branded-entertainment
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The Grain of Rice That Gave Maruri Its Name Back
An Ecuadorian agency sold itself to a global network, bought itself back, then hid vacations and laptops on individual grains of rice. The odd little promotion explains the whole business.
Pereira O’Dell wants you to watch the ad on purpose
A laptop romance, a place in the cast, and an AI Christmas caravan. Inside the creative agency that keeps asking what an advertiser owes the audience.
Intertrend made Toyota the car your parents wouldn’t recognize
An anime rebellion, eight miniature movies, and an agency in a former Psychic Temple. Inside Intertrend’s unusually specific approach to making brands matter to Asian American audiences.
Stafford makes the boring part worth watching
An airline safety briefing. A utility’s technical maze. A payment processor that looked older than its technology. STFRD builds campaigns around the things customers are tempted to ignore.
Crispin Made a $50,000 Chicken Famous. Now It Has to Make Integration Interesting
The agency that taught the early web to obey a man in a chicken suit is rebuilding for a messier brief: make culture, media and measurement work in the same room.
Mad Realities
Mad Realities is a New York-based, creator-powered entertainment network making original episodic shows built for the internet-native generation. Co-founded in 2021 by Alice Ma and Devin Lewtan, it pairs television-level production with social-first distribution across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and madrealities.tv - producing viral series like Shop Cats, Hollywood IQ, Proof of Love and Keep the Meter Running. Backed by a $6M seed from Paradigm, Maveron and Paris Hilton's 11:11 Media, the company has racked up hundreds of millions of views and signed with CAA in 2025 to expand into live events, branded deals and consumer products.