In this week’s Our Take, we track floating volleyballs, emotional stock tickers, lime-lit beaches, and one very fashionable tomato.
ALL TICKER, NO HEART
At first glance, it’s horrifying. A live stock ticker ranking New York men by income, home ownership, height, and “emotional availability”,as if dating were just another market to play. But that’s exactly the point. In characteristically provocative fashion, A24 has launched Men of NY, an interactive and deeply satirical campaign to promote its upcoming film Materialists, directed by Celine Song. The platform, menofny.com, invites single men across the city to submit personal profiles, which are then scored and ranked in real time – turning courtship into capital.
The campaign taps directly into the film’s core theme: the transactional nature of modern romance. With its heroine caught in a triangle shaped by lifestyle, love, and economics, materialists asks what – and who – we’re really valuing. Men of NY extends that question into the real world, as users scroll submissions and watch men rise and fall on a live ticker feed that echoes the logic of financial markets.
In a surreal twist, the data from the site will also appear in real-world locations, including digital billboards and screens at the New York Stock Exchange, blurring the line between romantic currency and literal capital.
With its blend of performance art, cultural critique and viral marketing, Men of NY cements A24’s place as one of the most daring and self-aware studios in film. As Materialists heads toward release, the campaign delivers a biting, stylish prelude to the film’s deeper exploration of status, desire and the economics of intimacy.
SUNSETS AND CERVESAS
Born on the beaches of Mexico, Corona has long been synonymous with laid-back living, golden hour light, and that unmistakable lime ritual. It’s a brand built on sunsets and vibes.
So all credit to the genius art director at JKR who spotted a simple, “wish I’d thought of that” truth: when you flip a Corona bottle upside down, it looks like a sunset. Corona loved it, and they went big. The resulting OOH campaign rolled out across South Africa, Chile, and Canada – each location chosen for one specific reason: it had to be near a popular sunset view spot.
Corona and JKR keep finding new ways to capture this moment. And just like every sunset, and every lime-enhanced beer, it always hits different.
Cast away Crystal ball predicts doom
It’s been 25 years since Wilson slipped off that raft in Cast Away. He’s still out there. And 450 years from now, he still will be — broken down into microplastics, invisible but still polluting the ocean. By then, the island he and Tom Hanks once washed up on will be underwater.
The Odyssey of Wilson campaign takes the iconic volleyball from Cast Away and turns him into an unlikely climate witness, spotlighting the urgent crisis facing our oceans. By tracing Wilson’s imagined 450-year drift across polluted waters, the campaign turns complex scientific facts into a simple and emotional story. It draws directly from UNESCO’s 2024 State of the Ocean Report, which warns of rising sea levels, dangerously high temperatures, shrinking oxygen zones, and increasing acidity.
Developed by Africa Creative, the campaign uses immersive films, a custom-built website, real-world installations and live media moments to create a cultural flashpoint grounded in science.
What makes it so effective is its emotional pull. By showing Wilson slowly break down, we witness what is really happening to the ocean. It’s a smart, moving example of how a beloved cultural reference can be repurposed to drive awareness and inspire action with creativity and meaning.
LOEWE’S TOMATO MOMENT, RERIPENED
Loewe is having a moment. Their latest viral success began with a TikTok of a man in a subway station, holding a Loewe bag, set to Lorde’s Buzzcut Season. A fan commented, “This could have been a Loewe ad.” Days later, the brand reposted the video on its official account. No glossy reshoot, no campaign – just a perfectly timed, softly branded moment that showed luxury fashion knows how to listen and have fun.
The bag itself features Loewe’s now-famous tomato design – a callback to last year’s viral moment when a photo of a (rather beautiful) heirloom tomato was described by a fan as “so Loewe.” The brand ran with it, turning the comment into an actual tomato-shaped bag.
For brands, this is a sharp case study in cultural fluency. Loewe isn’t just reacting to online buzz – it’s participating in it. From the tomato moment to the Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy campaign in 2024, the brand has built a voice that blends irony with intimacy.
Under creative director Jonathan Anderson, Loewe embraced this tone fully, proving that even the most storied houses benefit from letting go of control and joining the conversation. As Jack McCollough and Lázaro Hernández step in, we’re keen to see how they carry that spirit forward.