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Do we really need all these brand trips?

Credit: Thred
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Brighton, UK
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Influencers and celebrities are being shipped off on elaborate holidays, ostensibly to promote products. But are these lavish stunts a marketing tool or a wasteful display of wealth? 

Markers of extreme wealth become more normalised as the 1% grow exorbitantly richer. Take private jets, once revered as an exclusive mode of transport for royals and political leaders, now a daily staple for celebrities and influencers.

The more we’re exposed to these lavish lifestyles, the more we believe ourselves capable of living them. But when did private planes that generate 10 to 14 times more emissions than commercial airliners become the norm? Let alone aspirational?

Another marker of this ever-shifting goal post is the brand trip, often accompanied by a private jet and sprinkled with endless streams of gifts, outfits, food and exotic backdrops. Part PR stunt, part excuse to wastefully show off, these marketing tools have become more dramatic and inflated with each passing year.

The latest iteration of this branded getaway is Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics trip to Turks and Caicos. Jenner has documented the escapade on her social media profiles, treating her fans to clips of her friends and family (including two young children Stormi and Aire) frolicking around an expansive beachfront villa in branded tracksuits.

There was also a sunset dinner, complete with elaborate table scaping, and plenty of product gifting. In 2026, none of this is unusual on a branded getaway. But Jenner’s has faced backlash for its guestlist, which notably excludes any influencers or customers who work with Kylie Cosmetics.

Instead Jenner chose to jet off with her nearest and dearest, and then share it with her devoted consumer base as a peek behind the curtain. It’s ostensibly a move to sell products and build brand awareness. But it falls flat when those involved aren’t the people buying into the brand’s success.

If anything it feels like an out-of-touch slap in the face for Jenner’s fans. It also feels, well, pointless. Which wouldn’t be such a big issue weren’t it for the eye-watering sums of money involved in pulling off such an event.

Sure, Jenner has enough to cover these kind of opulent stunts (Kylie Cosmetics has been valued at close to $1 billion dollars and her family are no strangers to a lavish celebration, often dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on intimate family get-togethers).

The trip also reflects where we’ve landed in the era of the mega-rich. Jenner won’t be impacted by the critics because she has the resources to pour wastefully down the drain as we watch.

For startups shelving every penny to build awareness and customers, it’s a bitter pill. And if not to gift product to their community, what is the purpose of a brand’s opulent trip but to showcase the flagrant wealth of its founder?

We’re living in a strange time where the 1% are both revered and repulsive. Social media has created an intimacy between consumers and the ultra-wealthy that previous generations never experienced.

We know what celebrities eat for breakfast, where they holiday and how they decorate their children’s bedrooms. The result is a culture in which extraordinary wealth now feels routine and achievable.

Brand trips have become one of the clearest expressions of this phenomenon. They might’ve started as a marketing exercise, but they’ve fast become spectacles in their own right. Product is often secondary to content for content’s sake, functioning as a prop in a larger performance of status.

At a moment when many consumers are grappling with rising housing costs, stagnant wages and economic uncertainty, endless footage of private villas and customised gift suites can feel jarring. Especially when the community who has funded such wealth is excluded.

Perhaps that’s why brand trips have started to attract more scrutiny than admiration. The fantasy they once sold is losing some of its power. Consumers have become more media literate. They understand that much of what they’re seeing is carefully curated marketing. They also understand that relatability and authenticity cannot be manufactured through a six-figure holiday.

The irony is that the most successful brands today often thrive on community. They invite customers into the conversation, reward loyalty and create a sense of participation.

But many recent brand trips – which have taken the form of villa excursions and beachfront parties this summer – reinforce the distance between the people selling the dream and the people funding it.

Enjoyed this? Click here for more Gen Z focused style news.

Senior Remote Writer Brighton, UK

I’m Flo, (She/Her) a Senior Remote Writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.

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