It's Sunday and here’s a handpicked selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

But first, Microsoft used Windows XP as the inspiration for a new line of Crocs. No one looks cooler than the person who’s walking around with Clippy on their feet, but we won’t believe these Crocs are authentic unless they throw up a Blue Screen of Death when you stub your toe.

CREATOR COMMOTION

Creators are dodging accusations, getting arrested, and selling fro-yo

The accusation: Don’t you dare accuse Jake Paul of fight fixing. High-powered lawyer Alex Spiro, who once represented MrBeast, is now helping Jake Paul go after haters who accuse him of fixing his boxing matches. Unfortunately for Jake, it’s not illegal to accuse a boxer of padding their record against cupcake and past-their-prime fighters.

The arrest: Duke Dennis was arrested for an after-hours game of hide-and-seek. In Dennis’ defense, playing hide-and-seek in a large, empty mall sounds like tons of fun, but the cops might not agree. Apparently, to become a member of the creator group AMP, one must be involved in a major public commotion. I don’t make the rules.

The fro-yo boom: Is Danny Duncan “the man who would save fro-yo?” The Florida-born creator has helped 16 Handles enjoy a boom period since he became involved with the chain a few years ago. Now, 16 Handles’ fortunes have soared so high that Duncan and his coworkers have the entire fro-yo industry on their backs, according to a recent profile in The New York Times.

The series: One of the best (and weirdest) animated web series is coming back. It’s been ten years since the last update from the world of Baman Piderman, but creators Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera have reclaimed the rights to their series and are making more episodes. While you wait, check out “Find Da Sandwich,” which remains one of the internet’s great absurdist gems.

PLATFORM HEADLINES

This week in platform headlines…

The TikTok news: The Tomorrowland music festival set live-streaming records on TikTok. The EDM gathering drew 74 million unique viewers on a 24-hour TikTok live stream that operated for both of the festival’s two weekends.

Meanwhile, Skims timed its latest product launch to coincide with this year’s #RushTok bonanza. Each year, TikTok becomes inundated with sorority stories as young women experience Rush Week at some of America’s top universities. Skims put itself at the center of that conversation with a Campus Collection that arrived on August 7. Sure enough, the brand’s buyers are already featuring the new items in try-on and “get ready with me” videos.

The Instagram feature: Instagram’s Collab posts have a lot of fans. Both brands and creators are seeing strong results from the tandem-posting feature since its arrival on the app. Fast Company has the latest updates from Collab users who are singing the praises of their joint uploads.

The Bluesky update: Bluesky has added 8 million MAUs since March, but its growth is plateauing. The decentralized alternative to X is now sitting at 38 million monthly active users after cracking the 30-million mark earlier this year. Those are nice gains on the surface, but when you compare them to last year—when Bluesky added 15 million MAUs between August and November—the platform’s slowing growth rate becomes clear.

The Disney merger: Disney’s streaming merger will give it a chance to stop reporting subscriber numbers. Once Hulu is folded into Disney+, the Mouse House will follow Netflix’s lead by no longer breaking out quarterly sub stats. Per Disney: Those numbers are “less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses.”

THE BIZ

Brands are diving head-first into the creator arms race

The promise: Unilever’s pledge to influencers has had sweeping ramifications. Earlier this year, the consumer goods giant made a splash when its CEO announced a plan to spend half of the company’s ad budget on “influencer-first” social media content. About five months later, creator rates have reportedly gone up by 30%. That’s enough fresh earnings to buy a whole lot of Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

The ramp-up: Fox wants to stockpile a leading roster. The corporation doesn’t want to fall behind its rivals in the world of creators, so it has reportedly ramped up its talks with digital-native talent. Fox’s creator-facing initiatives include a program launched on the subscription service Tubi.

The campaign: Sunglass Hut is turning connected TV ads into in-store visits. In an effort to direct consumers to its physical locations, the sunglasses retailer ran ads on platforms like HBO Max, Paramount+, and Peacock. The results of the campaign were pretty big: Sunglass Hut reported that year-over-year store traffic increased six times over between July and September.

The video boom: During the first half of 2025, Audioboom doubled its revenue on video podcasts. That uptick was largely driven by volume. The podcast network reported that 60% of its creators now produce video versions of their shows.

WATCH THIS 📺

Havas Play turned Twitch viewers into firefighters

The campaign: French agency Havas Play recently installed live video from local forestst on the wait screens of Twitch streamers. So while viewers waited for a new broadcast to begin, they kept their eyes peeled for any new blazes happening in the woods in an effort to help firefighters.

Will this clever campaign turn the Twitch wait screen into the hot new piece of natural disaster detection or advertising inventory? Probably yes, though one of those outcomes seems more likely than the other.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.