With every Valentine’s Day, brands face the same question: do we default to red roses and predictable promotions, or do we use the moment to do something culturally relevant and commercially smart? The campaigns below stood out this year because they did more than decorate products in pink. They tapped into real behavior shifts, reframed
This week, brands flirted with secrecy, satire, and controversy. In each case, the real story wasn’t the campaign. It was the power dynamic underneath it. Ring discovered that “helpful AI” can quickly feel like surveillance. Austria Tourism asked visitors to sign an NDA. QuickBooks gave the Tooth Fairy an automation crisis. Meanwhile, brands are now
This week’s stories show brands navigating a shifting power dynamic. Meaning is no longer assigned by scale, spend, or spectacle, but by credibility, authorship, and emotional truth. From Airbnb turning “home” into competitive advantage for Olympians, to Dollar Shave Club choosing defiance over censorship, to legacy brands remixing culture with humor, family, and self-awareness, the
This week’s stories reveal a shared reality marketers can no longer avoid: trust has become a visible line item. AI makes content faster, cheaper, and more abundant, but it also introduces friction, skepticism, and new forms of brand risk. From uncanny AI video to staged paparazzi moments, from museum-worthy IKEA furniture to Wikipedia’s human proof-of-work,
This week’s issue examines how brands are responding to a shared tension: audiences are overwhelmed by volume, automation, and synthetic sameness, yet still deeply responsive to stories that feel intentional, human, and culturally fluent. Google turns AI adoption into nostalgic rivalry. Lego reframes AI fear through trust and education. Equinox rejects synthetic imagery by making