#Monkmode and Borg-thusiasts
Discover more from After School by Casey Lewis
#Monkmode and Borg-thusiasts
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School ✨weekend edition✨. Think of the daily letter as the CliffsNotes; this is the extended version for paid subscribers.
Greetings from Key West and apologies for my absence on Thursday — I’ve been sick all week (while on vacation 🥲) but am finally on the mend now. As a thank you for understanding, this weekend's edition will be going out to all subscribers.
Tomorrow, as you surely know, is Super Bowl 57 (Go Chiefs!). At least 110 million viewers are expected to watch the game this year, and advertisers spent up to a record-breaking $7 million for 30-second spots to vie for those eyes.
It’s always fascinating to me how brands choose to incorporate youth culture (or not) into their gameday commercials. Gen Z watches fewer live sports than previous generations — 33% of U.S. Gen Zers say they don't watch sports at all — but they do tune in for the Super Bowl. In 2022, 75% of adults aged 18-34 said they planned to watch it. And with Rihanna headlining halftime this year, you can bet that even more will be in front of the TV screen. Or a device. Or a projector. Or however young people watch live events in 2023.
Today, I’m digging into some of this year’s more youth-centric Super Bowl campaigns, as well as:
Kissing Hoodies
#MonkMode
Mewing
Magnesium
B.O.R.G.
Girlfailure
Resenteeism
Bubble Headbands
Pickleball Dresses
Skim’s Valentine’s Day Launch
Sol De Janeiro’s Pop-Up Strategy
And so much more. Like, almost 3,000 words more. So let’s jump in.
THIS WEEK IN BRANDS: SUPER BOWL SPECIAL
Probably the Super Bowl campaign I’m most excited to see is e.l.f. Cosmetics’ spot. The Gen Z-beloved beauty brand tapped White Lotus creator Mike White for its first-ever commercial that’ll star his White Lotus leading lady Jennifer Coolidge. Though beauty brands don’t often advertise during the Super Bowl — at least not at the same rate as beer, processed foods, and cars; you know, man stuff! — women make up around 47% of the Super Bowl audience.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserCoolidge is obviously not Gen Z, but she is very much someone who has massive cross-generational appeal. Gen Z probably knows her for her work on White Lotus, but they definitely know her for Legally Blonde. (Millennial men, on the other hand, exclusively know her for her role in American Pie.)
The spot will focus on the range’s Power Grip Primer, a mega-viral beauty product used in demonstrations across TikTok, which is currently the best-selling face primer in the U.S.
From one classic film to another: Cash-back platform Rakuten cast Clueless’s Cher Horowitz — I mean, actress Alicia Silverstone — in its campaign called “Not-So Clueless,” which the brand first teased out in a sneak peek that aired during the Grammys. Cher’s nemesis Amber, played by Elisa Donovan, also reprises her role. (Stacey Dash was presumably unavailable, or something.)
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserThe cash-back space is pretty crowded, but Rakuten is among the most well-funded of ‘em which means they can splash out on Super Bowl ads featuring iconic characters, a strategy that, when done right, pays off.
Designer Christian Siriano, who makes a brief cameo, recreated Cher’s signature plaid ensemble for the commercial. He also designed three looks inspired by the film for his fall collection presentation during New York Fashion Week.
Elsewhere in cross-generational campaigns: Frito-Lay tapped Gen Z fave Jack Harlow, Elton John, and, most importantly to me, Missy Elliott for a 60-second spot to hype up Doritos Sweet & Tangy BBQ flavor. The ad’s storyline revolves around triangles — that’s Doritos’ thing, I guess — though it’s a little too convoluted for a minute-long ad, imo. Still, good casting!
The commercial also features a dance from Angelita Yadao-Payad, the #DoritosTriangleTryout TikTok challenge winner (that hashtag, fwiw, has earned more than 13 billion views).
Doritos is also doing a metaverse launch tied to this Super Bowl spot; I suspect web3 tie-ins will be inescapable this year, unless brands are still feeling skittish following last year’s crypto craze, which obviously did not go the way they thought it would go.
Logan Paul and KSI have allegedly produced a Super Bowl commercial for their mega-popular energy drink Prime. According to AdAge, “Details on the spot are sketchy, but it appears to be a regional buy that would cost a good deal less to air than the $7-million-for-30-seconds going rate for a national spot — while still giving the brand Super Bowl bragging rights (which seems to be the entire point).”
In a move to boost brand awareness among Gen Z, State Farm is skipping out on the traditional 30-second Super Bowl spot and instead launching a TikTok-led strategy. The brand is working with Khaby Lame, the most famous person on TikTok, alongside brand mascot Jake from State Farm on the #StateFarmStadium Challenge. The initial video, posted 5 days ago, has been viewed on TikTok more than 200 million times.
The game will by played at State Farm Stadium, so the brand — with the help of Lame and Jake — to challenge consumers to guess how many times the stadium will be name-dropped for the chance to star in a video with Lame.
Notably, TikTok is offering ad credit incentives between 3 to 5% for advertisers shelling out between $50,000 and $300,000 in its push to become the official second screen of the Super Bowl.
Another activation happening outside of the broadcast is the NFL and Intuit’s virtual world launching inside Roblox where players can experience what it’s like to be an NFL team owner. The activation will also feature an “official Super Bowl concert” by Saweetie that will re-air every hour until game day. Warner describes its metaverse hotspot as “a first-of-its-kind music-themed social roleplay experience on Roblox,” and to commemorate the occasion, a collection of digital items will be sold on the Roblox marketplace.
There’s nothing particularly youthful about this ad, but the utter dad-ness of it all stands out: Skechers, which has recently ousted Allbirds as the go-to for boomers in Silicon Valley, tapped Snoop Dogg to promote the brand’s hands-free slip-in sneakers. Nuthin but “G” thangs, indeed. Howie Long, Tony Romo, and Martha Stewart also make appearances.
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AND A FEW NON-SUPER BOWL BRAND HIGHLIGHTS…
Klarna partnered with Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media on a global advertising campaign starring the hotel heiress and social influencer. Creative draws on Y2K fashion trends and shows Hilton responding to the fintech marketer’s payment and shopping services with “That’s Smooth,” a…rather reaching riff on her “That’s Hot” catchphrase.
In the new ads, which debut later this month, Hilton reacts to surrealistic happenings with the tagline “That’s Smooth,” which is — according to the trades — “meant to communicate that even the well-seasoned shopper is impressed by the company’s offerings.”
One spot, “Stretch your Payments,” depicts the socialite buying ice cream in a very 2000s tracksuit. A dachshund passing by on the sidewalk magically elongates, with Hilton expressing disbelief and then clocking that the dog’s tag reads, “Stretch your payments with Klarna.”
Gen Z creator (and existing Klarna ambassador) Bretman Rock will appear with Hilton in the campaign.
Skim’s Valentine’s Day roll-out has really been something to behold. Not only did they cast the White Lotus scammer besties to star in the campaign, but they’re also opening a limited-time pop-up at Westfield Century City shopping center in Los Angeles. Inside a compact stand-alone cube with rounded edges designed by Willo Perron in partnership with his studio Perron-Roettinger (i.e. a highly ‘grammable location), customers will be able to shop a handful of Valentine’s Day-inspired collections, including 15 styles currently sold out on skims.com, and snack on Kardashian’s favorite beignet treats from Beignet Box, served in branded pink Skims packaging.
To promote the launch of the Bum Bum Body Firmeza Oil, Sol de Janeiro — one of Gen Z’s favorite beauty brands — is unveiling pop-ups in New York and Los Angeles. On TikTok, #soldejaneiro has more than 290 million views and despite launching at the very end of 2022, #firmezaoil already has nearly 2 million views. I imagine both pop-ups will bring in big crowds.
Tapestry, the New York-based parent company of Coach and Kate Spade, exceeded Wall Street expectations by setting their sights on younger consumers. In the second quarter, the company acquired nearly 2.6 million new customers in North America, nearly half of whom were Gen Z and millennials. A few interesting insights here:
Core leather goods continue to fuel [Coach’s] growth, led by the Willow, Tabby, and Rogue handbag franchises. Shoulder bags, along with micro and mini handbags, including the studio baguette and mini Tabby, “resonated with Gen Z consumers” in the period.
Todd Kahn, president and CEO of Coach, pointed to a mini bag just big enough to hold a phone that sells for $199, more than a traditional tote that is six times the size and retails for $150. The popularity of this item proves customers are buying not because the product is being discounted, but because the “product and brand story resonate with them.”
Coach’s new global ambassador Lil Nas X, who signed on last September, also helped “cut through with consumers,” Crevoiserat said. The campaign video in which he is featured has been viewed 350 million times.
To hype its redesign, Three Wishes — the healthy breakfast cereal that’s not Magic Spoon — partnered with TikTok viral surgeons (“like Richard Brown, whose account @therealtiktokdoc is approaching 8 million followers”) on organic “facelift” content featuring the brand’s packaging redesign. The founder apparently convinced these creators to do this content for free, which, if true, is fascinating and impressive.
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THIS WEEK IN TRENDS
Norma Kamali’s pickleball dress may very well be 2023’s answer to OV’s exercise dress, an item of clothing that absolutely defined the summer of 2020.
By last year, Ms. Kamali had heard enough pleas for pickleball dresses that she decided to name a piece she had already designed for her spring 2023 collection the “Pickleball Dress.” The “super mini” dress, as she described it, is a skintight sleeveless style with a built-in bodysuit and a hemline just long enough to cover a bum. Available in black and neon green, it costs $145 and is sold at Net-a-Porter, Shopbop and Neiman Marcus, among other stores. The day Ms. Kamali released the piece on her website, she said, 25 dresses in black were sold.
The mini skirt moment is definitely not over, but big ol’ voluminous skirts — spotted at Prada, Bottega Veneta, Christopher Kane, Brandon Maxwell, and more shows during the fall/winter 2022 season — have become one of 2023's most dominant trends.
The latest core to know is forestcore. The trend, which has amassed more than 170 million views, is about bringing the great outdoors into the comfort of their own home with nature-inspired furnishings, color schemes, and a lot of greenery.
A sign that the fashion girlies may be moving on from Hokas: Hailey Bieber was spotted in Salomon Trail Shoes. How very forestcore of her.
MSCHF’s ridiculous $350 "Big Red Boot" does not go on sale until February 16, but prices on StockX are already well over $1,000, though asking prices should come down after release.
A $15 bubble headband by Versed is suddenly showing up in every single viral GRRM video (and is now entirely sold out). I watched this video of a girl mercilessly making fun of the ubiquitous trend at least 5x.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserAnd in trends that aren’t really trends: Journalist Stephanie McNeal, who covers digital culture for Buzzfeed and has a great Substack, put into words how I’ve been feeling about the so-called “de-influencing” trend:
To me, this seems like just a fancy new name for something a lot of influencers have done before. While some influencers will definitely hawk anything for any brand that writes them a check, there are a lot of them who have shared what big social media products they didn’t like, or given “honest reviews” before.
Hush trips are, Fortune writes, the “next big trend your worker won’t tell you about.” (They are exactly what they sound like — “working remotely somewhere else for a couple weeks without letting your boss.”)
And resenteeism — “the act of staying in an unsatisfying job due to a perceived lack of better options or fear of job insecurity” — is the latest trend plaguing workers.
All hail the girlfailure: The girlboss ancestor is here “and she's a massive loser.”
THIS WEEK IN DIGITAL CULTURE
TikTok says it has devised a plan that would allow U.S. officials to check whether its proprietary algorithm, “the secret sauce of computer code that recommends videos to users,” was being influenced by Beijing. The phrase “devised a plan” does not exactly inspire optimism here.
The creator of the viral Pedro Pascal fancam explains why the actor is TikTok’s favorite daddy.
Videos of college students sipping from plastic gallon containers filled with colorful liquid have been going viral — one of which garnered over 7 million views on the app. It describes the B.O.R.G.— the acronym for “Black Out Rage Gallon” — as a common tailgating beverage of choice. “Gen Z is bringing gallon jugs to tailgates and calling them borgs,” the video’s text reads.
You need just three ingredients to make a Borg: water, booze, and liquid water flavoring. Vinepair explains,” Starting with a full gallon-sized plastic container of water, the thirsty Borg-thusiast pours out half the water, replacing it with a discretionary amount of vodka, flavored or otherwise. They then add liquid MiO or similar water flavoring to taste. Some also add hydration-boosting ingredients, such as Pedialyte or Liquid IV.” You know, for health.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser“But Gen Z doesn’t drink.”
People are so outraged over the price of eggs that an unfounded conspiracy theory about bad chicken feed is going viral.
Magnesium — an essential dietary mineral that’s been around since…literally forever — is going viral, with “people on social media have been reporting on how taking magnesium has drastically but positively affected their sleep as well as their productivity levels.” #Magnesium currently has more than 400 million views. Deserved, imo — magnesium hits!
TikTok is obsessed with self-improvement and plastic surgery and cosmetic perfection, so it tracks that "mewing" — a trend where people essentially do tongue exercises in order to get a snatched jawline — is all over the platform.
People are using a “Tom and Jerry” clip to show off their glow-ups from high school.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser#Monkmode, which has more than 24 million views on TikTok, is a productivity hack popular among entrepreneurs and CEOs that's gone viral on TikTok. (Are we ready to have a conversation about how it’s OK for guys to be productivity-obsessed growth hack-y entrepreneurs yet “girlboss” is a derogatory term for women?)
The “perc dance” — in which TikTokers lip sync to YN Jay’s song “Perc & Sex” and dance as if they are under the influence of Percocet — is going viral on the platform, with young children and pets participating in the trend. The track came out last September, but it’s currently sitting at #13 on Spotify’s Viral USA chart.
Girls are making kissing hoodies for their boyfriends ahead of Valentine’s Day (or should I say Valentine’s Diy…)
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EVERYTHING I’M READING, BUYING, ETC.
Reading: I had big plans to read a bunch of books on this trip, but then I got sick and my brain was too foggy to read tweets, much less novels. That said, I did enjoy “Why Is the New Prep Aesthetic So Sexy?,” Harper’s Bazaar; “Secrets of the Low-Key Rich Bitch Wardrobe,” Town & Country; “The Girl Internet and the Boy Internet,” Beccacore; and “How Florida Beat New York,” The Atlantic
Buying: A house in Key West??? Just kidding — my dog absolutely does not know what to make of the roosters roaming the streets — but man, is it nice here!
Listening:
#Monkmode and Borg-thusiasts
wake up babe new after school
Here for "Hush" trips.