August was a busy month in marketing, from eye-catching OOH to campaigns that missed the mark and some major shifts in social. Here’s what caught our eye.
Unmissable Out-of-Home
Out-of-home advertising was having an eye-catching month. Netflix turned a billboard into a living situation to promote its new film, The Last House, placing a performer inside a transparent room high above Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. Armed with nothing but a whiteboard, the “trapped” character communicated with passersby, bringing the film’s unsettling premise to life IRL.
Another shocking yet effective campaign came from haircare brand K18. The brand took things in a very different (but equally unmissable) direction, rolling a giant hairball through the streets of New York City to represent the billions of hairs New Yorkers could save with its new IQ Serum. The stunt quickly became a social media conversation of its own, with people stopping to film it, questioning where it came from, and reacting with everything from fascination to absolute disgust. This giant, shower-drain-esque hairball became a conversation starter, paid partnership spectacle, and photoshoot opportunity all in one. Between the mystery of a man living inside a billboard and the sheer absurdity of a massive ball of hair rolling down Fifth Avenue, both OOH campaigns were show-stopping, genuinely creative, and got people excited to stop during their commutes and interact with the brand.
This isn’t just a creative moment; OOH advertising is doing well from a business perspective, too. U.S. out-of-home advertising revenue reached $3.16 billion in Q2 2026, up 10.7% year over year, marking the first time the industry has surpassed $3 billion in a single quarter. Digital OOH was an especially strong driver, growing 18.5% year over year.
A Swing and a Miss
A co-branded golf commercial from Good Good Golf and Callaway sparked major backlash after depicting co-founder Garrett Clark shoving former collegiate golfer Alexis Miestowski to the ground and warning her not to touch his golf club. While the creators described the 60-second skit as a parody of a horror movie, audiences were quick to call out the ad for its depiction of violence against women. What started as a single commercial quickly became a much bigger brand crisis. Callaway ended its multi-year partnership with Good Good Golf, major retailers pulled the brand’s merchandise, Golf Channel delayed the premiere of a Good Good reality series, and Good Good stepped down as title sponsor of an upcoming PGA Tour event in Austin, Texas. Both companies issued apologies, with Callaway CEO Chip Brewer acknowledging that the ad’s approval “should never have happened” and pledging $1 million to groups preventing violence against women following severe backlash. The conversation quickly made its way to social media, with viewers rallying against the brand and contributing to an overwhelmingly negative response across social platforms.
This is a pretty clear example of a campaign that simply did not work. The response raised an important question: how did this concept make it through development, production, and approval without a pause to consider whether the final advertisement aligned with the brand’s values? There’s absolutely a place for humor, edge, and provocative creativity in marketing, but brands have to think carefully about what they’re asking audiences to laugh at. In this case, the line wasn’t blurry, it was crossed.
What If the Ad Was the Show?
Urban Outfitters-owned fashion rental brand Nuuly just launched a social-first fall campaign built around a mini-drama about modern dating, rather than a traditional fashion ad. The 12-part series, which began rolling out in mid-August, isn’t centered exclusively on Nuuly. Instead, the brand plays a supporting role in a larger narrative featuring up-and-coming actors and content creators. The broader microdrama category is exploding, from dedicated apps like PineDrama and DramaBox to TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, giving brands a new way to create entertainment that people actually have a reason to watch.
For Nuuly, the strategy is pretty simple: instead of interrupting entertainment with an ad, make the entertainment yourself. As Kirsten Henri, senior director of creative and content at Nuuly, put it, “Consumers are fatigued with brands selling hard at them… I think that the speed and the amplification of advertising now makes it really congested.” In a world where consumers can scroll past an ad in half a second, creating something they actually want to watch might be a better way to earn their attention.
In the Feed:
Pocket and Playable AI
- Meta is taking social media beyond the endless scroll with Pocket, its new AI-powered app that lets users create mini interactive games with simple prompts. Once created, those games can be shared into a social feed where others can play, remix, save, and repost them. It’s another sign that social content is becoming less about simply watching and more about interacting, with AI making it easier than ever for anyone to become a creator.
Meta’s $18B Wake-Up Call
- Meta is facing a major reckoning over how its platforms impact young users. The company agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle lawsuits brought by nearly every U.S. state over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive and failed to adequately protect children. The settlement includes stronger teen protections, age-assurance measures, daily usage limits, nighttime restrictions, and changes to notifications and other platform features.
Instagram Wants You Posting More Than Reels
- Instagram is giving creators another reason to diversify their content beyond video. The platform is expanding its invite-only Bonuses program to eligible creators posting photos and carousels, with creators able to earn payouts based on how those posts perform during the bonus period. Instagram hasn’t published a standard payout rate, so this isn’t a “get paid for every view” structure, but it is an interesting shift as the platform gives creators more incentive to keep photos and carousels in the mix. Maybe the feed isn’t dead after all.
See you in September!