Blackbook Weekly: 011
Arsenal, Apple, Rhode, REFY and more, this week's campaigns show what it looks like when brands stop reacting to culture and start moving with it.
This week’s campaigns are a masterclass in knowing your audience before your audience knows what they want.
From Arsenal’s new digital launch to The Ordinary going against the grain, here’s what’s worth paying attention to.
Rhode stays one step ahead
Rhode has made a habit of identifying cultural momentum before it peaks.
For their spring blush and peptide lip tint launch, they tapped rising actress Sarah Pidgeon, a move that puts them one step ahead of the internet conversation rather than reacting to it.
It’s quick, considered and built for the scroll. Pidgeon’s rising profile fits a pattern Rhode’s marketing team has been running for a while now: find the talent with traction, move before everyone else does, and let the timing do the talking.
Apple knows how to move with culture
Apple took a similar approach with the MacBook Air M5 launch, building its campaign around the unmistakable sound of Fela Kuti.
Afrobeat in a global tech rollout is a creative choice that signals something, and it’s one we haven’t really seen at this scale before.
Apple’s campaigns have always leaned on cultural touch points to reflect their audience back to themselves, right before asking them to buy the next shiny thing. But reaching for Fela specifically, an artist whose music carries weight, history and a very particular kind of cool, suggests their cultural antenna is pointing somewhere new.
Arsenal goes digital, and Tems is their opening act
Arsenal launched The Link-Up, a show hosted by Bukayo Saka, and they’ve officially joined the ‘TV showification’ ( we hate this word) of social media. With Tems as the debut guest, it sits at the intersection of football, music and culture, timed to the club’s new app rollout.
But this isn’t Tems’ first appearance at a major sporting moment. The Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated Nigerian singer, songwriter and producer joined the San Diego FC ownership group ahead of their 2025 MLS expansion season, becoming the first African woman to hold an ownership stake in a professional US team. Before that, she performed at Aston Martin’s F1 car launch in February last year.
Arsenal’s move is deliberate. Saka is one of the most commercially appealing players in world football right now, and pairing him with one of the most globally recognisable African artists signals something worth noting. It’s a positioning play, one that extends the club’s cultural reach into markets and audiences that a match highlight reel never will.
Soft Life Ski lets the experience speak
Soft Life Ski, if you haven’t come across it, is the culture-focused ski festival bringing Black and diverse communities to the mountains. Think premium ski trip, DJs, beautiful aesthetics, like a big group of friends who finally left the group chat and actually booked the trip.
For their latest campaign, they brought UK-based creators, including Khaoswithkez, along for the experience and let the trip become the content. The slopes are the backdrop, the creators are the story, and the community builds itself around the footage.
It’s the kind of campaign that keeps working after it’s published. The content has already been reposted across socials ahead of SLS26 LAAX and SLS26 Hemsedal, which is exactly the point.
Very exciting to see more high-production social ads come out of the UK.
REFY makes the audience part of the creative
REFY takes it a step further by making the audience part of the creative. Inviting their community to “call in” with complexion concerns alongside creator Audrey, co-host of the Receipts Podcast, reframes the product launch as a conversation rather than an announcement. Most importantly, it positions REFY as a brand that listens, which, increasingly, is the most powerful thing a beauty brand can be.
The Ordinary holds its ground
And then there’s The Ordinary, which did the opposite of all of this and still came out ahead. While the rest of the industry chases trends, The Ordinary launched a campaign calling out agency marketing culture directly, doubling down on science-led skincare and clinical transparency instead.
It’s a reminder that brand identity, held with enough conviction, as they have for years, is its own kind of cultural statement. You don’t have to chase the conversation if you’ve built something people already trust.
Under Armour trades the ad for the story
With Full Access, Under Armour hands the narrative to creator Rakai and the Clover Boys, building an episodic road-trip series designed for social, not a single ad spot. It’s less about a campaign moment and more about sustained entertainment built around the brand. The format is patient in a way most sportswear marketing isn’t.
The brief is the same: content, community, experience and culture aren’t add-ons anymore, they must be baked into the infrastructure of the brands, especially when they show up online.
If you spotted a campaign we missed, let us know. And if you’re not already part of the conversation, you know where to find us on LinkedIn and Instagram @The Branding BlackBook.