• by Tanya Gazdik , December 31, 2024

Choosing the top news story to focus on in a roundup is subjective. But the most-read compilations of 2024 share a common element: provocativeness. 

The most-read roundup of stories focused on a study that showed consumers are ingesting more plastic than they might have anticipated. 

Want To Consume Plastic? Drink Bottled Water from last January included links to major newspaper stories detailing how bottled water can contain 10 to 100 times more bits of plastic than previously estimated, according to a new study published by the National Academy of Sciences.

“The exact harm they can do is TBD, but that doesn’t mean consumers should bury their heads in the sand,” I noted in the roundup on the subject.

Next up was a February story about a Black History Month gaffe: Target Pulls Product That Misidentifies Civil Rights Leaders.

To its credit, the retailer quickly pulled an item that misidentified several civil rights leaders after the mistake was revealed via a TikTok video created by Tierra Espy, a high school U.S. history teacher, which has been viewed 1.2 million times.

The Civil Rights Magnetic Learning Kit includes a case of 26 magnets and informational cards features illustrations of Black leaders and slogans from the civil rights movement. Three Civil Rights icons — Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington — were misidentified in the item.

Mistakes happen — but when they're made by a company that produces commercial aircraft, it becomes a bit more worrisome. 

Boeing Continues To Be A Hot Mess, also from February, details a string of woes beginning with a hole blowing open on a 737 Max 9 jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff.

“Passengers have filed class-action lawsuits against the company,” according to The New York Times. “And some infuriated airline executives are taking the rare step of criticizing Boeing publicly and expressing doubt about its ability to deliver planes when they were expected.”

Another longtime company decided to tweak its moniker in a step away from the product that had been a steadfast offering. The September story, Campbell's Soup Aims To Drop 'Soup', detailed how the storied company asked shareholders to approve a name change, from Campbell Soup Company to The Campbell’s Company.

While the move might initially seems shocking, the fact that nearly half the company’s sales come from snacks, including such brands as Goldfish crackers and Kettle chips, it actually makes sense. Shareholders ultimately approved the name change.

Meanwhile another behemoth company — Starbucks — came under fire in January. Starbucks App 'Traps' Users To The Tune of $900 Million details how a consumer action group accused Starbucks of exploiting customers, forcing them to enter a spending cycle where they will never be able to fully spend the remaining balance of prepaid amounts on the chain's digital card.

Interestingly, the group that asked the state’s attorney general to investigate whether the company’s policies violate consumer protection laws — the Washington Consumer Protection Coalition —  now no longer seems to have an active website 

Another takedown of a major corporation, this time by a billionaire media mogul, also fizzled out. Byron Allen Loses $100M Lawsuit Against McDonald's details how Allen and the Allen Media Group (which includes Entertainment Studios Networks and The Weather Channel) lost a $100 million fraud lawsuit against McDonald’s. The lawsuit accused the fast food giant of not following through on a pledge to dramatically increase national ad spending with Black-owned media outlets. 

The California state court judge dismissed the case, “finding that McDonald’s will likely win the case if it’s allowed to proceed, since the company still has more time to live up to its vow,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The year was not without loss, and two obituaries drew a lot of reader attention. Style Icon Iris Apfel Dies At 102 detailed the legacy of the interior designer and style icon, known for her over-the-top use of costume jewelry and accessories.

Pop-Tart Inventor Leaves A Legacy captured the life of Bill Post, who led the bakery plant that developed the first Pop-Tarts for Kellogg’s in 1964.

Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see Jerry Seinfeld’s “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story,” which debuted on Netflix in May, three months after Post’s death. Maybe it’s just as well -- since the movie was largely panned. 

A February story about the declining popularity of the early electric vehicle darling, the Ford F-150 Lightning, might have been slightly prophetic as EV sales continued to level off the rest of the year. Bloom Is Off The Rose For Ford F-150 Lightning talked about how the pickup’s popularity had suffered in part because some buyers say it did not meet expectations. As it turns out, Ford ended up putting a temporary pause on production of the F-150 Lightning in mid-November after sales declined nearly 50% in October compared to the same month in 2023. Production is expected to resume in early 2025. 

America’s discontent with overpaid CEOs started early in the year. Feburary’s Kellogg's CEO Ripped For 'Let Them Eat Cereal' Comment detailed how CEO Gary Pilnick took a lot of heat for suggesting that cereal is a great choice for consumers trying to pinch pennies when it comes to rising food prices. 

"This fool is making $4 million a year. Do you think he's feeding his kids cereal for dinner?" one TikTok user said in a video response circulating online.

It was definitely not the year of the CEO. Pilnick maybe got off easy this time?