🎧 Open Tabs: Is MrBeast the Willy Wonka of Gen Z?

Happy Friday 👋Here’s everything we covered in this week’s Open Tabs conversation:* Super Bowl ads and cultural relevance [0:00]. We started with the Super Bowl — specifically, how the ads felt this year. Lots of nostalgia, lots of celebrities, and very few true surprises. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t exactly bold.* Our POV: The Super Bowl is still a cultural tentpole, but the ads increasingly mirror internet culture: fast, safe, and star-driven. Big swings feel rarer — and that might be the point.* Additional resources:* Super Bowl 2026 ads showed what works (and doesn’t) on the big stage, AdAge * Stay tuned for Cool Shiny Culture’s piece breaking down Super Bowl ad trends later today* Mormon influencers and a pop culture moment [~05:00]. Next up: the ongoing fascination with Mormon and Utah-based influencers. From MomTok drama to reality TV crossovers, there’s something about the mix of hyper-curated family life, tight-knit communities, and very public messiness that keeps pulling audiences in. It’s niche, but somehow also extremely mainstream.* Our POV: This isn’t a flash trend — it’s a convergence of community-based content, aspirational lifestyle storytelling, and real-world drama that makes these creators relatable and compelling to audiences well beyond their original niche.* Additional resources:* The one thing all our favorite lifestyle influencers have in common, M.T. Deco blog* How Ballerina Farm reinvented the frontier mom…and monetized it, #ForYou by M.T. Deco* Do you have a moment to talk about how Mormons conquered pop culture?, The Cut* MrBeast is getting into finance [~15:00]. We wrapped with MrBeast’s latest move: expanding his empire into fintech by acquiring a banking app aimed at Gen Alpha / Gen Z. It’s another example of a creator turning attention into infrastructure — not merch, not media, but actual services that live way outside the content world.* Our POV: This is more than a side hustle — it shows how creators are leveraging massive audience reach into regulated industries. But the move also raises bigger questions about the role creators play in shaping young people’s financial habits and the ethics of marketing to Gen Alpha beyond entertainment.* Additional resources:* MrBeast is buying a banking app geared towards teens, Business Insider* The rise of ‘finfluencers:’ Can you really trust financial advice on social media?, Yahoo! FinanceThanks for listening! 🎧 🤍 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mtdeco.substack.com/subscribe