5 Entertainment PR AND Publicity Trends Defining 2026

The publicity playbook that built Hollywood is obsolete. As we move deeper into 2026, the campaigns capturing cultural oxygen share a common trait: they treat audiences not as consumers, but as co-conspirators.

Here are the five trends separating breakthrough campaigns from background noise:

1. The Best Marketing Pretends to be Marketing

A24's Marty Supreme campaign opened with Timothée Chalamet in a "leaked" Zoom call, pitching increasingly deranged ideas to bewildered executives. The genius move? Those absurd ideas: orange blimps, ping-pong ball security guards, actually manifested in reality.

We're not in an authenticity crisis. We're in a complicity crisis. Audiences don't mind being marketed to: they mind being excluded from the joke. The campaigns that work in 2026 invite you to be in on the bit, even when you know it's a bit.

2. Studios Are Selling the Recipe, Not Just the Meal

Disney's $1 billion OpenAI partnership licenses 200+ characters to Sora's video platform. Fans can now generate their own Star Wars content using official assets.

This isn't about "empowering creators", it's about making audiences complicit in their own persuasion. Someone who spends three hours making a clip isn't a customer anymore. They're unpaid marketing staff who will defend the franchise because they've invested labor in it. Disney isn't crowdsourcing creativity; they're crowdsourcing loyalty.

The smartest studios are pairing this with "Employee Influencers", crew members documenting messy production realities, because you can't sell AI and authenticity. You need the human antidote.

3. TikTok Isn't Social Media Anymore

Gen Z doesn't Google "Primate ending explained", they search TikTok. Period. The 2026 algorithm rewards 1-3 minute narrative depth over viral lottery tricks. Publicity used to be about interruptive reach. Now it's about retrieval positioning. Your campaign needs to be the answer when someone asks a question three months after release. Bugoniawon by flooding TikTok with conspiracy theory videos about its fictional pharmaceutical company capturing search traffic long after the premiere.

The campaigns that fail in 2026 are the ones optimized for launch weekend. The campaigns that win are optimized for the long tail of curiosity.

4. Mystery Beats Information Every Single Time

Paramount invited TikTok creators to "secret screenings" without revealing the film title. The mystery became the story, transforming Primate from another horror release into a "you had to be there" moment.

In an era of infinite streaming choice, audiences are relieved to surrender control. They don't want more information, they want someone they trust to tell them what's worth their time. The "blind bet" model works because it outsources decision fatigue.

This is why spoiler culture is dying. People don't want to know everything, they want to be surprised by people they trust.

5. Merch Isn't (just) Ancillary Revenue, It's Proof of Cultural Weight

The Marty Supreme windbreaker retailed at $250 and resells for $1,000+. It's a tribal uniform.

In 2026, physical objects are the only things that prove you were really there. Screenshots can be faked. Videos can be AIed engineered. Attendance can be claimed. But the jacket? That's proof.

Those campaigns that will claim success will adopt streetwear's "drop" model, releasing items at narrative moments instead of dumping everything at launch. A character's ring drops online the moment it becomes pivotal. This isn't merchandising. It's time-stamped proof of fandom.