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5 Best Players In Real Madrid History

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Real Madrid is one of those football clubs that has enjoyed so much success that listing off all of its accomplishments would take far too long. Another list that’s shockingly long is the list of Hall of Fame talent that the club has had over the years. Narrowing it down to just a few players who stand out as the best is tough, but we picked out the five best players in Real Madrid history.

Before we start the list, some of the players who just missed the cut include Zinedine Zidane, Ferenc Puskas, Paco Gento, Manuel Sanchis, and Amancio.

Karim Benzema

We start the list with Frenchman Karim Benzema, who got his career started with Lyon during the mid-2000s in his native country. Benzema then joined Real Madrid in 2009 and stuck around, spending well over a decade with the club. Benzema never let up in terms of talent while playing for Real Madrid, either, and seemed to actually improve after celebrating his 30th birthday.

Benzema helped Real Madrid win a long list of club honours, including four La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys, and five UEFA Champions League trophies. In 2022, Benzema became one of the oldest Ballon d’Or winners at 34 years old. In fact, only Stanley Matthews was older when he won the trophy at 41.

Raul

The world knows Raul Gonzalez Blanco simply as Raul, and he made his mark on the sport of football for more than two decades. Raul joined the Real Madrid youth program in the early 1990s and made his way to the senior squad in 1994. He’d remain with the club all the way up until 2010 before finishing his career with Schalke 04, Al Sadd, and the New York Cosmos until retiring in 2015.

Raul holds the record for most appearances in Real Madrid history with 741, and 550 of those came in La Liga competition. Raul was no slouch when it comes to scoring, either. He netted 323 goals during his Real Madrid career, which is good for third all-time behind Benzema and our number-one player on the list.

Iker Casillas

Iker Casillas ranks as the top goaltender in Real Madrid history and in third place overall on the list. Casillas is a native of Madrid, and he made his professional debut with Real Madrid’s top squad in 1999 after nearly a decade with the youth program. Casillas spent 16 years as the keeper for the club until spending the final five years of his career with Porto.

Casillas helped guide Real Madrid to five La Liga titles, as well as two Copa del Rey victories. Casillas added three UEFA Champions League titles, too, while winning a slew of individual honours that include two wins for La Liga Best Goalkeeper. Casillas is second all-time in club history for career appearances with 725 behind only Raul.

Alfredo Di Stefano

While the rest of the players on the list are more recent, there probably aren’t too many living Real Madrid fans who got the chance to watch Alfredo Di Stefano at his best. The Argentinian played professionally in South America following World War II for eight years before making his way to Spain in 1953. He spent 11 years with Real Madrid before wrapping up his career with a two-year stint at Espanyol.

Di Stefano was a cornerstone for the club, and he helped Real Madrid win La Liga a whopping eight times between 1954 and 1964. Di Stefano also hoisted the European Cup five times while wearing a Real Madrid kit and he won the Ballon d’Or Trophy twice. In 1989, he won the Super Ballon d’Or Trophy which was given out just once for the best player of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s combined.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Almost every football fan would have been able to guess that Cristiano Ronaldo was going to take the top spot on the all-time list for Real Madrid. Ronaldo spent the prime of his career with the club after coming up with Sporting CP and then six years with Manchester United. Ronaldo was part of Real Madrid for nearly a decade before departing for Juventus in 2018.

Ronaldo is far and away the leading scorer all-time in Real Madrid history with 450 goals, putting him more than 100 ahead of anybody else. What makes his scoring prowess even more impressive was the fact that he averaged more than one goal per game as a member of Real Madrid. Ronaldo won La Liga twice with the club and won the Ballon d’Or Trophy as the world’s best player a whopping four times.

5 Best Managers In Real Madrid History

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Real Madrid has seen a lot of success in more than a century of play, including winning a long list of trophies while never being relegated from La Liga. With such a popular and valuable club, expectations are often high. Because of that, Real Madrid has gone through quite a few managers over the years, with some of them standing out as being the best of the best. 

Today we’ll take a look at the five men who found the most success as Real Madrid managers with dozens of honours amongst them. Before we start the list, some of the managers who just missed the cut include Luis Molowny, Jose Villalonga, Miljan Miljanic, and Luis Carniglia.

Carlo Ancelotti

As a player, Carlo Ancelotti enjoyed a fine career as a midfielder, splitting his time between Parma, Roma, and AC Milan. After his retirement in 1992, Ancelotti got into coaching where he became an assistant with the Italian National Team until taking over Reggiana in 1995. After several stints throughout Europe, Ancelotti made his way to Madrid for his first tenure which lasted from 2013 to 2015, then he returned in 2021.

Ancelotti had come from Paris Saint-Germain and posted a 74.79% winning rate while with Real Madrid. He also led the club to a UEFA Champions League title to go along with the Copa del Rey, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA World Cup before departing for Bayern Munich.

Leo Beenhakker

Dutchman Leo Beenhakker has one of the lengthiest managerial resumes in football history. After his playing time ended in the early 1960s, Beenhakker took over several clubs in the subsequent decades including Ajax and Volendam. From 1986 to 1989, Beenhakker managed Real Madrid, and he came back for a second stint in 1992. During that time, Beenhakker was able to find success.

Beenhakker is fourth all-time in matches managed for Real Madrid with 169, and his squads won 107 of those. Beenhakker won La Liga on three occasions while also winning two Supercopa de Espanas and a Copa del Rey. Beenhakker then went on to manage Ajax and many other clubs before retiring in 2009.

Zinedine Zidane

Many know Zinedine Zidane from his fantastic playing days with Bordeaux, Juventus, and Real Madrid in the 1990s and 2000s. Zidane was also a staple of the French National Team, and after he retired from the sport in 2006, took several years off from football. In 2013, he became an assistant with Real Madrid then took over the B squad from 2014 to 2016. From 2016 to 2018 and 2019 to 2021, Zidane led the top squad.

Zidane’s Madrid clubs didn’t mess around in the UEFA Champions League as he won the title three times. Not only that, but Madrid won La Liga and Supercopa de Espana once each while adding two UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup titles. Overall, Zidane won more than 69 percent of his matches with Real Madrid.

Vincent del Bosque

A defensive mastermind as a player with Real Madrid, Vincent del Bosque was part of the squad from 1968 to 1984. After his retirement from the sport, del Bosque came back to the club that he knew and loved, becoming a caretaker during the 1990s. At the end of the decade, though, del Bosque became manager of the top squad and held the position until 2003.

Del Bosque doesn’t have the best winning percentage on the list, but he was able to win 54.51% of his matches while also winning several honours. Del Bosque won La Liga and the UEFA Champions League twice while also adding titles in the Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Super Cup, and Intercontinental Cup. At 233 matches, he’s second all-time in Madrid appearances.

Miguel Munoz

The top spot on the list belongs to Miguel Munoz, who like del Bosque, spent most of his playing years with Real Madrid. Between 1948 and 1958, he netted 23 goals for the club and then took over as manager upon his retirement. Though he didn’t last for an entire year, Munoz would return to manage the club from 1960 until 1974 following his brief time with Plus Ultra. No other manager had a tenure of that length.

Munoz is far and away the most successful manager in Real Madrid history when it comes to honours won. Munoz won La Liga nine times, as well as a pair of Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League titles. Munoz also has more than twice as many matches as anyone else on the list, managing 595 times and winning 352 of those matches.

From Woodstock to Glastonbury: A Brief History of Music Festivals and Their Evolution over the Decades

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These days when you think of a music festival, you probably think of some of the biggest names in music playing on stages that are plastered with advertising as far as the eye can see. You might also think that music festivals got started in the late 1960s when Woodstock came around, but there’s a much longer history than that. Let’s take a look at how festivals got their start and how they came to be what they are now.

Ancient Beginnings

Mass gatherings of people began long before any of us could even imagine, especially during the Middle Ages. However, the music during these times was simply played as background noise for other things taking place, namely athletic competitions. It wasn’t until the 18th century that scheduled musical acts started to take part in music-focused festivals, but the acts were all local and not really famous by any stretch.

Heading to Woodstock

As the years went on, music festivals became incredibly common throughout larger cities of the world. Like the early festivals, though, they weren’t big-name acts that were being played on the radio. That would all change in 1969 with the development of Woodstock, which was created by four men who were able to secure massive musical acts like Santana, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and many more.

While Woodstock ended up being a muddy mess, it was able to gather nearly half a million people in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York. With that, companies saw an opportunity to use music festivals as a way of advertising to massive swarms of people all at once. With that, the 1970s saw a huge boom in music festivals, though they wouldn’t become quite as corporate just yet.

The Digital Era Revives Festivals

There were plenty of festivals throughout major countries in the 1980s and 1990s, but the biggest musical acts didn’t feel compelled to perform at them. That’s because record sales were through the roof thanks to the ease of access that cassettes and compact discs offered for music fans. That would all change when music went digital, however, with musicians only getting a tiny cut in streaming revenue.

Because of this, music festivals started to become more popular once again with musicians making a wide majority of their money through touring. The biggest names in the business were wanting to headline festivals and the festivals themselves became a massive industry. In fact, playing festivals may be better suited for top acts who don’t want the long schedule that comes with a tour.

Musicians who aren’t looking to tens of millions by working and traveling every day can simply pop into a festival for one day, return home, and cash in a check that’s worth upwards of $1 million. This is especially beneficial for some of the A-listers who are getting up there in age and want to get a few more performances in for the retirement fund before they call it a career. 

The Current Structure

Whenever you go to a major music festival around the world, there’s a good chance that it’s going to be owned and operated by one of two companies: AEG Live or Live Nation. The former was founded in 1994 with the full name Anschutz Entertainment Group and operates festivals like Coachella while owning some of the more notable sports and music venues. The latter was founded in 2010 and owns Ticketmaster, putting together festivals like EDC in Las Vegas and Lollapalooza.

For most of these festivals, you can expect to spend hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to see some of the top names in music, especially when ticket fees are taken into consideration. Many of these festivals make back the money without selling even a single ticket thanks to corporate sponsorships. When you see the main stage, you’re likely to see a few company logos, too.

When those logos are front and center for everyone to see while hundreds of thousands of eyes are glued to the stage, that’s a lot of money being spent for that ad space. While there are some people who don’t like the corporate structure that music festivals have compared to the Woodstock days, it’s absolutely necessary to keep tickets somewhat affordable while bringing in big-name acts.

Now, we have festivals that include the more laid-back like Coachella, the hardcore ones like Rock in Rio, and the wild ones like EDC. No matter where you go in the world, there’s a festival nearby that will likely fit what you’re looking for.

5 Most Controversial Moments in Showbiz History

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Controversy and show business go hand-in-hand for a multitude of reasons. Whether it be pushing the envelope against social norms or even technical errors at awards ceremonies, Hollywood has seen its fair share of talked-about moments. While there are far more than five which were talked about for a long time, these five are the first that come to mind for a lot of people.

Wardrobe Malfunction

Football fans will remember Super Bowl XXXVIII for the wild fourth quarter that it had. the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers were battling it out with the Patriots holding a four-point lead going into the 4th quarter. a last-minute kick by Adam Vinatieri won the game for New England giving Tom Brady his second Super Bowl win.

However, everyone else will remember Super Bowl 38 for the halftime show featuring Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. at the end of the performance Timberlake ripped off a piece of Jackson’s top revealing her breast to millions of people worldwide. This ended up being the most re-watched moment in DVR history, and thousands of calls flooded the FCC as a result. The Super Bowl is already the most-watched program in the United States each year, and the halftime show had people talking for months.

Mel Gibson’s Rant

During the height of his career, Mel Gibson was one of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood thanks to the success of films like “Lethal Weapon”, “Braveheart”, and “Conspiracy Theory”. Gibson was still finding regular work by the mid-2000s, but his career would essentially come to a halt for nearly a decade thanks to his 2006 arrest. While intoxicated, Gibson went on a rant and said some unsavory things.

He blamed the Jewish people for all of the world’s wars, asking the police officer if she was Jewish herself. Gibson then went on to call the officer “sugar t**s” and banged his head against the cruiser’s window. Gibson apologized and went into rehab for alcoholism, and it would be years before he talked about the arrest in-depth. “I’ve never discriminated against anyone or done anything that sort of supports that reputation,” he said. “And for one episode in the back of a police car on eight double tequilas to sort of dictate all the work…is really unfair.”

O.J. Acquitted

While Mel Gibson was caught driving under the influence and acting erratically, NFL star turned actor O.J. Simpson was charged with something more serious: murder. On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found murdered at Brown’s property in Brentwood, California, and Simpson instantly became a person of interest.

After a police chase that made headlines around the world, a lengthy trial ensued that captured everyone’s attention. On October 3, 1995, the verdict was finally read with everyone glued to their television. To the surprise of a majority of people, Simpson was found not guilty of murder in either case. With over 100 million people watching the verdict, some celebrated while most were left scratching their heads, wondering how a not-guilty verdict could happen after seeing the evidence.

La La Land or Moonlight?

The 89th Academy Awards in 2017 was an award show to remember, thanks in large part to the ending of the show. There were some fun moments that included Emma Stone winning Best Actress for “La La Land” and Viola Davis winning Best Supporting Actress for “Fences”. What everyone remembers from the show, however, is the Best Picture category.

Originally, “La La Land” was said to be the winner after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope. They had received the one naming Emma Stone as the winner for Best Actress that had already been used and simply read the film’s name assuming that it won. However, an Oscar crew member ran up to the stage and handed Beatty the new envelope which said “Moonlight” won Best Picture. It was an awkward moment as the “La La Land” cast and crew were already on stage.

Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock

The “La La Land” and “Moonlight” controversy is incredibly tame in comparison to what happened at the Oscars five years later. While Chris Rock was presenting for Best Documentary Feature, he threw a couple of jokes toward Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, and Will Smith began walking toward the stage.

People assumed he was going to do something playful, but instead, he reared back his right hand and slapped Chris Rock across the face. He then returned to his seat yelling “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth!” Video of the incident went viral immediately, and Smith received a 10-year ban from the Oscars despite winning Best Actor later that night.

The History of Comic Book Villains: From Lex Luthor to Thanos

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Almost all of us love superheroes, but they would be almost nothing if it weren’t for a foil that tried to hamper their plans of justice and peace. Someone has to be the antagonist in a hero’s story, and for that reason, supervillains are just as important. Even when heroes made their way to the big screen, having a good villain was the difference between a critically-acclaimed film and a panned one.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the history of comic book supervillains and how they came to be what they are today. Some of the fan favorites of today actually came much later than people may have thought, while some of the very first supervillains are completely forgotten about today. 

Humble Beginnings

Superman made his comic book debut with Action Comics #1, but he didn’t have a nemesis for the first dozen issues. In #13, Superman went toe-to-toe with a white gorilla named Ultra-Humanite. Originally, he was supposed to be the main supervillain, but that would change just a few issues later when Alexei Luthor and, of course, Lex Luthor, were introduced. Lex would become the main villain throughout Superman lore.

Ultra-Humanite became the first supervillain overall in June 1939, and the rest of the year saw three more introduced. Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster created Ultra-Humanite while Bob Kane and Bill Finger created the next two: Dr. Death and The Monk. The two were Batman villains, with the latter not sticking around for long while the former was revived multiple times.

Continuing the Golden Age

The start of the 1940s was when things really ramped up for supervillains. Batman had four new adversaries in the first year with Hugo Strange, Catwoman, Clayface, and his archvillain, the Joker. Meanwhile, Marvel finally entered the foray of having supervillains with the introduction of Red Skull in 1941. Throughout the rest of World War II, many signature villains including Scarecrow, Two-Face, Solomon Grundy, and Black Adam were introduced.

Later Golden Age supervillains included Deadshot, Red Hood, Brainiac, Bizarro, and the Riddler. All of these, however, were great DC villains who became staples while Marvel still only had one that would land with readers. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that Marvel switched from Magazine Management to Marvel Comics and introduced Spider-Man who came with a new slew of great villains.

The Silver Age

In 1963, The Chameleon became the first Spider-Man supervillain, but he wouldn’t receive as much fanfare as the ones who followed. The Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, Electro, Mysterio, Green Goblin, and Kraven the Hunter were all introduced in the following months and formed the Sinister Six. The faction, to this day, remains the key cog to the villain puzzle for the web-slinger.

Dr. Doom was also introduced around this time, giving all of the Marvel universe (and especially the Fantastic Four) a prime villain to take on. Loki, the Rhino, the Mandarin, the Scarlet Witch, and many others were introduced over the next couple of years to give Marvel a fantastic catalog of villains to pick from. The 1940s and 1960s proved to be the two best decades for introducing villains as it became hard to build upon after so many were established.

Taking a Step Back

Just because there was already a plethora of characters to use for DC and Marvel doesn’t mean the two publishers stopped adding to the list in the 1970s and 1980s. However, there were very few that resonated with fans during this time. For every Ra’s al Ghul, Thanos, or Sabretooth, there was an Egg Fu, the Matador, or Big Wheel. The 1980s saw the publishers make fewer attempts at new villains, but there were some winners including Killer Croc and Hobgoblin, with Venom being the best one of the decade.

And a Step Forward

After a couple of decades of blunders, comic book villains got back on the right track in the 1990s. The decade started out with the introduction of Deadpool, Carnage, Bane, and Doomsday. Harley Quinn was introduced to the comics, as well, after spending seven years as a cartoon-only character.

When superhero films started making their way to theaters, many of the classic villains were used up rather quickly. With that, DC and Marvel began using newer characters who were freshly introduced. For instance, Gorr the God Butcher was introduced in comics in 2013 and by 2022 was the main villain in “Thor: Love and Thunder”. Each year, we’ll continue to see new villains, but their impact on comics overall will remain to be seen as they’re becoming less frequent.

The Mars Face: Hoax, Coincidence, Or Sign Of Alien Life?

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Because no human being (at least that we know of) has ever walked on Mars, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding the planet. Because of orbiters that have gone around the planet, however, we have begun to make out what the surface looks like and we’ve discovered some interesting bits and pieces. One time there appeared to be a lifeform but turned out to be a piece of netting from a previous ship’s crash site, formations that look like spikes, and even what appeared to be a doorway on the side of a mountain.

One thing on Mars that has been the topic of conversation for many years, though, is the perceived “face” on the Red Planet. The Face on Mars is perhaps the oldest oddity of the planet, as the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters were the first to spot it all the way back in the mid-1970s. The face was a result of photographs being taken of the Cydonia region.

From those original images, there was a large formation that seemed to clearly resemble a human face. No matter what angle the photo was taken from during this time, all of them made it so that the face was seen clearly by the human eye. It was dismissed at first by NASA, but once it was seen again from different lighting and more than 30 orbits later, people got to talking.

Naturally, as humans who have a keen interest in life away from the Earth, there were plenty of people who theorized that there was life on Mars and that the Face on Mars was actually a monument of some type. Even with the photos all showing a clear “face,” NASA was still convinced that it was nothing more than lighting and a coincidental formation, but that wasn’t enough to quench the alien thirst of the public.

John Grant of the Center for Earth and planetary studies said that there was a misconception about what NASA was looking for on Mars. while many thought that NASA was looking for intelligent life they were actually searching for any simple forms of life. He went on to say that there were also particular formations on Earth that resembled humans but didn’t have nearly as much speculation as the one on Mars 

After the original photos, it had been more than 20 years by the time the Face on Mars was photographed again. This had some people feeling that NASA found more than they were leading on and trying to cover up any alien life. Gerhard Neukum, a scientist who worked on a Mars photography project, said that he received hundreds of emails asking to photograph Cydonia again because they didn’t believe NASA.

In 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor made its way to the Red Planet with the plan to record more imagery from the Cydonia region. Unfortunately for theorists, what they found on the next trip was not what they were hoping for. Instead, higher-resolution images showed that there was no face but the blurriness from the original pictures made it appear that there was.

Even then, there were many people who said that the higher-resolution images didn’t tell the whole story. they claimed that the pictures were taken from the wrong angle and that clouds obscured the vision of the Face on Mars. more images have been taken since then all of which have shown in higher resolution than the face we saw in 1976 is not what we would see with the human eye if we were to get that close to the Cydonia region 

The face on Mars has been photographed from different angles in the years that have passed. NASA has taken these photos from different angles and altitudes to show that the original image was nothing more than a coincidence caused by lighting and low-resolution cameras. Ray tracing has shown that the Face on Mars has a unique shape but does not actually resemble a face. 

Still, there are plenty of other formations on Mars that have interesting shapes that humans want more answers for, including pyramids, a bear’s face, and even formations that resemble characters from Sesame Street. Because we have yet to walk on Mars, there are still a lot of questions but hopefully in the coming decades will be able to answer many of these questions. If humans ever do indeed inhabit Mars, we’ll be able to get firsthand answers, but for now, we’re left wondering what type of life could be on Mars and whether or not they’re capable of carving facial formations.

A Brief History Of Pepsi’s Corporate Strategies

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Pepsi, along with Coca-Cola, is a soft drink giant that has a reach to pretty much every country around the world. From its humble beginnings in the late 20th century to becoming a multi-billion dollar corporation, Pepsi has seen a lot of different corporate strategies over the years. Let’s take a brief look at Pepsi’s history of corporate strategies.

The Start

When it was first introduced in 1893 by Caleb Bradham, Pepsi was called Brad’s Drink and became a local favorite in New Bern, North Carolina where Bradham dispensed the beverage from his drugstore. The pharmacist claimed that there were health benefits for the drink and started marketing it as such, saying that it could cure dyspepsia at a time when it was a common ailment in the United States.

Thus, the first strategy was born and the name changed to Pepsi-Cola as a result of the marketing. Unfortunately for Bradham, he had to sell the company after sugar prices during World War I put him out of business. The company changed hands twice and ended up in the hands of Charles Guth, a candymaker who had become disgruntled with the Coca-Cola company.

Price Points

Pepsi entered the cola wars with Coca-Cola and got a huge leg up during the Great Depression. Both companies were selling the same sized (6.5 ounces) bottle for years until Pepsi decided to nearly double the size to 12 ounces without increasing the price. This helped Pepsi become a more common drink in middle America during a time when Coca-Cola had a stranglehold. With Pepsi now a familiar name across the nation, it was time to change course.

Drink of the Youth

Throughout much of the company’s history, Pepsi has made sure that they’re marketing toward the younger generation at the time. This dates back to the 1930s when Pepsi would use up-and-coming actors in their advertisements and continued over the decades with superstars entering their prime including Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and many more. As a result, Pepsi has laid claim to being the “official” soft drink of each generation, including campaigns titled “The Pepsi Generation” and “Generation Next.”

The Food Side

During the 1950s, Pepsi saw a massive expansion and decided to go further than simply selling just a couple of soft drinks. In 1965, Pepsi and Frito-Lay merged, making sure that a massive chunk of the snacks and soft drinks in the United States were under one roof. This is why in most commercials for Frito-Lay brand chips, there’s a Pepsi product somewhere on the screen, and vice-versa.

In the following decade, under its new name PepsiCo, decided to start acquiring restaurants where Pepsi products would be dispensed from the soda fountains instead of Coca-Cola. Some of these restaurants included Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, and the nearly-defunct Hot ‘n Now (which still has one location in Sturgis, Michigan).

The Health Movement

Of course, when a company is founded on creating high-calorie snacks and soft drinks that are often packed with sugar and carbohydrates, there are going to be a lot of critics. After obesity and diabetes rates increased dramatically over the 20th century, many people pointed the finger at companies like PepsiCo. Because of this, Pepsi has changed much of its corporate strategy in the 21st century to promote healthier foods.

The 2010s especially saw a big movement for Pepsi as the company acquired several businesses that focused on healthier snacks. This includes Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (yogurt, juice, milk), Bare Foods, SodaStream, and more. Zero-calorie energy drinks have also been a key focus for Pepsi, acquiring brands like Rockstar and Celsius.

After Michelle Obama started a campaign against childhood obesity during her time as the First Lady of the United States, Pepsi pledged to cut 1.5 trillion calories from their products across the nation. The company also removed advertising toward anyone under the age of 12 while increasing the promotion of its low and zero-calorie drinks.

Merging and Emerging

We already mentioned that Pepsi has had a big focus on acquiring companies who can help to expand the catalog of products, and that remains a major key to Pepsi’s corporate strategy. Pepsi will focus on the companies that are coming up into the market, making sure to acquire them before they can become competitors or cost the company too much. In the company’s official corporate strategy report, it says there are five C’s that they want to promote heavily: Commercial, Capabilities, Costs, Collaboration, and Capital. Because of Pepsi’s history, there’s no doubt that it’s capable of achieving success.

From Superheroes to Celebrities: The Top Fortnite Skin Crossovers

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Battle royale games have been all the rage for years now, and much of that can be attributed to the success of PUBG and DayZ. However, it was Fortnite that helped to boost the battle royale style into the mainstream, and it has brought out some of the biggest celebrities in the process. 

As a result, Fortnite publisher Epic Games has collaborated with several A-list stars throughout the game’s run. Here are our picks for our favorite crossovers that have allowed players to take the form of their favorite celebs.

Marshmello

While it wasn’t the first collab that Fortnite has had with more mainstream pop culture figures, Marshmello was the first one to really tap into Generation Z. Epic Games teamed up with DJ Marshmello, releasing a skin of his on-stage persona’s likeness in the store for Season 7. Naturally, the skin also came with Marshmello’s music that allowed players to dance along with the beats.

John Wick

While older people on the internet love to hate on Fortnite, one thing that every generation on the internet can agree on is a love for Keanu Reeves. In 2019, Reeves became part of the Fortnite universe when his movie character John Wick became a playable character in the game. Many people flocked to the store to play as the lethal hitman, taking on the challenges that unlocked some of his accessories in the process.

Travis Scott

Chapter 2 of Fortnite marked a big change for the game, including a massive concert event for players to join online. The first concert was put on by rapper Travis Scott, who also became a playable character in the game. The 2020 concert took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with 45 million players in attendance. “Just being able to get some of my ideas off in a game, and for people to play at the crib (has been amazing),” Scott said.

Marvel

Marvel is one of the biggest franchises in entertainment today thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which kicked off with 2008’s “Iron Man”. After three seasons with no collaborations, Fortnite teamed up with Marvel to create the game’s first-ever collab. The Infinity Gauntlet with Thanos made its way to the map, allowing players to take the form of the Mad Titan when finding the gauntlet. Marvel has continued to work with Fortnite ever since, with some of the playable characters including Deadpool, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and many more.

LeBron James

Upon the release of the second “Space Jam” film, Warner Bros collaborated with Fortnite to get NBA icon and “Space Jam: Legacy” star LeBron James into the game. James could be played in his signature streetwear or his Tune Squad uniform. While his pickaxe didn’t make much sense as a lion, it was an overall cool look with LeBron having his unique on-court celebration as an emote.

Mr. Beast

Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson is one of the biggest names on the internet thanks to his viral YouTube videos that are typically centered around philanthropy. If you haven’t seen one of his videos or heard his name, there’s a good chance that you’ve been living under a rock. In 2022, MrBeast collaborated with Fortnite to give away a $1 million prize while also giving certain players a unique umbrella while his likeness became a playable character in the game. 

Ariana Grande

You might not take Ariana Grande as a big Fortnite player, but that didn’t stop Epic Games from collaborating with the superstar singer for season seven of chapter two. In fact, Grande was in the process of kicking off her massive Rift Tour, and it all started with an in-game show on Fortnite. “Working with Epic and the Fortnite team to bring my music to life inside the game has been so fun and such an honor,” Grande said.

John Cena

World Wrestling Entertainment seems like a perfect candidate to collaborate with Fortnite thanks to all the unique characters in the sport and the opportunity for wackiness. However, it took until the third season of chapter three that there was a WWE-Fornite collaboration. Naturally, the first wrestler to enter the Fortnite universe was John Cena, who went on to say that he was looking for more ways to be involved with the game.

NFL

Sports leagues have wanted to become part of Fortnite since the game became popular in the mainstream. The NFL was one of the first to collaborate, releasing exclusive cosmetic items. Finally, in season three, one of the best players in the league became playable as gamers could use Kansas City Cheifs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in between his Super Bowl wins.

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Kari Lake

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Kari Lake has become one of the most controversial and polarizing politicians in the United States, with many people outside of Arizona not knowing much about her besides her far-right campaign on Twitter and election fraud allegations. Here are five things that you might not have known about Lake, who ran for Arizona Governor in 2022 but lost to Katie Hobbs.

She Has Flipped Political Sides

Prior to 2006, Kari Lake had been a registered member of the Republican Party. However, she switched to becoming an independent in 2006 and then became a Democrat following Barack Obama winning the Iowa caucus. After four years as a Democrat, Lake flipped once again, returning to the Republican Party. Lake blamed the wars in the middle east for leaving the Republican Party, saying that she returned because of the likes of Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan.

Lake has never really gone in-depth as to what prompted her specifically to leave the party in 2012 other than that she was “disappointed” in Obama. Regarding her interest in politics, though, Lake has said that “The status quo isn’t working,” and that “I’m focused on delivering the transformative leadership we need to tackle those challenges head-on.”

She Has Also Flipped Religions

One of the biggest reasons why people have been critical of Kari Lake and saying that her political career has simply been a “stunt for attention” is because of her religious history, as well. Those who were close to lake prior to her run for the governor spot have said that Lake was a hardcore Democrat while also being a Buddhist.

Stephanie Angelo, a fellow news anchor in Arizona, was friends with Lake throughout much of their careers. “Her saying that abortion should be illegal – absolutely not,” she said. “The Kari I knew would never have said that, and she wouldn’t have believed it either.” Angelo went on to say that Lake was a practicing Buddhist who disliked guns, but Lake said she converted to Evangelism when Trump was running for President.

She Had No Political Experience

Heading into the 2022 Gubernatorial election in Arizona, many began looking up Kari Lake’s political experience only to find out that she didn’t have any. Lake had exclusively been a member of the media, starting her career in her home state of Iowa. Lake then moved to Illinois as a weathercaster before heading to Arizona, then New York, and once again to Arizona, but this time returning as an anchor.

Lake was immediately suspected of simply wanting to advance her career, especially when she started to go against the grain on a wide range of topics to warrant attention. This included Lake being heard on a microphone promoting her social media pages. Lake worked with KSAZ almost all the way up until her gubernatorial campaign. At the time, all of her experience had been in broadcast journalism.

She Once Opposed a Teacher Strike

From February 2018 to June 2019, teachers around the United States went on strike in hopes of receiving higher salaries and more benefits while increasing the budget for public schools. Arizona was one of the states that saw the biggest strikes, with teachers state-wide hoping to have their demands met. 20,000 teachers in Arizona went on strike for a week, leading to a 20 percent salary increase over three years and an immediate nine percent increase.

One of the biggest opponents of the #RedForEd movement was Kari Lake. Lake said that it was nothing more than “a big push to legalize pot and make it more savory by tossing teachers a bone with a substantial raise.” Lake went on to delete that Tweet and apologized on air, saying that “I’m concerned that some are trying to use the teachers’ fight for higher pay to move forward with their own separate agendas.”

She Wants to be Vice President

While Lake might not be a big fit for the Presidential spot in the United States, she’s certainly interested in being the Vice President of the United States. Lake has tied herself to Donald Trump vehemently, with many saying that it’s in hopes of getting the VP spot if Trump were to become President again.

“I really believe his policies are the ones that can help save this country, truly,” Lake said. “And so I’m going to do whatever I can. If he wants me to help him in any way, shape, or form, I will do that. I will campaign for him. I’ll do whatever I need to.” She added that she’s not actively running for VP, but would accept.

5 Surprising Celebrities Who Might Literally Be Geniuses

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Acting isn’t a profession that comes with a lot of necessary educational experience. As long as you can act in front of a camera and have the charisma that audiences want to see, then you can land an acting job. However, there have been plenty of instances in which actors were overqualified for their on-screen gigs, earning several degrees off the set and exuding an IQ well above the average. Here are five celebrities who you might be surprised to find out actually have genius-level IQs.

Rowan Atkinson

When we think of Rowan Atkinson, the first thing that most of us think about is his Mr. Bean character. The character is almost entirely silent, so most people outside of the United Kingdom have never had the chance to even hear Atkinson talk (unless they’ve seen films including “Johnny English”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral” or “Keeping Mum”).

Atkinson is incredibly well-spoken and highly educated, though. Atkinson was a top student during primary school and was accepted into Newcastle University’s electrical engineering program. He continued his education at Oxford before getting more invested into comedy and acting. Part of being Mr. Bean came from his real-life experience as an engineering student. “He was just the person I naturally became when I was denied words to express myself,” he said.

Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren is the ultimate imposing figure in an action movie who doesn’t speak very much. However, when Lundgren does speak, he often has something incredibly smart to say. The Swedish actor has starred in films such as “Rocky IV”, “Masters of the Universe”, and “The Expendables” all while continuing his education.

With an estimated IQ of 160, Lundgren has attended some of the most prestigious universities in the world. At the beginning of his career, Lundgren earned his degree in chemical engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He then went on to earn his master’s in the same field from the University of Sydney, moving to Boston afterward thanks to a full scholarship to MIT. 

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver has been a massive star since the late 1970s when she played the lead role in the film “Alien”, launching an entire franchise in the process. Weaver also went on to star in blockbuster films including “Ghostbusters”, “Avatar”, and many more. Weaver has been nominated for multiple Oscars while also winning a Grammy Award in her illustrious career.

Weaver is one of the many actors who you would expect to have a degree in theater or acting, and she got hers in the form of a master’s from the prestigious Yale University. However, that’s not the only degree that Weaver holds. Weaver was originally a student at Stanford University and focused on English, avoiding the “stuffy” theater department. She received her bachelor’s in English and transferred to Yale thereafter.

James Franco

James Franco has been a versatile actor throughout much of his career, with a large focus on comedy. Franco got his start on the television series “Freaks and Geeks”, parlaying that into a film career that includes roles in the “Spider-Man” trilogy, “Pineapple Express” and “The Disaster Artist” among others.

Franco comes from a family that had found success in the academic world. His mother wrote children’s books while his father ran his own business. Franco studied hard and, though he ran into some legal problems that teens often do, he had a focus on wanting to be a marine zoologist. After beginning his education at UCLA, Franco attended Columbia where he obtained a master’s degree. He earned another master’s at New York University and then Warren Wilson College before getting his Ph.D. in English at Yale.

Dexter Holland

When you hear the name Dexter Holland, you might wonder who that is. If we simply said “the lead singer of The Offspring,” you’d know right away. The Offspring enjoyed a bulk of its success throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to hits like “Pretty Fly For a White Guy”, “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, and “Come Out and Play”. Holland has been the lead singer throughout the group’s history, all while balancing an academic career.

Holland attended the University of Southern California, first earning his bachelor’s degree in biology. He then went on to obtain his master’s degree in molecular biology while adding a Ph.D. to his resume in 2017. He was even able to put his Ph.D. on hold for a while to get back into music, returning to academia to create a doctoral thesis to earn his degree.