Campaign published a February retrospective, declaring the 28 days were “power-packed in culture and entertainment”—even calling Black History Month a tentpole among the festivities.
Yet while the content spotlighted Black culture, Black icons, and Black-influenced experiences, nothing was directly tied to Black History Month.
In Adland, BHM stands for Blacks Hardly Mentioned or Blacks Highly Marginalized.
February was power-packed in culture. Here are the brands that took note.
By Jesse Kirshbaum
February was a particularly power-packed month in culture and entertainment. Obviously with tentpoles such as Black History Month, the Grammys, Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Weekend, Valentine's Day, Presidents’ Day and the big SNL50 extravaganza, there was a lot of media buzz and brand tie-ins.
Apart from those usual suspects, here are five trends and break-out campaigns that stood out and why they matter.
New celebrity creative directors
A$AP Rocky was named Ray-Ban’s first-ever creative director, leading new projects at Ray-Ban Studios and shaping the brand’s image.
Why it matters: This is a trend we’ve seen where big lifestyle brands that are meaningful in culture engage talent to be in-house creative directors. We saw this in 2010 with Lady Gaga and Polaroid, and again in 2014 with Pharrell for Adidas and Rihanna + Fenty for Puma. It's a non-traditional way to work with an artist and leverage their influence. Brands win with this approach when there is authentic value alignment and they know how to properly harness talent’s creative vision. If the partnership feels forced in any way, it won’t connect with consumers.
The sneakers and music love affair continues
Before Beats, Dr. Dre had his eye on creating sneakers, but business partner Jimmy Iovine convinced him the market was too crowded and to instead make speakers. Sneaker collabs continue to flourish in 2025.
This month alone, three sneaker deals popped up in music.
• Adidas and Clipse
• Converse and Tyler The Creator, Charli XCX, Vince Staples, Lill Yachty and more
• Reebok x Tobe Nwigwe
Why it matters: Artist and sneaker alliances are still surging. Streetwear continues to play really well in pop culture, especially in hip-hop. This trend has been going since the days of Run-DMC in the ’90s and Adidas and 50 Cent launching his G-Unit Reebok sneaker in the early 2000s, and continues to be more relevant today.
Cutting through the cultural chatter
Pete Davidson appeared in a campaign for sustainable clothing brand Reformation as its “official boyfriend,” in which he is seen without all of his tattoos. The campaign garnered significant buzz and attention, driving organic media around his inkless look. A week later, Davidson appeared on live TV shirtless, tattoos intact, revealing that his bare new look had been a crafty ruse.
Why it matters: The noise in the media landscape continues to grow and it’s a battle for attention. Marketers need to be increasingly clever to cut through the clutter. Reformation was able to achieve this with its inventive campaign, tapping Davidson, who is inherently endearing and known for his personal life being news-grabbing, especially whom he is dating.
This campaign played on his two aspects of his personal brand: the sudden and complete disappearance of his tattoos, which has been a big part of his image, and referring to him as the “official boyfriend,” which left a lot of questions for the public. Both drove organic talkability with consumers and got the rumor mill turning, keeping this ad top of the news cycle.
Athleisure chess game
Two big partnerships in February showed very different directions: Nike signed a partnership with Kim Kardashian’s Skims, creating a deeper direction into lifestyle and apparel. Meanwhile, Lululemon launched a campaign with race car driver Lewis Hamilton, its newest brand ambassador.
Why it matters: These are two very different strategic visions for the athleisure category, driving conversation around what the best approach will be for the market. Will they work? That remains to be seen, but clearly different strategies are playing out for each brand and garnering a lot of commentary.
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