Media and Marketing for Consumer Brands

Whatcha Say, Upper East Siders? How One Thanksgiving Scene Became a 17-Year Content Engine, Just as Mariah Carey Owns December

by Editorial Team

One number for the next board meeting: A record 202.9 million Americans shopped during the five days from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday in 2025, up from 197 million the year before and above the prior record of 200.4 million set in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics [1][2][3][4]. For a retail or consumer brand chief executive, the implication is direct: attention concentrates around a handful of dates every year, and a brand that owns one of those moments gets rediscovered annually at almost no acquisition cost.

Every November, a television scene from 2009 returns to social feeds. In Gossip Girl's season three Thanksgiving episode, "The Treasure of Serena Madre," a family dinner reaches its dramatic peak as Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" plays, and fans recreate the moment on TikTok every year [5][6][7]. Critics at Pajiba, The Berkeley Beacon and People have each celebrated it as one of television's signature holiday moments [7][8][9].

Mariah Carey runs the same play in December. "All I Want for Christmas Is You," released in 1994, first reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 and has returned to the top every holiday season since, setting the all-time record of 20 weeks at No. 1 in December 2025 [11][12][13][14]. Two very different properties, one shared strategy: claim a date on the calendar and let the calendar bring the audience back.

Own a Date on the Calendar

Gossip Girl made Thanksgiving its signature, featuring a Thanksgiving episode in five of its six seasons [6][7][10]. Executive producer Joshua Safran summed up the show's approach to The A.V. Club: "Where other shows have Christmas, we have Thanksgiving" [6]. Claiming a holiday as its own gave the show a recurring franchise moment that fans now anticipate every year.

The marketing lesson: Seasonal ownership compounds brand awareness, because a brand that consistently claims one moment on the calendar gets remembered every time that moment returns.

Build One Signature Moment

The Thanksgiving dinner endures because it is built for reuse: one table, one rising tension and one unmistakable song cue. Fans have turned it into an annual recreation on TikTok, and outlets such as Elite Daily publish Gossip Girl Thanksgiving lines for readers to use as captions on their own holiday photos [5][6][15]. Co-creator Josh Schwartz told The A.V. Club that the song "has been very good to us" [6].

That is content marketing at its most efficient: a single, distinctive asset that the audience adopts, adapts and redistributes for free.

The marketing lesson: A signature moment designed for participation earns media every year, because audiences who can recreate a brand's moment become its distribution channel.

Show Up Inside an Existing Ritual

The holiday shopping calendar is already one of the strongest rituals in American retail. The NRF reported that 84% of consumers had already begun their holiday shopping by Thanksgiving weekend 2025, which industry coverage described as making the weekend the midpoint of the season [1][4][16]. Supermarkets and online channels led the list of destinations shoppers visited [2][16].

Brands that build their campaigns around these established moments meet customers where their attention already is, a far more efficient path than creating a new occasion from scratch.

The marketing lesson: The highest-return seasonal campaigns plug into rituals customers already keep, so the customer journey starts with built-in intent.

Let the Audience Carry It

Carey's song returns to No. 1 each year largely on the strength of U.S. streaming, according to Guinness World Records, NPR and other chart coverage [11][12][14]. Gossip Girl's scene returns through fan recreations and rewatches [5][6][7]. In both cases, the audience restarts the cycle each season.

The marketing lesson: The most durable seasonal brand assets run on earned media, because once the audience owns the ritual, every year delivers brand lift with minimal paid support.

The Broader Takeaway

Seasonal ownership connects directly to the metrics a CMO reports: brand awareness renewed annually, earned media generated by the audience, customer retention built on ritual and conversion captured during the highest-traffic weeks of the year. The NRF's record turnout shows how much opportunity sits inside those weeks.

The thinking travels to any retail or consumer packaged goods brand. A signature holiday product, an annual in-store event or a recurring seasonal campaign can each become the brand's "Whatcha Say" moment when it is distinctive, repeatable and easy for customers to share.

Work With RSL

RSL News Inc. builds brand strategy, customer experience programs and measurement frameworks that help brands own their moment on the calendar. If your brand is ready to claim a season of its own, let's talk.

Related reading

References

  1. National Retail Federation, "Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Draws a Record 203 Million Shoppers." https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-holiday-weekend-draws-a-record-203-million-shoppers
  2. NACS, "NRF: Thanksgiving Holiday Shopping Draws Record Numbers." https://www.convenience.org/stay-current/news/2025/december/3/5-nrf-thanksgiving-shopping-draws-record_research
  3. LGR Magazine, "NRF: 2025 Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Draws Record Number of Shoppers." https://lgrmag.com/news/nrf-2025-thanksgiving-holiday-weekend-draws-record-number-of-shoppers/
  4. Home Page News, "NRF: Thanksgiving Weekend Shopping Totals Better Than Expected." https://www.homepagenews.com/retail-articles/nrf-thanksgiving-weekend-shopping-totals-better-than-expected/
  5. The Tulane Hullabaloo, "Whatcha Say: We Rank the Gossip Girl Thanksgiving Episodes." https://tulanehullabaloo.com/72088/arcade/whatcha-say-we-rank-the-gossip-girl-thanksgiving-episodes/
  6. The A.V. Club, "Gossip Girl's Creators Reflect on the Legacy of Season Three's Thanksgiving Episode." https://avclub.com/gossip-girl-creators-season-three-thanksgiving-episode-1849816710
  7. People via AOL, "A Rundown of Iconic Gossip Girl Thanksgiving Episodes." https://www.aol.com/articles/rundown-iconic-gossip-girl-thanksgiving-210000142.html
  8. Pajiba, "Hmm, Whatcha Say? Is This the Greatest TV Thanksgiving Moment Ever?" https://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/hmm-whatcha-say-is-this-the-greatest-tv-thanksgiving-moment-ever.php
  9. The Berkeley Beacon, "The Original Gossip Girl Ate Up Thanksgiving Episodes." https://berkeleybeacon.com/the-original-gossip-girl-ate-up-thanksgiving-episodes/
  10. TV Insider, "All Gossip Girl Thanksgiving Episodes, Ranked." https://www.tvinsider.com/swooon/gallery/gossip-girl-thanksgiving-episodes-ranked/
  11. Guinness World Records, "Most Weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100." https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/472589-most-weeks-at-no-1-in-the-usa-single
  12. NPR via KPBS, "Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' Breaks an All-Time Chart Record." https://www.kpbs.org/news/2025/12/18/mariah-careys-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-breaks-an-all-time-chart-record
  13. ABC Audio via WMEX, "Mariah Carey Sets All-Time Chart Record With 20th Week at No. 1." https://wmexboston.com/?p=168773
  14. NewsChannel 9, "Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' Shatters Another Record." https://newschannel9.com/news/entertainment/mariah-careys-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-shatters-another-record
  15. Elite Daily, "19 Quotes From Gossip Girl to Caption Your Dramatic Thanksgiving Pics." https://www.elitedaily.com/p/22-thanksgiving-quotes-from-gossip-girl-to-caption-pics-with-the-s-to-your-b-13090172
  16. The National Desk, "Thanksgiving Through Cyber Monday Saw Record Number of Holiday Shoppers." https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/thanksgiving-through-cyber-monday-saw-record-number-of-holiday-shoppers-nrf-national-retail-federation-christmas-shopping-commerce-economy

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