| | | | | | | Presented By Walmart | | | | Axios PM | | By Mike Allen · Jul 25, 2023 | | 👋 Happy Tuesday! Today's PM — edited by Erica Pandey — is 685 words, a 2½-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for the copy edit. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Country controversy tops charts | | Jason Aldean performs in Twin Lakes, Wis., on Saturday. Photo: Joshua Applegate/Getty Images A week after controversy engulfed Jason Aldean's country song "Try That in a Small Town," it's a commercial juggernaut, Axios Nashville co-author Adam Tamburin writes. - Surging sales and streams pushed the song to No. 2 on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 chart.
🧮 By the numbers: The song hit 11.7 million on-demand audio and video streams between July 14 and 20 — a 1,000% increase from the week before, AP reports from Luminate data. - Digital song sales increased from 1,000 to 228,000.
The song depicts an exaggerated urban-rural divide in which cities are dominated by unrest that isn't tolerated in small towns. - Some critics have said the song and its video promote gun violence and lynching, which Aldean denies. Country Music Television pulled the video last week.
- You couldn't ask for a better gift when it comes to promoting a record, especially for that core Jason Aldean audience, than what CMT did in publicly pulling the music video," Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former GOP Oversight spokesperson who runs the country music tipsheet The Morning Hangover, tells Axios
Aldean sings: "Try that in a small town. See how far you make it down the road. Around here, we take care of our own." - "You cross that line, it won't take long for you to find out. I recommend you don't."
Between the lines: The video features a performance in front of Tennessee's Maury County Courthouse, which was the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 lynching. - Aldean has defended the song, tweeting that "there is not a single lyric ... that references race or points to it."
"If the goal was to try to limit the consumption of the song and the spread of the song … clearly this approach doesn't work. It backfired massively," Bardella says. - The situation mirrors broader political debates over cancel culture, with country fans ultimately feeling defensive and entrenched, he says.
Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. 😷 Tick-borne illnesses rise | | A deer tick under a microscope. Photo: Victoria Arocho/AP The warming planet is spreading types of tick-borne illnesses to new places. 🔭 The big picture: As Earth warms on average and winters become milder, ticks are becoming active earlier in the year, extending the length of time they actively feed on humans and animals, AP reports. 💼 Case in point: Over the last 60 years, the U.K. has become roughly 1.8°F warmer. Even a fraction of a degree of global warming creates more opportunity for ticks to breed and spread disease. - Public health officials are particularly concerned about tick-borne encephalitis, a deadlier disease than Lyme, the first known case of which popped up in the U.K. in 2022.
Read on. | | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | "Walmart stands behind us. It's priceless." - Thereasa Black | | |  | | | | America's largest company supports veteran-owned businesses. Walmart has spent nearly $1 billion with veteran-owned businesses like Bon AppéSweet, helping Navy veteran Thereasa Black and her small business gain nationwide success. Learn about Walmart's commitment to U.S. manufacturing. | | | | | | 3. Catch me up | | A memorial sign at Graball Landing in Mississippi, where Emmett Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP - 🏛️ Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, will be honored with a new national monument established by President Biden today. The monument will cover 5.7 acres in Illinois, where Till was born, and Mississippi, where he was killed. The sites include the spot along the Tallahatchie River just outside Glendora, Miss., where his body was found and the courthouse where his killers were tried. Go deeper.
- 📦 UPS reached a tentative deal with its union today — just days before the date that the union, representing 340,000 workers, would have walked off the job. Go deeper.
- 🏀 Bronny James, the son of NBA basketball legend LeBron James, collapsed after going into cardiac arrest during a USC basketball practice yesterday. He's now out of the ICU and in stable condition. Go deeper.
| | | | | | | | 4. 🌭 1 fun thing: Mustard candy |  | | | Photo: French's | | | | The yuck (or yum for some?) factor is in overdrive with these new Skittles — a French's mustard-flavored, sweet and savory candy. - Skittles and French's unveiled the limited-edition flavor today, ahead of National Mustard Day, which is Aug. 5, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.
🖼️ The big picture: It's not unusual for food brands to release wacky flavors in a quest to go viral on social media, CNN notes. - The packs of yellow candy will be given away for free in an online sweepstakes and during events in Atlanta, D.C. and New York City, the companies said.
| | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart partnered with over 2,600 diverse small businesses | | |  | | | | Walmart is creating more American jobs by supporting veteran-owned businesses like Bon AppéSweet. Key numbers: In 2021, the retailer sourced $13.3 billion in goods and services from roughly 2,600 diverse small businesses. Learn how Walmart supports U.S. manufacturing. | | |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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