Hobbies are not only back, but here to stay. And by hobbies, we're talking about non-digital, skills-based pastimes, whether those be the so-called "grandma hobbies" (needlepoint, knitting, baking, gardening) or get-off-the-couch hobbies (birdwatching, running clubs, foraging hikes, casual pickleball — if that can still be casual anymore). The upswing started during the pandemic, when we had time to kill and space to fill. But as Covid waned, our collective interest in hobbies only seemed to grow, something that fellow So What writer Ryan Weicht explored in his Link Lariat column several months ago.

And this love of hobbies may be part of something more than just a fascination with embroidery scissors and fancy binoculars. Replete with learning curves and frustrations and effort, it may in fact signal our readiness to enter an era of "friction-maxxing," as The Cut's Kathryn Jezer-Morton puts it. In her words, friction-maxxing is "the process of building up tolerance for 'inconvenience' (which is usually not inconvenience at all but just the vagaries of being a person living with other people in spaces that are impossible to completely control) — and then reaching even toward enjoyment." This means getting off devices and out the door. This means wading into the morning or setting out for the night with less information (and a greater sense of exploration) at hand. This means trying something not because it's easier for you, but because it asks more of you. This is the opposite of the "escapism" that the modern world of technology has ironically cocooned us in. Instead, it's a roll-up-your-sleeves approach to re-immersing in the messy world around us.

So, as you marvel at the number of needlepointers sitting in your local café this weekend, take a moment to see through the thread to recognize the beautiful acts of friction unfolding in front of you.

Ready for more? In the latest IQ,UA, I caught up with Walter Geer III, VML's chief creative officer, to chat about the importance of tapping into our audiences' emotional lives to make our brands and businesses more meaningful to them.

🫒 The Garnish

"If you are losing your leisure, look out! — It may be you are losing your soul.”
– Virginia Woolf

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Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based artist Robert Vargas unveiled his latest large-scale mural: a 12-story portrayal of L.A. Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the side of a DoubleTree hotel in Torrance, a city of 140,000 in southwestern Los Angeles County. Considering that Torrance has one of the largest populations of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. (more than 13% of its total head count, according to the research firm Neilsberg), it makes sense that the city would welcome a mural of three Japanese-born baseball players. Titled "Samurai of the Diamond," this is not simply an oversized sports mural. Rather, it represents a cultural apotheosis of sorts, elevating these players to mythical status and cementing their positions as undeniable pillars of the community itself. This comes at a moment when diversity and foreignness are under increasing duress, which opens the door for artists, cities, and private sector players to rise above the noise with a message that gets our attention — and reminds us that silence is an opportunity to be heard. What message is Vargas and company trying to send? As he told the L.A. Times, "This mural is about building a cultural bridge from Los Angeles to Japan and really emphasizing the greatness that these foreign-born Japanese players are contributing not only to the team, but to this community’s identity.”

This isn't the first time the Dodgers have found their way into The Friday Mixer. In October, we took a look at the power of personality as Ohtani's stock continued to rise. And last summer, we checked in on the VTubers who took over Dodger Stadium for an anime extravaganza.

Still hungry for some good reads? Check out Colin Moffett's latest column here at The So What, where he unpacks our growing appetite for a "slow content diet" in the midst of this fast-paced world.

🫒 The Garnish

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it."
– Bertolt Brecht

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📸 Thumbnail image courtesy of Eric J. Smith.

Two-hundred-and-forty-two. That's the number of tennis-related products on Lululemon's website right now. As Jessica Schiffer at Hard Court notes this week, the growing catalog of tennis-wear on Lululemon's website appears to be part of a larger strategic play that's making tennis central to the brand's future trajectory. (Further proof: official sponsorship of this year's BNP Paribas Open, a multi-million dollar partnership with tennis star Frances Tiafoe, debuting the new men's clothing line ShowZero at the Indian Wells Open this month, and more.) Given recent media reports about Lululemon's plateauing global sales and declining North American business in an increasingly saturated industry, the need for a refined path forward seems clear. But is tennis the right racket to ride? What's clear is that rather than blazing into new territory — which can be easier for Lululemon's smaller, less encumbered competitors to do — Lululemon is doubling down on a category, tennis, that's been a staple of its catalog and an "it" sport in the athleisure fashion world for a few years now. So, sure, it's a safe bet. Safer, perhaps, than F1 or golf or other sports that are just now re-asserting themselves for fresh mass-culture appeal. Which begs the question: Is safety worth the risk when the stakes are high? Time (and quarterly reports) will tell.

• Check out Jessica's full Hard Court take on Lululemon + tennis here.

• And if you missed it, here's a longer conversation that I had with Jessica for my IQ,UA column a few months ago, where we discuss how the business of tennis is changing, the culture is evolving, and the fanbase is growing.

🫒 The Garnish

“A problem well-stated is half-solved.”
– Charles Kettering

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It's been nearly ten months since the editorial team at Eater posed a worthwhile question: "What are dirty sodas, and why is everyone drinking them?" Like most trending eccentricities these days, dirty sodas initially found mass popularity through viral posts on TikTok — back in 2022. But unlike many "culinary" trends that burn out as quickly as they arrive (cue the homage to ranch dressing soda, cloud bread, candy-stuffed chamoy pickles, and plenty more), the dirty soda movement has found some staying power. One of the reasons for this is that dirty sodas — typically a combo of soda, coffee creamer, flavored syrup, and a squeeze of lime — can actually taste pretty good (something that the ranch dressing sodas of the world can't really claim). On top of that, dirty soda's roots in Utah's Mormon communities and its prominent placement in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives have kept our cultural taste for it alive.

This all means that 2026 may be dirty soda's biggest year yet. Major players from Mountain Dew to Dr. Pepper to Cinnabon all have dirty soda-style drinks flowing into their product portfolio this year. And now Twizzlers (part of the Hershey's brand family) "is hopping on the dirty soda bandwagon with a limited-edition flavor inspired by the whole mixing-flavored-syrups-with-soda trend," as Delish reports. Blending flavors of vanilla, coconut, and lime, Twizzler's new candy straws let you make all sorts of bubbly bevs taste like dirty soda by the time the drink reaches your lips. How well will this novelty treat sell? It's too soon to tell. But as Simply Wall Street points out, "For investors watching NYSE:HSY, this launch is less about near term volume and more about how the brand tests new ways to stay culturally relevant." In a world that swirls as fast as ours does, cultural relevance is worth its weight in, well, vanilla, coconut, and lime.

So, if you're tired of the same-old some-old, order a soda at this weekend's happy hour, drop a Twizzler's dirty soda straw into the fizz, and slowly sip that sweet-tasting cultural relevance.

🫒 The Garnish

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
– Andy Warhol

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The Whitgift Centre is a 1.3-millon square-foot mall in London’s Croydon neighborhood that's home to more than 250 shop spaces. When it opened in the late 1960s, the Whitgift Centre symbolized a modernist boom that promised to reshape the South London community into a destination for commerce and arts. But an economic decline throughout much of Croydon and an increase in crime in the town center have contributed to more than 70 vacancies (as of December 2025) in the Whitgift. Could the mall's fortunes change? Maybe, but a dose of good luck might be needed to kickstart the process.

And that's exactly what happened in November, when Taylor Swift — unbeknownst to most of Croydon's residents — secretly arrived at the Whitgift Centre to film the music video for her latest single, "Opalite." Inspired by the tropes of '90s rom-coms, "Opalite" found a perfect home in a shopping mall that saw its heyday 30 or so years ago. Most memorably, Taylor and actor Domhnall Gleeson glide down a prominent escalator with large, salty, food-court pretzels in hand — a scene that has inspired all sorts of pretzel talk and Whitgift fascination on social media. Since its release day in early February, the video has been viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube, which translates into a lot of eyeballs on the Whitgift Centre. As the Wall Street Journal reported this week, the hype has even led to the mall being informally rebranded as "the WhitSwift Centre." Whether this flash of fame will lead to an actual rebirth for the struggling shopping hub is not yet known. But given the surge of excitement that "Opalite" inspired, the residents of Croydon (and the financiers behind the Whitgift Centre) have new wind at their back.

So, if you swing out for a night cap this weekend only to discover that your local watering hole is low on patrons, summon a famous friend or two to record a music video — and then wait to see if a surge of business follows.

🫒 The Garnish

"A poet is someone who thinks that the shape of a pretzel is interesting."
– W.H. Auden

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The art world has been buzzing about AI for years now. At first, the doomsayers like animator Cyriak Harris were convinced that AI was coming to eat art's lunch. Then copyright questions emerged and artists filed lawsuits aimed at stopping tools like Midjourney and DeviantArt from commandeering their IP. Eventually, as familiarity settled in, more artists (like creative partners Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst) migrated to the mindset that "[a]rtistry is always evolving," meaning that "[h]uman artists will make works using AI and works that will reject AI." And so — in a ridiculously simple arc — that's how the Art<>AI story has evolved.

Last month, art student Nick Dwyer chewed his way into the this debate when he came upon classmate Graham Granger's AI-generated art at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Art Gallery — and, without hesitation, he ate it. Needless to say, Dwyer seems to be landing squarely on the "AI is not good for art" side of the argument. The work he munched on, which originally consisted of 160 AI-created Polaroid-style images, was down to just 103 images by the time his meal had ended. Not surprising, the upshot was astonishment from Granger (look at the expression on his face after discovering his mangled work) and punishment for Dwyer (the current charge of a class B misdemeanor for criminal mischief could result in 90 days in jail, a $2,000 fine, and 25 hours of community service). But perhaps the biggest outstanding question isn't one of reaction or reparation, but rather one of classification: that is, do Dwyer's actions qualify as performance art, protest, or simply low-grade criminal activity? Could you even argue that Dwyer is tapping into the lofty legacy of destruction-as-art? — think Ai Weiwei dropping urns, Banksy shredding his own work, or David Datuna famously eating Maurizio Cattelan's duct-tape banana. Maybe that's giving Dwyer too much credit. According to AI, "it likely reads as criminal behavior first, art second." Thanks for the POV, ChatGPT.

So, a word to the wise: If you find yourself offended by any AI art during a gallery visit this weekend, pause before you chomp. It probably makes more legal sense to bite into the hors d'oeuvres rather than the Nano Banana art on display.

🫒 The Garnish

"There were calories but no cuisine."
– Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

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Once upon a time, a book club was just a book club, where literature-loving friends and genre buffs gathered in a living room or around a big wooden table in the back of a neighborhood bookstore to chat through the plotlines of an assigned reading. But in recent years, book clubs have become the province of celebrities (like Dua Lipa), brands (like Vogue), and influencers (like self-proclaimed "thriller/mystery book addict" Sara Bregasi), supported by the creative heft and clever social media strategies that keep celebs/brands/influencers in the spotlight. This (r)evolution of book clubs is, in part, spurring a (r)evolution in contemporary book publishing, with a startup called Bindery Books leading the way.

As the L.A. Times reported earlier this week, Bindery Books — the brainchild of two industry vets from the traditional publishing world — pairs emerging and often under-resourced authors with social media influencers whose vast audiences hang on their every recommendation. But note that this isn't simply a PR play. Bindery Books has established twelve distinct imprints with influencers sitting atop each imprint, filling the blended role of editor-in-chief + publisher + CMO. While Bindery Books and its subsidiary imprints aren't yet profitable, the company's founders say that's "on the horizon." And their optimism is understandable, because they're tapping into an undeniable truth about modern-day book culture: Sure, reading is still a solitary exercise, but the act of sharing — and the spaces where that sharing occurs, whether through intimate book clubs in a shop or impassioned recommendations on a social platform — has the power to bridge our private moments and passions with our outward appetites for community and connection.

So, if you show up at a cocktail party this weekend to find your fantasy-obsessed friends agog as they scroll their IG, there's a good chance they're just checking out Skies Press, a Bindery Books imprint whose first fantasy novel was published in the fall — and whose 25k Instagram followers presumably can't wait to see what's coming next.

The Garnish

"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.”
– Margaret Atwood

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Amid the swirl of the new year festivities and the ever-frenzied news cycle, it may have been easy to miss that we (and by "we" I mean New York City's residents and visitors) quietly said goodbye to a familiar companion, the MetroCard, which saw its final swipes on December 31. The standard for the city's subway fare payment since 1994, MetroCard has been claiming space in our wallets and creating lines just outside turnstiles since Friends (another NYC-based staple) has been taking up real estate on our screens. The new contactless, mobile-based form of payment is simpler and more sustainable — a welcomed advancement for most people. But, as the New Yorker recently noted, artist Nina Boesch is not one of those people. The German-born, Brooklyn-based artist has been making art out of MetroCards for more than two decades. (And some renowned collectors have added her work to their stash, including Martin Scorsese and Lin-Manuel Miranda.) So what happens when she runs out of her source material? Good news for Boesch: She has a reserve of at least 80,000 cards in storage, which buys her some time until she has to figure that out. But perhaps as the inventory depletes, her art, like the MetroCard itself, will morph into something more intangible, but no less consequential.

So, if you're at a happy hour this weekend and somebody begins to eulogize the recently retired MetroCard, assure them that the card is still alive and well in the timeless art coming out of a studio in Brooklyn — and that utility, of course, is the first step toward immortality.

🫒The Garnish

“You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now.”
– Colson Whitehead

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In a recent episode of the charmingly casual celebrity podcast Smartless, actress Laura Dern talks about spending time on the set of Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot back in 1975, when her father Bruce Dern was starring in the dark comedy thriller. While Hitchcock had the reputation of a serious and meticulous director, the man Laura Dern remembers was good-humored and playful — so much so that he had the props department build a miniature director's chair so that little Laura could sit beside him during filming.

Of course, sitting in a director's chair is one thing. But exercising directorial liberties is another — and something Hitchcock would be much more likely to take umbrage at. So we can guess how he'd react to hearing that his 1932 silent-era film The Lodger has been reformatted to meet the vertical demands of modern-day mobile users. As Tattle TV (the team behind this new phone-friendly revision of the classic) told Deadline, this is "one of the first known instances of a classic feature film being fully reframed for vertical, mobile-first consumption.” But is it really The Lodger? After all, edges of scenes are sliced away and the editorial re-framing of shots adds or detracts from the meaning that Hitch intended. In addition, Hitchock was famously particular about the run-time of his films ("The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder," he quipped), but this new social-ready approach breaks the movie into bite-sized chapters shaped to accommodate today's attention spans. Again, would the persnickety Hitchcock abide?

Possibly not. But possibly so! As The Guardian points out, "It is also true that Hitchcock happily adapted to new formats." Meaning, if he were around today, The Lodger may just be the beginning. Next up: a vertical Vertigo coming soon to a phone near you.

🫒The Garnish

“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.”
– Anaïs Nin

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At some point in the next week (maybe two, weather depending), NASA will launch its ten-day Artemis II mission, sending a human crew to orbit the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 flight in 1972. (In fact, this is the first time humans have ventured into space, beyond low earth orbit, since that 1972 flight.) While the four astronauts on board won't land on the moon, they will loop around our lunar neighbor as part of a "free-return" trajectory that relies heavily on gravitational force from the moon to guide the spacecraft back to earth. Not only does a free-return trajectory represent a cool combination of gravity, geometry, and timing to let the ship return to earth without firing its engines again, it's also (basically) a cosmic parkour that lets the craft juke and maneuver its way safely back to home base. Given this extended path, the Artemis II crew will most likely travel farther from earth than any other humans have ever done.

Needless to say, the team here at Artemis Ward takes pride in our kinship with all the other similarly named endeavors out there – especially when those endeavors combine things like mind-blowing ambition, unbridled imagination, and the kind of navigational wizardry that makes "winging it" look suspiciously like a well-oiled plan.

So, at this weekend's wintry happy hour, turn the conversation to outer space before heading for the door and beginning your own free-return trajectory toward home.

🫒 The Garnish

"We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.”
–Ray Bradbury

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The Filter — The Guardian's HQ for product reviews, purchase recs, and sustainable shopping inspiration — dished out hundreds of suggestions over the course of 2025. From the "perfect pillow" to the "best showerhead filters” (plus top-performing yoga mats, bath towels, eco-friendly dog toys, and God knows how many other discrete consumer purchase categories), the Filter did its best to ensure that nobody made a purchase decision in isolation or ignorance. As the year comes to a close, it's clear that 11 of those recommendations — including luxury sleep masks, cashmere neck ties, and digital luggage scales — resonated so much with U.S. readers that they quickly went from checking out the products to checking out at the point of sale.

The item that topped the list? It's not the Cozy Earth bath towel (dubbed by one reviewer as the "best waffle towel" around), though that is in the Elite 11. Nor is it the Magcubic mini projector, a teenage favorite and another top 11 notable. The Filter’s winner was an everyday delight: Illy Intenso Instant Coffee. It’s a solid product that’s encased in a stylish aluminum container and emblazoned with a recognizable (and trusted) brand name, all at a price point that's easy to justify — enough, apparently, to convince even traditionalist coffee drinkers to kick their drip java to the curb in favor of "instant" caffeination.

So, when you're out celebrating the holidays this weekend, if you decide to forgo the martini in favor of a cup of Joe, tell the bartender to skip the drip and give you a stir instead.

🫒 The Garnish

"Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.”
– David Lynch

⛄️ We hope you enjoyed the last Friday Mixer of 2025! We’ll be taking a little holiday hiatus, and you’ll see us again in early January with all of our hot takes for what’s coming in 2026. You don’t want to miss it, so give us the best holiday present ever and subscribe.

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❄️ And, of course, we want to wish you happy holidays from The So What (and Artemis Ward) crew. We hope you have a restful break with family, friends, and festive cocktails. See you soon!

It’s been nearly two weeks since the Oxford English Dictionary dropped its word of the year on us: rage bait. Reactions, as you can imagine, have been animated and mixed. Some, like The Atlantic’s Amogh Dimri, praise the choice, calling rage bait — the word, not the content — “evocative and useful.” Others, appropriately enough, are feeling some anger and disappointment (“I can’t take the dictionary seriously anymore after they added ‘67’ … now this,” writes one Reddit user, nodding to Dictionary.com naming “67” the 2025 word champ, while a British Reddit user huffs, “Are the words that are chosen by these people, including the dictionaries, just going to be inane yankisms forever?”). Snarkiness is up there, too (“Yeah, I’m not going to fly into a rage about it, but it is disappointing,” quips another Reddit commentator).

However, it’s the grammarians who are sounding the loudest alarms, noting that technically rage bait is not a single word, but a term composed of two distinct elements. (To be fair, the OED 2024 word of the year, brain rot, is vulnerable to similar criticism.) As Rich Parkes, a member of the Facebook group Dull Men, puts it, “Rage bait. WORD of the year. The irony is astounding. It almost feels deliberate.” Rich’s diction hangup aside, he’s pointing to what’s perhaps the most interesting — and effective — aspect of the OED’s 2025 word of the year: by choosing a word that’s not really a word (unless you buy the controversial argument that it’s a compound word, that is) and making its announcement online alongside plenty of other rage-inducing clickbait, the OED didn’t simply crown rage bait, it also created it. As one Reddit comment rightly concludes, “That’s one meta headline, baby.”

So, if you’re looking to stir things up at this weekend’s wintry mixer, just step into a circle of strangers and ask: “Rage bait — one word or two?”

🫒 The Garnish

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”
– Mark Twain

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — and this year, that means bounties of hanging bows, tartan patterns, lavish garlands, and all sorts of other decor that you might describe as “nostalgic” or “maximalist” or, in the words of some cultural observers, “Ralph Lauren-ist.” According to a piece in the Washington Post last week, this holiday season’s trending aesthetic steers clear of the minimalist strains of years past (to the disappointment of merchants who peddle beige Christmas tree ornaments) in favor of bright colors and ornate expressions rife with warmth and tradition.

While Ralph Lauren certainly doesn’t own this space, the fashion brand’s Americana home collections from ‘80s and ‘90s have provided plenty of inspiration. As the Post points out, British TikToker and Christmas enthusiast Ashleigh Cox (possibly Influencer #1 in this category) has been posting about — and, subsequently, fueling — this trend since last spring. But she’s tapping into something much bigger than her personal aesthetic. Given the cultural moment we’re in — when things feel heavy and lightness can sometimes be hard to come by — there’s something very comforting about a holiday season that leans joyfully and abundantly into the colors, styles, and symbols that we associate with the carefree Christmases of years past.

So, when you head out to that holiday happy hour this weekend, why not show you’re of the times by adding a tartan bow to your attire?

🫒 The Garnish

“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”
– Mr. Rogers

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It’s been more than a week since the newest Netflix venture opened its doors. This time, those doors aren’t digital and don’t require a login; instead, they’re physical doors found exclusively at the King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia. As the LA Times puts it, “After years of telling consumers to Netflix and chill, the streaming giant now wants you to get out of the living room and visit them at the local shopping mall.” Coming on the heels of hundreds of pop-up events the company has produced in recent years, Netflix House is a 100,000-square-foot dedicated chunk of space somewhere between a Neiman Marcus and a Macy’s that features interactive game experiences, immersive rooms, a 200-seat theater, and the Netflix Bites restaurant and bar, where the names of popular Netflix franchises announce themselves in bright neon signage.

For now, Netflix House is a loss leader conceived to help the streaming giant build new connections and communities as it looks to a future where market saturation tops out and new subscribers are harder to find. But with a second location coming to Dallas next month, a third slated for Vegas in 2027, and who-knows-what-and-when after that, Netflix may find a future stash of cash by replacing mall movie theaters with mall movie-themed experiences. And with rising generations trying to get off their couches and push away their screens in favor of IRL hanging, shopping, and more, there’s probably no better time for Netflix to reimagine what “movie house” means.

So, if you find yourself yawning and staring at your phone at this weekend’s shindig, there’s only one logical move: hire a limo and point the driver toward the King of Prussia Mall, where you can leave your life of screen time behind...sort of.

🫒 The Garnish

“The whole point of movies is that they take you somewhere else — preferably somewhere with better snacks.”
– Mel Brooks

🍁 In honor of all those Black Friday happy hours replaced by mall lines, online deals, and leftover pie, we won’t be sending a Friday Mixer next week.

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According to an article in the New York Times Style section last weekend, there’s a new trend taking root among homeowners. You might call the fruits of this trend domiciliary appellations, or manorial monikers, or domestic designations...or just house names. Unlike many house names of old (”Tailors Cottage,” because a tailor lived there, or “Biltmore,” because “Bildt” is the Dutch town where George Vanderbilt’s relatives came from and “more” is an old English word for “open, rolling land” — and, anyway, the Vanderbilts could name their colossal mansion whatever they wanted), this new wave of habitation nomenclature leans a little less literal and a little more whimsical. Take 36-year-old Texan Audrey Chabaud, who now lives in “The Dollhouse.” Or 50-year-old SoCal homeowner Billy Leyhe, resident-in-chief at “Rancho Relaxo” (yep, that’s a Simpsons reference).

And what’s a name without a logo and a few proprietary colors? Not surprising, perhaps, a cottage industry has popped up to support this growing, if niche, marketplace. The Times notes that Etsy saw a 199 percent spike in searches for “logo gifts” between July and September 2025 compared to the same stretch in 2024. Think personalized coasters and cutting boards, door mats and welcome signs, cocktail glasses and hand towels. But don’t write this off as just a flash in the consumer pan. As Etsy expert Dayna Isom Johnson points out, we live in a cultural moment where shoppers are “increasingly prioritizing individuality. It all comes back to recognizing your personal story, your personal style and wanting to cement that within your home.”

So, this weekend, if a stranger comes up to you at a cocktail party and asks where you live, assume they’re not looking for the name of a city or a neighborhood — it’s probably your domiciliary appellation they’re after.

🫒 The Garnish

“A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.”
– George Carlin, comedian

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In the old days, you could spend a few years building a franchise before products hit the shelves. Now, you might have just a few weeks before your audience moves on. That’s the bind Netflix and countless toy manufacturers find themselves in with KPop Demon Hunters.

Back in 2024, Netflix had reached out to some licensing and retail partners to let them know about an exciting opportunity: they would be releasing an animated children’s movie about a K-pop girl group that uses their singing and dancing skills to fight off evil spirits. The streaming giant thought toy manufacturers would want to get a jump on churning out branded KPop Demon Hunters merchandise for the 2025 holiday season, but, as Tony Maglio at The Hollywood Report explains, those conversations “received only ‘soft’ interest” given that the franchise was new and unproven. “One year and 325 million views later,” Maglio adds, “everyone is sprinting at full speed to catch up to demand.”

Given that it takes about 18 months for a major toy manufacturer to move something from an idea in a head to a box on a shelf, KPop Demon Hunters’ young fans will be met with some disappointment this holiday season. Merch will eventually roll out through 2026, but by then, the moment may have passed — especially because, according to a recent story in Deadline, KPop Demon Hunters 2 won’t be hitting screens until 2029.

So, if you’re at a cocktail party this weekend and someone says they’d like to get a KPop Demon Hunters doll for the holidays this year, you know what you have to do: make them one yourself.

🫒 The Garnish

“If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?”
– Steven Wright

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Forget jack-o’-lanterns and flying ghosts. The real stuff of Halloween comes in everyday shapes and sizes — and, for the most part, lives within arm’s length of your couch. Yep, we’re talking about the MYRULL blanket, the KLOTSTARR cushion, and the SMÅNUNNEÖRT throw. All of these comfy products from the IKEA portfolio are also the perfect shields against startling moments in scary movies. The insight at the heart of the Swedish furniture maker’s 2025 Halloween campaign — which runs through early November across a wide array of Middle Eastern and North American markets in print, OOH, and social — is that many of us celebrate the season with a spooky flick or two, and the first thing we do when the tension builds is reach for something soft and cozy to hide behind. As a campaign breakdown by the team at Little Black Book puts it, IKEA is “there for every jump scare this Halloween.”

So this weekend, maybe sit out the Halloween happy hours and kick back with a scary movie, a few friends, and a couch full of MYRULLs.

🎃 The Garnish

“I don’t believe in ghosts — but I’m still afraid of them.”
– Marjorie Boulton, author and poet

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If you happen to be in the vicinity of Chelsea in NYC tomorrow and you’re in the market for an experience that blends carbonation with seasonal exhilaration, then swing over to the High Line Nine, where the creaky doors to the Haunted Fanta Factory will open for the first of three days. With this immersive brand experience, Fanta — one of the oldest and most popular CPG products in the Coca Cola portfolio — invites fans to help protect their last existing supplies by stepping into a spooky space where villains need to be defeated and challenges overcome. (A similar experience will pop up in London in early November.)

Designed as part of Fanta’s global partnership with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, the IRL experience includes appearances by Chucky, M3gan, Freddy Fazbear, and The Grabber — who are each featured on their own cans, as well. If you can’t make it to Manhattan, fans anywhere can treat themselves to the Haunted Fanta Factory mobile experience — a fun and simple video game that borrows elements from classics like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong to let players collect precious cans of soda and earn real-life rewards.

What’s behind this big push? As Ibrahim Khan, global vice president of marketing for Fanta, explains to ADWEEK, “Halloween should be to Fanta what Christmas is to Coke.” So this week, as you’re hitting those holiday happy hours, consider swapping out the pumpkin ale for a refreshing, fizzy, and frightening can of Fanta.

👻 The Garnish

“When you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.”
– Neil Gaiman, Coraline

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While there’s been plenty of baseball in the news over the past few weeks, there’s one story you probably haven’t seen: The mother of Quinten Rosborough (an AW colleague and a columnist here at The So What) is now a dedicated fan of the sport, following a lifetime of disinterest. What converted her? It wasn’t the game itself, but rather a player of the game.

Shohei Ohtani — who’s an elite pitcher and elite batter — made his first major news splash in 2023 when he signed to the Dodgers for a whopping $700M. The following season, he made good on that contract by hitting 50 homers and stealing 50 bases. And just last week, in what some have described as the single greatest performance in MLB history, he became the first pitcher to hit three home runs in a postseason game as well as the first player ever to finish a single postseason game with three homers and ten strikeouts. But that’s not all. As Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says, he’s a “once-in-a-generation person” whose talent and competitive spirit is rounded out with humility, grace, and a whole lot of friendliness. Put all this together and it’s no wonder that Quinten tells me, “He’s so good he turned my mom into a baseball fan. Whenever he’s in the Mid-Atlantic, she buys a ticket.”

Which begs a modern version of the age-old question: What comes first, the love of the game or the love of the gamer? While that may be a riddle with no real answer, as brands (or products or Great American Pastimes) are trying to throw open the gates to new and wider audiences, it’s a question worth taking a swing at — especially if you want to strike up a conversation during tonight’s Dodgers vs. Blue Jays game.

🫒 The Garnish

“Baseball is like writing. You can never tell either how it will go or what you will do.” – Marianne Moore, poet

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Almost 80 years ago, author E.B. White wrote “Here Is New York,” a lyrical love letter to the city that rings as poignant today as it did way back when. At one point in the essay he notes, “New York blends the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation.” In other words, while there’s never a lack of things to do, the place is so dense that you can just go with the flow or go dark whenever you want and nobody will notice. You can just live.

Just living in New York is exactly what’s fueling one of the latest trends on TikTok, where Gen Zers are turning Manhattan into a character unto herself by simply capturing their daily routines as NYC teens moving through the city. As the New York Times reports this week, you can tag along as 16-year-old Keeva Leddy puts on her school uniform, hops on a bus, and pitstops for an iced latte with oat milk, all before arriving at school for morning classes. Trip Gorman, also 16, takes us on school-day journeys through NYC — commutes that include cabs, classroom snapshots, and lunchtime decisions between poke bowls or sushi. His recent first-day-of-school montage got three million views, just under 400k likes, and 1,500 comments. Both Keeva and Trip told the Times that they hope to convert their 15 minutes of TikTok fame into future careers.

Will that happen? Time will tell. The question that we need answer first is: Are people tuning in for these teenage tour guides or the “unique, cosmopolitan, mighty, and unparalleled” city (as E.B. White called it) that’s always teeming around them?

🫒 The Garnish

“Every city is like a pattern of words and actions to which every one of us gives shape.” – Italo Calvino

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