Edition 123.

5 brand plays worth knowing:

🐄 The Laughing Cow just stopped laughing

For the first time in 100+ years, The Laughing Cow wiped the laugh off its packaging.

So far, I’ve found a mystery site (aptly named, The Not Laughing Cow), IRL shelf sightings and a CMO who says the cow will explain “when she’s ready.”

I can’t make this up.

We’re mid-brand tease, so I can’t judge much quite yet.

But I’m keeping an eye on this smile-gone-serious brand activation.

A century-old brand asset just became the plot, reminding me of what Staples recently did with its legacy “Easy” button.

Takeaway: Brands are cashing in on their equity by giving familiar assets new storylines.

🎯 Carrying the campaign around town

On a recent Target run, I spied the brand swapping plastic bags for reusable red ones at checkout. Turns out, the reusable red-bag swap is part of a limited-time activation. It’s all part of Target’s new “Inside Out” campaign.

Its rollout, so far, includes creator-led Red Bag Stories, “bagspotting” and reusable bags distributed across five cities and two college campuses.

Once again, a familiar brand asset gets a new job.

“We’re ... using something as familiar as the Target bag to tell those stories in a fresh, joyful way,” says Target’s vice president of creative.

Takeaway: A checkout utility just became a walking media placement (and shoppers, bags in hand, are the billboard).

👀 “Is the like Button dead?”

Social media consultant Jack Appleby shares, “We only scroll social media now.”

Benchmark data and an independent analysis give that observation weight. Data from Socialinsider (70m posts analyzed) and analysis from a social analytics manager at Anthropic (2 million+ posts analyzed), found:

• Average likes on carousels: down 73%
• Average likes on Reels: down 81%
• Average comments per post on TikTok: down 24%
• Average comments per post on Instagram: down 16%
• On IG, as shares increased, specifically on meme accounts, comments declined.

Overall, Socialinsider suggests a move toward “more passive engagement.”

But, the good news is this: while likes and comments declined, shares and video views were up across the board.

I’d call this “quiet engagement.”

TikTok and LinkedIn algorithms also explicitly use watch time or dwell behavior (how long someone sits through your post, carousel or video) as recommendation signals. Meaning, you don’t *need* the likes for your content to be served up again to those quiet engagers (also affectionately known as lurkers).

Takeaway: Someone can scroll, watch and never applaud you publicly. But their attention has value and can still leave a signal.

🍿 Bring your best binge-worthy content

YouTube wants it (and even redesigned the platform to support it).

The video giant just announced its newest features, and microdramas (episodic stories told in bite-size vertical episodes, often with cliffhangers) are IN.

YouTube says microdramas surpassed 6.5 billion views in the first half of 2026, with watch time up more than 50% year-over-year. So they introduced Shorts series, letting creators organize Shorts into seasons and episodes.

Will you need a soap opera? No. But borrow the format for case studies, before-and-afters, FAQs (my personal favorite) and behind-the-scenes stories.

Takeaway: Don’t post short-forms in isolation. Build a series.

☎️ The “free” consult call: to have one, or not?

Stumbled across a consultant frustrated that people used her free 30-minute calls to source personalized advice. My take? Thirty minutes is too long for a meet-and-greet. Mine are 15 minutes and invite-only: enough to gauge fit, experience and objectives, plus maybe talk weather or sports. Beyond that, it’s easy to drift into the expertise people pay you for. More visibility brings more asks. Protect your time.

Takeaway: A fit call should qualify the work, not quietly become the work.

More brand bytes next Sunday at 5!