Producers Show! The Year of Fast-Casual Dining, Viral Marketing Moments and more

Summary

Morning Brew Daily – Producers Show!

Episode Title: The Year of Fast-Casual Dining, Viral Marketing Moments and more
Date: December 26, 2025
Hosts: Emily Milian, Raymond Liu, Olivia Graham (“OG”), Olivia Lake

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Overview

In this special “Producers Show,” the Morning Brew Daily production team takes over the mic for a holiday episode, reflecting on 2025’s most memorable stories in business, pop culture, and marketing. Stepping in for regular hosts Neil and Toby, producers Emily, Ray, OG, and Liv share their personal favorites and behind-the-scenes insights, covering everything from fast-casual food booms and nostalgic dining, to viral marketing controversies and shifting late-night TV. With candid, witty banter, they explore how the year’s trends shaped their work, their habits, and the industries they cover.

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Key Stories and Discussion Points

1. The Year of Fast-Casual Dining & Nostalgia-Driven Food Trends (02:36–07:00)

• Food was a universal headline in 2025: Producer Emily highlights 2025 as “the year of slap bowls and fast-casual dining” ([02:36]).
  • Chili’s vs. McDonald’s: In April, Chili’s trolled McDonald’s with its new Quarter Pounder burger. McDonald’s teased the return of snack wraps. Taco Bell revived a hugely popular menu item, and Red Robin launched a “Burger Pass” for bottomless burgers ([02:43]).
• Chili’s wins big: Chili’s posted a 24% sales spike and 16% traffic growth, jumping from $3.1M/unit revenue in 2022 to $4.5M in 2025.
  • Emily confesses: “Hand up. When we covered the Quarter Pounder story… I did go to a Chili’s in Westfield, New Jersey, and I tried the burger and it was delicious.” ([03:32])
• Staff try food stories themselves:
  • Olivia Lake and Toby sampled Luckin Coffee’s hyped NYC debut, comparing it to Starbucks. “I liked how it tasted better, which I’m always gonna put over speed.” – Olivia Lake ([04:03])
  • The team went to Dave & Buster’s for nostalgia and research—a trend they noticed drives restaurant business. Waitstaff confirmed the “nostalgia factor” was reviving customer traffic ([05:13]).
• Nostalgia as a restaurant differentiator: With “flavor flip outs” like Cracker Barrel’s redesign and restaurants evoking childhood memories, atmosphere and value became key draws in 2025 dining ([05:57]).

Memorable Quote:

“If you’re going to spend your money and leave the house, the nostalgia factor and the atmosphere is a big thing, too, that we saw this year.”
— Olivia Lake ([05:57])

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2. The Changing Culture of Drinking and Dry January (07:00–12:16)

• Drinking declines: Raymond recaps August’s Gallup poll: “53% of Americans believe… even moderate drinking was bad for their health—up 28% from 2015.” Weekly drinks averaged just 2.8, the lowest in decades ([07:04]).
• Dry January’s rise: Olivia Graham (Gen Z) and Emily participate—sort of. “I did dry January Monday through Thursday.” – Emily ([08:17])
  • Social pressure, health consciousness, and the home-cocktail economy are all influencing the sobriety movement.
• Bar tab anxiety: Gen Zers increasingly refuse to “start a tab” at bars, causing confusion for bartenders and changing their tipping/work habits ([08:43]).
  • “I actually had a bartender say thank you to me...I guess they’re so used to now, people closing out, and they probably just have to do it so much more.” – Olivia Lake ([09:02])
• Shift to non-alcoholic beverages: Increased NA options, as well as the high cost of cocktails, further explain this trend. Cannabis was floated as a substitute, but not universally accepted as a replacement ([09:36]; [10:12]).
• Cocktails are expensive: “In New York City a cocktail can be up to like 20 something dollars… some of it is probably health but a lot of it also might just be we don’t got money to spend.” – Olivia Lake ([10:30])

Notable Moment:

“Yeah, when cocktails are like 15 to $20, you have to make do. And I see why people aren’t keeping those tabs open.”
— Olivia Graham ([11:00])

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3. The Fall of “The Late Show” and the Turbulence of Legacy Media (13:52–19:14)

• “The Late Show” canceled: Olivia Graham, who once worked on the Colbert show, shares the shock of its surprise cancellation, announced for May 2026. Officially for financial reasons (“not a reflection of the show’s performance”), but media speculated about CBS’s motives following Colbert’s on-air criticism of parent company Paramount ([13:52]).
  • “When that news broke, I had people texting me that I didn’t talk to in years saying, like, what’s the... what’s inside scoop? And I’m like, I’m finding out with you.” — Olivia Graham ([14:33])
• Industry-wide implications: Kimmel’s show also pulled temporarily, and the hosts discuss massive layoffs at Paramount, and the general shake-up in legacy TV.
• Legacy vs. new media: Producers reflect on working in large, rigid legacy organizations with defined roles versus the scrappier, creative chaos of digital media and podcasts.
  • “It’s interesting growing up thinking of wanting to work in film and television…Everyone knew their role and it was, you know, down to a science…But then you move over to something like Morning Brew and you get to try so many different things.” – Olivia Lake ([18:28])
  • “We’re still figuring out what our roles are, whereas when we worked at the Late Show…there’s not really upward movement.” – Olivia Graham ([19:21])

Memorable Quotes:

“Ultimately, these things happen in entertainment, shows get canceled left and right for millions of reasons. But the cancellation of ‘The Late Show’ felt different. It felt like a shift that we haven’t seen before in TV.”
— Olivia Graham ([15:29])

“While legacy media may not be the thing right now, there are so many opportunities to adapt...we’re on this news podcast, it’s Morning Brew. That’s the wave.”
— Emily Milian ([18:03])

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4. Viral Marketing Dramas: American Eagle, Sydney Sweeney & “All Press Is Good Press”? (19:35–23:47)

• Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle: Ray recounts the year’s biggest marketing drama. AE’s “Sydney has great genes” campaign (July) was instantly viral—accused of flirting with eugenics language, but also praised by political figures, including Donald Trump.
  • The controversy drove stock up 10%, generated 150 million views, doubled web traffic, and added $400M in market value ([19:35]).
  • Sydney Sweeney’s later statement: “The reaction was definitely a surprise. But I love jeans.” ([20:49])
• The “no bad press” effect: Multiple hosts comment on how controversy only boosted American Eagle's attention.
  • “Did they single handedly prove that all press is good press?” — Olivia Lake ([20:49])
• Viral marketing pile-ons & campaign trends: Comparable cases cropped up all year—Beyoncé’s Levi’s ad, Labubu and Pop Mart, Gap’s “cat’s eye” campaign.
  • “Rising tides lift all boats!” — Olivia Graham ([21:46])
• Short-lived but powerful flash trends: The cycle repeats: brands jump on viral moments, market gets saturated, social media moves on ([22:24]; [22:58]).
  • “If I see one more video of this, I’m going to throw my—yes—so I never want to see it again.” – Olivia Lake ([22:41])

Notable Quote:

“In a way...if people are talking about it…it got people talking about American Eagle. I’m sure like the chief marketing officer defended the campaign, but I’m sure in the inner conversations they were like, how do we become provocative? How do we push boundaries? ...At the same time, you know, it had some metric effect to their shares. So in the end, I think it was good for the company.”
— Raymond Liu ([22:58])

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Emily Milian on Chili's Quarter Pounder:
  “Hand up. When we covered the Quarter Pounder story that weekend, I did go to a Chili’s in Westfield, New Jersey, and I tried the burger and it was delicious.” ([03:32])

• Olivia Lake on nostalgia and restaurants:
  “If you’re going to spend your money and leave the house, the nostalgia factor and the atmosphere is a big thing, too, that we saw this year.” ([05:57])

• Olivia Graham on Dry January:
  “That’s the one thing that I lock in on is dry January. So I’ll be participating.” ([08:33])

• Olivia Lake’s bar tab story:
  “I actually had a bartender say thank you to me…because I guess they’re so used to now, people closing out, and they probably just have to do it so much more.” ([09:02])

• Raymond Liu on non-alcoholic options:
  “There’s a lot more people doing non alcoholic beverages or low alcoholic beverages and they taste more or less the same. So I think that contributes to it as well.” ([09:37])

• Olivia Graham on “The Late Show” cancelation:
  “Ultimately, these things happen in entertainment, shows get canceled left and right for millions of reasons. But the cancellation of ‘The Late Show’ felt different. It felt like a shift that we haven’t seen before in TV.” ([15:29])

• Emily Milian on adapting in media:
  “While legacy media may not be the thing right now, there are so many opportunities to adapt...we’re on this news podcast, it’s Morning Brew. That’s the wave.” ([18:03])

• Olivia Lake on cross-brand marketing trends:
  “Other companies jumping on bandwagons when they’re hot and trying to capitalize on whatever is, you know, the talk of that week. Because trends are so like flash in the pan today.” ([22:01])

• Raymond Liu on “all press is good press”:
  “If people are talking about it, it got people talking about American Eagle. ...So in the end, I think it was good for the company because people definitely talked about it.” ([22:58])

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Key Timestamps for Easy Reference

• [02:36] Food trends and the rise of fast-casual dining
• [03:32] Chili’s Quarter Pounder story & personal anecdotes
• [04:38] Luckin Coffee vs. Starbucks
• [05:13] Dave & Buster’s nostalgia and atmosphere in dining
• [07:04] Gallup poll: Americans’ attitudes toward drinking
• [08:03] Dry January trends among Gen Z and producers
• [09:02] Changing bar tab habits
• [13:52] Cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
• [15:29] Reflections on the end of an era in late-night TV
• [19:35] Sydney Sweeney & American Eagle’s viral/controversial marketing
• [22:01] The life cycle of viral brand campaigns

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Tone and Takeaways

The producers bring a friendly, candid, and self-aware tone—mixing behind-the-scenes details with social and industry observations. The episode delivers thoughtful analysis with plenty of humor and real-life anecdotes, showing how the stories the show covers filter into the day-to-day lives of the people making it.

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Conclusion

The “Producers Show” offers a breezy yet insightful recap of the year’s trends in business, culture, and marketing, focusing on the producers’ unique POVs and lived experiences. Whether it’s food-induced nostalgia, shifting attitudes toward drinking, the state of legacy media, or viral ad drama, listeners get both the facts and the flavor of 2025’s biggest stories—plus a few secrets from behind the scenes at Morning Brew Daily.

Transcript

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[Emily Milian]

Good morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Emily Milian.

[Raymond Liu]

And I'm Raymond Liu.

[Olivia Graham]

I'm Olivia Graham.

[Olivia Lake]

And I'm Olivia Lake.

[Emily Milian]

It's a producer show. Today we look back at our favorite stories of the year and we share.

[Raymond Liu]

How they came to be and whether or not we were fans of it.

[Olivia Graham]

We discuss food, late night shows, viral marketing campaigns, and why no one wants to drink anymore.

[Olivia Lake]

It's Friday, December 26th.

[Raymond Liu]

Let's ride.

[Emily Milian]

Welcome to the producer show. My name is Emily. I'm the executive producer of Morning Brew Daily, and I'm joined by producer Ray and associate producers Olivia Graham, OG for.

[Olivia Graham (OG)]

Short, and Olivia Lake.

[Emily Milian]

Or Liv. We are excited to take the mics away from Neil and Toby.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah, this is an idea that we've had for a while. So for this special holiday episode, we let the guys take a break and thought, you know, it'd be kind of fun to share some of our favorite stories that we've covered this year.

[Olivia Graham]

Morning Brew Daily covers a lot, so we had our work cut out for us. Each of us went through almost a year's worth of prep docs and podcast episodes and chose our top headlines.

[Olivia Lake]

But first, let's toss it over to the guys for our presenting sponsor.

[Neil (Morning Brew Male Host)]

Hey, thanks, Liv. It's the guys. All right, Neil, when you cook, what's the most important part?

[Toby (Morning Brew Male Host)]

Well, that I have my ingredients, a recipe to follow, and that I want to eat whatever food I make. I like to get pretty creative.

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[Olivia Graham (OG)]

Thank you to Neil and Toby for that stellar ad read that I wrote. All right, for our first story Reflecting on 2025, I, producer Emily, want to take you all on a culinary journey. We cover a lot of different stories on this show, but one of my favorite topics that everyone can get on board with is food. 2025 was the year of slap bowls and fast casual dining. When I was going through our prep docs for almost a year's worth of shows, I came across April 18th where we did a big food roundup. Let me read you the headlines. Chili's trolls McDonald's with its new Quarter Pounder Burger. McDonald's teases the return of snack wraps on social media. Taco Bell is bringing back a wildly popular menu item, Chicken nuggets and Red Robin unveils Burger Pass that can get you bottomless burgers in May. Chili's in particular had a great year, which we covered fairly extensively on this show. They posted a 24% increase in quarterly sales and a 16% increase in traffic. The restaurant's average revenue per location or unit volume has significantly increased from about $3.1 million in 2022 to roughly four and a half million dollars in 2025. Now hand up. When we covered the Quarter Pounder story that weekend, I did go to a Chili's in Westfield, New Jersey, and I tried the burger and it was delicious. So let me ask all of you, have we covered any food stories this year that have made you go out of your way to try something that you may not have thought you would before?

[Olivia Lake]

Yeah, me and Toby actually went down the street and tried the new Luckin coffee. We kind of did a comparison between Luckin and Starbucks to kind of see, you know, taste vibe and also the speediness that was their big sell. It actually wasn't too spicy speedy, but I, I liked it. I liked how it tasted better, which I'm always gonna put over speed. That was something where it was fun. It was, you know, we live in New York City, so we kind of have access to try out all these stories that we cover when it comes to products or food. So yeah, that was a little thing we went out of our way to do.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah, it was fun. Actually I shot that video. So if you go on our Instagram and look at the social video. Funny quick story about that. When we went to Luckin Coffee and did the video. There was another Wall Street Journal reporter that was also covering it. So this was kind of like the big hoopla that Luckin Coffee was breaking in New York City. So we were interested to see what it was really like. But in terms of other food, I have not tried the Chili's Quarter Pounder, which I was super interested, But I did try Chili's earlier in the year. Still hits. I think Chili's is still great. I was like, wow, this is actually very, very good food. Surprisingly.

[Emily Milian]

Yeah. Talking about fast casual restaurants, we took the whole team to Dave and Buster's like, a week ago for our end of year holiday extravaganza. Because December gets pretty crazy for us. So we thought before Thanksgiving, we'll all hit up Dave and Buster's in Times Square.

[Neil (Morning Brew Male Host)]

Yeah.

[Emily Milian]

And they were. I was talking to the waiter, and I was like, hey, like, how are you guys doing? Like, customer traffic. When's your busiest time? And he was actually saying that in the past year. They're really banking on that nostalgia from people like, oh, yeah, I went to Dave and Buster's when I was, like.

[Olivia Graham (OG)]

13 for a birthday party.

[Emily Milian]

And now that kind of wave is reviving their business, which I thought was really interesting because, like, that was me. I hadn't been to Dave and Buster's since I was, like, in high school or middle school, and it was a lot of fun.

[Olivia Lake]

Yeah. I think nostalgia was a huge thing specifically around restaurants and their atmosphere. I mean, we saw the whole cracker barrel thing happen and that whole flavor flip out of when they change their interior. So I think food is obviously drawing people. But if you're going to spend your money and leave the house, the nostalgia factor and the atmosphere is a big thing, too, that we saw this year.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah. I mean, that kind of ties into why Taco Bell was bringing back a widely popular menu item. And this is a year where a lot of consumers were kind of tight on their budgets and kind of spend being more cautious about spending. So terms of, like, the trend of the stories that, Emily, you talked about in terms of food, a lot of people were just looking for value. And as a restaurant in that industry, we're just basically looking at what are some items that we know are going to hit, like the snack wrap, chicken nuggets, the quarter pounder. But, you know, it also speaks to how kind of more expensive McDonald's has kind of been to Chili's. To code down to McDonald's, be like, look, we can offer what you offer. We're not necessarily in the same category, but we can still offer the same value for the Quarter Pounder, you know.

[Emily Milian]

And it was delicious. Encourage everybody to go try it.

[Raymond Liu]

Okay. Well, if y' all remember, back in an August episode, in fact, it was August 14th, and I know this to be exact because I looked it up. We covered a recent Gallup poll that said 53% of Americans believe that drinking, even moderate drinking, was bad for their health. This is up 28% back in 2015. And 2015, I was definitely doing a lot of drinking myself, but that's neither here nor there. Even for those who still have a drinky drink every now and then, alcohol use has decreased across the board. The average number of drinks in a week has gone down to 2.8, which is actually the lowest it's been in decades. Alongside this story, there's been kind of a growing consensus among health professionals that drinking can lead to negative health outcomes. This is contrary to what was said before, which used to say, you know, having a drink every now and then has some benefits, like a glass of red wine. So, team, this is the perfect primer for those getting ready for dry January. Who's with me?

[Olivia Graham]

I mean, I'm doing dry January. I'm a big fan of dry January. I'm Gen Z. It's huge. Pretty much everyone I know does it. I know last year, we all talked about doing dry January. Emily said she was with me.

[Emily Milian]

I did dry January Monday through Thursday.

[Olivia Graham]

Yeah.

[Emily Milian]

And damp January most Sundays.

[Raymond Liu]

But Monday through Thursday, I don't know.

[Emily Milian]

At the end of the week, you're like, oh, my God. Chardonnay was tasting so good right now.

[Olivia Graham]

Absolutely.

[Emily Milian]

But you guys were devout. Like, yeah.

[Olivia Graham]

No, you did it all the way through. That's the one thing that I lock in on is dry January. So I'll be. I'll be participating.

[Raymond Liu]

But do you actually do, like, all of January?

[Olivia Graham]

Oh, yeah.

[Raymond Liu]

Like, no exceptions.

[Olivia Graham]

Yeah, no exceptions.

[Olivia Lake]

No. Yeah. I. I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. An alcohol story that we covered about Gen Z was that they don't start a bar tab. And I remember when we covered that, I started feeling really insecure when I would go out to a bar and they'd be like, do you want to open or close? I was like, open.

[Olivia Graham]

Yeah, I'm cool.

[Olivia Lake]

And I actually had a bartender say thank you to me. Really? I said open, because I guess they're so used to now, people closing out, and they probably just have to do it so much more. Because even if people go back to get drinks, they're Closing out every time. So he appreciated that I wanted to keep the tab open, but I guess that probably led to me drinking more rather than less.

[Olivia Graham]

So it worked. It worked. It worked.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah. It's one of those stories. When we talked about it and we started covering it, I thought it was interesting because I quit drinking two years ago, so I've been kind of on this track.

[Olivia Graham]

Shout out Ray.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah.

[Emily Milian]

Not raving so Gen Z.

[Raymond Liu]

But when the story in the Gallup poll came out, it was interesting that like young people were quitting drinking. Especially like I was kind of wondering like why and you know, in terms of the health benefits. But I mean, I also think about there's just way more non alcoholic options nowadays. There's a lot more people doing non alcoholic beverages or low alcoholic beverages and they taste more or less the same. So I think that contributes to it as well. I also think about cannabis as being a potential option if you kind of need to have some kind of substance for social activities.

[Olivia Graham]

But, but cannabis is not, is not a substitute for drinking.

[Olivia Graham (OG)]

Right.

[Olivia Graham]

That's either have anxiety and have fun or like really have fun.

[Raymond Liu]

It is interesting because there's drinks now kind of marketed to kind of be like, oh, you can have this at the bar and stuff like that.

[Olivia Lake]

I also think it goes into the economy too. I mean, Olivia and I went and shot a video about, you know, bars and watch parties and trying to get Gen Z out to bars. And some of it is probably health concerns, but a lot of it also might just be we don't got money to spend. Like we don't have the money to go out drinking. And you know, in New York City a cocktail can be up to like 20 something dollars. Like, you know, we don't. It might be for a lot of people not wanting to drink because of the health risks and other people just wanting to save their money.

[Olivia Graham]

I mean a lot of people drink at home. Like they'll do shots at home and then they'll go to the bar, they'll buy one drink, sip on it throughout the night. But yeah, when cocktails are like 15 to $20, you have to make do. And I see why people aren't keeping those tabs open.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah. Do you find that the social situation is kind of what makes it tough to like, even if, let's say if you're during dry January, but you still want to go out every now and then, everyone around you is having a drink. Is it difficult for you to be.

[Olivia Graham]

Like, oh yeah, yeah, no, I like do significantly less in January, but It's also like, it's the new year. I'm trying to do my resolutions. Like, I'm keeping myself busy with other stuff. I'm not going to bars, but I'm not going to bars.

[Emily Milian]

Yeah, I remember Toby did it too, last year a lot.

[Olivia Graham]

No, he didn't. He.

[Olivia Graham (OG)]

Yeah.

[Raymond Liu]

Here we go. This is Let it out. There we go. Okay.

[Olivia Graham]

He did the damp. He did the damp.

[Olivia Graham (OG)]

You're right, actually.

[Emily Milian]

You're right. I remember him talking about whether or not he had a beer on a few weekends in dry church. Not to blow up Toby spot for not doing that on this podcast.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah. All right, on that note, Morning Brew Daily. We'll be back right after this.

[Neil (Morning Brew Male Host)]

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[Toby (Morning Brew Male Host)]

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[Toby (Morning Brew Male Host)]

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[Neil (Morning Brew Male Host)]

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[Neil (Morning Brew Male Host)]

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[Olivia Graham]

All right, for our next story, one of the biggest stories of the year coming out of Hollywood was the cancellation of the Late Show, Stephen Colbert. So it was announced in July that the show would end its run in May of 2026. CBS famously stated the decision was purely financial due to economic challenges in late night, not a reflection of the show's performance or content. But that did not stop people from speculating since the cancellation followed Colbert's on air criticism of a recent settlement by cbs, his parent company, Paramount. So this story hit especially close to home for me as someone who used to work on the show along with our other Olivia. We both used to work there, but, yeah, worked there before coming to Morning Brew. And when that news broke, I had people texting me that I didn't talk to in years saying, like, what's the. What's inside scoop? And I'm like, I'm finding out with you. I don't know.

[Raymond Liu]

They think you still worked at the Late Show.

[Olivia Graham]

No, no, no. But they were just like, you did work there, so you're probably in close contact with people. But, yeah, I had no. No information at that time. But what I will say is that it's not so shocking to see the state of legacy media and television changing. I mean, I think we can all agree that the state of network TV has needed some revamping. But on a personal level, it feels kind of like surreal to see the world giving fig pieces on why Colbert sucks or, like why he's awesome or why late night is dead or why streaming is like the biggest thing. But also streaming still sucks too. So ultimately, these things happen in entertainment, like shows get canceled left and right for millions of reasons. But the cancellation of the Late show felt different. It felt like a shift that we haven't seen before in tv. And you couple that with the layoffs that we've seen at Paramount in the past year, and it's. It's just not looking good for legacy media.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah, I know when this story broke, it was kind of crazy because the Late show has kind of been like a landmark in television. Just late night show, late night television in general. And I'm a fan of late night TV and also a big fan of Stephen Colbert. So when the story of his show being canceled, especially being like number one for X amount of years, it's like, what? That kind of didn't make any sense.

[Olivia Graham]

No, it was shocking.

[Raymond Liu]

It was shocking. But I do remember when the story broke, it. It happened overnight. And so just a little peek behind the curtain. So we pretty much set the lineup for Neil and Toby, decided what they want to talk about for the episode, kind of like in the afternoon. And then when we woke up in the morning, saw that the show had been canceled, came to the morning, came into the office and was like, oh, right. So I guess we're talking about Stephen Colbert.

[Olivia Graham]

Yeah.

[Raymond Liu]

And it's just one of those things that we have to pivot. You Know, with limited information that we have. Of course, you know, all the major publications were reporting on it, but it turned out to be like a huge thing because it was this magnifying glass into late night TV and the TV industry as a whole.

[Olivia Graham]

I mean, and then Kimmel, like that news broke. And so I feel like we'll continue to see this ripple effect, but I still think there's hope in entertainment. I don't think, I don't think late night or comedy is dead. I think it just might look a little bit different. Yeah, yeah, my Internet stuff, I totally agree with you.

[Emily Milian]

And what was interesting about the Kimmel thing is that all of a sudden you started to hear these names of these news operating companies and syndicated channel operating companies who were players like Sinclair, which owns a number of television stations around the country, ultimately made the decision to pull Kimmel from their air for what, two weeks? Something like that?

[Raymond Liu]

Like a week.

[Emily Milian]

I used to work in local news. I was a local news reporter in first job out of college in Maine. I work for a company called Tegna, which was purchased by a larger company called Nexar. And now Sinclair and Scripps might merge. And it's just like everything that we've.

[Olivia Graham]

Known, it's just like changing before our eyes.

[Emily Milian]

And like things that I care about because like I'm a news junkie, right? And like have a bunch of friends and we all do who work in this industry. Everything is just changing so rapidly because it's bleeding money and people are trying to figure out how to make money. I mean, we're sitting on a news podcast right now. That's the wave, you know.

[Olivia Graham]

So I think, yeah, I think adapting is really important because there are so many opportunities like this. Obviously we're on this news podcast, it's Morning Brew. So while legacy media may not be the thing right now, there are so many opportunities to adapt.

[Raymond Liu]

When you guys worked over there, it was like this massive machine, I have to imagine.

[Olivia Graham]

Oh yeah, 200 plus staff members.

[Olivia Lake]

But it was very, it's interesting growing up thinking of wanting to work in film and television. That was much more what I had imagined because it is that old school legacy media thing. But it was very, everyone knew their role and it was, you know, down to a science.

[Olivia Graham]

And then it was a very well oiled machine, right.

[Olivia Lake]

But then you move over to something like Morning Brew and you get to try so many different things. It's not as. Because it's a period of transition, you know, that they've been doing late night shows for so many years that they know what works, they know what doesn't. And when you're in this new phase of media, like podcasting or online content, you're kind of learning as you go.

[Raymond Liu]

Yeah.

[Olivia Lake]

So I didn't, when I was a kid, I would never, ever think like, oh, I'm going to work on a podcast.

[Olivia Graham]

Totally. I mean, I think we're still figuring out what our roles are, whereas when we worked at the Late show, it's like once a position opens, then someone else can fill that, but until that position opens, there's no, not really, upward movement.

[Olivia Lake]

Okay, for our final story, American Eagle's Sydney Sweeney collab was the biggest marketing drama of the year, and it got a little out of pocket. The campaign, which debuted in July under the slogan Sydney has great genes, quickly drew accusations online that it was flirting with the language of eugenics and racial superiority. But while critics pounced, others, including President Donald Trump, praised the spot or insisted people were reading too much into it. Trump's approval alone sent American Eagle stock soaring in early August. The numbers tell an even bigger story. The ad racked up nearly 150 million views across social platforms, while American Eagle reported its customer count jumped by more than 700 following the launch of Sydney Sweeney and Travis Kelsey campaigns. And according to data from the brokerage platform, Broke Chooser, Sydney's denim debut boosted the retailer's shares by roughly 10%, doubled its web traffic, and added an estimated $400 million in market value. The controversy resurfaced last month when Sweeney addressed the uproar in a GQ interview. Her response, the reaction was definitely a surprise. But I love jeans. Amid all the backlash, American Eagle clearly benefited from this controversy. Did they single handedly prove that all press is good press?

[Emily Milian]

I mean, you can really make an argument one way or another. I think something, you know, that has been really interesting this year in particular is we see these moments pop up. You have Beyonce with her Levi's jeans ad. There are people who love that and there are people who did not like that. I even look at Labubu, it's like in the beginning of this year, I had no idea what a Labubu is. And then all of a sudden we're talking of how the founder of Pop Mart, which is the parent company of Labubu, is worth like $9 billion or something insane like that.

[Olivia Graham]

Yeah. And I mean, we even see it with the Gap ad with cat's eye. People loved that. And that came out after the Sydney Sweeney jeans campaign. So people were comparing the two and then they were praising the Gap ad. And I think it's interesting that it gained press for both sides. Like whether or not you like the American Eagle ad, more people were talking about it when people were comparing it to Gap. So it's like, what is it? Rising tides lift all boats.

[Raymond Liu]

Yes.

[Olivia Lake]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm not sure if, you know, the Cat's eye one was already shot before the Sydney Sweeney because it came out very soon after. And I can't help but kind of think that, you know, the people on those marketing teams were like, okay, let's use this momentum to kind of get into this conversation. So we're seeing not only like these marketing campaigns have this huge splash, but other companies jumping on bandwagons when they're hot and trying to capitalize on whatever is, you know, the talk of that week. Because trends are so like flash in the pan today.

[Raymond Liu]

It's kind of, it reminds me of like the Coldplay Kiss Cam thing. Yeah. Thing broke out and then all these brands started to do their own spin on it. At first sometimes it's, it's clever, it's, it's funny, like in the moment. But then when they, when there's like too many that do it, you're like, okay, well, I think that's kind of.

[Olivia Lake]

Yeah. Trends are so short lived is because there's just so many, there's just so much content. So you just get like an overwhelming amount of one thing that then you're like, if I see one more video of this, I'm going to throw my yes, so I never want to see it again.

[Toby (Morning Brew Male Host)]

Yeah.

[Raymond Liu]

In a way it's, it is kind of genius in terms of the question of all press. Kind of good press in a way. If people are talking about it, it is, it got people talking about American Eagle. I'm sure like the chief marketing officer defended the campaign, but I'm sure in the inner conversations they were like, how do we become provocative? How do we push boundaries, you know, without stepping over the line? And some people would argue that they did step over the line, but at the same time, you know, it had some metric effect to their shares. So in the end, I think it was good for the company because people.

[Olivia Lake]

Definitely talked about it. I mean, I hadn't heard anyone mention American Eagle in years before this.

[Neil (Morning Brew Male Host)]

Right, exactly.

[Emily Milian]

So I mean, it had been all Abercrombie.

[Olivia Lake]

Right?

[Emily Milian]

Abercrombie's back. Abercrombie, American Eagle.

[Olivia Graham]

Abercrombie does make good jeans. Yeah, they make a difference.

[Raymond Liu]

Good to know.

[Emily Milian]

All right. Well, on that note, we are gonna wrap it up. Hope everybody is enjoying their holiday break. If you get one, if you want to shoot us an email, you, you absolutely can. Morning Brew daily@morning brew.com Also, be sure to follow us on social media and the Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. I'm executive producer Emily.

[Raymond Liu]

And I'm producer Ray.

[Olivia Graham]

I'm associate producer Olivia.

[Olivia Lake]

And I am also associate producer Olivia.

[Emily Milian]

Hair and makeup took Neil and Toby out to lunch. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew Inc. We will see you all next week.

[Raymond Liu]

Bye.

[Emily Milian]

Bye.

[Raymond Liu]

Bye. Limu Emu and Doug.

[Liberty Mutual Narrator]

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[Emily Milian]

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Liberty Mutual Narrator]

Cut the camera. They see us.

[Raymond Liu]

Only pay for what you need@liberty mutual.com Savings Ferry Unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts.