Social Media Buzz: Zappos’ Tony Hsieh Dies, Hulu, McKinsey

(Bloomberg) -- What’s buzzing on social media this morning:

Tony Hsieh, the retired CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos.com, has died at age 46. His lawyer said he was injured in a house fire while visiting Connecticut. Twitter users paid tribute to the Harvard graduate, who spent years working to revitalize Las Vegas’ downtown area.

Zappos was sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009.

Stay-at-home shoppers drove U.S. Black Friday online sales to a record high. The most mentioned products on social media include Hulu’s subscription offer, the Apple iPhone 12, and Sony’s PlayStation 5.

“Shop Small Saturday” is also trending. Smaller retailers saw early success with sales 545% higher on Black Friday, compared to an average day last month, according to Adobe.

A New York Times investigation found that McKinsey advised Purdue Pharma to pay distributors a rebate for every OxyContin overdose, in an effort to shore up sales.

A spokesperson for McKinsey told the newspaper that the firm had been “cooperating fully with the opioid-related investigations” and had announced in 2019 it would not advise any clients on opioid-specific business.

Protesters in major cities across France hit the street to rally against a new security law that would ban the publication of images of police officers with intent to cause them harm.

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