From Netflix’s massive $480 million bet on Stranger Things to a four-year-old "invisible" song dethroning Taylor Swift overnight, TOPAgency.com CEO Ben Kaplan deconstructs the week culture moved faster than the boardroom.

We’re double-checking the ROI on $8M Super Bowl ads and diving into how a "cheap" Chinese AI model just undercut OpenAI by 50x. Is "Made in China" the new premium in AI, or a race to the bottom?

Featuring:

• The Joe Keery Effect: How the Stranger Things finale created a global #1 hit from a 2022 "side hustle."

• Streaming Math: Why $60M per episode is actually a bargain for Netflix retention.

• The DeepSeek Disruption: Can a $300k Chinese model actually beat billions in Silicon Valley R&D?

• NVIDIA vs. Tesla: Why Wall Street just picked the "platform" over the "product" at CES.

• The Dictator’s Hoodie: How American brand Origin turned Nicolas Maduro’s arrest into a masterclass in real-time marketing.

• Jonas Brothers vs. AI: Why the future of "real" advertising might mean ditching the algorithms.

Watch on YouTube at: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@branded-podcast

Follow on TikTok at: http://tiktok.com/@top_agency

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From McDonald's AI Christmas disaster to Disney's billion-dollar gamble on letting you remix Mickey Mouse, TOPAgency.com CEO Ben Kaplan breaks down the wildest marketing moves of the week—and reveals why more brand control might mean letting go.Featuring:

• McDonald's fully AI-generated Christmas ad (and why it flopped)
• Disney's $1B OpenAI deal: Remixing Mickey without losing control
• Lululemon founder Chip Wilson publicly trashing his own company
• Trump Accounts: Policy or presidential branding campaign?
• Netflix vs. Ellison family's $108B bid for Warner Brothers
• Australia bans social media for everyone under 16
• Mondelez's creepy AI that predicts your Oreo craving before you do

Watch on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@branded-podcastFollow on TikTok at: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c2q2UAA2xDRI2mqCLFeTMGet merch at: https://store.nationaltoday.com/

From Pepsi undoing a decade of design history to Olipop parking a SpongeBob Airstream where digital ads can't reach, we're learning from the week's wildest marketing news.

Did you know that BMW paid for an entire highway lane to give their drivers a free ride—and then forced Mercedes and Audi owners to advertise for them to get the same perk?

Ben Kaplan (CEO, TopAgency.com) breaks down why the era of "perfect" campaigns is over—and why the next big marketing wins won’t come from data-driven insights alone.

Featuring:

• Apple’s $230 "sock" & the luxury of zero utility
• BMW’s petty (and brilliant) Russian toll lane war
• Pepsi’s "Ugly Sweater" logo pivot
• Adidas vs. Nike: Why gut instinct can sometimes beat big data
• The Campbell’s Soup hot mic disaster
• Olipop’s SpongeBob Airstream & physical retargeting
• Why "No AI" is the new premium flex

Minimalism had a long run. But consumers got bored and brands felt it.
BMW pulled off a toll-lane stunt that turned Audi and Mercedes drivers into unwilling brand ambassadors.

Apple dropped a knitted “iPhone Pocket” that has more in common with Hermès than hardware. And Pepsi just ended a decade of flat, sanitized branding with a bold return to maximalism.

The new wave isn’t clean, quiet, or neutral.
It’s loud, emotional, and intentionally polarizing.

Because in a crowded market, clarity doesn’t win contrast does.

Which brand nailed the moment?

LeBron had millions bracing for goodbye—until the twist revealed it wasn’t retirement at all. And that’s just one part of this week’s story about belief: who has it, who earns it, and how brands weaponize it.

From China blocking influencers without real credentials…
to Cheetos turning a baseball superstition into an official MLB deal to Prime, Feastables, and Stanley proving that today’s strongest brands start as people, not companies.

Ben Kaplan (Founder + CEO, Top Agency) breaks down why trust, identity, and community have become the new moat in marketing—and why the next decade of brand power won’t come from logos, ads, or campaigns, but from belief systems.

Featuring:
• LeBron x Hennessy emotional clickbait
• China’s degree-verified influencer crackdown
• Cheetos & the Seattle superstition
• Prime Hydration + Feastables as belief-driven brands
• The Stanley Cup identity movement
• Why attention isn’t enough anymore—belief is the strategy

IKEA made a bed for your phone. Whole Foods turned a grocery list into a cultural forecast. Volkswagen’s top-selling product isn’t a car—it’s sausage.

This week on BRANDED Weekly, Ben Kaplan (Founder + CEO, Top Agency) breaks down how brands stopped reacting to culture and started writing it. From IKEA’s behavioral design experiments to Whole Foods’ 2026 trend report and Volkswagen’s nostalgia-driven empire, today’s most powerful brands aren’t selling products—they’re engineering habits, identity, and emotion.

We unpack:
IKEA’s Phone Bed — gamifying guilt and designing digital discipline.

Whole Foods’ Trend Report — transforming food into status and self-expression.

Volkswagen’s Currywurst — turning nostalgia into profit.

The Death of Millennial Brands — why aesthetic polish stopped working.

Because branding in 2025 isn’t about storytelling anymore—it’s about habit formation, desire curation, and emotional anchoring.

Cheetos sold the mess. Domino’s engineered a sound.

The Ordinary called beauty a scam while selling it. This week on BRANDED, Ben Kaplan (Founder + CEO, Top Agency) breaks down how brands turned irony into influence and self-awareness into strategy.

He breaks down how emotion, irony, and algorithmic storytelling are reshaping the attention economy. From absurd stunts to sensory branding, these campaigns prove that authenticity now means admitting the performance.

We unpack:
Cheetos & Vogel’s — turning snacks and bread into fashion statements.

Ramp — B2B marketing that made pain a spectacle (literally).

Domino’s — rebranding taste through sound design.

The Ordinary — exposing beauty’s biggest lie while cashing in on it.

OpenAI — redefining category ownership as ChatGPT becomes shorthand for AI.

Plus, a deep dive into how nostalgia, dopamine, and self-awareness became the ultimate growth hacks in 2025’s marketing landscape.

In 2025, emotion is the business model.
From Ferrari’s Apple-designed EV to Doritos’ cheese-pull spectacle — Ben Kaplan breaks down how outrage, nostalgia, and virality became strategy.