How FX brought a slice of the ‘Adults’ life to life

There’s nothing quite like being a few years out of college, living in a big city, and trying to figure it all out with your friends in your 20s.

Ahead of the Season 2 premiere of the FX sitcom Adults, which follows a group of friends through early adulthood, the network looked to bring that quintessential sense of chaos to life.

In New York, where the show takes place, FX teamed up with local favorite Prince Street Pizza to put on Munchie Mart, a bodega-style pop-up takeover of the entertainment venue Arlene’s Grocery. In Los Angeles, the team aimed to bring a piece of New York’s stoop-sale culture to the West Coast via a partnership with live-selling app Whatnot at Melrose Trading Post.

Together, the two experiential activations were meant to help immerse fans in an experience that was true to the Gen-Z-focused show, Kenya Hardaway, SVP of integrated promotions at FX, told us.

“We want to engage the fans in that world and into the elements and themes that they really enjoy and appreciate,” she said. “In building that, we are careful to carry through with the look and feel of the show to highlight the characters, to highlight some of the tone, and build out a consumer journey that allows them to step inside that.”

Stop and shop

The Munchie Mart and Stoop Sale experiences were not the first time FX has taken Adults off screen and into the places that young people tend to congregate. For the show’s premiere last year, the team popped up in laundromats in LA and NYC, which Hardaway said were chosen because they’re a place that city-living young adults, like the show’s main characters, naturally spend a lot of time in.

Ahead of Season 2, which has been well-received critically, the same thinking applied.

“We identified this late-night experience of young twentysomethings that can happen at the bodega, after the party or before heading to the afterparty,” Hardaway said. “What is that experience of going in there with your friends and looking for snacks? And where does the night lead you based on having that type of experience?”

As it turns out, that experience can lead to surprise performances. In addition to free pizza with character-inspired toppings, visitors to Arlene’s Grocery were led to a speakeasy entrance disguised as a freezer door that led to the venue’s main performance space. VIP visitors on the event’s first night were treated to a table read from the Adults cast, and general audiences could also listen to a DJ set and see various comedians perform, Hardaway said.

In LA, the Stoop Sale was centered on Gen Z’s love of vintage clothing and secondhand shopping—a market that’s grown exponentially. A recent report from ThredUp found that 62% of Gen Z shopped secondhand last year, and the secondhand apparel market in the US is projected to grow to more than $78 billion by 2030.

At the Stoop Sale, attendees could shop curated collections of vintage clothing inspired by characters’ wardrobes on Adults at Melrose Trading Post and online via the Whatnot app, which helped bring a portion of the activation experience to those who couldn’t be there, Hardaway said.

“Whether they could make a purchase with us IRL or through the Whatnot app, we could extend our audience for that popup to some fans both online as well as in the space, and really allow all of them to take advantage of that opportunity,” she said.

Both activations were designed to draw foot traffic, encourage active participation, and inspire earned media and social media coverage, Hardaway said. Though final results data wasn’t yet available and she declined to share budget numbers, Hardaway emphasized that FX prioritizes investing in intentional collaborations and engagements to create a “a quality creative that aligns with the show and the quality of what people can see when they watch it.”

IRL 4ever

Experiential activations for entertainment properties and streamers continue to thrive. In 2026, titles like Peacock’s Love Island USA, Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and Hulu’s The Testaments have brought pieces of their worlds into the real world, seeking to drum up excitement for both new and existing fans.

It’s a strategy that’s more important now than ever, according to Hardaway, who said that in-person activations are one of the dwindling ways TV fans can actually gather and enjoy programming together.

“Television viewing of past years was very programmed for a communal experience. You had those water-cooler moments,” she said. “But because viewing of content is so individualized now, and people watch it on their own time, the IRL experience is really the only time when fans and the audience come together at once to celebrate that content…and to indulge in that and to get excited about that with like-minded friends and guests.”