Unilevers acquisition of the male grooming business could be the start of a whole new sales model one that cuts out retailers altogether

Dollar Shave Clubs razors are fucking great, the companys founder declared in its first advert. Michael Dubin, who started the business four years ago, last week convinced Unilever of their merits, too.

In buying Dollar Shave Club for an estimated $1bn, the consumer goods company could be sending a signal about the way we shop. Post-deal analysis focused on what Unilever could add to Dollar Shave Club, which has shaken up the US male shaving market with a monthly subscription service and a viral marketing campaign.

The company sends grooming products to customers for as little as $1 a month. In that first fucking great ad, Dubin also tells customers that they are being ripped off when buying branded razors because theyre simply funding celebrity endorsements, and technology they do not need.

Do you like spending $20 a month on brand-name razors? Nineteen go to Roger Federer, Dubin says in the ad.

Unilever, one of the worlds biggest companies, will now provide backing for Dollar Shave Clubs expansion in the US where it has already claimed 5% of a shaving market dominated by Gillette and eventually into Europe and the rest of the world.

But Dollar Shave Club will also bring something to Unilever: expertise on how to sell products directly to consumers. Unilever owns some of the best-known brands in the world including Magnum ice cream, Flora margarine and Dove soap. For decades, its model has been to sell its products to customers through retailers, such as Tesco and Sainsburys in the UK.

However, the internet offers a new avenue for manufacturers. It provides the opportunity to sell directly to customers without shops being involved. Customers could buy one-off items from a manufacturers website or, like they do with Dollar Shave Club, take out a subscription that means products are sent to them at regular intervals.

Dollar Shave Club has made this work for male grooming products, so why couldnt there be a club for Lynx deodorant or Tresemm shampoo, which are also Unilever brands?

Unilever has already built a team of up to 800 to work on its e-commerce side, and it is hoping to learn more through Dollar Shave Club.

I think you will see implementations of the learnings from them in businesses we already have outside of the US, Paul Polman, Unilevers chief executive, said. Then we will look at opportunities to introduce the model in other countries, where you need a certain penetration of online shopping.

Polman said countries where online shopping is already popular such as China were potential markets for direct selling. He also said the companys prestige beauty brands and its Australian T2 teas could also be sold this way. Unilever already sells T2 directly to customers through branded shops in England and New York City as well as Australia.

This could have implications for all retailers. Supermarkets in particular are already under pressure from Amazon, discounters and convenience stores: the last thing they need is another front to compete on.

Although it is early days for Unilever, there is logic behind manufacturers selling directly to customers. They can cut the costs of dealing with retailers and take more control of their products. A consumer brand can lose prestige if it is seen on supermarket shelves next to cheaper, own-label alternatives.

Starting to sell directly to consumers will not be a straightforward change, which is why it hasnt happened yet and why Unilever is buying the expertise of Dollar Shave Club. In 2008, Procter & Gamble, Unilevers great rival, bought a stake in online retailer Ocado, yet it has still to launch a meaningful retail service.

Nonetheless, every now and again a deal comes along that signals a shift in direction for an industry. And Unilevers acquisition of Dollar Shave Club is one of them.

Even nimble Fox may not bound over barriers to trade

Theres quite a competition over which of Theresa Mays ministers has the toughest post-Brexit job. A good case could be made for Philip Hammond, the Alistair Darling of our time, inheriting the economy just as things are turning sour. Or for David Davis, who has the task of balancing immigration controls against access to the single market as he negotiates Britains departure from the EU.

Spare some sympathy, though, for Liam Fox, heading the new ministry of international trade: he has perhaps the toughest job of the lot.

There has been a lot of talk since the referendum about how the UK can now cut its own trade deals with countries such as China, Brazil, India and the US. So, Fox can be nimble, avoiding the cumbersome processes that have bedevilled, for example, the attempt by Brussels to agree the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with Washington.

It is a nice thought, conjuring up images of Sir Francis Drakes warships playing havoc with the Spanish Armada as it slowly made its way up the English Channel.

The analogy has its limitations, however: not least the fact that Drake had no trouble finding sailors to crew his vessels while Fox has only a handful of UK officials with any experience of negotiating trade deals and is looking to bring in foreign mercenaries.

A shortage of personnel is not his only problem. He arrives in office at a time when global trade is barely growing a far cry from the heady early days of globalisation in the 1990s.

Back then, the UK was able to exploit the fall in the value of the pound that resulted from Black Wednesday in September 1992 because demand for exports was strong. World trade volumes increased by 7% a year on average during the 1990s.

Then, the current was for more open trade. Today, the tide has turned in favour of protectionism. Getting speedy trade deals that work for Britain is going to be mightily difficult. It is cold out there.

Sports Direct saga shows need for change in the law

Mike Ashley and the board of Sports Direct should be ashamed of the way their company is described by MPs in a report about its working practices.

Ashleys excuse that he was not aware of many of the incidents that were related to him about employees being mistreated is not good enough. A companys boss has a duty to ensure that staff are treated well.

The board needs a total overhaul, with a new independent chairman to ensure that Ashley sticks to his promise to improve working conditions.

However, more fundamental changes are also required. Directors have a legal duty to deliver value for shareholders, but it is time they had a legal duty to protect the interests of employees too.

This could have two helpful effects ensuring that bosses cannot turn a blind eye to bad working practices; and forcing companies to consider employees when they receive a takeover bid. This could be a handy way to get out of unwanted foreign takeovers.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/24/unilever-buy-dollar-shave-club-direct-selling-manufacturers-retailers

Pitcher, 27 scratched from start against Detroit Tigers on Saturday, reportedly for cutting up throwback jerseys so no one could wear them

White Sox pitcher Chris Sale has been suspended for five days after he was accused of cutting up the retro jerseys the team had been asked to wear because he found them uncomfortable.

According to multiple reports, Sale, 27, was unhappy with having to wear the White Soxs 1976 navy, collared throwbacks on a day of 91F temperatures and high humidity and so sabotaged the strips so that nobody could wear them.

Chris has been suspended for violating team rules, for insubordination and for destroying team equipment, said the senior vice president and general manager Rick Hahn in a statement on Sunday. While we all appreciate Chriss talent and passion, there is a correct way and an incorrect way to express concerns about team rules and organizational expectations.

FanRag Sports reported that Sale cut up the 1976 throwbacks with a knife during batting practice so they couldnt be worn. Fox Sports said that Sales dislike for the uniforms was because he thought they were uncomfortable; Sale also thought the White Sox were putting PR and jersey sales ahead of winning.

The team then decided to send Sale home from US Cellular Field.

Matt Albers, who started in Sales place, seemed to confirm the incident, but the White Sox initially provided no details beyond a team statement. The game was suspended by rain after eight innings tied at three and the teams will resume Sunday before the series finale.

Were going to keep that in-house, Albers said. Obviously you guys probably know what happened, but for me as a player, and in our clubhouse, were going to keep in in-house.

Youre going to have to ask somebody else about that.

White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier said: I cant really talk about that.

The White Sox didnt announce Sale was scratched until less than a half hour before the scheduled first pitch.

Chris Sale has been scratched from tonights schedule start and sent home from the ballpark. The incident, which was non-physical in nature, currently is under further investigation by the club, GM Rick Hahn said in a statement released just before the scheduled 6.10pm start.

The White Sox will have no additional comment until the investigation is completed.

The White Sox were expected to wear the collared, blue and white V-neck jerseys first worn during the 1976 season. But with not enough usable 1976 jerseys available, the White Sox wore white retro uniforms from the 1983 season. The White Sox marketing department had publicized the night as the Throwback Game.

After Saturday nights game, White Sox manager Robin Ventura declined to discuss the incident and would not comment on whether the team will enact any further discipline.

Not going to discuss what went on in there, but unfortunately he didnt start tonight, and Im proud of the guys that came in and filled in, Ventura said.

Hes one of the best, absolutely, Albers said of Sale. But were here for teammates. Were here to pick each other up in good times and bad.

Saturday wasnt the first time Sale has exited before a game. The five-time All-Star left before a game near the end of the 2014 season after sharing some heated words with Ventura.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/24/white-sox-pitcher-chris-sale-jerseys-reports

Musicians from all parts of the political spectrum converged on Cleveland this week to play, and perhaps change some minds but was anyone really listening?

On Sunday night, on the banks of the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland, on the eve of one of the most potentially volatile political events in recent history, $500 bids were being placed on framed, unsigned photos of Americas Tang-hued presidential candidate. State delegates walked by giggling, taking pictures of the different Trumpian items, including one that featured an If Hillary cant satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America? plaque. Johnny Van Zant, lead singer of southern rock collective Lynyrd Skynyrd, was on stage in the distance, adding color commentary. I am here to testify to you, he said, with gusto, that we are real, real, real big supporters of our troops and their families. Without them folks wed be nowhere, so God bless them for their sacrifices.

Here among the pleated khakis and button-downs, the Infowars shirts and the elephant embroidered shorts, was a concert and silent auction that served as the unofficial kickoff to the 2016 Republican national convention, one that pinballed between non-partisan military endeavor and ra-ra political acquiescence. Conventions are ideal locations to raise money, particularly if the cause youre stumping for is based on something as uniform and uncontroversial as supporting veterans. That the money that was being collected for military charities was further perpetuating D-list Hillary Clinton sex jokes, and spreading the legacy of a band who proudly flew a Confederate flag for decades, was of little concern to those in attendance as was Van Zants enthusiastic presidential endorsement.

Mr Donald Trump can get us united again, he said to applause. I hope you guys believe the same thing. Donald Trump uniting our ass. How bout it? He says how it is folks. He says what everybody wants to think.

Somewhere, Scott Baio was blasting A Simple Man.

Musicians have played an increasingly outsized role in both political discourse and non-partisan causes for decades. Though how much influence they actually have on the electorate is up for debate. Surely in 2016, a foul year marked by violence, death and divisiveness, a group like Skynyrd is not going to sway your feelings on who to vote for president. If youre unironically shouting for Free Bird at a concert even if the band on stage happens to be the one who wrote the song in the first place theres a 99% chance youre already voting for Trump anyway.

But forget the top of the ticket. What about the artists asking people to donate to a universal cause, or to vote for a local politician? That was certainly within the cards for the weeks motley crew of artists performing at events all over the city: there was Rick Springfield and Martina McBride, Third Eye Blind and Kid Rock, the Roots and Blues Traveler, all hoping to spread whatever message they believed in a potentially futile attempt to not get drowned out by all the hoopla happening inside the RNCs security perimeter.

A message of humanity and resistance

If anyone could cut through the noise, though, it was Prophets of Rage. The day after Skynyrds Last Stand, Chuck D, the candid and energetic frontman of Public Enemy, marched west on Payne Street, while dozens of armored bike cops dressed like Master Chief from Halo kept pace behind him.

This was the second half of the days Prophets Make America Rage Again plan. A musical amalgam of the bands Rage Against the Machine, Cypress Hill and Public Enemy, the group debuted at the end of May in the hopes of confronting the mountain of election year bullshit as guitarist Tom Morello put it to Rolling Stone. They also announced the start of a world tour, which would kick off at the Republican convention.

When we formed, this was item one on our agenda, said Morello, after the group performed an abbreviated surprise seven-song set in a drab field on the east side of town. It was important to come and confront the racism, misogyny and imperialism that is happening inside the RNC, with a message of humanity and resistance on the streets of Cleveland.

Rage has a long history of political shit-stirring, most notably in 2000 at the DNC in Los Angeles, where their concert devolved into a messy mosh pit of riots and teargas. Granted, in an election season where one candidate had already bragged about the size of his penis on national television, it seemed unlikely that, short of them starting world war three, Morello and company could syphon off any noticeable media attention. Anyhow, getting a series of shows set up in the first place was already a big enough task as is.

Finding a venue where we were allowed to play was not easy, added Morello, as he marched alongside the Industrial Workers of the World, periodically stopping to greet well-wishers and supporters. We frankly did this under false auspices today. It was not known that Prophets of Rage were going to play. We were called, like, the Patriot Freedom Band or something like that.

The band had attached themselves to an event that was already being thrown by the End Poverty Now initiative, where groups like the Revolutionary Communist party, Code Pink and Black Lives Matter all gathered around to voice their support for the issue at hand, while simultaneously promoting their own singular causes.

Personally, I am not really drawn by the music, I am drawn by the message, said Matt Meister, a member of Industrial Workers of the World, later adding, We are marching today in solidarity against the insane poverty in the region and how that poverty is exacerbated by the policies of both political parties but especially the Republicans.

Indeed, this multicultural crowd was no friend to either side of the aisle. Throughout the day, I spotted posters of Trump dressed as Hitler and Bernie For President signs, and heard chants about the treasonous sell-out Hillary Clinton. Folks wore DESTROY CORPORATE GREED and SMASH THE POLICE STATE T-shirts. But things never reached critical mass. Rage events used to draw tens of thousands, yet the events here in Cleveland felt a bit sparse.

I was expecting this to be a lot more chaotic, said Nicole Clayman. Her husband, Dave, agreed he was shocked he even found a parking space. Cleveland, he said, does seem to be keeping the peace. That 1:1 ratio of protesters to cops was easy to spot. Once people began marching downtown after the pop-up show, a squadron of police officers formed a protective enclosure around the group.

The problem with some of the previous [Rage convention] performances was we announced it too far in advance and the police shut us down or it gave the opportunity for more conflict, said Morello, on why the band opted for last-minute announcements. But this was the strategy. We wanted to represent, we wanted to play. We have friends, fans of the media here who can broadcast what happens with our megaphone.

But for some during the week, those megaphones were closer to whispers. Take the Keep the Promise event, held a few hours before the Skynyrd show on Sunday, which was billed as a forum for advocates to publicly call on Republicans on the day before the opening of the RNC to articulate clear domestic and global policies on HIV/Aids. Considering the platform the GOP had already adopted, that was unlikely to happen. But the speakers and performers on the lineup the Roots, Soledad OBrien, Cornel West, Mary Mary, and, uh, BOB were hoping to get as much mileage out of the message as they could, despite the fact that they were missing a key component: people.

The event had either been announced last minute or the organizers had done a poor job marketing it. The entire benefit played more like a soundcheck to an arena that was 90% empty. Anyway, its tough to compete for music-friendly press when bands like Third Eye Blind were playing pranks a few days later on unsuspecting Republicans.

By then it was Thursday morning, and the Prophets of Rage train had reached the end of the line. Their second pop-up show, this one at Public Square, was attended by a few dozen stragglers and about double that number in journalists. It was almost a polar opposite the following night, when the band performed a more typical rock show at the rundown Agora Ballroom. As opposed to the all-inclusive crowd at the march on Monday, the crowd for the evening was about 95% middle-aged white dudes in cargo shorts. Prophets of Rage, Cleveland! yelled Chuck D. Say it like you mean it, fuck what happened at Quicken Loans Arena, lets take this power back. The roar of the crowd was deafening. A giant, sweaty mosh pit formed at the front of the stage. Whether you were there to toss back some beers and shout, or raise your fist in solidarity against corporate America seemed to matter little to the band. Just getting people out to the concert was good enough.

Wed prefer that theyd be there for both, but theres always going to be people who are not necessarily politically motivated, said B Real. Sometimes you win those people over, once theyve had a chance to absorb it and think about what they might have said and what songs were played and what they mean to right now. You never know if you win them over to be proactive and get them involved in the process.

The quote brought to mind something that West, a speaker at the Keep the Promise event on Sunday, had mentioned. I think that the great artists, he told me, no matter what color, nation or sexual orientation, are those who dig deep within themselves and lay bare the truths that affect each and every one of our own souls, like John Coltrane and one would hope that that kind of artistic expression would spill over into the political arena.

Considering the lack of GOP-friendly musicians these days, fans tend to associate those truths with more left-leaning causes. But then, they probably werent at the Kid Rock concert on the final night of the convention, where Republican delegates and conservative wonks came dressed in Trump garb, smiling and reveling after their nominees 77-minute acceptance speech. There were Make America Great Again hats in red white and blue, American flag jackets, and Trump 2016 buttons. All the women in the audience looked like Ivanka Trump.

Like the Skynyrd show, it was another event couched in military paraphernalia, but was more truthfully used as the final gavel on a hectic and predictably unpredictable week in Cleveland. Who yall voting for out there? asked Kid Rock, as the crowd yelled back with an enthusiastic TRUUUUMP. Thats right. As Kid Rock I have to say we gotta make this motherfucker great again. Music and the arts had spent the last five days being continuously bent and contorted by dozens of performers for their own ends. Whether anyone present was being swayed to a new point of view, remained to be seen.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/22/rnc-musical-revolution-from-prophets-of-rage-to-kid-rock