TR.BIZ: 8.28.2025

Your late-mid-week check-in, from the J.Crew AI scandal to Mr. Beast going full brat 💫

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 talking fandoms gone wild, Mr. Beast as a brat, the vibe cancellation of J.Crew over AI, and how the loss of USAID continues to harm.

💥 Soft Powers: Sooo Taylor is getting married

In urgent Millennial news that I am sure you heard, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are getting married, which is very exciting for those following the lore but ultimately is butter on toast, water being wet, etc.: it’s the performance of a lifetime by a gown. While the whole ordeal has been a parade of performative Millennial mid-ness by millionaires, the buzz around it is really indicative of two things: the culture recession and everything being mid, an era where culture is soft and fluffy, with the bite of an earthworm. This plays into kidified adulthoods, sure, but more to the mushy brained reality of life in a world that’s falling apart. Case in point, to the point of all brands being crisis: this kicked off a branded field day across social media that came days after the branded field day tied to her new album. “Brand safe” in an enviable way, Taylor is “above politics,” a tether to simpler times before Gaza and Russia and Trump and billionaires and AI, a savvy rich person who branded themself as the warm cardigan from high school and, in these hell times, holding up such a performative (billionaire) sweater is the best thing you can do, even as Travis debuts an American Eagle collab. It’s all deeply concerning and deeply boring, a signal of “the end of something.” Critical thinking? Challenging media? Diversity? Unsure, but we should keep an eye on the Gaylors as canaries in these coal mines as their wlw delusions come crashing down.

🤩 Hollyweird Insider, I: The summer you babysat your fandom

Amazon’s break out teen show The Summer I Turned Pretty is ending, with episodes being peppered over the summer versus the everything-streaming-at-once model, a signal of Hollywood realigning itself to the old model for maximum views. Good for them! But what’s most interesting is that the show’s repeated reminders for their fandom to behave, by putting out statements on social media tell them they have a zero tolerance policy against hate speech and bullying, that these aren’t real people but television show characters. This plays not only into similar moves by Love Island to its fandom but also the long history of Star Wars’ toxic, racist fandom. What this signals is the end of a certain way of creating which, to the point of Taylor, illustrates brands and businesses seeking safety after giving the kids (The audience.) whatever they wanted as you cashed out, creating electrified golden handcuffs in the process. Like Millennial parents trying to walk back gentle parenting because it results in your being walked all over and the conversation around the loss of music criticism due to fandoms (which is relevant this week given the New Yorker story), this is what happens when we give audiences everything only to get nothing but money in return: we get bratty customers who throw their poop at us, expecting more special edition episodes and albums that do not challenge them, that feel the same, that continue the hamster wheel of their present which is actually the past, instead of allowing creatives to move them and the culture forward. Everyone loses here — and we can point to someone like Taylor’s toxic nostalgia and self-vicimization as a big culprit. They learned it from you, mom.

🤩 Hollyweird Insider, II: How a fat gay comedian destroyed Mr. Beast