During the month of June, there were news stories that reflected brand experiences, brand extensions, brand identity, brand messaging, brand storytelling, brand strategy, gender bias, gender equality, personal branding, product pricing, special event marketing, and more.
DEATH OF DAVID HOCKNEY
ABC7 News reported, "Artist David Hockney, whose paintings of pools shimmering in the Los Angeles sunshine became icons of 20th-century art, died at the age of 88 on June 11th, a few weeks shy of his 89th birthday. Hockney was born in the north of England but lived much of his life in Southern California, making its sun-drenched suburban views a major motif. Later in life he returned to Europe, finding renewed inspiration in the wooded hills of his native county of Yorkshire and the fields and trees of France's Normandy region. He became one of the UK's most treasured artists, his works selling for record prices at auction. With his trademark round glasses and bleached-blond hair, Hockney was a well-known figure in the swinging British and American art scenes of the 1960s, even before he reached the age of 30. His paintings were just as distinctive, many of them creating a dreamlike world of patterned light bouncing off water and windows, and human forms rendered in flattened, simplified shapes in matte acrylic paint."
Hockney told the Los Angeles Times in 1979, "I'm excited every day. London has lots of dreary parts but I never find anything dreary in Los Angeles."
He told the Associated Press in 1995, "The moment I first sold pictures to earn a living, I felt rich. I've been rich ever since."
ABC7 continued, "His artistic influences ranged widely, from Renaissance portraitists to 19th-century English landscape painter J.M.W. Turner (William Turner), Pablo Picasso's experiments in Cubism, and 20th-century American pop art. He shared with other pop artists an interest in the polished surface of modern life. And, like Andy Warhol with his Brillo boxes and Campbell's soup cans, Hockney occasionally incorporated advertising labels. Even his move to California had a historic precedent, since earlier generations of English artists had sought out the brilliant light of Italy. While paintings of pools were a Hockney trademark, he also literally painted a pool when he decorated the bottom of the swimming pool at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. He didn't limit himself to drawing and painting, though. He contributed costume and set designs for theater and the opera, including a celebrated production of "Tristan und Isolde" first staged in 1987 at the Los Angeles Opera. Always an innovator, Hockney embraced drawing, painting, printmaking, photo collage, and video in a seven-decade career."
Art curator Norman Rosenthal called Hockney "the Picasso of our times. When I say that, people laugh at me, as Picasso was the archetypal artist of the 20th century. But David Hockney is also an incredibly popular artist whose work changes how we see things."
NOTE: I saw the Tropicana Pool at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, soon after it was unveiled in 1988. According to JournalHotels, "As the story goes, Hockney showed up one day in 1988 at the Hollywood Roosevelt with a can of paint and a brush attached to the end of a broom. Over the course of four hours, he decorated the bottom of the empty pool with the circular dashes for which he is so well known. It's a fitting canvas for the artist, who told Architecture Digest in 2018, 'I like swimming. It’s the only exercise I get.'"
BRITAIN'S PROPOSED SOCIAL MEDIA BAN
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on June 15th that the UK will ban social media for under-16s, claiming that the planned measures will go "further than any country in the world" to protect children from online harms. He said, "The changes will back parents grappling with the risks for children that come from the online world and help empower them by providing a clear decision on what is safe and age-appropriate for children. The government will put the bill to lawmakers before Christmas, with protections expected to come into force in Spring 2027."
CNN reported, "The proposed social media ban will affect user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material, alongside algorithms, according to the UK government. This means children will no longer be allowed to access platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal will not be affected."
QUEEN CAMILLA, PADDINGTON THE BEAR, AND READING
According to the Royal Family's website, "On June 6th, The Queen, as Patron of both the National Literacy Trust and The Big Lunch initiative, joined volunteers from across the UK at the British Library to celebrate the power of sharing stories and food to bring communities together...Primary schools in London have benefitted from the National Literacy Trust's "Libraries for Primaries" campaign, co-founded with Penguin Books in 2021 to ensure that every state primary school in the UK has a designated library space by 2029...Also, the National Literacy Trust unveiled Paddington Bear as the new National Year of Reading Ambassador."
PADDINGTON THE BEAR'S ROLE AS "NATIONAL YEAR OF READING AMBASSADOR FOR 2026"
According to HarperCollins UK, "We are so proud to share that the nation's favourite bear, Paddington, has been unveiled as the National Year of Reading Ambassador for 2026! The National Literacy Trust made this announcement at the British Library on March 6th. Karen Jankel, daughter of Paddington's creator, Michael Bond, was there to help hand out Paddington books to librarians, alongside Paddington's editor. Paddington has been inspiring a love of reading in children for generations, and we can't think of a more perfect ambassador for a year dedicated to celebrating books and literacy across the UK!"
According to GBN News, "The National Year of Reading 2026, a joint venture between the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust, seeks to reverse a two-decade decline in children's reading enjoyment. Currently supported by 35,000 volunteers, the campaign aims to recruit 100,000 and inspire millions of readers across all age groups."
According to AndMeetings.com, "Recognised all over the world, thanks to his familiar red hat, blue duffel coat and Wellington boots, Paddington Bear was the creation of English author Michael Bond in 1958. Born in Peru, the loveable bear was sent to London by his elderly Aunt Lucy, after being orphaned in an earthquake. He arrived at Paddington Station with nothing but a small suitcase, wearing a label saying, "Please look after this bear," tied around his neck. He was found by a friendly couple, the Browns, who took Paddington home to 32 Windsor Gardens, London, to start a new life with their children...Author Michael Bond wrote 28 Paddington books in total, the last one in April 2017, only weeks before his death. They have been translated into around 30 languages, selling more than 35 million copies all over the world."
"PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL" WILL ARRIVE ON BROADWAY IN 2027
The Guardian reported, "Marmalade bagels at the ready: London's Paddington Bear musical is to open on Broadway next spring. The phenomenally successful show, which won seven prizes at the Olivier awards, will begin performances on 30 March at the Al Hirschfeld theatre in New York, currently home to Moulin Rouge! The Musical. It’s a long way from 32 Windsor Gardens, where the clumsy but lovable bear from Peru is taken in by the Brown family and (eventually) wins over the whole neighbourhood. The show, based on Michael Bond's 1958 book "A Bear Called Paddington" and the 2014 film adaptation, opened in London at the end of last year to many five-star reviews."
WILL THE UNITED KINGDOM EVER JOIN THE EUROPEAN UNION?
The Guardian reported, "Two-thirds of EU citizens would back Britain rejoining the bloc, while most UK voters say Brexit has been bad for the issues they care about and want closer ties, including levels of integration – such as free movement – long seen as toxic, a survey has found. Ten years after the Brexit referendum, the polling by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a thinktank, found 66 percent of respondents across 15 countries said they either "strongly supported" or "tended to support" UK membership...Many European leaders have reflected this view. France's president, Emmanuel Macron, has said the door is "always open," and Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said Spain would "absolutely" support British membership."
NATIONAL MASCOT DAY
Celebrated every June 17th, National Mascot Day is dedicated to the larger-than-life characters that energize sports teams, schools, brands, and civic organisations. According to AwarenessDays, "From furry animals to fantastical creatures, mascots have been part of American sporting culture for more than 140 years, and this annual day gives fans the chance to appreciate the performers and costumes that bring team spirit to life." Which baseball team mascots can you name? Here are three: the San Diego Chicken (Padres), the Philly Phanatic (Phillies), and Lou Seal (San Francisco Giants).
NEW HAIRCARE PRODUCT LINE EXTENSION FOR e.l.f.
Brand Innovators reported, "e.l.f.'s moniker stands for "eyes, lips, face." So, the new campaign, "What the h.e.l.f.?" incorporates the new product line in a cheeky way. (To be clear, the company is not changing its name.) A new commercial depicts Bigfoot rifling through a camper's unguarded backpack. The creature discovers the new hair-care products, tries them, and the soundtrack immediately changes to more upbeat dance music, as Bigfoot feels the product take hold. The product line is part of the brand's so-called "Zero Distance" commitment from insight to action, after company research indicated 77 percent of e.l.f.'s consumer community expressed interest for haircare products. The new product line includes six products that include shampoo, conditioner, treatment oil, styling cream, and an anti-frizz spray."
According to Kory Marchisotto, president of e.l.f. Brands, "Our community has been asking us to bring e.l.f.fordable luxury into hair, and we listened. Our community does more than influence what we do, they help shape it. We take their insights and turn them into something meaningful, with a little wit and a lot of intention."
COBRANDING: FATHER'S DAY AND BASEBALL
Did you notice all the light blue during baseball games on Father's Day, June 21st? Major League Baseball's relationship with the Prostate Cancer Foundation began in 1996. To honor all dads and father figures and to raise awareness on this important day, players used the light blue color that's associated with prostate cancer for their on-field accessories including wristbands, protective gear, catcher's equipment, and footwear. They also wore blue ribbons on their shirts. And only on Father's Day, blue signage could be seen on bases.
COBRANDING: DUNKIN' AND BARBIE'S DREAMHOUSE
USA Today reported, "Dunkin' teamed up with Mattel's Barbie, offering a variety of pink drinks to welcome summer. To celebrate its collaboration with Barbie, Dunkin' debuted a Barbie DreamHouse-inspired store takeover in New York City, transforming a Midtown Dunkin' (265 West 37th Street) into a pink destination on June 10th."
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: MICROSOFT AND MAYO CLINIC
CNN reported, "People have been seeking health information online since the dawn of the internet. And now, tens of millions of people are turning to artificial intelligence for questions they once asked "Dr. Google." But the large language models behind most mainstream AI chatbots are trained on a wide variety of content — including huge swaths of the internet — meaning the advice can be iffy and occasionally dangerous. Microsoft and Mayo Clinic are now teaming up to address that by building an AI model trained specifically on medical data, including records, research, and the expertise of the hospital's clinicians, which they say will help both patients and providers...The tool could, for example, let patients ask for more details about a diagnosis, better understand likely next steps in their care or get information on preventative care. But it won't happen overnight. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said he expects it to take "many years" for the two parties to train and refine the model to be accurate enough to be trusted for high-stakes health questions and consumer use. The model will initially be available to Mayo Clinic professionals, so they can test it for accuracy before rolling it out more broadly."
NEW OWNER FOR PIZZA HUT
CBS News reported, "Yum! Brands announced that it's selling Pizza Hut in a $2.7 billion deal that will split ownership of the restaurant chain between a U.S. private equity firm and a Chinese restaurant company. The Pizza Hut sale follows years of underperformance. Yum's latest earnings report shows Pizza Hut's sales growth lagging that of its other major restaurant chains, such as KFC and Taco Bell. In February, Yum! Brands said it would close 250 Pizza Hut locations in the U.S. The pizza chain has over 6,000 locations nationwide...Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by two brothers, Frank and Dan Carney. They chose the name because their sign could fit only eight letters, according to the Associated Press. PepsiCo bought the chain in 1977 but spun off its restaurant division in 1997, which became Yum! Brands."
PITTSBURGH TRANSFORMS INTO PICKLESBURGH
Food & Wine reported, "Pittsburgh is prepping for its briniest weekend of the year. Picklesburgh. The city's annual celebration of all things pickled returns July 16th-19th for four days of food and drinks, contests, and a pickle-themed spectacle in Downtown Pittsburgh. Created by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and presented by Heinz, the festival nods to the food company's long history in the city, as well as its longtime association with all things pickled. Since launching in 2015, Picklesburgh has grown from a charmingly offbeat summer event into one of Pittsburgh's major food festivals. This year, the free festival is set to be its biggest yet, with a return to a four-day run after last year's three-day event drew more than 208,000 attendees. Visitors can expect a pickle juice drinking contest, bobbing for pickles, and a rideable mechanical pickle. The festival goes far beyond classic dill spears, with food and drink vendors turning pickled ingredients into everything from snacks and sandwiches to sweets and drinks. Past offerings have incorporated pickles into beer, cocktails, iced tea, pizza, and even ice cream. Treats like fried pickles, pickle grilled cheese, dill pickle cotton candy, and chocolate-covered pickles are also crowd favorites....Prepare for Pittsburgh to be completely consumed by pickles for one tangy weekend."
SPACEX'S IPO
On June 12th, Elon Musk's company SPACEX, had its initial public offering (IPO). While the stock's price continued to rise in the days following the IPO, it will be interesting to see how the company's contracts with NASA will evolve.
OPENING OF NEW PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
Chicago is home to the newest Presidential Library. The Obama Presidential Center officially opened to the public on June 19th. The greeting shared on the center's website was clear, "Hope has a home, and it's time to open the doors." And in their opening remarks, Salon reported, "Together, the Obamas framed the center as more than a repository of history. It is, they argued, an invitation to action."
BRAND MARKETING CAMPAIGNS FOR NY KNICKS' NBA WIN
Campaign reported, "When the New York Knicks clinched their long-awaited championship title during Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals matchup against the San Antonio Spurs after a 53-year drought on June 13th, the hundreds of thousands of rapturous fans lining the streets of the city at public watch parties weren't the only ones reveling in the moment. Brand marketers also went all-in for the historic win, which saw the scrappy veterans roar back from a game-long deficit once again in spectacular fashion to seal a nailbiting 94-90 victory in front of Knicks faithfuls and many of the team's legends." Here were three of the campaigns:
NIKE: "Following the Knicks win over the Spurs, the apparel brand released a film centered on a relieved fan excitedly running and cartwheeling through the streets as Billy Joel's classic "New York State of Mind" plays."
OAKLEY META: "The smartglasses brand debuted a large billboard ad outside Madison Square Garden. In the ad, Spike Lee wears the brand's Performance AI glasses with cheering fans reflected in the lenses and the tagline 'Who's got the best fans?'"
NEW YORK LOTTERY: "The state lottery organization asked over 13,000 retailers across the state to voluntarily switch off their NY Lottery signs during the game in support of the Knicks Finals run. The activation was teased on the Thursday before the game with a video capturing bodega owners and retailers dimming their lights. The org and its agency McCann recently released its Can You Imagine campaign, which shows young players dreaming of what they would do with their winnings. The clever stunt made a statement that a Knicks Finals win was a dream every New Yorker collectively shared."
DEATH OF CLIVE DAVIS
The AP reported, "Clive Davis died at the age of 94 on June 22nd. Davis was the record company lawyer who became one of the music industry's most powerful figures, launching or resurrecting the careers of such superstars as Bruce Springstreen, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Billy Joel, and Alicia Keys. Michael Bublé said the music executive "believed in people and their dreams." Unlike other record moguls whose influence waned as they got older, Davis' only seemed to grow, spanning multiple genres and labels. Into his later years, he was directing the careers of everyone from Barry Manilow to "American Idol" winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. And his exclusive pre-Grammys gala, held the Saturday night before the Sunday award show every year since 1975, continued to be an institution."
DEATH OF JAMES BURROWS
NPR reported, "James Burrows died at the age of 85 on June 19th. Often referred to as the "Godfather of the American sitcom," he left an indelible mark on television over a five-decade career. He directed more than a thousand episodes for sitcoms including "Taxi," "Cheers," "Friends," "Frasier," "Will & Grace" and more...Burrows understood that great comedy was never simply about laughter. It was about humanity, connection, and truth.
His big break was directing an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," after which he landed jobs directing multiple episodes of many popular sitcoms of the 1970s, including "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Tony Randall Show," "Laverne & Shirley" and "Taxi." By the time he co-created "Cheers" with Glen and Les Charles in 1982, James Burrows was considered the best sitcom director in the business, a title he maintained for decades. The reasons were obvious. James Burrows made one of the most significant improvements to the sitcom genre since "I Love Lucy" popularized the three-camera format of shooting before a studio audience. Burrows added a fourth camera, which allowed him to capture more close-ups and frame the action as naturally as he could.
But it wasn't just the quantity of premiere episodes directed by James Burrows that's so amazing. It's the quality. He directed the introductory episodes of "Taxi," "Cheers" and "Frasier" - not just the original 1993 "Frasier," but the 2023 remake as well, 30 years later. He also directed the first episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," "Night Court," "Wings," "NewsRadio," "3rd Rock From The Sun," "Dharma & Greg," "Two And A Half Men," "Friends" and "Will & Grace." And sometimes, James Burrows stuck around for quite a while - for more than 200 episodes of both "Will & Grace" and "Cheers" and 75 episodes of "Taxi.""
DEATH OF JANE YOLEN
The Guardian reported, "Jane Yolen died at the age of 87 on June 11th. She devoted her professional life to children's books, not only as an award-winning author but also as an editor, journalist, and university teacher. With an exceptional number of books to her name – Terror Birds, her 450th title, is due to be published in July – she was most highly praised for her inventive retellings of fairytales, in which she included both gentle and tough magic, some of which had serious and painful consequences. Yolen described herself as "a writer of literary or art fairytales, stories that use the elements of old stories – the cadences, the magical settings or objects – but concern themselves with modern themes." Critics have described them as being in the best traditions of the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen.
Yolen's imaginative fantasy fiction, including The Mermaid’s Three Wishes (1978), shared many of these qualities, as did her most ambitious and highly regarded novel, The Devil's Arithmetic (1988), a time-travelling story in which Hannah Stern, a contemporary child celebrating Passover with her family, is sent back in time to Poland in 1942 where she lives the experience of being sent to a concentration camp. The book was nominated for a Nebula award, won the children's book category of the National Jewish Book award, and in 1999, was turned into a film of the same name starring Kirsten Dunst as Hannah. For younger readers, Yolen wrote picture books including Owl Moon (1987), illustrated by John Schoenhurr, a simply written, poetic story about a child's first experience of a wintry landscape, which won the Caldecott medal. Given the remarkable number of books she wrote, which included a handful of adult novels, it is not surprising that she was frequently labelled as prolific. It was not a description that Yolen valued."
Instead, Yolen said, "I would rather say I have a very low threshold of boredom, and so I have tried my hand at many different kinds of writing: picture books, fantasy, fairytales, straight fiction, verse, and non-fiction."
DEATH OF NORMA YAEGER
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported, "Norma Yaeger died at the age of 96 on June 3rd. Yaeger became a rare female stockbroker in the early 1960s and went on to found two securities firms in the overwhelmingly male financial world. She was 32 and and known as Norma Nahmias when she began her financial career in 1962 with Hornblower & Weeks, a brokerage firm in New York. That year, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), hoping to encourage more women to invest in stocks, had sponsored an educational fim, "The Lady and the Stock Exchange." At the time, few women worked as stockbrokers, but Hornblower and some other firms believed that hiring female brokers might help them expand their clientele. Nahmias was not seeking to break barriers. Her aim was to find a highpaying job to support her family...During a Hornblower training program in which she was the only woman, she was told that she would not be welcome at sessions on the exchange floor. No female stockbrokers were welcome there, as some men considered them bad luck. She insisted and was finally admitted."
According to Janice Traflet, a Bucknell University professor of accounting anf financial management who has studied the history of women in finance, "Norma Yaeger helped open doors for other women." In 1967, another Wall Street pioneer, Muriel Siebert, made headlines by becoming the first woman to acquire a seat on the New York Stock Exchange."
THE LEGACY OF JUDY BLUME'S WRITING CAREER
NPR reported in late June, "Judy Blume is the legendary writer of books for young adults including Are You There God It's Me Margaret, Deenie, Tiger Eyes, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Blubber. Her last book, 2015's In The Unlikely Event, was published more than a decade ago. Blume now spends her time reading children's books behind the counter at her bookstore in Key West, Florida. Though she says she is done writing, her books remain beloved; her readers numerous and devoted."
Blume told NPR, "I always had stories inside my head — when I was 9 years old. I bounced a rubber ball against the side of my house for hours. But really what was going on were stories. Fabulous stories, very melodramatic. I never told anybody. I never asked a friend, "Hey, do you have stories inside your head all the time?" Because I thought they'd think I was weird, which I might have been. So the stories were always there...[My process for writing was] I kept a notebook for each book, and I scribbled everything in it. Everything, everything, everything for a long time. For months. And then on the day that I feel ready to start, well, that's either the scariest part of writing or the best. Because, you know, when you have a good day — I mean, I had kids, and I would sit down at the dinner table and I would say, like, "You will never believe what Tony did today." Because they're real. They're real to you. And you're living with them for months, sometimes years. And you're locked up in a little room all day with them. That's why 50 years is enough. I was ready to come out into the world. But I have found another career that I love dearly. I have a bookstore and I love that."
NOTE: As a reader of many of Blume's books, I'm glad she shared many memorable stories!
THREADS' UPDATES
TechCrunch reported, "Nearly three years after launching as a competitor to Twitter/X, Threads has reached 500 million monthly active users, the company announced on June 16th. The Meta-owned social platform also announced a series of new features launching today, including a "Your Algo" tool that lets users control what they see in their feed. By allowing users to temporarily influence what appears on their feeds, Threads gains an edge over X and other competitors by offering a feature that isn't available on rival platforms."
PAYMENT TO OLYMPICS ATHLETES
The Guardian reported, "The International Olympic Committee has broken with 130 years of tradition by deciding to pay athletes to compete at the Olympic Games. Starting with the recent Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, all competitors will be entitled to a $10,000 grant from the IOC regardless of whether they are NBA stars or on the poverty line. About 14,000 athletes from the Summer and Winter Games are eligible for the payment, at a cost to the IOC of about $140 million. Athletes would receive the money six months after competing, provided they did not fail a doping test or violate the Olympic charter...The move marks another significant shift in IOC policy under its new leader, Kirsty Coventry. In March, Coventry introduced greater protections for the female category as part of her Fit for the Future reforms, which are designed to keep the Olympics at the forefront of global sport."
According to Pau Gasol, the head of the IOC's athletes' commission, "This grant will be available to every Olympian. Not just medal winners, not just athletes from certain countries, every Olympian. Because while every athlete's journey is different, every Olympian has made sacrifices to reach the Olympic stage - years of dedication, years of hard work, years of believing in a dream."
AMAZON'S PRIME DAYS
RetailDive reported, "After a spring announcement that Prime Day was moving back to June, the e-commerce giant revealed that it will run for four days, from June 23rd to June 26th. In recent years, the members-only event was held in July, with last year's sale running for four days for the first time. The event is coming at a time when consumer confidence is dragging as the price of gasoline and other goods goes up, according to the Conference Board. As a result, households are cutting spending. Fifty-seven percent of consumers in May said that high prices are eroding their finances, according to the University of Michigan...Deals this year are across more than 35 categories, including apparel, beauty, kitchen, home and electronics. The company is also bringing back its "Today’s Big Deal" section, which was first introduced in 2025. Deals drop three times a day, featuring five or more products with price cuts of up to 50 percent off."
Did you get any deals during Amazon's Prime Days?
What other recent marketing buzz caught your attention? Since there's always something happening that impacts marketing, read #DebbieLaskeysBlog for the scoop!
Image Credits: Peggy Fortnum and HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd., Paddington the Musical, and Ilia Fresco (via ArtworkArchive.com - Hockney pool).
Watch the video of Paddington's arrival in New York (leading up to 2027):
https://broadway.paddingtonthemusical.com/
Watch a throwback video of Queen Elizabeth II having tea with Paddington the Bear in June 2022:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UfiCa244XE
Watch President Obama's welcome on June 18th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAnuAGLMJog
