What does it take for an ad campaign to become a marketing blockbuster? In this fractured attention economy, no longer does it suffice to be a pretty face hawking miracle creams, luxury SUVs or top-shelf spirits. CMOs are following the movie publicity playbook by hiring Hollywood-founded agencies (Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity) and eschewing traditional ad buys in favor of social media virality and user-generated content (UGC), both of which promise exponentially higher ROI.
Reynolds’ latest culture-jacking marketing master class arrived with Astronomer’s crisis PR campaign that capitalized on the tech company’s spotlight post-“Coldplay couple.” Nine days after the kiss-cam moment that solidified two divorces, Maximum Effort deployed a deadpan “fastvertising” spot strategically starring Gwyneth Paltrow, former wife of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who explained to 36.5 million viewers across social media how your office was “the best place to run Apache Airflow.” For a B2B enterprise platform, that’s marketing magic.
For its inaugural 2026 list of the best star-driven marketing campaigns, THR rounds up the viral launches, collaborations and ads that cut through the noise, drove the cultural conversation and got the world talking — and buying.
For its 2026 Academy Awards commercial (also produced by Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort), L’Oréal Paris paid homage to The Devil Wears Prada 2 by tapping sequel star Ashley (who plays Amari, the new assistant to Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly) and Jenner (this list’s most frequent frontwoman) to play out a scene inspired by the iconic fashion film. Mistaking the supermodel and L’Oreal Paris ambassador as a job candidate for an assistant role at Runway magazine, Jenner is admonished to “look presentable” and is handed the brand’s Colour Riche lipstick and Telescopic Lift mascara. The ad reached the Oscars’ 17.9 million live viewers, with an astronomical 7 billion impressions generated across social. “Kendall was a great sport about it, and that willingness to be in on the joke is a big part of why the spot works. When talent is genuinely having fun, the audience feels it, and both Simone and Kendall knocked it out of the park,” says CMO Wen. “Debuting it during the Oscars, one of the last truly communal viewing moments on television, served as jet fuel for the cultural fire.” Adds L’Oréal Paris USA president Laura Branik, “When you can connect a brand message to a cultural moment in a way that feels authentic and drives measurable business growth, that’s when you know a campaign has truly succeeded. We saw notable increase in sales across our hero products; it earned a level of consumer engagement that signaled true cultural resonance. We are for the Mirandas and everyone else.”
BRANIK ”Legally Blonde. Fortunately, we don’t have to wish anymore. Just this week we announced that we are teaming up with Elle, the Legally Blonde prequel series on Prime Video as the official makeup sponsor of season one.”
In Capital One’s 2026 March Madness campaign, Barkley, Jackson, Johnson and Garner are seen hosting an NCAA-themed sleepover, complete with friendship bracelet-making, an arcade stop, tailgating and a diner meal (where they run into WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark) before finally reaching their courtside destination at the Final Four. In tandem, a “Chuck Blimp” plastered with Barkley’s face sailed over Phoenix and Indianapolis during championship weekend. Measurement agency EDO reported that social engagement fueled millions of organic impressions. When fans clamored to buy the ads’ matching branded PJ sets and friendship bracelets, Capital One stepped up with a digital merch giveaway, boosting credit card user registration.
After Rhode’s $1 billion acquisition — the 2025 beauty deal heard round the world — founder Bieber, for her next move, brought her brand’s glazed donut and strawberry girl aesthetic to Sephora shelves. The TikTok Shop best-selling brand brought back three of its most viral (sold-out) peptide lip treatments as in-store exclusives to drive foot traffic. Bieber deployed her tried-and-true marketing ploys: dropping product hints in GRWM videos to her 57.9 million Instagram followers, sending product mailers for influencers to unbox and embarking on a stylish Sephora press tour in archival designer looks to keep fashion media talking. The result: Rhode earned $10 million in sales in the U.S. and Canada in its first 48 hours, accounting for about 40 percent of all Sephora launch sales, 2.5 times greater than any of the retailer’s previous brand debuts.
Bad Bunny didn’t have to call out Zara (whose marketing head seems to be a state secret) during his Apple Music Halftime Show at the Super Bowl LX. But his cream football-inspired look — which drove $942.4 million in media impact value, according to data analytics firm Launchmetrics — spoke volumes. So much so that when the Grammy winner’s Benito Antonio collection with the Spanish fast fashion label dropped three months later, its core pieces sold out instantly.
By the time Dunkin’ unveiled Carpenter’s Brown Sugar Shakin’ Espresso, more than 10 million users had already devoured the Instagram and TikTok teaser videos. Co-created by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, the cheeky “Shake That Ess” commercial saw the pop star and her grandma vigorously shaking — not stirring — “that ess,” boosting downloads of the Dunkin’ app by 57 percent and selling out the collab’s $13 limited-edition tumblers in 17 minutes.
As Nothing’s new ambassador and shareholder, Charli XCX brought brat vibes and Gen Z marketing instincts to the London-based electronics company. Piggybacking off her new single “Rock Music,” the pop superstar’s debut creative collab was a low-fi campaign (directed by frequent collaborator Aidan Zamiri) that saw her locked in a room for five days to test the Headphone (a)’s 135-hour battery life. “Charli XCX is really the embodiment of rebellious creativity, which is something that Nothing has always championed,” says Nothing CBO Smith. “She’s an example of the cultural force we admire.” Gen Z heard the campaign loud and clear. The $199 headphones sold out across the U.K. and Western Europe within 48 hours.
SMITH ”Probably the launch of Marty Supreme and Timothée Chalamet’s excellent promo campaign, which included custom merch, orange table-tennis balls and a Zoom call where he claims to have invented the color, pitches to turn the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty orange, and then actually makes a giant orange blimp.”
For her Unwell Creative Agency’s inaugural project, Cooper co-wrote, directed and starred in a comedic digital ad for Google’s new Pixel 10 phone. The Call Her Daddy podcast powerhouse (and energy drink entrepreneur) cast Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant and The White Lotus’ Sabrina Impacciatore to star in the girls’ trip-themed spot that brought in more than 39 million views on Cooper’s TikTok alone. Part of a long-term partnership announced in October with Google, the spot presented Pixel devices as cool-girl tech tools (while also hyping Gemini AI and Google Workspace) for Cooper’s hyper-engaged female Gen Z and millennial fan base.
In a 60-second Super Bowl ad (it costs $8 million to run a 30- second spot; you do the math), McConaughey relentlessly trolls Philadelphia Eagles superfan Cooper with the conspiracy theory that the big game was invented to sell food, not football. The stars, says Uber Eats CMO Jeffreys, “brought ideas, humor and a willingness to build on the world of the campaign. What impressed us most was their commitment to the bit. Matthew has an incredible ability to take an absurd idea and deliver it with complete conviction, Bradley brought authenticity, particularly as a die-hard Eagles fan. Their chemistry created the tension and humor that powered the campaign, which helped make it feel like an ongoing cultural narrative rather than a one-off Super Bowl commercial.” The ad also featured appearances by Parker Posey and Amelia Dimoldenberg. Viewers could interact with a choose-your-own-adventure-style feature within the Uber Eats app that delivered nearly 1,000 different versions of the ad with cameos by Jerry Rice, Addison Rae, Severance‘s Tramell Tillman and others. It “generated thousands of unique ad combinations and extended the life of the campaign far beyond the broadcast,” adds Jeffreys, driving a 35 percent increase in search for the food delivery app and a tsunami of user-generated content across social platforms.
Campaign you wish you worked on “I’ve always loved Jeep’s ‘Groundhog Day.’ It’s smart, funny, and incredibly rewatchable — everything a great Super Bowl spot should be. And Bill Murray reprising his role for the first time made it even better.”
JPMORGAN CHASE FOR THE CHASE FREEDOM UNLIMITED CREDIT CARD
The company banked on nostalgia for its Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card campaign with a Home Alone-inspired spot starring the late O’Hara and a shopping mall full of “Kevins!” (Hart and Garnett). “We’d been building the Freedom Holiday idea over three years,” Fremar tells THR. “Kevin and Macaulay brought their own instincts, timing and point of view, which made the spots feel more natural. The [seasonal] timing gave it real momentum,” garnering the ad more than 7.4 million views on YouTube. Culkin stayed in the joke when he joined Hart the following year for a Halloween commercial that also nodded to the iconic ’90s Christmas film.
Agency: National Geographic CreativeWorks
For its eco-conscious Re-Nylon line (made with Econyl, a material spun from ocean trash and abandoned nets), Prada showcased short films starring Cumberbatch, Wright and Sink. Created in partnership with National Geographic CreativeWorks, the mini documentaries brought the A-list ambassadors to Norway, Japan, Hawaii and Mexico to witness the effects of global warming, overfishing and plastic marine pollution. The campaigns exemplified responsible luxury marketing that connected with multiple generations and audiences; 1 percent of Re-Nylon’s global proceeds go to the UNESCO educational program SEA Beyond. With viral moneymakers like handbags and bucket hats, the eco collection contributed to 14 percent year-over-year sales growth for the fashion house.
How does a new independent skin care brand rake in $16 million and sell out in its first week? Having Earle (with 5.6 million Instagram followers) as a founder certainly helps. Known for openly sharing her struggle with cystic acne, the 25-year-old influencer launched cryptic Instagram and TikTok accounts, @WtfIsAlixDoing, and planted Easter eggs in her GRWM videos for months before debuting her acne-focused skin care brand, Reale Actives, in March. As the accounts amassed half a million followers, Earle seeded influencer friends Away suitcases (locked with her new products inside) and puzzle pieces that were added to an NYC digital billboard that incrementally revealed the launch. Earle also invited followers to decode the mystery in real time, generating massive engagement and UCG — not to mention sales for Reale Actives — in the process. “I knew I wanted to do something that pulled people into the story the same way they already engage with me in real life,” Earle tells THR. “My content has always been very ‘come along with me while I figure things out,’ and I wanted my audience to be able to have a say in launching this brand by ultimately figuring it out themselves.” Says Reale Actives CMO Goetz, “When I was brought on, [Earle] had already been working for years with dermatologist Kiran Mian. Acne is usually marketed through insecurity, hiding, or “fixing” yourself. Our goal was to flip that script and build a brand that made people with acne-prone skin feel seen, confident and allowed to show up fully in their real life. The campaign resonated because it tapped into the desire to stop planning your life around your skin. We saw people sharing their own skin stories and talking about the brand as a confidence movement, not just a product drop. From a business standpoint, we sold out twice shortly after launch and had to restock for a third time.”
GOETZ ”The launch of The Dark Knight movie. The campaign included a real-life scavenger hunt that gave each person who found a Joker cake a Nokia phone and, ultimately, a ticket to the world premiere. I’m obsessed with thinking about how we can bring people into the world that you are building, build anticipation and ultimately reward your most loyal fans.”
For her 405 million followers, Gomez’s unfiltered Instagram and TikTok GRWM content acted as authentic ads for her massively successful Rare Beauty. The brand was already the most searched name on Ulta’s site before the line expanded to the retailer’s 1,500-plus doors in February, shattering sales records and becoming the chain’s largest brand launch ever. The attendant “Every Story Belongs” campaign displayed the True to Myself Natural Matte Longwear Foundation’s entire range of 48 hues on women with heritages hailing from across Latin America. The L.A. launch party was capped with a 600-drone show that lit up the sky with a giant Soft Pinch Liquid Blush (a best-seller) — while Gomez’s team shared every moment on social media. The foundation campaign “was part of one of Rare Beauty’s most significant complexion launches and reached over 11 million social views organically,” Rare Beauty CMO Murphy says. “For us, that’s always the goal: proving that staying true to your values and creating work that genuinely resonates with people can drive cultural and business impact. What was most meaningful was seeing people connect with the campaign on a personal level — outside of beauty. The conversations it sparked around representation, belonging and identity reinforced that consumers want to see themselves reflected in the brands they are proud to support.”
The flip-phone giant unveiled its new Razr smartphone line with a Hollywood purple carpet and a fashion event designed for UGC moments, outfitted with an interactive Swarovski crystal display, a DIY phone charm bar and beauty touch-up stations. Hilton walked the runway and ended the night with a DJ set, while other stars (including Natalia Bryant, Isan Elba and Avan Jogia) coordinated with the colorful folding screens in matching looks styled by celebrity stylist Danyul Brown. North American marketing director Martin notes that the starry soiree resulted in “more than 4 billion impressions across paid and organic channels, surpassing every previous Motorola launch benchmark. … This strategy’s success has also translated into sales, with the new Razr family achieving 54 percent more preorder sales year-over-year.”
Agency: Bolded/OBB Media & Fanatics Studios
Jenner was in on the “Kardashian Curse” joke — the fan conspiracy theory claiming that pro athletes suffer bad luck in the field when they date a Kardashian or Jenner — which only helped Fanatics score a sizable 10 percent share of the U.S. online sports betting market. For its Super Bowl 2026 ad blitz, the team merch retailer dared viewers to “Bet With Kendall” and gamble on the New England Patriots winning, or “Fade Kendall,” and bet on the Seattle Seahawks, all in its Fanatics Sportsbook app, while offering a 100 percent matching boost for wagers. Bettors who sided with Jenner left the big game empty-handed, while those who put their money on the Seahawks — including her ex-boyfriend, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, who, yes, sustained major losses during their relationship — took home payouts. (The NBA star trolled the campaign by putting in $1 million and earned an $800,000 profit.) “This was not a traditional endorsement — the idea worked because it leaned into Kendall’s cultural persona in a self‑aware way, and she helped craft how the concept would spark conversation. The campaign generated more than 27 billion earned media impressions; Super Bowl LVIII became Fanatics Sportsbook’s most bet game ever,” says Fanatics Betting and Gaming CMO Kalvaria. “That combination of cultural dominance and tangible business results confirmed that the approach delivered on both brand and performance goals.” The real winner? The charity Feeding America, which received a $1 million donation from Fanatics as part of the campaign.
Calvin Klein’s ’90s-inspired spring 2026 campaign starring Johnson mastered the art of meeting the cultural moment. Ryan Murphy’s American Love Story kick-started a wave of nostalgia across the internet and turned Sarah Pidgeon into a star for her portrayal of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (the fashion designer’s VIP publicist for eight years until her death). Wearing archive-inspired high-rise slim jeans and a white tee in some ads while sporting just underwear in others, Johnson channeled effortless, CBK-coded minimalism. Shot by Gordon von Steiner, the campaign connected with Love Story‘s Gen Z and millennial fans in a subtle, sophisticated manner that was in keeping with the Calvin Klein muse. “Dakota is a fantastic partner because she brings so much of herself to the partnership — her natural confidence, sense of humor and self-awareness to life through Calvin’s lens. We saw double-digit growth in our denim business through our direct-to-consumer channels during the quarter the campaign launched,” Calvin Klein CMO Bottomley tells THR. “We also felt the impact on the cultural conversation and its connection with consumers, generating over 26 million views on Calvin Klein’s Instagram alone in the first 24 hours.”
BOTTOMLEY ”The original Kate Moss campaigns — from underwear through to CK One, they remain a timeless expression of how fashion shapes culture and still influences culture today.”
Move that yoga mat over, Lululemon. The record-breaking launch of NikeSkims (the co-brand effort of Kardashian’s Skims and the sportswear giant) was a slam dunk in experiential marketing, with the #SkimsxNike tag’s 12 million views on TikTok just the tip of the iceberg. To hype up their September debut, the collaborators took over the New York Public Library steps with a choreographed flash mob (clad in NikeSkims, naturally), seeded product for GRWM videos and starred Nike’s iconic athlete ambassadors (Serena Williams, Sha’Carri Richardson and Chloe Kim, to name a few) in a short film and campaign imagery alongside Kardashian. It didn’t hurt that the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan (with a combined 1.5 billion followers on Instagram alone) were in on the social media cross-promo. Key products sold out immediately, with the collab on track to outearn Nike and Skims’ initial investment ($1.7 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively) in revenue projected to land at more than $4 billion in the partnership’s first three years. Kardashian, meanwhile, enjoyed a $5 billion valuation for her company during its post-Nike-Skims funding round.
Hollywood fell into the Gap with the debut collection of new creative director Zac Posen, who outfitted Anne Hathaway, Kendall Jenner, Timothée Chalamet and others in his GapStudio pieces on the red carpet. But the brand leaned into its history of making cultural moments in its digital-first marketing strategy with “Better in Denim” ads starring Katseye dancing in low-rise denim to the tune of Kelis’ “Milkshake.” (The 2003 track saw a 179 percent jump in streams as a result.) In a statement, the company said that the global girl group’s spots scored more than 8 billion impressions and a record of more than 600 million views in a month, making it their “most successful social media campaign to date.”
Burberry’s gabardine trench coats are so recognizable that the British heritage fashion house needed only to release black-and-white portraits to fete the silhouette. “This campaign was created to celebrate Burberry’s 170th anniversary and our iconic trench coat,” Burberry CMO Kiman says. “The idea was simple: Let each person’s personality shine through naturally.” Supermodels Kate Moss, Karen Elson and Kendall Jenner; Hollywood stars Jonathan Bailey and Daisy Edgar-Jones; athletes Jack Draper and Eberechi Eze; Chinese actor Wu Lei; and musicians Hikaru Utada, Kid Cudi and J.Y. Park were among those who donned trenches in spots that hit millions of social media impressions across generations, particularly in the East Asian market. The multichannel campaign included 15-second behind-the-scenes snippets on TikTok that garnered high loop rates, with high-impact posters greeting arriving jet setters at Heathrow’s baggage carousel. “The campaign drove strong brand relevance and engagement, and we could really see the excitement around our iconic rainwear and trench coats,” adds Kiman. “One of the best signs of success is when my friends, who don’t work in fashion, start texting me about a campaign. That’s when you know it’s landed beyond our industry.”
About a month before he died at 76, the godfather of heavy metal demanded, “Clone me, you bastards!” in his June 2025 campaign with Liquid Death. The edgy beverage brand released 10 iced tea cans laced with Osbourne’s DNA, each signed and hand-crushed by the Prince of Darkness for $450 a pop. “Ozzy was so easy to work with and absolutely got our sense of humor. Our founder, Mike Cessario, pitched Ozzy and Sharon the clone idea, and they loved it. Ozzy even let us film in his iconic basement — you can see the signatures of famous visitors on top of his fireplace,” says Murphy. “Before we launch a campaign, [we ask] ourselves: ‘Did it genuinely make us laugh, and would we actually share it with our friends?’ ” The world agreed with the final assessment, and this campaign quickly racked up more than 10 million views, with “Infinitely Recyclable Ozzy” cans selling out instantly, including one sample reportedly going for $4,600 on eBay.
Convincing an audience to watch a five-minute ad is no easy feat, but Apple did just that last year with its Spike Jonze-directed AirPods 4 commercial starring Pascal. The electronics giant continued its tradition of forgoing tech specs jargon for cinematic advertising to showcase its new earbuds’ active noise cancellation feature. More than 7 million YouTube users watched the Mandalorian star break out into an energetic dance number (in a sequence dreamed up by Tanisha Scott, choreographer to Rihanna and Beyoncé) within 24 hours of the spot’s digital premiere, and Apple leveraged its #Shotoniphone tag to share exclusive behind-the-scenes footage promoting the iPhone’s director-grade cameras.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a wireless company that can outwit Reynolds’ Mint Mobile. After getting acquired for $1.3 billion by T-Mobile, the cell service had organizing expert Kondo join up with Reynolds in convincing viewers to “choose joy” by decluttering their “big cable” bill and switching to Mint’s $45 bundle, scoring tens of millions of views across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube in its first week, while content creators uploaded organic UCG “thanking and discarding” their old utility bills.
A$AP Rocky’s new gig for Chanel went viral months beforehand when he was spotted seemingly proposing to Qualley in NYC in October. The duo starred in the luxury fashion house’s short film directed by Michel Gondry for its Métiers d’art 2026 collection campaign, which also marked the rapper’s debut as Chanel’s first Black male global ambassador. (Matthieu Blazy, former creative director of Bottega Veneta, brought his muse with him.) The ensuing fashion chatter brought $5.7 million in media impact value within 48 hours, with the hip-hop star’s 20 million Insta followers generating more Chanel buzz as they speculated about a potential menswear line.
Levi’s was already running on a high after Beyonce’s Reiimagine campaign (which played off her hit, “LEVII’S JEANS”), when its derriere-focused collab with Blackpink’s Rosé debuted. Part of the global “Behind Every Original” campaign, the partnership was announced in a 2026 Super Bowl spot (the clothing company’s first in 20 years) and included an Instagram post that garnered 1.3 million likes (the most in Levi’s history) and a documentary-style video on the K-pop superstar. The 29-year-old singer sported custom Levi’s looks at Blackpink shows that were later put on display at the brand’s flagship in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, attracting thousands of fans. And when Levi’s added “As Seen on Rosé” labels to its ’90s-inspired trucker jackets and boot-cut jeans, those pieces flew off shelves, too.
Love it or hate it, AE’s controversial “Good Jeans” campaign starring Sweeney had millions of tongues wagging. When hot takes argued whether the “genes vs. jeans” pun was intended (some interpreted it as a nod to eugenics), the brand responded, ” ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story.” The Euphoria star’s response (rather, lack of it) only fueled conversations, while the chatter resulted in 40 billion impressions for the campaign and a 25 percent jump in AE’s stock prices, with the $80 “Sydney Jacket” snapped up in a day, and the $90 “Sydney Jean” (proceeds were donated to Crisis Text Line) selling out in a week. “The ability for a celebrity to move culture and product is very rare, and Sydney is able to blend the two. Following the campaign launch, we saw a 5 percent increase in new customer acquisition. We knew the campaign was resonating when it became part of the broader cultural conversation and reached well beyond our existing customer base,” CMO Sommers says. “To me, that’s the clearest indicator that the work wasn’t just generating attention, it was bringing new consumers into the brand and driving meaningful engagement with our products.” The actress eventually responded to the backlash, saying that she does not “support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign.” Case closed.
BROMMERS ”Most recently, the Nike Knicks campaign with Billy Joel’s “New York, New York,” because what could be better than a Josh Safdie production celebrating the biggest win in 53 years!”
Snoop Dogg showed the web3 world how to drop it like it’s hot in Telegram’s NFT launch campaign. The cloud-based messaging app, headquartered in Dubai, tapped the rap icon to rep its foray into blockchain, resulting in a benchmark campaign that cracked the code in making fintech more accessible to the masses. Telegram leveraged its 1 billion active global users and Snoop’s more than 80 million followers to advertise its “Telegram Gifts” NFTs, which sold out in 30 minutes and generated $12 million in sales directly within the app. The rapper also dropped an exclusive music video and song, “Gifts,” that featured the NFTs’ digital designs, including vintage cars and cannabis iconography.
