Good morning. Somehow, the FDA cleared Taco Bell’s Baja Blast pie, which looks more like a Fortnite healing potion than actual food. 

But make no mistake: No level of “artificial” is enough to keep us from trying this dessert.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Anthony “Anthpo” Potero has spent the last year as the internet’s Willy Wonka—staging viral spectacles like the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest, Cheeseball Man, Kid with Crocs, and touching grass with John Chungus. 

His social experiments have racked up millions of views and a wave of brand inquiries (Potero has received 250+ since April).

Now, he’s channeling those cultural moments into Pufferfish, a creative agency he co-founded with Talia Schulhof, a former creative strategist and writer at MrBeast. Schulhof runs operations as CEO and Potero handles creative direction (while continuing his YouTube channel).

“We’re consumers of content above all else and what helps us work together well is understanding what’s out there and thinking laterally of how we can change something and make it different,” Schulhof told us.

Here’s a look at Pufferfish’s strategy→

Create moments—not attention—for ad dollars. “I think there’s a difference between making something that’s viral that a lot of people watch and making something that you can tell a lot of care went into,” Potero said. 

Pufferfish has worked with brands like language-learning app Airlearn, which includes suggestive billboards in NYC (an example: “kock—Swedish for ‘chef’”). Pufferfish also came up with a puppet character to use in social content.

Scale slowly. Potero and Schulhof currently lead a small team of a few employees with the goal to expand over time. “The reason brands are coming to us is because brands have seen what Anthony has done,” Schulhof said. “So we’re taking it slow to give us time to give it that special sauce.”

Down the line: Pufferfish plans to expand to original IP, eventually running its own creative in tandem with brand work. It’s a model we’ve seen before with media brands like Fallen Media, Gymnasium, and Mad Realities (of which Schulhof is a former employee). They all offer white-label brand services and own original IP. But Pufferfish’s goal? Differentiate by putting consumption and culture at the center.

“The point you become stagnant in the entertainment industry is when you think you know everything. It’s about being a social consumer,” Potero said.

This past week, large creators partnered with even larger brands outside their typical demo. Here’s the latest →

MrBeast x Slack: Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson’s recent partnership with workplace software company Slack gave insight into the planning of his multi-million dollar series Beast Games from a B2B lens. Donaldson and Slack also built a website showing how Donaldson’s team uses the service and advertising a $10K sweepstakes.

Sidemen x Crayola: SDMN, Sidemen’s official clothing line, just launched primary-color-themed shirts, jackets, and bags with Crayola, inspired by the art supplier’s slogan “coloring outside the lines.” 

“Instead of chasing trends just to stay relevant, I reckon brands will start reminding people why they love them in the first place,” business creator Modash said about the nostalgia-fueled collab.

The Bucket List Family x Jeep: Travel creators Garrett and Jessica Gee have spent the past 10 years traveling internationally with their three children. Their collaboration with US-based car manufacturer Jeep contrasts their normal content, focusing on the decision to come back and put roots down in the US.

In the US, YouTube Shorts are now responsible for more revenue per watch hour than long-form videos, according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.  

Context: This June, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced that Shorts grew to 200 billion daily views, tripling from the previous year and surpassing TikTok as the most watched short-form platform.

Worth noting: YouTube has not disclosed how the increase in Shorts revenue will impact creator earnings.

*This is sponsored content