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Gen Z Wants a Coastal Kennedy Summer on The Viral List

Gen Z’s Kennedy summer dreams, McDonald’s CEO’s stiff burger tasting (and the comments), and ACOTAR’s return are all going viral…

Written and Edited by the YPulse Editorial Team

Mar 6 2026
North America, Western Europe

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Gen Z is imaging a “Kennedy Summer” for 2026, marking this year’s first rebranding of luxury
Gen Z turned a video of McDonald’s CEO awkwardly tasting the new burger into a meme and rival chains got in the comments
After a four-year wait, Sarah J. Maas announced the next installments of her bestselling series on Call Her Daddy, sending #BookTok into a frenzy

2022’s Coastal Grandma is 2024’s Mob Wife is 2025’s Yuppie Revival is 2026’s Kennedy Summer YPulse told you to expect the romanticization of traditional luxury every year, and we’re seeing it once again in Gen Z’s new “Kennedy Summer” trend. As young viewers tune into Ryan Murphy’s new FX show Love Story—which follows John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s glamourous, pre-2000s New York life—many are also falling hard for the aesthetic of it. Naturally, that means Bessette-Kennedy’s Calvin Klein-era style is back on mood boards everywhere (again). But once the show featured her first visit to the Kennedy summer...