Erika Wheless, consumer culture and brand behavior reporter at Ad Age, breaks down the consumer trends shaping the back half of 2026, and how they connect to the brands gaining the most ground with Gen Z. The conversation covers why credibility is starting to matter more than authenticity, with audiences favoring "frontline authority" voices—actual employees and experts—over traditional influencer marketing, plus AI's growing role in that shift. It also digs into Gen Z's renewed appetite for physical ownership, from DVDs and game cartridges to novelty popcorn buckets and dumb phones, and why that's less nostalgia than a response to rising costs.

Host Parker Herren presses Wheless on what's driving purchase decisions among older Gen Z shoppers now managing real budgets, and which brands—AliExpress, Aldi, Longhorn Steakhouse among them—are winning by leaning into affordability and collectible, shareable experiences. Subscribe to Ad Age Insider for more conversations translating Ad Age's reporting into insight you can actually use.

Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode:

~4 consumer trends for brands to watch in the second half of the year

~20 brands catching Gen Z's attention right now and how they are doing it

~20 brands catching millennials' attention right now

~Movie marketing for the TikTok generation—how theater chains are trying to reach Gen Z

~Buy tickets to Ad Age's Business of Brands conference

~Listen to Ad Age's Marketer's Brief podcast