From a viral fast food run at In-N-Out to a candid Macy's CEO and Lush's purpose-driven product launch, this week had no shortage of brand moments worth studying.
Big Winner at the Oscars? In-N-Out Burger
What happened: Hollywood's biggest night also had a brand winner this year: In-N-Out Burger. After taking home the Oscar for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, Michael B. Jordan made a beeline for the beloved West Coast chain—and the internet absolutely loved him for it.
The moment went viral almost instantly, flooding social feeds with fans celebrating both MBJ's win and his down-to-earth post-Oscars choice. As it turns out, he's not alone—hitting up In-N-Out after the Oscars has quietly become a tradition for some Hollywood A-listers, making the burger joint a quirky staple of awards season culture.
For In-N-Out, the PR value was nothing short of extraordinary—and it didn't cost them a dime. According to Anna Amarotti, Global Consumer and Market Insights Lead at Meltwater, the chain saw mentions spike by 750% since Sunday, with engagement exploding by roughly 2,567%—translating to over 3 million new engagements. Even more telling: positive sentiment jumped 11 points while negative sentiment dropped by 10, signaling a genuine brand lift, not just noise.
Communication takeaways: When a fresh Oscar winner chooses your Double-Double over a champagne tower, that's not just a meal—that's a brand moment, and communicators need to be ready.
Amarotti says brand recognition doesn’t always need to come from big-budget moments and activations.
"Sometimes, it’s highly shareable, culturally relevant moments—especially those tied to real-world habits and traditions—that drive the biggest impact,” she says. "A reminder that the real opportunity often lives around the moment, not just in it."
Matt Prince, a consultant for Yum! Brands, who spent 11 years at Taco Bell and currently serves as the fractional head of PR and social for KFC, knows his way around a culinary quick-service moment. He agrees that preparation is key, with speed coming up a close second in a real, cultural brand moment.
"The biggest challenge for most teams is operational," Prince says. "You need monitoring systems, pre-approved copy frameworks and a decision chain that can move in hours, not days. It's the difference between getting lucky and earning the moment."
He also notes that when something like this occurs, it’s the brand’s job to amplify the authenticity, not to replace it with corporate enthusiasm.
"There is great importance in knowing where your brand belongs on the involvement spectrum," he says. "Support for real-time marketing lives somewhere between full silence and salience. Not every opportunity calls for the same response, and the right call depends on the moment, the person and how your community is engaged."
In-N-Out must be following those rules because its team didn’t even attempt to post about MBJ’s visit, and yet, the conversation surrounding its name grew exponentially on its own.
Macy’s' Transparency on Future Earnings
What happened: Macy's kicked off the week with a rare piece of good news: the department store beat Wall Street's quarterly sales and profit expectations. But the good vibes didn't last long. Despite the strong results, Macy's financiers offered a mixed outlook for the year—projecting sales above Wall Street expectations but issuing a conservative forecast on profits.
CEO Tony Spring was notably candid about the challenges facing the retailer and the broader economy in interviews and on LinkedIn. He described the cautious outlook reflecting the "tension" between Macy's relatively healthy business and external economic volatility, including uncertainty from tariffs and the war in Iran that has sent energy prices soaring.
In an interview with CNBC he questioned where gas prices will land, how long the Middle East conflict will last and whether tariff refunds will actually happen—summing it up bluntly: "Sitting here today, there's more unknown than there is known."
On the consumer side, Spring noted a K-shaped economy at play, with lower-income shoppers pulling back while upper-income consumers continue spending freely on new and fashionable items. Macy's projected its adjusted earnings per share of $1.90 to $2.10 for the year, below the $2.17 analysts had expected.
Communication takeaways: Macy’s produces financial PR mastery here, doing something that can actually be quite difficult—balancing honestly with investor confidence. Marin Richardson, CEO of Disrupt PR, says it was smart of Spring to get ahead of a cautious outlook by naming specific uncertainties (tariffs, gas prices, geopolitical risk) before anyone else could frame them as failures.
“In PR, I call this "owning the weather," Richardson says. “Companies that do this build credibility with investors because they come across as clear-eyed, not defensive.”
Richardson also notes the key lesson here is that transparency and confidence aren't opposites.
“Macy's did not simply say "things are uncertain," they paired every cautionary note with concrete proof points: Bloomingdale's up nearly 10%, four consecutive quarters of beating expectations, upgraded stores outperforming,” she says. “This is smart and deliberate message architecture.”
However, she says, this messaging can get complicated from a pure PR standpoint, depending on which audience is following.
“Macy's sells clothes, makeup, toys, etc.,” Richardson says. “Their average customer isn't connecting a war in the Middle East to their next purchase at the mall. That framing works on an earnings call, where investors need macro context, but I'd think twice before a retail brand volunteers that narrative in a press interview or consumer-facing communication.”
The lesson? Know your audience.
“Wall Street and Main Street need very different messages,” she says.
Lush Cosmetics Fuels the Resistance
What happened: Lush Cosmetics is putting its money where its values are with the launch of "United," a limited-edition bath bomb tied to a nationwide campaign defending immigrant rights across all 206 of its U.S. store locations. Priced at $6.50, the bath bomb aims to raise $150,000, with 75% of the purchase price going directly to partner organizations fighting for immigrants' rights and related social justice causes—including voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice.
Beyond the product itself, Lush is leaning into education as activism. The brand has partnered with major organizations including the ACLU, Mijente and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and is distributing six free "Know Your Rights" guides in stores and online.
This isn't new territory for Lush—campaigning has been a core part of the brand's identity since 2006, and its U.S. shops have permanently maintained ICE-free zone status since a 2020 advocacy campaign.
Communication takeaways: With this latest effort, Lush continues to position itself as a brand that doesn't just sell products, but actively mobilizes its customer base around social causes. Continued action such as this positions Lush as a socially responsible, active retailer, joining the ranks of Patagonia and Ben and Jerry’s—something their consumers can count on that defines the brand, rather than just a one-off promotion.
Katie Lundy, Vice President at Inspire PR, says Lush’s latest launch is a demonstration of the brand’s values in action, underscoring their long-standing commitment to human rights.
“By connecting this limited-edition product to help fund immigrant rights organizations, the campaign moves beyond awareness to meaningful action,” Lundy says. “For PR professionals, it’s a reminder that purpose-driven campaigns resonate most when they are authentic, align with the audience’s shared values and are embedded across the entire brand experience.”
Nicole Schuman is Managing Editor at PRNEWS.