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Hypebeast

Brands in the Entertainment Age: The Report Powered by Hypemind and The Lede Company

Views, impressions, reach: in 2026, raw exposure numbers don’t tell the full story. They don’t necessarily indicate that someone really cared. Rather, they reflect that a message was favored by an algorithm. Messages are drowning in and distorted by noise. Companies are no longer just competing with other brands. They are competing with the entire culture of the internet, all at once, on a single screen, every second of every day. This report, powered by Hypebeast’s culturally-driven insights brand HYPEMIND and built with The Lede Company, explores how, in an increasingly crowded attention economy, brands must evolve beyond traditional advertising models and begin operating more like entertainment franchises, creating aspirational story worlds, inviting consumer participation, and building long-term cultural relevance rather than short-term virality.

Vogue

Is This TV’s Coolest Night Out? Inside the Star-Studded Gotham Awards

“The Gothams are the New York cool kid of awards shows,” Kerry Washington told Vogue—with a gleaming statuette in the crook of her arm. It’s true: more intimate than its L.A. counterparts, the Gotham Television Awards are something of a new-in-town industry favorite. Monday night’s ceremony marked just the third-ever edition of the television-focused sister event to the winter’s Gotham Film Awards. In attendance for the occasion was a parade of famous faces, from Michelle Pfeiffer to Sarah Pidgeon to Odessa A’zion. (In fact, it’d be faster to name who wasn’t in the room.)

Vogue

Gracie Abrams’s Brave New World

Across the parking lot at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center, Gracie Abrams is kneeling in the grass next to her long-haired dachshund, Weenie. It’s a quiet Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, and we’re the only two people in the lot, so she’s easy to spot. She hurries toward me in cargo pants, a sweatshirt that says “BUG” in block letters, and a navy Red Sox cap covering her dark brown pixie cut. Her casual dog-walking look almost makes Abrams, 26, pass for a college student visiting her parents on break. You could, for at least a second, forget that she’s a global, Grammy-nominated pop star who counts Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Lorde among her biggest champions.

Variety

Arsenal Star Bukayo Saka Sets Documentary ‘The Time Is Now’: It’s the ‘Chance to Tell My Story in a Way I Never Have Before’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Having recently been instrumental to Arsenal‘s most successful campaign in more than 20 years, soccer star Bukayo Saka — one of the most gifted British footballers playing today — is getting the documentary treatment.

The New Yorker

The Twenty-Six-Year-Old Behind “Obsession,” a Terrifying Tale of a Crush Gone Awry

For the first few minutes, you could be forgiven for thinking that Curry Barker’s début feature, “Obsession,” was a rom-com. The film opens with its shy, sensitive twentysomething protagonist, Bear, struggling to confess his feelings for his childhood friend, Nikki. Their relationship is full of banter and, so far, strictly platonic; he’s smitten and terrified of ruining everything. He stumbles upon an old novelty toy called the One Wish Willow, which promises its user whatever they desire, and, after failing to admit his crush, impulsively wishes for Nikki to love him “more than anyone in the fucking world.” He gets what he wants

Fast Company

How Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media became Hollywood’s most innovative—and bankable—company

Usually, all-nighters are for college students and people worried about losing their jobs if they don’t deliver. And if there’s one thing that Ryan Coogler—writer, director, and producer of Sinners—has demonstrated over his career, it’s that he delivers. Yet on this February afternoon—a day before his blood-soaked Southern Gothic blockbuster would become the most Oscar-nominated project in cinema history—he’s sitting across from me in a knit monochrome tracksuit and thick-rimmed glasses, looking rather sleep

Vogue

Doja Cat Is Having the Last Laugh

I hear Doja Cat before I see her. I’m standing under basement fluorescents in Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, being eyed up and down by security guards. Her vocal warm-up drifts through closed doors: “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!” Doja’s assistant slips through, gives me the thumbs-up, and ushers me into a dressing room the size of a tennis court, black velvet curtains concealing the walls. The arpeggios continue—“la-la-la-la-la-la-la!”—and then, as my presence is announced, Doja’s silky, supple voice switches to a theater-kid vibrato: “I like ho-o-o-ot guys!”

V Magazine

Zara Larsson Claims Her Moment

There is a certain velocity associated with pop stardom. The culture treats pop stars as sudden apparitions—mythical figures who crash into the zeitgeist on a surge of momentum, often carried by a viral moment or a perfectly timed song. Just as quickly as they arrive, they disappear, cycled through a system that rewards immediacy over endurance. Zara Larsson has always existed outside that model. She first appeared on a talent show in her home country at just ten years old, then steadily built a career that unfolded over time rather than all at once.