such as the Jeep Wrangler.
Francois said it may have been a blessing that Elkann called him in early December instead of months earlier because it allowed him to be more relevant in the messaging, rather than just touting EVs.
“The moment had changed, and I was lucky enough to have the possibility to rewrite the scripts. To rewrite history, to say, to not run like a headless chicken,” Francois said. “I was able to improvise in the moment.”
Stellantis declined to disclose how much money it spent on the production or broadcast of the ads, which were selling for up to $8 million for 30 seconds of air time during Super Bowl 59.
But Francois said Elkann has told advertising and marketing leaders at Stellantis that “Marketing is no longer a cost. It is an investment.”
Correction: Jeep’s Super Bowl ad was filmed in Santa Clarita, California. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the city.

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McDonald’s quarterly earnings met expectations, but its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.
The burger chain’s U.S. same-store sales declined as customers spent less at its restaurants.
Both of McDonald’s international divisions reported same-store sales growth.

McDonald’s on Monday reported disappointing quarterly revenue, dragged down by weaker-than-expected sales at its U.S. restaurants following an E. coli outbreak just weeks into the quarter.
Shares of the company fell less than 1% in premarket trading.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $2.83 adjusted, meeting expectations
Revenue: $6.39 billion vs. $6.44 billion expected

The fast-food giant reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.02 billion, or $2.80 per share, down from $2.04 billion, or $2.80 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding gains tied to the sale of its South Korean business, transaction costs for buying its Israeli franchise and other items, McDonald’s earned $2.83 per share.
Net sales of $6.39 billion were roughly flat compared with the year-ago period.
The company’s overall same-store sales growth of 0.4% outperformed Wall Street’s expectations of same-store sales declines of 1%, according to StreetAccount estimates.

But McDonald’s U.S. business reported a steeper-than-expected drop in its same-store sales. Same-store sales at the company’s domestic restaurants fell 1.4% in the quarter; Wall Street was projecting same-store sales declines of 0.6%.
McDonald’s said traffic was slightly positive, but customers spent less than usual during the quarter. Over the summer, the chain rolled out a $5 combo meal to bring back price-conscious diners and reverse sluggish sales. The strategy worked, helping McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales tick up in the third quarter. However, analysts have warned that value meals only work if customers also add menu items that aren’t discounted to their orders.
The biggest hit to McDonald’s U.S. sales came in late October, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked a fatal E. coli outbreak to its Quarter Pounder burgers. McDonald’s switched suppliers for its slivered onions, the ingredient fingered as the likely culprit for the outbreak. In early December, the CDC declared the outbreak officially over.
However, in the days following the news of the outbreak, traffic at McDonald’s U.S. restaurants fell steeply, particularly in the states affected.
Outside the U.S., sales were stronger. Both of McDonald’s international divisions reported same-store sales increases, bolstering the company’s overall performance.
The company’s international developmental licensed markets segment, which includes the Middle East and Japan, reported same-store sales growth of 4.1%.
McDonald’s international operated markets division, which includes some of its biggest markets, reported same-store sales growth of 0.1%. The company said most markets reported same-store sales increases, but the United Kingdom and some other markets saw same-store sales shrink in the quarter.

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President Donald Trump likely won’t do away with a process that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, even as he erases Joe Biden’s other policy accomplishments. 
But Trump will likely make some changes to those price talks, and it may not require help from Congress. 
Trump could either weaken the negotiations in a way that bodes well for the pharmaceutical industry, or try to achieve even deeper savings for patients and the federal government to outdo his predecessor. 

President Donald Trump arrives in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Jan. 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Oliver Contreras | Afp | Getty Images

President Donald Trump likely won’t do away with a landmark process that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, even as he moves to erase Joe Biden’s other historic policy accomplishments. 
But Trump will likely make some changes to those price talks, and it may not require help from Congress. 

“Trump is looking to nibble around the edges of the law,” said Matthew Kupferberg, a partner in Frier Levitt’s Life Sciences Group, adding that the president is “not looking to completely abandon the drug negotiation process at this point.”
It’s still unclear which way Trump will lean, however. While some lawmakers and health policy experts said Trump could weaken the negotiations in a way that helps the pharmaceutical industry, other experts said he could double down and try to save patients and the federal government even more money to outdo his predecessor. 
The path he takes could have huge stakes for the prices 68 million Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. pay for their medications. It will also have big implications for companies like Novo Nordisk, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Merck, among others whose drugs were included in the first two rounds of talks.
The negotiations are a key provision of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, that aims to lower prescription medicine costs for seniors and save the government nearly $100 billion in Medicare spending over the next decade. The pharmaceutical industry fiercely opposes the price talks, arguing in a flurry of lawsuits that they threaten profits and discourage drug innovation.
The Trump administration has offered few specifics on its approach to the negotiations, apart from saying in January that it will aim for “greater transparency” in the ongoing second cycle of the process and hear any ideas for improving it from external stakeholders.

Making significant changes to the law or repealing it altogether would be an uphill battle because it requires help from Congress, where Republicans hold slim majorities. Reining in high health-care costs has strong bipartisan support in a nation where patients pay two-to-three times more for prescription drugs than people in other developed countries, making it a potentially unpopular move for Trump.
So the Trump administration could move to implement the provision differently than Biden did, including by changing how the government interprets the law’s selection criteria for drugs, among other potential changes.
“I think it is a question of how they interpret some of the statutory language,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, a health policy organization. 
Cubanski said we can expect a first glimpse at any changes in the coming months.
The Trump administration will start the months-long negotiation process for a second cycle of 15 drugs, which will have new prices go into effect in 2027. The Biden administration selected those medicines in January before Trump took office. Drugmakers have until the end of February to decide whether to participate in the talks, which they likely will because they otherwise face stiff financial penalties.

What Trump could do on his own

Trump has so far only indicated the need for more transparency in Medicare drug price negotiations. Kupferberg said that could mean disclosing more information about the government’s rationale for selecting drugs or settling on prices.
During the first round of the talks, Medicare provided opportunities for public input from patients, caregivers and consumer groups. But Kupferberg said the Trump administration could move to bring in other stakeholders beyond manufacturers and patients, like insurers or even middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers. 
“It could be a much broader type of negotiation process,” he said. 

EHStock | iStock | Getty Images

The administration could also reinterpret the guidelines of the law, which could change what products get selected and how much prices fall, according to Amy Campbell, associate dean for law and health sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law.
For example, the IRA says the drugs selected for negotiations must have been on the market for at least seven years without generic competitors, or 11 years in the case of biologic products such as vaccines. But the Trump administration, when selecting another round of drugs, may have “looser standards” for determining whether a drug has competition in the market and should be exempt from negotiated prices, Campbell said. 
Trump could also revise what Medicare considers one drug for the purpose of negotiations, KFF’s Cubanski said. Currently, different products that share the same active ingredient can be selected as a single product, which the pharmaceutical industry opposes. 
The Biden administration, for example, included three of Novo Nordisk’s branded medications with the same active ingredient – semaglutide – as one product in the second cycle of price talks. That includes the weight loss drug Wegovy, diabetes pill Rybelsus and the obesity injection Ozempic. Of the three, Ozempic makes up the lion’s share of Medicare spending.
Either of those changes to how Medicare selects drugs could benefit drugmakers and lessen the revenue they lose from lower prices. 
The bigger question is how aggressively Medicare will negotiate prices under Trump, Cubanski said. Currently, the final negotiated price for a drug cannot exceed an upper limit, or “ceiling” price, established by the IRA.
Trump could influence whether Medicare’s initial price offer for a drug is closer to the ceiling price, which could weaken the program’s ability to secure a deeper discount. 

Bigger changes in Congress are a challenge

Major changes to the price negotiations are much less likely to occur, as they would require help from Congress. For example, one of the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest issues with the process is what drugmakers calls the “pill penalty.” 
The law essentially spares biologics like vaccines from new negotiated prices for 13 years after they receive U.S. approval, compared to just nine years for small-molecule drugs that come in a pill or tablet form. The industry argues that the discrepancy discourages companies from investing in the development of small-molecule drugs, which are more convenient for patients.

Images By Tang Ming Tung | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Cubanski said bipartisan legislation was introduced last year that proposes eliminating the pill penalty. If that bill makes it through Congress and to Trump’s desk, “I don’t see why he wouldn’t sign it,” Cubanski said. 
She added that there appears to be growing interest in legislative changes to the negotiation program, but “whether you get enough support in Congress is still really an open question.” 
There isn’t the same level of bipartisan support for changes to the IRA as there is for efforts like pharmacy benefit manager reform, said Jesse Dresser, partner in Frier Levitt’s Life Sciences Department. 
“I could see something like [PBM reform] happening a lot sooner than I could see trying to open up the IRA and tweak it, even if it’s something that the administration might ultimately get behind,” Dresser said. 

Legal fight is still pending

It’s unclear how Trump will approach the ongoing legal fight between manufacturers and the federal government over the Medicare program.
The pharmaceutical industry’s legal challenges, which argue that the talks are unconstitutional and should be stopped, have so far been unsuccessful in court. Nine lawsuits were ongoing as of January.
“Will the Trump administration continue to defend the program? Or maybe not as aggressively defend the program?” Cubanski said. “I think those are some key questions.” 
If the Trump administration stops defending the program in court, judges could then make decisions on the matter without any opposition, Kupferberg said. But he said he doesn’t believe the administration will want that outcome. 
The Trump administration would likely “want to take control of that process, where the parties work out an agreement or revise and change the interpretation of the law,” Kupferberg said. 
He added that it doesn’t seem like Trump would want the entire negotiation program to disappear based on the lawsuits. That’s because it would leave Trump in the position to come up with a replacement for Medicare drug price negotiations, and we “just haven’t seen one yet” from him, Kupferberg said.  More

Skinny jeans are cropping up on runways and Google search trends, and analysts expect they could be back at mass retailers by the end of the year.
One of the most divisive garments in fashion is expected to look a bit different this time around, and will be more tailored than its skintight predecessor.
If skinny jeans do make an official comeback, it’s good news for apparel and footwear retailers, because it’s likely to trigger a whole closet refresh.

Models walk the runway in skinny jeans.
Getty Images

The vilified linchpin of millennial and Y2K fashion – the skinny jean – might be on its way to a comeback.
Over the last few months, a range of skinny styles, including pants and jeans, have cropped up on fashion runways, influencer videos and Google search trends, indicating the divisive garment could soon be a closet staple again. 

Part of the buzz around skinny jeans undoubtedly came when TikTok star and Gen Z influencer Alix Earle debuted a pair of exclusive skinnies with denim brand Frame at the end of January, but the hype was already building before that. 
“For like the last six months, we started to hear rumblings of skinny jeans making a comeback,” said Janine Stichter, a retail analyst and managing director at BTIG. “If you look at Google Trends data for skinny jeans … it actually [spiked] the week of January 12 and it’s been picking up steam ever since.”
The week after Earle debuted her skinny jean partnership with Frame, searches for skinny jeans were up 50% year over year, she added, but still well off their 2009 peak.
That likely led to a spike in interest across retailers. Reformation told CNBC this week its customers have been searching for skinny jeans on its website more frequently lately.
American Eagle has also seen interest grow. 

“Certainly, there’s a lot of activity on skinny. I would like to say there’s a styling thing that’s happening, the high boot situation, and high boots and skinny jeans work, so that’s definitely taking hold,” Jen Foyle, American Eagle’s president and executive creative officer, told CNBC in an interview.
“You’re starting to see some of that movement but right now, it’s still relatively small, but we’re prepared to roll with it as we test it and scale,” she continued. “Our job is to be nimble, right?”
But like any fashion trend, the skinny jean resurgence was first spotted on the runways. Based on how the major designers are interpreting the look, it’ll appear different this time around. 
“On the runways, Prada, Isabel Morant, Tod’s, they all did very slim silhouette pants. They’re calling them skinny pants. The difference is that they’re doing them in plaid, not just solids. They’re doing them in these very tailored fabrics,” said Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “We’re seeing some of the celebrities wear these skinny jeans, but they’re not nearly as conforming … it’s different from the jeggings that you saw [between 2009 and 2011]… It conforms to the leg, but it doesn’t have to necessarily hug it so tightly that all you see is an outline of a woman’s leg.”
The unofficial queen of denim – Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass – spotted the same trend on the runways and told CNBC she expects the controversial jeans to officially come back “sometime in the future.”
“While we don’t have a crystal ball, don’t get rid of your skinny jeans,” said Gass. “I do think when we see a bigger trend re-emerge, it’s going to look and feel different.” 
Grain Carter said skinny styles could start appearing in stores more widely by this summer, but Stitchter said they could start returning to shelves closer to the fall when more consumers are out shopping for pants and jeans. That’ll be welcome news for apparel and footwear retailers because whenever trends shift, it tends to trigger a surge in demand for new clothes, she said. 
“If we are to get a full fledged restocking in any of these styles, it tends to be a big positive for the sector,” said Stichter. “Anytime you have a big silhouette shift, it’s positive for restocking cycles. It’s also positive for footwear because you need different footwear to go with the bottoms, and then you don’t just buy the bottoms, you tend to need different tops to go with the bottom so it can kind of catalyze a whole closet refresh … That’s kind of what we’re looking out for.” 
For those who’ve only just stocked up their closet on baggy and loose fits, the current jean du jour, rest assured that there’s room for both. If there’s one thing that’s started to define fashion, it’s the lack of consensus among consumers of all age groups and styles, said Stichter.
Many shoppers never stopped wearing skinny jeans, and with the breakneck pace that trends move in the age of social media, fashion cycles can be resurrected before they’re even dead. 
“The denim closet really should have all varieties of denim. It really is about what you’re wearing, what your mood is, and people still wear skinny today,” said Gass. “So keep your loose, keep your baggie. Everything right now goes.”  More