Beauty, fashion and fast-food brands are releasing original albums and entertainment deals, a bet that cultural buzz will move Gen Z from streams to sales.
CNBC reported that E.l.f. Beauty unveiled “Mirror Mix,” an original album with seven rising artists, including a WNBA player and a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, and put it on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Roblox.
The drop was not a one-off stunt. Gap announced a multiyear tie-up with boy band Just Your Type days earlier. Wendy’s, in recent weeks, rolled out an emo album built for the drive-thru crowd. Executives across those companies say traditional ads no longer carry the same weight, so they are building songs, tours and “fashiontainment” instead.
The common thread is simple: own the feed, stay top of mind, and turn cultural noise into traffic and purchases.
E.l.f. framed “Mirror Mix” as its second full album after 2024’s “Get Ready With Music, The Album.” The company’s first big music swing came in 2019 with the track “eyes.lips.face.”
Patrick O’Keefe, E.l.f.’s chief integrated marketing officer, told CNBC the brand wants community and emotion at the center of its campaigns.
"When you put community at the center of everything... programs and campaigns and building music, which evokes emotion... when you do that, it changes the conversation. And we want to be top of mind with our community,"
He tied the strategy to an early TikTok hit that explained the brand name itself.
"We were one of the first movers on TikTok, and we created an original song around eyes, lips, face, and it went viral. It propelled the brand into new dimensions,"
O’Keefe said unaided awareness tripled over five years, to 45% from 13%. CEO Tarang Amin has leaned even harder into the entertainment pitch. At a Deutsche Bank consumer conference in early June, he joked that E.l.f. is “an entertainment company that happens to sell beauty products.”
On the business side, the company reported profits doubled in its most recently reported quarter and marked a 30th straight quarter of growth. In the fiscal first quarter, it poured more than 20% of net sales back into marketing and digital spend, with that share expected to climb later in the year.
Tariff refunds added more fuel. After the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs and a federal judge ordered the money returned, E.l.f. took in $50 million in refunds in the three months ended June 30. Amin told CNBC in August the plan was to put that cash straight back into value and promotion.
"Our plan is to fully reinvest that money in both pricing, to have a superior value proposition, as well as increased marketing across our entire portfolio of brands,"
He added that the company never believed those tariffs should have hit in the first place, so the refunds would go to brand strength.
Gap moved on a parallel track. Days before E.l.f.’s album news, the retailer announced a multiyear partnership with Just Your Type. Under a new “fashiontainment” platform, Gap said it would develop a multi-episode docuseries, a national mall tour and a clothing collection with the band.
Pam Kaufman, Gap’s chief entertainment officer, said in a press release the deal would “create something much bigger than a campaign.” She cast the project as a return to the brand’s old mix of style, music and culture.
"Gap has always lived at the intersection of style, music and culture, and our Fashiontainment platform builds on that legacy by putting our brands at the center of the stories and cultural moments people care about,"
CEO Richard Dickson set that tone in January when Gap created the chief entertainment officer role. In his statement then, he argued customers buy stories as much as clothes.
"Fashion is entertainment, and today’s customers aren’t just buying apparel, they’re buying into brands that tell compelling stories and drive cultural conversations,"
The push lands after a long commercial grind. Between 2001 and 2021, Gap closed about 2,000 stores and watched annual sales fall by $3.5 billion. Entertainment partnerships are now part of the turnaround bet: fewer pure ad buys, more owned cultural moments.
Wendy’s took the joke-and-stream route. In recent weeks the chain debuted “Songs to Listen to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot,” an emo album with tongue-in-cheek titles such as “She Said She Didn’t Want Fries” and “The Best Combo Meal on the Worst Night of My Life.”
The lead track topped 450,000 Spotify streams. The announcement pulled in hundreds of thousands of Instagram likes. Humor was the hook; traffic was the goal.
CEO Bob Wright made that priority plain on the company’s most recent earnings call, pointing to brand fame that still has to convert into restaurant visits.
"We have one of the most recognizable brands in the industry, and we need to make our messaging, media and creative drive a meaningful connection with our customers and drive traffic to our restaurants,"
In other words, a recognizable logo is not enough if younger customers live on short-form video and playlist culture. An emo album in a parking lot is one more way to show up where they already scroll.
A June report from United Talent Agency, “The Culture Canon,” put hard percentages behind the scramble. The agency said cultural relevance moves the whole purchase funnel, especially for Gen Z.
"Consumers who perceive a brand as culturally relevant are more likely to notice it (90% of Gen Z), think favorably of it (87% of Gen Z), consider it (81% of Gen Z), and ultimately buy from it (68% of Gen Z), proving culture’s ROI extends far beyond brand perception."
That is the business case E.l.f., Gap and Wendy’s are acting on. If a shopper never notices the brand, the rest of the funnel never opens. Music, docuseries and meme-ready album titles are tools to force the first notice.
Amin described the same loop in June when he talked about virality feeding demand and turning hits into lasting franchises. O’Keefe’s TikTok origin story fits the pattern: one sticky song, then higher awareness, then a standing music program years later.
None of this requires a government mandate. It is companies reading the same market signal and spending their own money to answer it. E.l.f. is recycling tariff refunds into price and promotion. Gap is staffing entertainment leadership after two decades of store losses. Wendy’s is using dark humor to pull ears back to the square burger.
Shoppers still decide with their wallets. Streams and likes are early proof of attention, not a final verdict on lipstick, denim or late-night fries. But the direction is clear: more original content, more artist deals, and less faith that a standard commercial break will do the job alone.
In a free market, brands follow the audience. Right now that audience lives in playlists and feeds, so the albums keep coming.