the Dr. Pepper baby is good and nice
🦀 brand baiting + Hootsuite x 🧊🤡 + grandma hobbies + what's in my analog bag + WNBA 2026 schedule + steak n’ shake bitcoin payouts + steph curry wears On shoes now + caseoh x cicis pizza 🦀
hellooooo, welcome to your mid-week culture catch! 🦀
the crabs have reeled in a fine haul for your mindful consumption
in the issue below:
alix earle is getting a netflix show??
“steal a brainrot” is a million-dollar game
graza aioli might fix us
an 81 year-old granny raises money for her kid
trends we’re following:
brand baiting
(everyone wants what romeo and dr pepper have)reality tv show edit
on the road
The Dr. Pepper baby is good and nice.
🎶 “Dr. Pepper baby, it’s good and nice” 🎶
Not only can I immediately recall the praiseworthy jingle, I can close my eyes and replay 39 different versions of DIY mini-commercials small time creators on TikTok made, set to various remixes of the catchy tune that have graced my feed in the last month.
How could I forget?
These makeshift ads are sprinkled between posts in my ever-decaying FYP.
ICYMI, TikToker Romeo is proving that a regular person with no formal brand relationship, could accidentally stumble into a paid licensing deal and national media placement simply by performing brand love very loudly and very publicly. One month after the original post, Dr. Pepper has licensed the song and folded it into an NCAA football commercial, with rumors spreading that this could be a predecessor to a Super Bowl spot. Rumor is Romeo received a cool $2,000,000 for participating, but this hasn’t been confirmed.
It’s also reframing how we think about influencer marketing power dynamics.
Instead of brands courting creators, creators are now preemptively courting brands.
Introducing: Brand Baiting
TikTok is now full of aspiring brand baiting future-Romeos, testing if they, too, can sing their way into a lucrative brand deal punctuated by a check. Everyday creators are posting unprompted homemade jingles for fast food chains, soda brands, snack companies, and legacy CPG players, hoping the right social team is watching.
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On paper, this looks like a win for brands.
They are receiving massive amounts of unpaid creative labor that’s audience-tested in real time on the feed. Non-brand-safe missteps (a byproduct of jingles being left in the hands of the public) are wrapped in an excusable veil of authenticity of “just a person having fun on the internet.”
It is free awareness at scale that arrives pre-validated by visible engagement metrics for the Social Team at the Big Brand Corporate Office to cherry pick.
Who will Senpai notice?
Who will be the next to secure the bag?
The public has seen the success bestowed upon Romeo and is now gunning for their 0:15 of fame by auditioning for sponsorship without being asked.
Ads cannot interrupt content if the content is the ad.
My entire feed has devolved into speculative brand pitches.
The line between creativity and commerce is collapsing, and the public is fully beginning to do the legwork of entire marketing departments.
We have completed the loop.
We no longer skip the ads
We consume the ads our peers made in hopes The Capitalism will notice.
Thank you, goodnight.
[dayna + dejaih]
🦀📈 TODAY’S POLL
and happy 20th anniversary of high school musical to those who celebrate!
[you should also probably get your cervix checked]
Enjoy this read: “Without ‘High School Musical,’ None of This Exists” unpacking Disney Channel’s magnum opus via Betches Media / Ilana
📲🦀 Viral Topics
Aldi Just Stocked $5 ‘Grandma Hobby’ Kits and Shoppers ‘Want Them All’ (Parade)
aldi is selling $5 crochet kits tapping into the rising popularity of “grandma hobbies” like knitting and needlepoint as a calming, screen-free alternative to digital entertainment. the beginner-friendly kits include everything needed to make small, cute projects and are being shared widely on social media as part of the broader screenfree trend.
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What’s in your ‘analog bag’? (The Guardian)
2026’s analog resurgence has brought about creative hacks for staying offline, including the analog bag, a travel-friendly tote filled with screen-free activities. Content creator Sierra Campbell shares tips for curating a kit that encompasses convenience, creativity, and community, featuring items like a Papier planner, Olympus Muji II film camera, and Winsor & Newton watercolor kit.
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81-year-old YouTuber fights back tears thanking fans raising money for grandson’s cancer treatment (Dexerto)
Minecraft YouTuber GrammaCrackers, also known as 81-year-old Sue Jacquot, started her channel to support her grandson’s cancer treatment and has since gained over 350,000 subscribers, raising over $40,000 through her videos and a GoFundMe link. Her grandson, Jack, is now cancer-free.
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Meet the first dog mayor of 37th Street in Austin, who pledges more fire hydrants and fetch (KUT)
Mo Bamba, a Pug-Chihuahua mix, has been inaugurated as the new mayor of 37th Street near Hyde Park in Austin, Texas, after winning a pet mayoral election with over 12,000 ballots cast. The election, which started as a way to increase voter engagement, saw Mo Bamba defeating incumbent cat Mayor Zapp and other animal candidates in a heated and historic race, with a high voter turnout and allegations of voter fraud.
Good Reads
We’re not nostalgic for 2016 — we’re nostalgic for the internet before all the slop (Tech Crunch)
🦀 Trending
Brand Baiting
From Romeo x Dr Pepper success has come your average everyday TikToker, seeing if they have what it takes to deliver America’s next top jingle for a big brand. This is great FREE awareness for the brands, but we’re interested to see if another Romeo moment comes from this.
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