The band is back together!

After a summer of internships and study abroad, the full team is back for the first episode of the new school year. And the Marketing world did not disappoint, with a plethora of announcements.

• Cracker Barrel and American Eagle get free PR
• Lego sees record sales - pre-tariff bump, great marketing and adulting
• Meanwhile...25,000 show up for the Pokemon World Championships
• Kraft Heinz splits into two companies - one looking for growth, one managing declines
• eBay is 30?!
• Pickles are a craze in 2025
• AI fallout - the return of the in-person job interview ... and blue books?
• The Tush-Push has an official sponsor!
• ... and more!

Enjoy!

A summer cornucopia of topics.

Mahjong - fountain of youth?

Retail experiences - Ulta, Printemps

Gap resurgence

Gen Z co-buying homes

Converse "Chuck Taylors"

2026 Super Bowl ads - $8million for 30 seconds

Live Music Concerts

Waymo coming to Philly

Thank you to brand marketers for providing us with so many interesting topics for the podcast.

Mattel - adult clubs and family theme parks

HBO - admits they were wrong (and YDW was right!)

Mattress national holiday

More experiential marketing - Comcast

AI ads, hallucinations and desire to be an influencer

Nike slinks back into Amazon

McDonald's pursues the late night consumer

Movies - MI7 and wait for it... the Whac-a-mole movie