Katy Perry left and returned to Earth. Coachella served more branded activations than actual music. OpenAI revealed that having manners costs millions. And Crumbl? They dropped the most culturally aligned collab of the year, featuring cookies, not clout-chasing.

Meanwhile, in a quieter but far more consequential move, new China Tariffs dropped, sending shockwaves through global supply chains and forcing brands to rethink production, pricing, and messaging in real time.

Let’s break down what actually mattered, what brands should steal, and what they should never, ever attempt again.

Now? It’s a cultural battleground. Brands either connect or completely disappear. This year, most chose the latter. Big-budget bashes. Overflowing guest lists. Forgettable moments.

But the brands that won? They played a smaller, smarter game.

Poppi: One creator. One house. One vibe.
Rhode: A tiny lip tint that showed up on every story like it RSVP’d to the whole festival.

They understood what so many still don’t: You don’t win by being everywhere. You win by being unforgettable somewhere.

The Golden Rules for Brand Activations in 2025:

👏 Connection > Cost
👏 Impact > Influence
👏 (Ever-) Presence ≠ Performance

While most brands are still scrambling to crack culture, Crumbl quietly did it – and with a cookie in hand, no less. 

No massive launch. No over-edited content. No explanations needed. Just a perfectly timed, low-fi rollout that felt more like a cultural moment than a marketing stunt.

Yes, Crumbl partnered with the Kardashians.

But it wasn’t their celebrity status alone that made the collab worth talking about.

Yes, the AI-generated action figure trend is still going strong. But most brands are treating it like a gimmick. As for the ones that get it? They’re turning it into narrative gold.

If you want to avoid falling into the first camp, don’t just drop a “CEO Barbie” and move on. Use it to introduce key faces in your team, and build out their stories.

Make it a series. Give your avatar a nemesis. Use it to reflect your brand’s values. Better yet, turn it into a moment of audience co-creation. Ask followers to create their own avatars featuring your product. 

Make it personal. Make it playful. Make it make sense.

Done well, it’s not just content. 

It’s culture, meets brand connection.

While the internet was busy decoding Coachella outfits, the U.S. rolled out new tariffs on Chinese goods, and it got big brands that rely on Chinese manufacturing sweating.

Prices are going up. Production is shifting (hello, Vietnam and Mexico). Consumers are asking questions… or going directly to the source. 

Chinese suppliers on TikTok just started exposing who they manufacture for, and yes, they’re naming names. Factory workers, supply chain managers, and B2B vendors. All of them.

From luxury skincare to fast fashion, transparency for brands in every category has quickly become involuntary.  

But this time, it’s not just a cost issue – it’s become a content issue.

Consumers don’t necessarily hate that your product is made in China.
👉 They hate finding out from a viral TikTok.

A word to the wise, if you haven’t already been caught out? Get ahead of it.

Own your sourcing story. Share your values. Be the first one to say it, because if you don’t, someone else will (with 2 million views and a petty voiceover).

You’re recycling, ditching plastic straws, and... still saying “please” to ChatGPT?

Turns out every polite phrase we type burns compute power, and OpenAI is footing the multimillion-dollar bill. Yes, your manners are expensive.

Still, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, says it’s all worth it. Why? Because the more natural, regular, and human-like our interactions, the better AI can learn to assist and understand context (empathy, even). 

And when AI feels human, people treat it better, and get better results. (Or so they say?!)

🥱 TLDR? Politeness might cost the planet... but it might also save our relationship with tech. With every courtesy comes sacrifice, but the long-term benefits of meaningful interaction could be worth it (by the time we really need it too!).

You can go viral with a cookie or crash with a festival activation.
You can trend with a figurine or tank with a sourcing scandal.

But here’s the truth:
Attention ≠ longevity. Virality isn’t the point. Belonging is.

So the real question isn’t: “What’s your next piece of content?”

Rather, it’s: What are you building that people actually want to belong to?

❓Would your brand dare to leave its category to make a cultural statement?
❓ Would you spend millions just to stay polite at the cost of the planet?
❓ Would you trade mass reach for resonance?

I’d love to hear where you land. Just hit reply.

. . .

McKenzie Collins