The Summer Brands Turned Thirsty

It’s full of pastel-drenched heartbreak and perfectly timed Taylor Swift songs, but the only question that matters: are you Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah?

ICYMI, the finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty aired recently on Amazon Prime, and beyond a fictional crush, it’s become a full-blown cultural divide.

Brands in the US got involved in a big way. Two big candy brands — Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids — ended up in the actual show, with each brother (Conrad and Jeremiah are brothers) linked to a snack. When Season 3 dropped, those brands released limited-edition packs so fans could eat their allegiance.

The New York Liberty basketball team hosted the cast courtside. Even sparkling water brands and laxative companies got involved, creating reaction content that felt more like a fan edit than an ad.

(If you’re wondering, Alex our Studio Manager is #TeamConrad)

Welcome to the era of tribal marketing.

People don’t just watch shows anymore — they inhabit them.

They build worlds inside comment threads, pick sides, make memes, script alternate endings, buy the merch, and drag brands into the group chat.

Seth Godin talked about this back in 2009. In his TED Talk, The Tribes We Lead, he said marketing wasn’t about mass appeal anymore. It was about finding a tribe, serving them well, and leading them toward meaningful change.

That’s how movements start and loyalty spreads.

Fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty aren’t just watching. They’re emotionally invested, and fiercely aligned. So when brands show up inside that space as one of them (not to hijack attention, but to belong), it works.

Humans are tribal by nature. We seek out groups that help us make sense of the world; that validate our taste, reflect our values, and give us something to believe in.

The smartest brands right now aren’t trying to interrupt the scroll with clever ads.

They’re using story, tone, and emotional resonance to create micro-movements inside existing fandoms and direct them towards something meaningful (starting with a t-shirt with #TeamConrad on it).

Make TikTok Great Again

TikTok’s US survival arc is sounding more like a binge-worthy Netflix drama every day. A new deal is apparently on the table.

Here’s the gist of it:

• Six of seven board seats will be American.
• ByteDance will retain less than 20% of the app.
• All US data will be stored on US soil.

So yes, the app may be staying — but not without a massive multibillion-dollar “fee” paid to the US government by TikTok’s American investors (Oracle, Silver Lake, etc). Trump’s calling it “a tremendous deal.” Critics are calling it a pay-to-play survival fee.

Is this really about safeguarding data? Or is it about who gets to control the algorithm shaping the world’s attention span?

Either way, it’s a good reminder when it comes to social media marketing strategies, not to put all your eggs in one basket.

Algorithms shift. Platforms evolve. And sometimes, governments intervene. Sad!

Reddit Rules

We touched on our last episode of The Brief: everyone keeps saying Reddit is the next big growth channel. So, the Head of Growth at Lemlist, Erwan Gauthier, decided to test it.

He and his team posted across a bunch of subreddits, jumped into 28 discussions, replied to 13 brand mentions… and saw a 22% traffic boost, which sounds pretty good. Right?

Well… kind of.

Four of their posts got deleted, and their account got flagged after 13 replies, because their posts “felt too much like marketing.”

Their workflow using GPT to draft replies got shut down fast. Anything too polished got removed. You can’t scale it. You can’t script it. You definitely can’t schedule it in Hootsuite.

As most users of the platform could probably attest to, Reddit isn’t a channel you “crack.” It’s a place you earn your way into. Every subreddit is its own micro-market with its own rules, tone, and tolerance for brand involvement.

Reddit doesn’t want your brand voice. It wants your actual voice.

But if you can survive the downvotes and learn the language, the upside’s bigger than it looks.

As this insightful article points out, according to Semrush, it’s one of the top domains Google pulls from for AI-generated summaries — right behind Quora. That means your most helpful Reddit comment could show up in Google’s AI answers, Perplexity results, or even ChatGPT responses.

That one great comment you leave today could outrank your blog post tomorrow, and for months to come. Especially if you’re answering high-intent questions, engaging in niche communities, or contributing to threads that already rank.

So is Reddit the next growth channel?

Yes. But only if you respect the rules of the game, which are: playing long, staying human, and posting like you actually belong there.

Brain, Outsourced

OpenAI dropped a new report digging through 1.5 million conversations in ChatGPT, so basically three years of the world’s collective brain dumps. The topline is that since it launched in November 2022, it’s grown to 700 million weekly users (as of July 2025), sending 18 billion messages a week . AI is no longer just mainstream. It is the MAIN stream.

But what we thought was most interesting is that 70 percent of chats aren’t about work. People aren’t just automating emails or spitting out code; they’re asking for guidance, explanations, even reflection in their day-to-day lives. Writing requests have dipped (36% → 24%), while “seeking information” has doubled. This means that people are relying less on ChatGPT for completing tasks and using it as more of a thought partner.

Are we just outsourcing our admin… or are we outsourcing our actual thoughts now?

From “how do I word this email?” to “what do I even think about this?”—the bot’s not just helping us, it’s thinking for us.

Sonic vs Duo

Duo hit the gym. Now he’s beefed up and body-slamming Japan’s most beloved mascots in a sumo showdown nobody asked for. And yet, it makes perfect sense.

Pac-Man, and even Sonic the Hedgehog kitted up to take on Duo (Hello Kitty was safe, thank goodness). But none were expecting an owl with debt-collector energy, who seemed to have a sudden growth spurt both upwards and outwards.

This isn’t a new direction for Duolingo. It’s just the next logical step in their descent into delightful, deranged brand theatre. It’s unhinged, yes, but that’s very intentional.

Duolingo has perfected a very specific brand of chaotic virality — an ongoing campaign of unhinged notifications, death-by-Tesla lore, and now literal body-slams. This is the theatre of the absurd, and Duo’s the lead actor and the stunt double.

Suddenly, “Finish Your French” sounds less like a reminder and more like a Mortal Kombat move.

It’s clever because while it’s on-brand, it’s also hyperlocal.

Mascots in Japan aren’t just cute; they’re currency. They’re celebrities, public servants, and cultural icons. By setting Duo loose in a sumo ring against Japan’s most beloved characters, Duolingo isn’t just being weird for the internet; they’re hoping Duo will finally be given icon status.

And Duolingo proves (again) that the best brand awareness doesn’t come from telling people what you do, and consistency doesn’t have to mean boring — it can mean building a world so entertaining, they want to live in it.

Thumbnail: Copyright Amazon 2025

Duolingo: Sourced from Branding In Asia