Aly's Wednesday Newsletter: Last night's This Is Us, new recipe alert, and lots of pending Father's Day gift guides!

You guys...

Last night's This Is Us was everything I had been hoping and praying for…

Every Tuesday night, I'm in a group text (actually, several group texts with different groups of friends) where we watch the show together and then DISCUSS during commercials.

As this is the final season, many of these group texts have been discussing (for months now)...who would ultimately be Kevin's end game. And, let me tell you, we were not always in agreement. But I always - from season 1 - wanted it to be Sophie. And, it was!

This Is Us @NBCThisisUs

And the crowd goes wild. 🎉 👏 #ThisIsUsFinalChapter

We still have a few weeks left, and there's a lot I still hope to see happen for the rest of the family -- but I'm really so happy about how Kevin's chapter ended. 

(And I say this as someone who has been really angry at Justin Hartley, based on being a big Chrishell fan, and hating how THAT situation went...so for me to be so invested in Kevin despite NOT liking Justin is absolutely a testament to the amazing writers!)

PS: How typical is it that at Kate's wedding, Kevin's love life is still the main story and she's the B story?!!

OK, so I guess we should talk about work things now?

What's cooking?

Last night I made Pad Thai using entirely leftovers! Check out my Instagram for the recipe now!

alywalansky

A post shared by alywalansky (@alywalansky)

Newly published/Freshly updated:

HerMoney: 12 Mother’s Day Gifts Under $100

Forbes: Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Luxury Kitchen Gifts

Forbes: Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Foodie Gifts For The Mom Who Loves To Travel

Food Network: Once Limited Edition, Flamin’ Hot Mountain Dew Returns Nationwide

Food Network: Stumped for Mother’s Day? Try a KFC Chicken and Rose ‘Buckquet’

SPY: The Best Self-Defense Keychains for Convenient, Portable Protection

As always, if you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social shares tagging @alywalansky.

Here's what I'm working on:

Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.

Clean Plates

For Clean Plates,  I'm working on two more of my favorite topics - Trader Joe's stories! They are:

• The Best Trader Joe's Breakfast Items According to Nutritionists

• Ways to Make Simple 15-Minute Dinners from Trader Joe's

The second one can be a mix of healthy recipes and products that go together in an easy way. For instance, the TJ’s cauliflower gnocchi + their seriously epic pesto = great base for a meal. (This one would be great with suggestions of adding, say, their organic green vegetable foursome and some of their frozen shrimp or chickpeas for protein). 

Would love RDs to comment for both!

HerMoney

I'm working on the following 3 stories for May for HerMoney:

•  Affordable Father's Day gifts...I'm looking to roundup 10 or so affordable (so under $100 or thereabouts)

• Travel expert tips on how to plan our summer vacay (on a budget) - like money-saving tips every step of the way, from getting to the airport to flights to hotel to saving money while we're on the trip. Would love travel experts and fellow travel writers to weigh in!

• Budget tips for how to plan a summer backyard cookout/happy hour/bbq on a budget (we get how exciting it is to finally be reunited with our friends, but how do we entertain without blowing a fortune? but STILL show people a good time? Would love experts in party planning/personal finance to weigh in.)

RetailMeNot

For RetailMeNot, I'm rounding up Father's Day gifts for every type of dad. 

I'm looking for great gifts that's affordable ("affordable" obviously varies by budget, but I'm trying to stay under $200 and have a wide range of prices) for a variety of categories. I'm hoping to include picks for the following categories:

• Foodie dad

• Techy dad

• The dad who has everything

• For the fashionable dad

• For the outdoorsy dad

• For the indoorsy dad

• For the bookworm dad

• For the handy dad

• The Dad who's trying to downsize and doesn't want clutter

• For the fitness-obsessed dad

For RetailMeNot, I'm also doing Memorial Day store hours for 2022. This is the Memorial Day version of the Easter store hours story I JUST did for them, so take a look at that one for format, but I'll have 3 sections - Stores Open on Memorial Day + Store Hours, Stores Closed on Memorial Day, Restaurants Open on Memorial Day + Hours. This Memorial Day story is an update of this piece from last year. So if you represent a store or restaurant in that story, it'd be so helpful if you can reach out with your Memorial Day info if you have it handy.

To pitch me for ANY of these stories, please email me at alywalansky@gmail.com (and start a new thread, please!).

Are you confused about affiliate marketing?

If you are having trouble learning how to navigate issues of affiliate marketing (trust me, we've all been there!), you may want to try out my friend Sarah Karger, a publicist, and former editor Dana Baardsen (and all-around fab girl!)'s Ultimate Masterclass and Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Publicists. It's a brilliant course and it'll answer all your questions (including some you didn't know you had!)

Virtual consulting sessions...

Over the last six months or so, I've popped into a fair amount of PR team meetings and made myself available to answer all sorts of questions about pitching, events, and trips from a media perspective.  If you are interested in setting anything up for your own team in the coming months, please email me and we'll get something on the books!

Download the Substack App!

Good news! This newsletter is now available via app. That means you can keep up with everything you are reading from your phone. Download the app for iPhone and iPad here. For Android users, sign up for the waiting list here.

<3

aly