Ok idk about you, but I wasn’t expecting the MVP of Olympic celebrations to be Flavor Flav (of all people). But he clearly wasn’t ok with the president treating the gold medallists like second-class citizens. So when he put this callout on X, brands delivered, proving it is still possible to use your platform for good, even in 2026. [Here’s how you can, too]

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

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It’s no secret these are unprecedented times we live in. Y’all know this because I keep blabbing on about it (what else is there to say though be so fr). Everything’s changing all the time, and world events are no exception. The 2026 World Cup, for example, is shaping up to be bigger and more fractured than ever… which means advertisers are scrambling to figure out what that means for them. The tournament is expanding to 48 teams across three host countries. That sounds exciting but also logistically fkn chaotic. More games, more venues, more time zones, and a much longer event window.

For brands, that's both an opportunity and a nightmare. More eyeballs. More touchpoints. But also a fragmented audience that's harder to reach with a single campaign. You've got people tuning in from trad TV, streaming services, different devices, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors. Traditional World Cup advertising has always been about big, unified moments. But with the way things are now, this version is going to be much harder to dominate.

Next! Sam Altman's human verification startup is apparently leaning on consumer brands. The company, World ID has been trying to solve the problem of proving you're a real human online by scanning people's irises and giving them a digital ID. So, is it just me or did he create a problem and then sell us the solution? It's been controversial from the jump. Privacy concerns, dystopian vibes, unclear use cases abound. But now they're pivoting to work with brands who want to verify that their customers are real people and not bots.

It's actually a smart move because brands are desperate for solutions to ad fraud, fake reviews, and bot-driven engagement. If World ID can position itself as the answer, they might actually find product-market fit. But it still requires people to be okay with scanning their eyeballs and handing biometric data to a company run by Sam Altman, which is a big ask.

And speaking of things that feel legally questionable, how is Kalshi not gambling? Well the CEO, Tarek Mansour, says it’s not. And, actually, it’s good for society. Which sounds exactly like something the CEO of a gambling company would say. The platform lets you bet on real-world events, like elections, economic data, whether it'll rain tomorrow. And it's been operating openly in the U.S. for years. Technically it's a prediction market, not gambling, because you're supposedly trading on the likelihood of outcomes rather than just betting on them. But functionally it's the same thing. You put money down, an event happens or doesn't, and you either win or lose based on the result.

The regulatory distinction is paper-thin. And it's only a matter of time before someone challenges it. For now, Kalshi is riding the line. And people are using it exactly like a sportsbook while the company insists it's something else entirely.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

And yet here I am. Writing about it.

A recap in case you missed it: the US Women's Olympic Hockey team - multiple gold medal winners, absolute legends - were essentially shat on by Donald Trump. And the men's team was reduced to a punchline in a locker room and framed as a burden. Disrespected in a way that should make anyone with a functioning moral compass see freaking red.

So what business does someone who 1. hasn't been in the cultural spotlight since my adolescent MTV days, and 2. was lowkey famous for being a womaniser, have to come out of nowhere and say: not on my watch (get it), particularly, before anyone else had a say in the matter?

Offered them nice dinners, partying, celebration. I thought it sounded kind of creepy, until he put out a call to brands: who wants to get involved?

And damn, did they deliver.

Flav later posted that the team had officially accepted his invitation. And the brands flooded in with support. Lyft said “we’ve got their rides covered”, Visit Las Vegas and StubHub jumped in, offering show tickets and more. Alaska Airlines replied, "Let’s talk." Shortly after, Flav confirmed, "Alaska reached out and we are good to go." He added that the Golden Knights, MGM, Sphere, and Spiegelworld joined as entertainment sponsors. For beauty needs, amika, e.l.f., and Glam Squad signed on.

The comment section turned into a freaking brand roll call of brands, sponsoring the whole trip going above and beyond.

What I think we often forget is that marketing can be used as social aid and a genuine response to injustice. As long as it’s care, and not performance.

We've been conditioned to think that for marketing to do good, it needs to be some deeply strategic initiative with a year-long campaign. A partnership with non-profits. Extensive planning, focus groups, brand alignment matrices. The whole works.

But Flavor Flav literally just proved that sometimes, the most powerful marketing is simple and reactive: see something wrong, use your platform to fix it, invite others to help.

No six-month campaign or carefully crafted messaging deck. Just a guy with a platform saying "this is bullshit, let's do something about it" and brands showing up because they wanted to, not because their PR team ran the numbers.

Not power in the abstract "raise awareness" sense. But actual, tangible power to change someone's circumstances, in some cases, almost immediately.

Flavor Flav used his; he saw women athletes being disrespected and used his platform to give them what they deserved: celebration, recognition, and, well, a damn good time. He turned a sh*tty situation into a moment of joy and solidarity.

They did it because it was the right thing to do, and because someone with a platform made it easy to participate. Obviously, there are positive sales implications. But I’d like to think this was a genuine cultural moment of support and solidarity.

That's the part we forget. The world is genuinely at our fingertips! You can mobilise resources in a matter of hours and make a real difference before the news cycle moves on. You just have to take action.

Performative activism is about the brand. It's calculated and designed to align with values without actually risking anything. It's a black square on Instagram, or a carefully worded statement that says nothing.

Genuine care is about the people affected. Flav didn't centre himself in the narrative at all. He centred the athletes.

And that's the test. If your "activism" requires a deck and three rounds of legal approval, it's probably not genuine care. If your instinct is to help first and figure out the optics later, you're on the right track.

The women's hockey team was disrespected by the president and the men's team. The default response for most brands would be to stay quiet, don’t rock the boat, don't "make it political."

Let it blow over.

Instead, he said: f*ck that. These women deserve better. And I'm going to use whatever platform and resources I have to give it to them.

Not a statement or pathetic hashtag. Action. Using your power, however much or little you have, to materially improve a situation instead of just commenting on it.

We don't have to sit back while the Boys Club that runs the world does as it pleases. We have platforms, audiences, resources.

We can intervene. We can make things better. We just have to choose to.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

It's a universal experience embodied by this clip of a woman giving a sermon, where she tearfully describes a time in her life when "There was a McDonald's down the street from me...".

It's actually a sweet story here, the context being she used the restaurant's free WiFi to join prayer sessions when she had no internet at home. But without context, there's something undeniably funny about someone getting emotional over fast food within their vicinity.

It's inspired a new trend where TikTokers share stories of when something cheap and/or easily accessible saved them in their younger years, such as Forever 21's late night hours or the liquor store that never checked your ID.

Take this sound, put the camera on yourself and lip-sync with the audio (looking mega emotional as you do it!). Then, add on-screen text describing a time of your life when something within walking distance (or within your price range) helped you sleep at night.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Devin Pike, Copywriter

😂Yap’s funniest home videos: Missed it by that much! 🤏
❤How wholesome: The hug you didn’t know you needed today
🎧Soooo tingly: Viral Fruit Cake ASMR
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Beef Mince Chow Mein

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.