As Stranger Things<\/em> fans theorize about what will happen to their favorite characters and prepare to memorialize the long-running show, brand marketers are saying goodbye to a nearly decade-long marketing opportunity that has few rivals.<\/p>\n Since Netflix\u2019s nostalgic sci-fi mystery series premiered in 2016, the miniseries-turned-juggernaut has become an increasingly powerful vehicle for brand spotlights and partnerships. From early onscreen mentions of Eggo waffles and KFC to broader, real-world activations with brands like Coca-Cola, Doritos, and Tide, the Stranger Things<\/em> universe\u2019s brand partnerships have been defined by a type of careful brand inclusion and nostalgia that could be hard to replicate.<\/p>\n With most of the second half of Stranger Things<\/em>\u2019s <\/em>fifth and final season dropping Christmas Day, and the final episode hitting the streamer (and theaters) on New Year\u2019s Eve, some marketers are mourning the end of a particularly powerful streaming partnership.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is bittersweet to see the main story come to a close,\u201d James Wade, senior director of marketing at Doritos, told Marketing Brew. \u201cIf they had a Season 6, we could come up with a great concept for Season 6. Not having that there, there is that sense of what could have been.\u201d<\/p>\n It all started in Season 1, Episode 2, when main character Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, has her world turned upside down\u2014not by the Demogorgons or evil scientists, but by Eggo waffles.<\/p>\n In the show, the frozen breakfast treat is Eleven\u2019s first introduction to real-kid food after she escapes from the lab she\u2019s been held in her whole life, and she quickly forms a passionate connection to it. Eggos appears again in several comedic and character-building scenes later in the show, cementing the brand\u2019s place in the Stranger Things<\/em> world.<\/p>\nLights, camera, brand action<\/h2>\n