The Summer I Turned Pretty's Pivot

Nothing makes me feel 16 again like watching a TV show where the actors could be my children.

We talked about storytelling yesterday (catch up in 5 minutes here), and one of my own favorite, nostalgic pieces of fiction is The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. 

If you hate it, keep that to yourself. I’m not looking for opinions at this time unless they are the exact same as mine, thank you for understanding. 

When the trilogy was made into a series for Prime Video, the young breakout actors and actresses captured our hearts and became the soundtrack of the summer for lover girls everywhere. 

(No seriously, the soundtrack is immaculate.)

Is it even summer if we can’t wish that Susanna’s beach house was ours?

I guess we’re about to find out, because for the first summer since 2022, there is no new season.

Because of last year’s Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, filming was delayed and there is no season 3 to release. 

Losing a summer release as a show based entirely on the summer aesthetic???

Could for sure be tragic.

Losing Plan A never feels good.

If nobody on the production team had an absolute panic attack, they are more stable than me.

Staying in front of people is important for even the most binge-worthy brands.

But the best part of this story is what they did next:

They knew that even the Cousins Beach faithful could easily forget about the show and find something else to watch in 1 sitting.

So the show announced that they would be hosting live watch parties of seasons 1 and 2 with the cast all summer long.

There’s special edition merch, never-before-seen commentary, behind-the-scenes moments, the whole nine yards! 

If you know even one single thing about online business, you can go look at the show’s Instagram feed right now and see that they’re out here SELLING. 

An entire campaign to promote a re-watch of the past seasons. 

We can’t forget about it being our show of the summer if they don’t let us.

Now, this may have been Plan B or it may have been Plan Z for all we know. What we see as consumers is rarely all that there is to it.

Either way, we can with certainty call it a brilliant move and positive pivot on what could’ve been a devastating hurdle. 

The brands that stay top of mind for you isn’t by accident.

Don’t be afraid to get crafty with your craft. 

Xo, The Salesgirls

PS. It is taking every bit of restraint that I have not to buy the BONRAD tee.