Even more optimistic content! This week, smaller brand collabos designed to fight the big-boss brands, brands handling gender identity in an inclusive way (we cannot wait to see how many classic brand moments emerge from that...), and the (possible) shift away from hollow cheap-and-cheerful language to something a little more...good?

What will brands bring about in 2018? Brands that force us smile to pay (but also pay with money!). Brands that are totally onboard with monetizing our inability to become adults. But it's not all bad: brands will give you a hologram to sit with you while you eat alone!

In this first of two episodes, Paula and Caitlin go through Trendwatching's 2018 predictions, and share some of their own, as well as predictions from very special past guests.

One holiday ep just wasn't enough. So brand strategist Amanda Munilla joins to talk about dystopian holiday ads from a German supermarket chain, our Spotify years in review, and how badly we wanted those men to Thelma-and-Louise it off the parking lot in the Audi mall-parking ad.

Spotify and its use of data:

http://www.adweek.com/creativity/how-spotify-makes-its-data-driven-outdoor-ads-and-why-they-work-so-well/

Edeka's dark Christmas ads:

http://www.3lstories.com/people-are-calling-this-the-most-powerful-christmas-commercial-ever

http://creativity-online.com/work/edeka-the-best-gift/50013

http://creativity-online.com/work/edeka-christmas-2117/53334

Audi bros in the parking lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpfxv2_WZI

Why Retailers Are Rethinking Their Holiday Ad Strategies

http://www.adweek.com/agencies/why-retailers-are-rethinking-their-holiday-ad-strategies-and-moving-away-from-storytelling/

Macy's Lighthouse spot

http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/macy-s-airs-poignant-holiday-ad-bbdo/311293/

Pringles turkey dinner

http://www.foodandwine.com/news/pringles-thanksgiving-flavors

Hello Kitty wine

http://www.foodandwine.com/news/hello-kitty-holiday-wines

'Sup, cool youngs. Your fave brand here, coming at you with lit branded content that recent studies show us will increase engagement and favorability.

Special guest Emma Cofer of Lippincott joins to talk about a request we hear a lot from brands: help us be cool. What IS cool? You won't be surprised to find out that there are frameworks out there, which will help you to nail an alien's idea of what is cool. Good luck out there, brands!

Elf myself?! NO, Elf YOURSELF. We tackle the good and mostly bad ways brands present themselves to you, the consumer, during the holidays. Special guest Nora Geiss joins to discuss the mythical Elf Yourself to Macy's rape-y holiday catalog headlines to CVS pumpkin-spice coughdrops.

Brands, via technology, want our attention ALL. THE. TIME. Courtney Maum, author of Touch, joins to talk about persuasion design, and how technology is increasingly designed to make us passive audiences, rather than active participants.

"Breaking Up With Your Smartphone" https://medium.com/@cmaum/breaking-up-with-your-smartphone-e9568145e00a

"Notifications: A Tragedy Of the Digital Commons" https://medium.com/positiveslope/notifications-a-tragedy-of-the-digital-commons-4a4d5eef2bc8

"Technology is Diminishing Us" https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/03/jonathan-safran-foer-technology-diminishing-us

"'Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia

Shillington. Yes, that is the real name of a for-profit design college. Is it a good name? No. But, as Caitlin and special guest Paula Pou discuss, it's hardly the worst branding offense committed by a for-profit college.

Also: Lil Wayne went to University of Phoenix? And Shaq? SHAQ??

How do you get to better answers? You ask better questions. Wild, right? Brand strategist Taylor Gandossy drops in to talk about all the ways we could be asking better questions as we're building brands, growing brands, and taking brands apart to put them back together.

Can you truly not have a brand? Of course not. Moving on...

Ultra special guest Dan Spiegel joins Caitlin to go way, way, waaaaay off topic into the stuff that really matters: how to handle having to pee during client meetings, looking important during a presentation, and giving Amazon the keys to your house.

WHY DO WE WORK SO HARD? There is almost no situation in which branding, marketing, and advertising (or most industries) are life-or-death, and yet SOME of us work until we literally lose all of our hair (ok, that might be specific to Caitlin...)

Caitlin's mom, Chris Barrett, joins to talk about why we push ourselves to work so hard and the super expensive ways we try to cope with stress, which sucks up all the extra money we make working extra hard, creating more stress and...you get it.