Reflections on November 2025, from Brands&Culture Co-Founder, Michelle Graves
Hope everyone is keeping warm now that Winter has gatecrashed Autumn’s party, a bit like the UK’s Office of Budget Responsibility this week, releasing the nation’s new budget details for all to see before the Chancellor had even had a chance to stand up and say ‘tax rise…’ 🙄
While the OBR swiftly put that monumental gaff down to a technical error, the release of Sky’s widely panned new TikTok channel; Halo, unfortunately couldn’t be blamed on the robots.
Branded as the “lil sis” of Sky Sports (barf), Halo opted for pink hearts, Barbie references, and “hot girl walks”- only to be outed as “unbelievably sexist” by, well, the very audience it claimed to champion. Red cards all round…
GirlsontheBall, She Kicks, and half of TikTok pointed out the obvious: women’s sports fans have little patience for gender clichés or tone-deaf content that features men nearly as much as women. Sky’s retraction was swift and public, but the damage was done. The lesson? Community isn’t built on pastel branding and hollow hashtags; it’s built on long-term respect and understanding your audience.
Which is exactly what was so brilliant about Timothée Chalamet and A24’s viral leaked video drop that also landed this month. The ‘apparently’ leaked 18 minute lo-fi video of a staged, cringe inducing, zoom meeting, discussing marketing tactics for the forthcoming Marty Supreme film with the Alist star, generated more buzz than any high end trailer ever would.
Respect to Timothée here – keeping a straight face while earnestly unleashing lines like “if its the difference between someone losing an arm when they put out the movie, but someone gaining an arm intellectually when they see it, I’m a fan of the latter” is almost as impressive as earning an immense amount of media coverage and buzz for your movie, without even putting your shoes on. Showing respect for your audience, letting them in on the joke, and not taking yourself too seriously (while pretending to do just that,) was the winning formula here.
And then there was Itsu’s brilliant new “anti-Christmas” campaign, serving up a refreshing blast of honest, salty air instead of the usual sentimental Christmas fare. Rather than attempting to convince their consumers that sushi pairs well with mulled-wine and gravy (never gonna happen), they flatly acknowledge that sales for Itsu always slump in holiday season. Confidently ending the spot with “Itsu waits patiently for January” when they know (and we know,) we will all be back, fleeing the scales and begging for salads and healthy soups, is a master class in knowing where and how, and critically – when, you should show up in culture.
So, another fascinating month in culture adland, from stark missteps like the aforementioned (and never to be mentioned again,) Halo, to some brilliant, internet shaking creativity and audience insight, it’s clear how quickly cultural capital can be earned, and how easily it can be squandered.
Culture rewards brands who care about the details, level with their audiences, and own their misses as much as their wins. Chalamet’s effortless meme-culture mastery, Itsu’s honest humility, Sky’s stumble and retreat, every story points to the same question. Do you show up authentically, or are you frantically trying to keep up?
