BRANDED
BRANDED
Ben Kaplan and TOP Thought Leader
Inside the Attention Economy: MTV, Build-A-Bear & the Price of Feeling
8 minutes Posted Oct 27, 2025 at 4:19 pm.
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MTV didn’t die — we killed it by scrolling. In this week’s episode of BRANDED Weekly, Ben Kaplan breaks down how nostalgia, dopamine, and brand emotion are reshaping business.
 From MTV’s collapse to Build-A-Bear’s 2,000% stock surgeChili’s viral mozzarella moment, and Michael Jordan’s $70M jet, we explore the one metric that now decides who wins: attention.

 The real question? In 2025, how much is your brand’s emotion worth?