If alien activity has been of concern lately, good news! All suspicions of extraterrestrial life can be collected and discussed on a website made for that very purpose.

Bugonia, the latest film from Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos, centers on two conspiracy theorists kidnapping a pharmaceutical CEO, and the marketing team decided to use the real world to keep audiences immersed in its tin-foil-hat world.

Ahead of the movie’s late-October release, Focus Features, which produced and distributed the film, rolled out three in-world stunts, including a LinkedIn page for the company Auxolith, where main character Michelle Fuller (played by Emma Stone) is CEO; OOH billboards seemingly advertising Fuller and Auxolith that were graffitied over with phrases like “Andromedan filth” and “Join the human resistance”; and a conspiracy theory website, HumanResistanceHQ.com, housing research about “suspected Andromedans.” None of it is real, but for at least a second, anyone coming across these stunts just might believe it could be.

“Not every movie lends itself to that [in-world approach],” Joshua Kornblit, EVP of marketing at Focus Features, told us. “In this case, it felt like there was a real reason for it to exist.”

Continue reading here.—JN

When people think of the Super Bowl, they might picture beer and quarterbacks. But during the second half of the 2026 game, spirits company Sazerac will make its Super Bowl ad debut with something a little different: vodka and robots.

In between halftime and the third quarter, Svedka, the vodka brand Sazerac acquired from Constellation Brands earlier this year, plans to air an ad starring its brand mascot Fembot, who was revitalized this summer after about a decade in retirement. Robots also helped with the making of the ad: It was produced and animated with an assist from AI, according to Sazerac CMO Sara Saunders.

While some of the cast and creators of the campaign are robots, the goal is to spark real human emotions on advertising’s biggest stage as the Sazerac team looks to revive the Svedka brand while potentially introducing it to a new consumer base.

“The brand hasn’t had advertising for probably close to 10 years, and so we’ve got a lot of new consumers that will be introduced to the brand,” Saunders told Marketing Brew. “We want to make sure that they understand who the brand is, and that the brand engages them in a meaningful way that emotionally connects to them.”

Read more here.—AM

What happens when flowers meet alcohol? Well, they make the perfect gifting bundle, at least according to Meenakshi Lala, CEO of floral delivery service UrbanStems, which has struck up a partnership with Drinks, the AI-powered e-commerce alcohol platform.

To kick off the collaboration, UrbanStems will offer its editorial floral arrangements paired with organic wines from Avaline (co-founded by Cameron Diaz)—all shipped together through Drinks’s decentralized fulfillment network.

The move comes as UrbanStems continues to scale its business. Bloomberg reported the company’s valuation at more than $100 million in 2021, and it went on to raise another $5 million in a Series C extension in 2024.

For UrbanStems, the partnership represents its first step toward becoming a broader premium gifting platform. For Drinks, it’s “the first major move into the gifting vertical,” per the company.

“Our vision is always about challenging the idea of, how do we bring those, those elements together to create this highly curated, cohesive gifting experience for our consumer, where, as a gifter, you don’t have to go through three websites or three platforms and to check out to really deliver that wow factor to your recipe,” Lala told Retail Brew, adding that wine was a perfect choice to debut the partnership as it is a “natural complement to flowers,” while Avaline stood out as it was both woman-founded and eco-conscious.

Although it’s starting with wine, UrbanStems isn’t stopping there. Lala said the brand will track shopper response to the initial rollout and expects to expand into additional alcohol brands and categories over time.

Continue reading on Retail Brew.—JS

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