‘Not Suitable for Work’ is very suitable for brands

Not Suitable for Work might be the new kid on the Hulu block, but it’s already one of the most popular on the brand partner playground.

The comedy series created by Mindy Kaling follows a group of five early-career Gen-Zers living in New York City’s Murray Hill, striving for professional success while figuring out their personal lives. The show, part of what Hulu has dubbed its “freshman class” portfolio, is an original show arriving in an era where reboots and sequels reign supreme—and yet, Not Suitable for Work sold out its sponsorship slate with 13 brand partners ahead of its June 2 premiere, with five of those being in-show integrations—the most Hulu has ever seen for a first-year show.

“We’re seeing the engagement from our viewers, but we’re also seeing it from brands who want in,” John Campbell, SVP of entertainment and streaming solutions at Disney Advertising, told us. “They want to place their bets with us from the very beginning.”

Early brand gets the worm

When the Hulu team began looking for partners to support Not Suitable for Work, they had a good problem: the brands started calling as soon as the show was greenlit. After several Hulu original shows found success in the past few years, including The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, and Paradise, Campbell said brands were interested in getting in on the ground floor of a new show.

“Typically, we would have to go out and find that demand, but because when you think about the storylines, the setting, having Mindy at the helm…it was just ripe for custom storytelling,” Campbell said.

Included among the five in-show integrations are Amazon Prime, Canva, and Ally Bank. Amazon Prime is woven throughout the story, with characters discussing it as part of a plotline and later showing on screen when a character uses their Prime membership. Canva and Ally, meanwhile, are used as tools in individual scenes of the first season.

For Ally, Not Suitable for Work’s main themes’ relevance to its brand positioning was a key reason the brand got involved.

“The show is centered on navigating your 20s with intention—financial decisions, career moves, building a life on your own terms. That maps directly to our target audience,” Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing and public relations officer at Ally, told us via email. Other elements that Brimmer’s team considers when evaluating first-year shows for potential sponsorship, she told us, include expected viewership within their target demographic, potential for social virality, and the show’s openness to working with them on developing the integrations together.

Campbell said showcasing brands in action was an attractive option for getting involved with Not Suitable for Work, especially as the Hulu team took partners’ KPIs to the writing team to more naturally incorporate the brands’ stories into the show’s plotlines from the outset.

Taking brand goals into the writers’ room isn’t typical for every show, but Campbell said the earlier his team is able to meet with potential brand partners, the better. Typically with a first-time show, he noted, brands can be hesitant to fully sign on early until there’s some kind of proof of return. But Campbell said brands were trying to avoid some real FOMO this time around.

“They know if another financial [brand] comes in, if another auto [brand] comes in, that category is locked, and if this thing becomes a hit, they’re going to miss out as we go into Season 2, 3, 4, 5, and beyond,” he said.

Total package

Though Not Suitable for Work is both new and original, it’s tied to creators and talent that have name recognition, including Kaling as creator, giving it a potential advantage over other new originals. But Campbell said Hulu is seeing brand interest across multiple “freshman” originals, including All’s Fair, Love Overboard, and Love Story, which he said could indicate brand interest in placing bets and getting in on new shows early.

Brimmer would agree. “There’s real strategic value in getting involved early,” she said. “A first-year show that performs has potential to be a long-term relationship built on shared history—and you’re not coming in at a premium after the fact.”

Hulu is also packaging together shows on the streamer that are thematically related, made possible by hits like 2025’s comedy Adults.

“We are using our first-party data and contextual targeting in order to be able to create these sponsorship packages that’s not just Not Suitable for Work, but looking at genre-based as well,” Campbell said. “We know that when our consumers are coming to the platform, they’re coming for multiple hours, they’re spending a lot of time with us, and therefore we’re going to find them in all the places that they show up.”

While tried-and-true IP isn’t losing its advertising luster (Campbell said he still sees plenty of brand interest in shows like the long-running Grey’s Anatomy), newer shows continue to present different opportunities.

“A lot of times with the freshman series, it’s new talent, [and] they’re up to do different things; they’re really excited to work with brands,” Campbell said.