Aug 20, 2026 · 1 hr 13 min · 8 segments
Prada is making films with Barry Jenkins and Zohran Mamdani has 69% approval for posting about potholes. Hilary Duff just sold out a tour that has nothing to do with nostalgia, and Americans are…
Sonia BaschezHost
Jiya JaisinghGuest
[chuckles] What does that mean? So most of us that are paying p- attention to Hollywood have noticed that it's just shrinking and shrinking.
Um, the industry has shed about forty-nine thousand jobs over the past decade and is producing nearly fifty percent fewer TV shows than before the strikes.
Um, into that vacuum, we're seeing brands step in, not just as sponsors or as brand placements, but as studios to create their own content to bring in, um, fans by using big names, um, in directing and executives and talent, um, in order for people to be paying attention to good content.
Um, so a few of the brands that we're seeing, Gap hired Pam Kaufman, who's a former Paramount exec, as a chief entertainment officer.
Kraft ha- has Heinz The Kitchen, P- there's PG&G Studios, Starbucks Studios, Dick's Sporting Goods, Cookie Jar, and Dream Studios.
Um, this means that brand content budgets keep growing, and into this, we're having, um, stars, um, jump into the effort.
Um, so some of the commercials or TikToks or social content you may have seen are Martin Scr- Scorsese starring in Lavazza's Family Blend series on YouTube and TikTok, uh, with his daughter, Francesca, directing.
Um, Matt Damon has a rap alter ego [laughs] that came out this week, um, called The Nomad, which is Damon backwards, to promo- promote his water.org charity.
Um, and then obviously, many of us have seen, and some of us know people that work at Maximum Effort with Ryan Reynolds and George Stewie.
Um, very famously last year, the astronomer situation that happened with the kiss cam, um, and before that, the Peloton cover-- commercial that, uh, [chuckles] was responding to a viral Peloton commercial.
Um, so I think what I find, like, really important here is that we talk a lot about how important good content is, narrative, storytelling, messaging.
And at a time when people in Hollywood are getting less and less jobs working on TV shows and movies, they need to find somewhere to go [chuckles] work.
And so that's where brands are kind of stepping in and filling in that space, um, in order to get audiences to be paying attention to content and story narratives that are out there.
Some of the ones we've talked about before, the InStyle, um, YouTube, um, like s- series.
It's, like, a web series that really doesn't have anything to do with the magazine itself, but is its own standalone thing.
Um, we've seen a variety of, you know, TikToks and, you know, podcasts and all that.
And, you know, one of the ones we talked about recently as well is how, like, Netflix is having in-show, uh, sponsorships for some of their shows, including Running Point, the Kate Hudson, um, led vehicle that had six brands that are featured inside the show.
[chuckles] What does that mean? So most of us that are paying p- attention to Hollywood have noticed that it's just shrinking and shrinking.
Um, the industry has shed about forty-nine thousand jobs over the past decade and is producing nearly fifty percent fewer TV shows than before the strikes.
Um, into that vacuum, we're seeing brands step in, not just as sponsors or as brand placements, but as studios to create their own content to bring in, um, fans by using big names, um, in directing and executives and talent, um, in order for people to be paying attention to good content.
Um, so a few of the brands that we're seeing, Gap hired Pam Kaufman, who's a former Paramount exec, as a chief entertainment officer.
Kraft ha- has Heinz The Kitchen, P- there's PG&G Studios, Starbucks Studios, Dick's Sporting Goods, Cookie Jar, and Dream Studios.
Um, this means that brand content budgets keep growing, and into this, we're having, um, stars, um, jump into the effort.
Um, so some of the commercials or TikToks or social content you may have seen are Martin Scr- Scorsese starring in Lavazza's Family Blend series on YouTube and TikTok, uh, with his daughter, Francesca, directing.
Um, Matt Damon has a rap alter ego [laughs] that came out this week, um, called The Nomad, which is Damon backwards, to promo- promote his water.org charity.
Um, and then obviously, many of us have seen, and some of us know people that work at Maximum Effort with Ryan Reynolds and George Stewie.
Um, very famously last year, the astronomer situation that happened with the kiss cam, um, and before that, the Peloton cover-- commercial that, uh, [chuckles] was responding to a viral Peloton commercial.
Um, so I think what I find, like, really important here is that we talk a lot about how important good content is, narrative, storytelling, messaging.
And at a time when people in Hollywood are getting less and less jobs working on TV shows and movies, they need to find somewhere to go [chuckles] work.
And so that's where brands are kind of stepping in and filling in that space, um, in order to get audiences to be paying attention to content and story narratives that are out there.
Some of the ones we've talked about before, the InStyle, um, YouTube, um, like s- series.
It's, like, a web series that really doesn't have anything to do with the magazine itself, but is its own standalone thing.
Um, we've seen a variety of, you know, TikToks and, you know, podcasts and all that.
And, you know, one of the ones we talked about recently as well is how, like, Netflix is having in-show, uh, sponsorships for some of their shows, including Running Point, the Kate Hudson, um, led vehicle that had six brands that are featured inside the show.
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