It’s mid-summer in the northern hemisphere, traditionally a time for trivial news stories while we all take a bit of a break from the ‘real’ world. Yet nowadays the terrible news cycle just keeps on coming, while we cast around desperately for something – anything – to take our minds off it all.

In the past this might have come from sports, music or reality TV, but this year it has been provided by the worlds of marketing and brands. This is surprising in itself, but what’s perhaps more shocking is that virtually all the drama and excitement that’s been created has come without the input of traditional ad agencies and has instead been driven by celebrities, audiences and the brands themselves.

The stories have come thick and fast, arguably kicking off when Coldplay’s ‘kiss cam’ captured a loving moment between the CEO and HR manager of tech company Astronomer, who unfortunately were married to other people at the time. It seemed hard to imagine a more perfect visual short story when the embracing duo sprang apart in a panic, which led the clip to quickly go viral.

Now, as many earnest LinkedIn posts pointed out at the time, there are real families that lie behind this story who will no doubt have been thrown into disarray. But this being 2025, when anything fun seems to contain an edge of cruelty, both social media and traditional media couldn’t resist lapping up the story. And thus the commentary flowed until both participants of the kiss cam had left their roles at Astronomer and bleak photos of their first sightings ‘back in society’ were appearing in the Daily Mail.

Where the story got more interesting though was in Astronomer’s response to it all. This is one of the few brands that’s gone viral this summer that called on an agency for help, with the firm enlisting Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort to create a film that featured Gwyneth Paltrow (ex-wife of Coldplay’s Chris Martin, so providing a nice link to where the story began) acting as a ‘temporary spokesperson’ for the brand where she wittily appeared to respond to the backlash while deftly explaining what the brand actually does.

With all these celebs seeing opportunities to get into the ‘cultural conversation’, it was perhaps only a matter of time before we saw The Donald enter the chat

Utilising humour, a great celebrity contact book in Reynolds, and an awareness that playing along with the crowd would serve it better than a dry company statement, Astronomer is now credited with pulling off an excellent PR move, which helpfully also separated it from its disgraced former CEO.

Celebrities have been weighing in on other brand moments too, seemingly without being paid in the way Paltrow no doubt was. When Skims released its latest product, a medieval-style face wrap that women are encouraged to wear at night, which offers “strong, targeted compression for shaping and sculpting”, it generated an immediate response.

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Initially this was largely critical for being yet another way to make women uncomfortable in the pursuit of beauty (even while we sleep!), yet the reactions took a turn when actor Anthony Hopkins got involved after the wrap drew comparisons with the mask worn by his iconic Silence of the Lambs character, Hannibal Lecter. His Instagram post went viral and in many ways took the heat out of all the criticism aimed at Skims, especially when Kim Kardashian responded with good humour, sharing the post on her own Instagram Stories. Needless to say, the first run of the face wraps have all sold out.

With all these celebs seeing opportunities to get into the ‘cultural conversation’, it was perhaps only a matter of time before we saw The Donald enter the chat. And this, somewhat inevitably, coincides with the moment that all this marketing fun took a turn for the worse.

President Trump has weighed in on no less that three separate brand moments in the past week. Perhaps the least interesting is his pronouncement on Monday that Jaguar’s rebrand was “stupid” and “woke” as the brand announced its new CEO (that story is so last year, Mr President).

@madsjpg Still funny ???????? nothing beats a jet2 holiday frrrrr #jet2 #jet2holidays #trend #funny #holiday #travel ♬ Jet2 Advert – ✈️A7-BBH | MAN ????????

Far less funny was the moment the White House (presumably in a post endorsed by Trump) jumped on the Jet2 meme. This had been running for a while, but especially took off in the early summer as audiences took glee in playing the sprightly Jet2 jingle over less-than-joyous holiday moments.

One could argue that this was a meme waiting to spiral out of control, but it is unlikely that anyone expected that it would be the White House that killed it, by using the ad as a soundtrack to a film showing ICE officers escorting handcuffed people onto a flight. Jess Glynne, the singer on the jingle, took to Instagram to respond, saying her music “is about love, unity and spreading positivity – never about division or hate”.

For those in the advertising industry who have lived through the past decade of culture war storms caused by tone-deaf purpose campaigns, it feels pretty exhausting to go back here again

This negative turn brings us to our final, equally bleak, viral ad moment of the summer (so far): the furore around the American Eagle ad starring Sydney Sweeney. You will likely know the thrust of this story by now: Sweeney and the brand have been accused of promoting eugenics via a pun on genes and jeans.

The story has spiralled into a full-on culture war, with commentators debating everything from the brand’s intentions, how the ad went viral in the first place, and – more intriguingly – the reasons why Sweeney, who does not come from a rich background, may be more inclined than many actors to endorse so many brands (American Eagle is one of a wide range of marketing campaigns she has worked on). And yes, Donald Trump has given his view too.

For those in the advertising industry who have lived through the past decade or so of culture war storms caused by tone-deaf purpose campaigns, it feels pretty exhausting to go back here again. But perhaps the American Eagle debate is the inevitable result of all these years of purpose ads. Brands were trying so hard in that period to say that they stood for something more than just selling product, so we’ve been trained now to look for some deeper message, no matter how sinister (or unlikely?) it might be.

One point of difference from the purpose age though, is that American Eagle is downright refusing to say sorry, and just letting the storm of debate rage on. This stands in contrast to the times when a brand’s message has been criticised in the past, and symptomatic of the new, unapologetic era we have entered.

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It is perhaps foolish to try and read too much into a marketing news cycle that has been so wild of late, but beneath all the bluster, there are some points to note. Firstly, that people want to be entertained, and they are more than happy for that entertainment to be provided by brands. So maybe it’s time for the return of some compelling, strategic and clever campaigns to be created for brands that are actually intended to be shared, liked and discussed?

Secondly, you never know where your brand is going to go. Becoming part of culture is no longer just having your ad’s jingle chanted by kids in the playground; it could just as easily be chanted by the US President. Somehow all brands have to learn to live with that risk.

Lastly, ad agencies and creatives need to get back into the conversation. Or be allowed back in. I’m not sure which it is, whether marketers are devaluing the power of creative campaigns or creatives are struggling to keep up with the pace of change in how audiences engage with brands, but there are clearly huge opportunities to be had for clever, fun and entertaining brand messaging.

Everyone in agency land right now will no doubt be planning their Christmas ads for later this year. Perhaps they should also be thinking more short term and considering what they are going to deliver for the rest of silly season too.