5. David Beckham toasts Stella Artois

A chance celebrity encounter is no match for a night out with friends, David Beckham illustrates in a new campaign for Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Stella Artois. A commercial shows the former soccer star getting ready to enjoy the beer virtually unnoticed despite his proximity to other bar patrons. Stella’s first campaign from its new agency, Gut Miami, introduces a new slogan, “Worth More,” which reflects a changing definition of the premium beer market, a brand marketer told Ad Age.

4. Olivia Rodrigo’s Crumbl cookie

In February, pop star Olivia Rodrigo partnered with Crumbl on a purple sandwich cookie to kick off her Guts tour. One man in Texas was not impressed. TikTok user DreInDallas posted a video review of that week’s Crumbl offerings, including the Guts cookie. He incorrectly called Rodrigo “Olivia Rodriguez, that little Mexican girl that be crying” before rating her cookie 0/10.

But Rodrigo took it in stride, using the video sound to post her own TikTok of her taking a bite of the cookie with the caption, “idk i think its rlly good.” Her video got over 34 million views. Fans have also gone to get the cookie to make their own versions using the audio, potentially boosting sales of the cookie to get in on the trend.

3. The ‘perfect’ smoothie

Smoothie King hopes that its latest partnership with Dude Perfect will help the smoothie brand reach the Dudes’ 60 million YouTube followers. The limited-time blue smoothie is a blend of pineapples, bananas, kiwi and apple juice, protein powder, vanilla frozen yogurt, turbinado sugar and blue spirulina. The partnership also features three collectors cups.

“When we look at the core Dude Perfect audience, we see a landscape of young families who embrace sports, activity and who are looking for better on-the-go options,” said Marianne Radley, Smoothie King’s chief marketing officer.

2. Giving a voice to Coke Zero

Creative use of AI has allowed Coke Zero Sugar to speak for itself. As part of the ongoing “Best Coke Ever?” campaign, Coca-Cola trained AI on the bubbles and condensation of a Coke Zero to identify shapes that make up a font (“Coke sans sugar”) which the brand will use in advertisements such as billboards—in any language. AI separately captured the sounds of Coke Zero’s pop and fizz, assembling them into musical notes that sing the brand’s praises.

1. WcDonald’s World

For years, anime shows turned the McDonald’s arches upside down to reference the brand without getting sued. Now, McDonald’s has embraced the anime fandom with its “WcDonald’s” campaign, which features new manga packaging, spicy chili sauce and four short anime episodes as ads.

The campaign leans into a genre that has grown popular among Gen Z. The illustrations for the campaign were drawn by Acky Bright, a manga artist and former illustrator for DC Comics.