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How new Evil Ray suncare brand taps the unhinged humour opportunity

Evil Ray branding by Pembleton, Australia

Australia – Independent creative agency Pembleton has unveiled its latest venture, Evil Ray, a bold new sunscreen brand designed in collaboration with iconic Australian artist Reg Mombassa. The brand’s logo and packaging take inspiration from the maximalist design style of 1980s Australian surfing brands, notably Mambo.

‘We wanted Evil Ray to embody the rebellious spirit of 1980s surf culture,’ said Pembleton co-founder Matilda Hobba. ‘Working with Reg, one of the true legends of Aussie design, was a dream come true.’

The sunscreen’s sculptural, UV-reactive bottles were crafted using eco-friendly materials and the brand’s cheeky marketing positions the sun as the official enemy, with a bold, humour-infused launch film featuring a naked Adam and Eve.

‘Evil Ray is a direct response to the sun’s harmful rays, but it’s also a response to a market that’s ready for a change,’ added Hobba. ‘We’re excited to disrupt the category with something fresh and innovative.’

The line will be launched with three products and is set to expand globally in 2026. Read more about the power of humour in brand storytelling in our Cannes Lions 2025: The Unhinged Humour Opportunity report.

Strategic opportunity

Brands can position their products using cheeky, over-the-top campaigns to create memorable, relatable and disruptive brand personalities that divert from category expectations and embrace anti-sameness – as detailed in our The Great Beauty Blur macrotrend.

What Disney’s partnership with OpenAI means for enhancing in-house creativity

US – Disney has entered a strategic agreement with OpenAI to explore how Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video generation model, could support creative development across its film, tv and streaming businesses.

Under the collaboration, Disney’s studios and creative teams will experiment with Sora to generate early-stage visual concepts, storyboards and pre-visualisation assets, helping creators move more quickly from idea to screen. The tool is intended to support early ideation and exploration, enabling teams to test narrative directions, visual styles and pacing before full-scale production begins.

Rather than replacing human creativity, the partnership positions generative AI as a way to enhance internal workflows. By accelerating development timelines and reducing production friction, the approach could unlock new creative possibilities across franchises and formats, while improving efficiency behind the scenes.

The move reflects a broader shift in how streaming platforms approach innovation. As explored in The Future Laboratory’s Streaming’s Next Frontier report, platforms have prioritised consumer-facing advances, from personalised recommendations to new content formats. Increasingly, however, innovation is turning inwards, focusing on creative infrastructure and operational systems.

Disney and OpenAI, US

Strategic opportunity

Audit where generative AI can be embedded into early-stage creative workflows, from ideation to pre-visualisation, to accelerate development without compromising on creative intent

Stat: TikTok Shop’s Black Friday sales highlight growth of live commerce

Photography by Cottonbro Studio, Russia

US – During this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, TikTok Shop recorded nearly 50% more shoppers than in 2024, driving total sales past £372m ($500m, €425m) over the four-day shopping period.

Brands with annual revenues of over £7.4m ($10m, €8.5m) recorded a 76% increase in TikTok Shop sales, while sellers hosting live-streams saw sales grow by 84%. Shoppers tuned in to more than 760,000 live-stream sessions hosted by creators and sellers, generating over 1.6bn views. Creator affiliates also contributed heavily, posting almost 10m shoppable videos during the 2025 campaign.

The results highlight the growing influence of live shopping, which combines social commerce and direct engagement with creators and brands. As The Future Laboratory has explored in The Future of Live Shopping, this format is poised for continued growth, driven by rising consumer demand for interactive, creator-led shopping experiences.

The surge on TikTok Shop also underlines broader shifts in discovery-driven commerce, as shoppers increasingly look to platforms and influencers to guide their buying choices. For more insights, see our Innovation Debrief 2025–2026 report, including The New Age of Discovery section.

Strategic opportunity

Experiment with live shopping formats that authentically reflect your brand’s tone and personality by testing content styles, pacing and creator collaborations