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GOBBLE GOBBLE, HAPPY ALMOST THANKSGIVING.

 

Confession time: I'm not doing Thanksgiving the traditional way.
 

This year we’re doing steak, tortilla stuffing (reply for the recipe that will unseat your grandma’s), pumpkin pie, GF green bean casserole, and homemade sourdough. 

 

A fully optimized meal.

 

Which brings me to this week’s topic: another American tradition in need of a software update.

Black Friday.
 

Where it started, how it got weird, and what’s actually working in 2025.

 

Let’s break it down.

 

 

 

Ten years ago, Black Friday looked like a contact sport in a Best Buy parking lot.

Now it looks like a mobile checkout page with better UX.

 

This holiday has evolved AND reinvented itself. Cool!!!

 

Below is your distilled history, the standout campaigns worth studying, and what's shaping what’s working for brands this year.

 

 

“Black Friday” originally described financial market turmoil, not shopping.

 

→ By the 1950s, Philadelphia police used it to label the post-Thanksgiving retail gridlock.

 

→ In the 1980s, retailers refurbished the meaning into a profitability milestone: “in the black.”

 

→ The 2000s turned it into a digital event.

 

→ Now it’s a season, a sequence, a loyalty lever, and in many cases… a brand litmus test.

 

 

I HAD SO MUCH FUN digging into alllll the decades of Black Friday. Hope you have just as much fun reading it. 

 

 

This is the part of the newsletter where we hop in the DeLorean and track how Black Friday turned from “vague post-Thanksgiving shopping traffic” into the $9B+ retail ritual it is now.

 

Each decade created a behavior shift—sometimes chaos, sometimes innovation, sometimes both.

 

Let’s roll.

 

This is the decade Black Friday became a thing for the average American shopper.

 

Key tactics that shaped the culture:

 

📸 Wal Mart in the 90s; THE LOGO LOL

 

In 1996, Walmart rolled out its first coordinated national Black Friday push.

 

Key elements:

 

Cyber Monday didn’t emerge organically. It was a planned campaign. And probably the most successful coined retail holiday in modern history.

 

 

Amazon stretched Black Friday into a week-long digital event, conditioning shoppers to start scanning deals before Thanksgiving even hit.

 

 

 

 

One of the most iconic anti-consumption campaigns in history.

 

 

The beginning of “Thanksgiving creep,” where major retailers tried to out-open each other.

 

 

 

Target became the first major retailer to say “We’re done.” No more Thanksgiving openings. Ever.

 

 

 

Walmart launched its biggest livestream shopping event ever with celebrities + influencers.

 

 

For example: Poppi’s Y2K interactive website—complete with avatars, gaming, Easter eggs, and a virtual holiday party—represents the current wave. LOOK AT MINE ABOVE LOL.

 

Shopping is no longer just transactional. It’s immersive, nostalgic, and shareable.
 

The line between campaign and experience is now extremely blurry… on purpose.

 

 

After 40 whole freaking years of doorbusters, coined retail holidays, ethical rebellions, and interactive Y2K shopping worlds… the lesson is surprisingly simple:

Black Friday keeps changing, but the brands who win always do the same five things:

 

Doesn’t matter if it’s a doorbuster, an immersive Poppi-style moment, or a plain-text email from the founder. It has a point of view and it cuts through noise.

 

Clear offer. Clear experience. Clear next step. Black Friday is not the time for complexity. 

 

Patagonia leaned into values.
Amazon leaned into convenience.
DTC brands leaned into scarcity.
Poppi leaned into nostalgia + fun.

 

Black Friday amplifies your brand’s strengths… or exposes your lack of them.

 

The strongest brands don’t throw their entire catalog on sale.
Sometimes the strongest brands do nothing at all. Doing nothing is a strategy when the brand is premium, steady, or intentionally slow.

 

Acquiring buyers is expensive. Retaining them is the whole game.

 

Great campaigns have a post–Black Friday plan baked in:
→ onboarding
→ education
→ loyalty
→ repeat purchase
→ brand advocacy

 

This is where the 2026 revenue is hiding.

You have to DESIGN the moment, the message, the experience, and the outcome you want long after the sale ends.

 

You don’t need the biggest promo.
You just need the sharpest plot. :) 

 

🧣 Farm Rich's scarf giveaway, like come on, who doesn't want a mozzerrella stick scarf???

 

 🫒 Graza’s olive oil sweater vests. I want like 3 of them.

 

💌 Curated gift guides for Black Friday; they knowww their audiences actually care about getting good deals on certain things. Karrie Locher does this so well.

 

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Ok, THAT'S IT Y'ALL. NO SECOND BEST'S THIS WEEK because my feed has been OVERWLEHMED WITH BLACK FRIDAY I cannot see through that SILLY noise. Have the best Thanksgiving. SEE YA NEXT WEEK.