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For Influencers, a Free Brand Trip Can Come With a Price

Scroll through TikTok for a few minutes and you’re almost guaranteed to see content from a brand trip. These highly curated getaways for influencers have become a staple of brand marketing, giving companies a way to put their products directly into the feeds of engaged audiences.At their best, these trips can generate thousands of views and create the kind of aspirational content that traditional advertising struggles to replicate. Dairy company Kerrygold found that formula with a trip to the Irish countryside, bringing along a seemingly hand-selected group of content creators, including chef Hailee Catalano, whose connection to food gave the trip a natural fit with the brand. Catalano’s posts from the trip quickly drew comments from followers expressing envy over the experience. The stakes are particularly high with this form of marketing since so much of the experience is meant to be visible. Unlike a traditional brand event, where much of the experience happens behind closed doors, nearly every element of them becomes content. When these trips don’t strike the right balance of people or place, viewers notice. Like in the case of OpenAI’s “Summer Camp,” a Hudson Valley influencer getaway in early August. The trip took place at the luxury resort Wildflower Farms in Gardiner, NY, and included activities like beekeeping, farm-to-table outdoor dinners, and OpenAI product tutorials. The AI company invited tech and lifestyle influencers to enjoy and post about their weekend upstate. But the posts didn’t go to plan, immediately sparking a wave of criticism that prompted some influencers to disable comments or delete their posts altogether. The posts that remain online are flooded with critical comments, with a common theme emerging: How could a company whose technology is contributing to environmental harm choose a retreat so immersed in nature as the setting for its brand? And how could these influencers participate in it?It can be argued that any press is good press, so as OpenAI remains in the news weeks after the trip, it’s still getting attention for the company. The company walks away largely untouched, while the influencers who used their own judgment to decide whether to participate are facing a different reality.Commenters on influencer Grace McCarrick’s still-active posts write that her participation was “tone deaf.” The commentary fits into a larger cultural criticism of AI, especially voiced by Gen Z. McCarrick took to LinkedIn saying “I genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI.” Other attendees from the trip still have their comment sections disabled, likely in response to the criticism.When a brand trip goes wrong, influencers are often the ones left to absorb the shock. The brand can move on from a poorly planned itinerary, but creators have to return to their audiences and explain what happened. Their credibility is part of what brands are paying for in the first place, which means a trip that misses the mark can put an influencer’s reputation at risk. For creators, one lesson from this trip is that accepting the invite also means accepting some of the risk. A free trip may come with a price that isn’t visible until the content goes live.Erin Behrens is an associate editor at From Day One. (Photo by Andrii Iemelyanenko/iStock)

News BY Erin Behrens | August 12, 2026

Brands Want More From Their Hollywood Partnerships

A celebrity in a commercial is nothing new. But increasingly, brands aren’t just putting famous faces in ads to sell products. They’re finding new ways to make entertainment part of the ad itself.The reason appears to be fairly simple: attention has become harder to buy. Brands are looking for ways to create campaigns that feel less like interruptions and more like something audiences actually want to watch.Take Gap, which just launched a campaign with scream queen actress Inde Navarrette, recognized for her role in Obsession, and emerging musician Malcolm Todd. Navarrette is a relatively new face on the scene but has quickly expanded her profile across entertainment and fashion, while Todd brings his own music audience to the campaign, titled, “Denim On Your Own.”“With this campaign, Gap continues to serve as a platform for the next generation of creative voices, championing emerging artists who are shaping culture through music, art, and self-expression,” said the campaign announcement.The ambassador choices reinforce the idea that it’s no longer just about who appears in an ad, but what the entertainment itself can do for a brand that an ad alone can’t. The campaign features Todd’s rendition of Robyn’s hit “Dancing On My Own,” turning the partnership into a piece of music and entertainment.Patrón is going a step further, bringing Hollywood’s creative talent directly into the making of the advertising itself. The tequila brand tapped the Oscar-winning director of Frankenstein and Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro to direct and star in its 2026 campaign, “The Perfect Pour.” The campaign puts del Toro’s distinctive visual style at the center of the brand’s storytelling. “Both born in Jalisco. Both obsessed with Mexican craftsmanship. Experience The Perfect Pour,” the campaign reads. These campaigns illustrate a broader shift in how brands can think about entertainment. A celebrity can bring an existing fan base, but the more valuable proposition may be the ability to create something people encounter as culture first and advertising second. The result isn’t necessarily that brands are becoming Hollywood studios. It’s that they are increasingly trying to borrow Hollywood’s ability to create attention and cultural relevance, and make it work for the brand.Erin Behrens is an associate editor at From Day One(Photo by AscentXmedia/iStock)