Rare Beauty's late-October Delena campaign brings Gomez and Lovato together around a Soft Pinch blush bundle. The accompanying material draws on their shared history, including the bedroom-vlog feeling familiar to fans of their earlier videos. NewBeauty documented the reunion on 28 October.

Meanwhile, Kith's Winter 2026 campaign places Harington in the English countryside, with a film and still photography supporting its seasonal collection. The official campaign page was published on 26 October, ahead of the 30 October release.

The two projects use familiarity differently. Rare Beauty gives viewers a reunion to enjoy. Kith works with a performer whose best-known screen role makes winter an unusually suggestive setting. That association is our reading of the casting; it does not make the campaign an official Game of Thrones collaboration. There is more on how public associations travel into branding in our guide to celebrity personas.

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A memory needs somewhere to go

The appeal of nostalgia is easy to describe too vaguely. A pink bedroom or a grainy image does not mean much on its own. The detail becomes more interesting when it belongs to a relationship the audience remembers. With Delena, the people are the reference. The setting supports a story that fans bring with them.

There is also a neat connection between the reunion and the idea of a pair of products. It gives the commercial offer a place inside the scene, rather than leaving it to a separate shopping announcement. The names, the encounter and the bundle can be understood together.

Kith's casting is quieter. The countryside and cold-weather clothing make sense even to someone with no interest in Harington's television work. Recognition adds another layer for those who have it. That is a useful safeguard: a campaign should still offer something when the cultural reference passes a viewer by. We explored a related question through Olivia Jade and Zendaya’s campaigns: what does this particular person make possible?

This is where a nostalgia brief can become more demanding than it first appears. The creative team needs to know exactly which memory it is invoking, whose memory that is and what the product contributes to it. An era is a very large reference. A familiar action, relationship or scene is much more precise.

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The audience is not one age

A campaign can make one person feel immediately included and leave another looking at two celebrities they vaguely recognise. That is a choice to understand when planning the work. It may be entirely appropriate to speak strongly to a particular group, but the team should know who that group is.

For a small business, a shared memory might come from a neighbourhood, a craft tradition or the early years of a community. You do not need a famous face to make recognition useful. You do need a credible connection and enough specificity to avoid a borrowed mood with nothing behind it.

The obvious temptation is to treat a visible reaction as proof that the strategy worked. Comments about a reunion tell us people enjoyed the reunion. They do not, on their own, tell us how the product sold or whether a new customer came back. The creative judgement and the business result require different evidence.

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Casting for a reason

Before putting a name on a wish list, finish the sentence: this person helps the audience understand this part of our offer. If the answer is only that they are well known, the brief is still thin.

Rare Beauty and Kith show two more interesting possibilities. A face can bring a relationship back into view, or make a seasonal setting feel charged with meaning. The strongest casting gives recognition something useful to do once the audience has stopped scrolling.