Sonia sits down with Julie Fredrickson (managing partner at Chaotic Capital) to dissect the Advent calendar wars—and what Amazon's massive, perfectly-packaged K-beauty box says about the future of retail, beauty merchandising, and who's winning the tastemaker race.

We're talking about:

• Why Amazon shipped a $99 Advent calendar in custom foam inserts (and what that signals about their beauty ambitions)

• The end of de minimis tax and how it's reshaping K-beauty imports, counterfeits, and brand trust

• Sephora's loyalty program collapse: why 500-point rewards vanished and millennials are jumping ship

• Costco's rotating J-beauty drops, Trader Joe's SKU ruthlessness, and the rise of "box season"

• Amazon vs. Sephora vs. Saks Fifth Avenue: who's nailing the unboxing experience (and who's phoning it in)

• How Amazon's using logistics mastery to court American beauty brands—and whether they'll share customer data

• The millennial beauty gap: why there's no one merchandising to women in their 30s and 40s

• Gen Z's plastic surgery trend, buccal fat removal regrets, and whether "aggressively natural" is the next aesthetic shift

Plus: Why full-size beats samples, how TikTok unboxings are the new product review, and what gourmand fragrances have to do with Ozempic.

guest: Julie Fredrickson – Managing Partner at Chaotic Capital, retail expert, beauty substack writer (@almost_media on Twitter/X, nicepackaging.substack.com)

guest perspective: Julie brings deep retail and merchandising expertise—breaks down SKU strategy, 3PL logistics, counterfeit challenges, and why Amazon hiring Christine Beauchamp (former Ann Taylor) signals they're serious about taste. She's skeptical of Sephora's down-market shift and bullish on craft packaging as brand positioning.

marketing takeaways:

1. Packaging = brand promise (Amazon's custom inserts telegraphed \"we're luxury-ready\")

2. Curation beats assortment (12 full-size K-beauty products is better than 24 Sephora samples)

3. Loyalty programs die when you pull rewards from top spenders (Sephora's 500-point disaster)

4. Use operations as marketing (Amazon's 3PL pitch to beauty brands = trust signal)

5. Sampling tiers matter: trial vs mini vs full-size creates different conversion paths

6. TikTok unboxings are your real product reviews—design for that moment

7. Tastemaker positioning requires constant curation (Sephora lost it, Amazon's claiming it)

Sonia Baschez sits down with Hailey Allen (creative strategist at neuemotion) to dissect the marketing wins and fails making waves right now—from AI slop ruining brand perception to why companies are suddenly hiring "chief storytellers."

We're talking about:

• Why McDonald's pulled their AI ad in 24 hours (and why Disney chose the worst week to announce their OpenAI deal)

• "Slop" being named word of the year and what that says about 2025

• Substack launching sponsorships after years of being ad-free—is the dream over?

• Pinterest Predicts 2026 vs. Pantone's boring white color choice

• The viral WSJ article about chief storytellers and why AI can't replace human narrative

• A24's fake engagement announcement and Spielberg's cryptic Times Square billboard

• Kim Kardashian x Fortnite: actually genius or completely unhinged?

Plus: actionable takeaways for marketers trying to cut through the noise.

1. 00:40 – McDonald's AI Ad Disaster & Disney-OpenAI Partnership

2. 03:46 – 2025 Words of the Year (Slop, Rage Bait, Parasocial)

3. 05:12 – J.Crew Pop-Up & the Rise of Experiential Marketing

4. 07:38 – Substack Launches Ads: The End of Ad-Free Newsletters?

5. 19:22 – 2026 Trend Reports: Pinterest Predicts vs. Pantone's Flop

6. 24:30 – Chief Storytellers: Why Companies Are Hiring for "Vibes"

7. 36:30 – Movie Marketing Masterclass: A24's Fake Engagement & Spielberg's Mystery Billboard

8. 41:51 – Kim Kardashian x Fortnite: Genius or Chaos?

9. 49:55 – Marketing Takeaways Recap

This episode hits on five major marketing trends playing out rn. starts with F1's american takeover—Cadillac's super bowl livery reveal is perfectly timed with Apple's new broadcast deal to capture US audiences who've been waiting for a team that actually leans into being american. they also break down the wholesome carlos sainz unicorn helmet story that shows how user-generated content and ongoing storylines can build real fan engagement when you're not just extracting value from your audience.

The spotify wrapped vs granola crunched comparison is the meat of it—spotify's getting 500M shares but losing trust bc people think the data's cooked and taylor swift's juicing the numbers. granola launched a privacy-first year-end review that actually felt accurate and personal, proving that substance beats viral metrics for long-term brand equity. they tie this into nvidia hiring a merch director and palantir's cult following, arguing that founder personality + quality merch = walking billboards that signal community membership (the "if you know you know" factor).

Closes on rage bait marketing being a dead-end strategy despite easy engagement. paul graham called it scammer shit, and they show how companies like clueless and friend ai burned goodwill chasing attention instead of building product. the counterpoint: wholesome marketing, craft, and participatory events (percy jackson's fountain billboard, stripe's mini-city) are winning bc people are exhausted from doom scrolling. big thesis: attention economy thinking misses that not all attention is equal—optimize for trust and positive emotion, not just impressions.

• F1 Marketing Moves (00:01 - 09:14): Cadillac F1's Super Bowl livery reveal strategy, Apple TV's F1 deal, and Carlos Sainz's wholesome unicorn helmet story

• Spotify Wrapped vs Granola Crunch (14:04 - 26:37): Why Spotify's losing trust while Granola nails year-end reviews

• Merch as Marketing Strategy (29:24 - 43:00): Nvidia hiring a merch director, Palantir's cult following, and why founder personality matters

• Out of Home Evolution (44:16 - 52:30): Percy Jackson's fountain billboard and creating participatory marketing events

• The Rage Bait Problem (55:25 - 1:22:48): Paul Graham weighs in, why companies like Clueless are burning goodwill for engagement

episode description: sonia and kaleigh break down why traditional marketing is dying and what's replacing it. they cover timothée chalamet's $250 jacket sellout, apple tv's continued failure to market good shows, hulu's genius grocery store hack, lionsgate listening to fans for hunger games casting, shopify's president crowdsourcing black friday recs, and why a luxury brand just said "fuck ai" with their new website.

main thesis: communities beat celebrities, craft beats slop, and giving your audience a voice beats shouting at them with ads.

key topics:

• timothée's marty supreme marketing turning movie promo into cultural participation

• apple tv fumbling pluribus marketing despite vince gilligan attachment

• hulu's qr code apples for abbott elementary (physical media comeback)

• elle fanning hunger games casting as fan service done right

• shopify president's black friday thread strategy (crowdsourced recommendations)

• miu miu's handcrafted anti-ai website aesthetic

• lionsgate hiring tiktok creators for in-house fan cams

• the shift from brand awareness to community buy-in

• why netflix/hulu finally stopped dmca-ing fan content

• advent calendar quality wars (sephora losing, amazon winning with korean skincare)

guest: kaleigh moore - freelance seo/aeo content writer for saas companies, retail contributor at forbes (@kaleighf on twitter/x, kaleighmoore.com)

guest perspective: kaleigh brings software/saas marketing lens throughout—talks surprise-and-delight moments, secret handshake marketing, first-mover advantage, crowdsourcing content strategy. she's obsessed with pluribus, advocates hard for fandom-first approaches, and makes the case that production houses need to treat audiences like content partners not consumers.

marketing takeaways:

1. novel placement beats ad spend (apples in grocery stores beat billboards)

2. listen to your audience but don't let the loudest voices pivot your whole product

3. executives as community builders not just figureheads

4. unscalable = memorable when everything else looks like ai slop

5. fan involvement creates buy-in (casting, merchandise, experiences)

6. physical/tactile marketing cuts through digital fatigue

• timothée chalamet's marty supreme marketing (merch pop-up, $250 jackets) - 0:00-3:33

• apple tv's pluribus marketing struggles - 3:33-6:33

• hulu's abbott elementary apple sticker campaign - 7:16-15:44

• lionsgates's elle fanning hunger games casting (fan involvement) - 15:47-24:17

• shopify president's black friday thread strategy - 34:36-42:01

• miu miu's anti-ai website design - 43:12-53:05

• marketing takeaways roundup - 53:51-1:03:13

This episode covers five major marketing and media topics: ChatGPT's new group chat feature launching in Asian markets as a potential WhatsApp competitor; Timothée Chalamet's innovative meta-marketing campaign for A24's Marty Supreme that blurs satire and reality while creating memeable experiential moments; the breakdown of Steph Curry's 12-year Under Armour partnership and what it reveals about brands failing to read cultural shifts in athletic wear; Disney+'s controversial decision to allow AI-generated content using Disney IP and the brand safety concerns it raises; and YouTube's emergence as the premier platform for launching new media companies, with creators leaving legacy outlets for better monetization and distribution.

Key themes throughout: the shift from performance-based to culture-based marketing, the importance of experiential and memeable marketing for audience engagement, timing as brand positioning, and how video-first platforms (especially YouTube) are reshaping media consumption and creation.

• [00:02-05:49] ChatGPT's Group Chat Feature - Discussion of ChatGPT's new group chat feature launched in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan, allowing up to 20 users to chat together with AI assistance for planning trips, splitting checks, and keeping tabs on decisions.

• [08:01-23:35] Timothée Chalamet's Meta Marketing for Marty Supreme - Deep dive into Chalamet's 18-minute satirical Zoom call with A24's marketing team, the blurring of reality/satire, experiential marketing tactics (blimp, Wheaties box, Regal Cinemas event), and how he's creating memeable moments to build cultural relevance.

• [23:35-36:16] Steph Curry & Under Armour Split - Analysis of the 12-year partnership ending, Under Armour's failures in reading cultural shifts, product missteps, the CEO's Trump endorsement controversy, and what this means for athlete endorsement deals going forward.

• [36:16-47:51] Disney's AI-Generated Content Strategy - Discussion of Disney+ letting subscribers create AI content using Disney IP, concerns about brand safety for parents, comparisons to other brands' AI strategies (Coca-Cola vs. Barbour), and whether this aligns with Disney's legacy brand identity.

• [48:01-1:05:50] YouTube as the Next Media Incubator - Mark's reporting on YouTube becoming the premier platform for new media companies, creators leaving legacy outlets for YouTube, monetization advantages, dynamic ad insertion, and the platform eating podcasting/audio content.

Sonia and Christina break down consumer brand marketing wins and fails across Apple's glass logo rebrand, Nike's LA murals, Sephora's tone-deaf holiday ad with Mariah Carey, the AI wars between Coca-Cola and Barbour's Wallace & Gromit collab, and the Starbucks bear cup chaos. They also dig into Apple TV's quality-over-quantity approach, consumerism culture, and how brands are staking claims on AI vs craft.

• Nike Dodgers Murals (00:18-01:53)

• Apple's Glass Logo Rebrand & Apple TV (01:54-11:03)

• Sephora's Mariah Carey Holiday Ad Backlash (17:18-27:39)

• Coca-Cola AI vs Barbour Wallace & Gromit (28:34-37:20)

• Starbucks Bear Cup Disaster & Consumerism (37:21-47:03)

• Takeaways & Optimism (47:03-54:20)

Episode Summary
In this episode, Sonia and Moshe dissect four big marketing moments. They start with Cracker Barrel’s self-aware tweet that uses humor to defuse backlash over its remodel, then dive deep into Nike’s “I Love LA” Dodgers World Series spot that swaps Randy Newman for Kendrick Lamar—layering the LA–Toronto rivalry with the Kendrick–Drake beef to show true cultural fluency. They pull out why speed and social listening matter, and why Gen Z (73%) rewards brands that read the room.
They pivot to Neo, a consumer humanoid home robot marketed as a gentle helper—covering pricing ($20k or $500/month), remote operation/privacy tradeoffs, and why humanizing tech beats hype. From there, they break down Grammarly’s bold decision to rebrand the parent company to Superhuman and launch Superhuman Go, shifting from “grammar checker” to an AI-powered productivity suite in a $102B market—plus naming risks and brand equity realities. Finally, they critique PepsiCo’s corporate rebrand—new pastel-coded categories and “food, drink, smiles” tagline—questioning the move away from iconic Pepsi colors and whether corporate identity should ever feel this… corporate. The episode closes with crisp takeaways on cultural timing, expectation-setting, naming strategy, and portfolio signaling.

00:00 — Welcome + Guest intro
00:41 — Cracker Barrel’s clapback: humor to defuse a remodel fiasco
01:08 — Nike’s Dodgers ad: Kendrick vs. Drake and LA vs. Toronto, cultural layering
06:38 — Culture-coded Nike: city focus, social listening, Gen Z’s 73% cultural awareness stat
12:08 — Global stars, sponsorship nuance: Shohei (New Balance) omitted; city pride
14:17 — Real-time rollout: speed beats perfection in cultural moments
15:09 — Meet Neo: the home humanoid robot (tasks, tone, positioning)
21:47 — Price, privacy, and trust: $20k/$500 mo., remote ops, 68% welcome robots if secure
29:11 — Marketing physical AI vs. software AI: education and expectations
31:00 — Grammarly → Superhuman: parent rebrand and Superhuman Go launch
35:02 — The productivity landscape: $102B market, tool fragmentation, AI tool growth
40:22 — Naming and equity risks: “Superhuman Go,” tech vs. mainstream recognition
42:40 — PepsiCo’s corporate rebrand: portfolio signaling, colors, “food, drink, smiles”
52:16 — Takeaways: Nike—cultural fluency and timing
53:47 — Takeaways: Neo—humanize tech, be transparent
55:03 — Takeaways: Grammarly/Superhuman—name strategy, suite vs. single feature
58:13 — Takeaways: PepsiCo—design communicates legacy vs. future
59:28 — Wrap + where to follow