Buckle Up and Let’s Go for a Ride | July 21, 2022

Come on, let's go.

Welcome to The Web 2.5 Newsletter featuring news, content, musings, and memes at the intersection of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

Old Navy licensed a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for its latest t-shirt release. You can now wear BAYC #7285 on an adult t-shirt for $18.99 on OldNavy.com.
Nike continues to blur the lines between physical and digital with the RTFKT x Nike’s AR Hoodie set to launch today in a private mint. The drop allows owners to receive both an exclusive NFT as well as a physical hoodie (complete with NFC technology).
Meta is partnering with digital brand DressX for its new avatar store.

The NFL announced that fans can snag a free NFT virtual commemorative ticket at over 100 regular-season NFT games next season.
Tony Hawk is building the “biggest skatepark in the metaverse.” Finally, a way to learn to skate with no IRL bruises.
Gatorade is immortalizing recipients of the 2021-2022 Gatorade Player of the Year award on the blockchain.

Mr Clean is surfing on a sponge (among other things) in the metaverse according to Carrefour exec Elodie Perthuisot.
If feels like just yesterday that QR codes on Super Bowl ads were a big marketing revolution. Now, KIA, the auto company, launched a TV campaign featuring a QR code that drives viewers to purchase NFTs associated with the spot’s characters.
Brands are increasingly avoiding the word “NFT” in their marketing and opting instead for terms like “digital collectibles” to better appeal to web2 consumers.
Dubai released its metaverse strategy, projecting it will hire 40,000 virtual jobs by 2023.

CNBC published a deeper look at how 99-year-old Time Magazine continues to reinvent itself through web3.
It was a big week for Nickelodeon, who launched an NFT mashup collection featuring 12 original characters from Rugrats and Hey Arnold! RECUR CEO Zach Bruch shared a thread on the launch.
Bill Murray’s NFT collection dropped hit this week. Some wonder if the launch can save Coinbase’s lagging NFT Marketplace. Others saw the drop of 82 initial NFTs as a resounding sell out success with 81/82 unique holders and 65% of initial minters joining the Discord.
Minecraft is banning NFTs.
The Simpsons animator Erick Tran is launching an NFT animated series.
Blockchain music service Audius will allow you to tip a music artist with audio tokens.

Web3 innovator Erick Calderon, founder of Art Blocks and the artist behind WAGMI United, talks with Ad Age.
Brooklyn-based Lawrence Rogers is launching a 100% on-chain dynamic art NFT that grows over time based on who mints from the collection. Said simply, the art changes as more people buy it.
The world’s most expensive champagne sold for $2.5 Million—and of course, it came with NFTs.

Web3 agency powerhouse VaynerNFT rebranded as Vayner3 to reflect its broadening purview. The announcement came on the heels of Vayner’s 8-hour educational YouTube Demo Day. You can watch the full event on YouTube, or @nfJeffeth made a summary doc for the skimmers among us.

Hang.xyz, the NFT brand loyalty platform that believes that NFTs will reinvent the membership model, raised $16M from Paradigm.

And that’s all, folks. The first one is in the books. Hitting “Publish”, grabbing my squad, and ready to hit the town like…

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