TR.BIZ: 8.19.2025

Your early-mid-week check-in ✨

Welcome to The Trend Report: Business Edition™, a midweek look at top stories, trends, and more of what’s happening online and off by Kyle of The Trend Report™. Today, we’re e.l.f.’s spokesperson dramas, people using AI to simp for brands, and the best book I read this month.

🏛️ Politicultural: It’s okay to block Gavin Newsom lol

For the past few days, California governor Gavin Newsom has been going feral on Twitter, mostly to own the non-libs, playing into his larger agenda of redistricting and fending off Trump and seeding a 2028 run. It’s noble, given the relative defanged meeting of the moment by the left, and is standing out as it’s meeting fire with fire. Is that bad? Eh: we don’t know yet. What is known is that this AI-slop approach, this tapping into “dark woke” woes and very topical lookism takes, isn’t necessarily advancing any conversation but plays by the same playbook of “We’ve got to win back the right!” which doesn’t feel like a winning approach.

• What can you do about this? This is a somewhat cautionary tale about adopting “the enemy”’s tactics as the only approach as that makes you very block-able, even if it does play into these very rage baited times — and these times will change. The flip is that this is entertaining, which is what you have to be now, hence the ongoing discussion of John Stewart as presidential. These could be more successful if they were honestly a bit meaner and bulldoggish, as to not fall into the performative male chasm — which is how I feel they’re landing. This is a win for social media managers though as it is driving conversation, laddering into the expertise of one Camille Zapata. Enter the conversations about the future of social going to expert specialization: that is the space to watch, even if it will evaporate in seconds.

👀 Trend Watchers: First gen combo of words

The phrase “first in my generation to hear this combination of words” has been swirling all summer, and or its various variations about ridiculous phrases and ideas one is being exposed to. It’s a new way to say “this would kill a Victorian child,” which with the added nuance of bloodlines ending speaks to your exposure to the rot of the now. It’s interesting! But it’s also The Great I Haven’t Economy™ by another name, that you’ve tried to escape the aura damage of things like Labubus and Love Island but were cornered, subjected to an idea or string of nonsense corporate speech that you never wanted to hear. Like a curse, like Covid, this is about staying pure in an impure world. It’s so fascinating that we’ve entered a culture where we see the Internet as an inherently dirty place that all users are trying to keep their toes out of, to keep from stepping in the mud so we can “stay pure.” Talk about the conservative in your head taking the wheel!

• What can you do about this? If you’re so inclined, use “first in my generation” or “combination of words” or the whole phrase wherever you can, especially in response to extreme nonsense. This expression is very much in the rising phase and can be used quite excellently to point out modern ridiculousness. Just be aware: it does play into purity culture, if that means anything to you.

🩹 Branded: They really e.l.f.’d it up