Hosting a lavish brand trip after raising prices, owing to tariffs and the “global supply chain,” is not a great look, and if Rhode thought their fanbase wouldn’t notice this, they don’t know the Gen Z consumer as well as they thought they did.

Hailey and her team took a page out of the well-trodden Trippin’ with Tarte-style brand trip playbook: create desire by limiting access. That strategy worked in the boom times of the last decade, but in our current era of economic anxiety and wealth inequality, it’s giving young people, to quote one Reddit commenter, “the absolute ick.”

Of course, Rhode’s beachside fantasy is far from an outlier. J.Crew’s recent Puglia activation and Reformation’s Ref-in-Residence getaways — as well as the booming resort pop-up economy that Bloomberg reported on last week — reflect how influencer marketing is evolving to be more immersive. Immersive, as a strategy, works! But against the backdrop ... See more