In the Korean-language Netflix megahit “Squid Game,” debt-ridden people take part in a deadly competition — lying, cheating and killing one another for a life-changing pot of money.

How is the streamer promoting the second season of such an anti-capitalist show? By selling merchandise, of course.

Retailers and brands including Puma, Johnnie Walker and shoe-maker Crocs are hoping that interest in the show will drive sales of products based on the ultraviolent dystopian series.

On Wednesday, Puma announced a line of green tracksuits similar to the ones the characters wear onscreen, along with sneakers and other apparel inspired by the series. The German clothing retailer created the actual costumes for the show.

“We saw an opportunity for us to be more than just a partner of creating consumer products, being able to also be in the show and be part of this cultural moment,” said Puma spokesman Alberto Turincio. “Everyone knows what ‘Squid Game’ is. The fandom was just insane.”

Puma is just one of several global retailers and brands that are partnering with Netflix on merchandise inspired by its shows and movies.

For example, spirit maker Johnnie Walker created a “Squid Game” special-edition whisky, which features a teal label and “Squid Game” inspired cocktails including “The 456” which incorporates flavor form bori-cha, tea often served with Korean food.

Previously, Netflix has worked with outside companies to create “Bridgerton” bread mixes and “Stranger Things”-themed Scoops Ahoy ice cream. For Netflix, the products are a way of keeping fans engaged with their favorite programs and driving excitement.

Puma “Squid Game” tracksuit, sneakers and backpack. Puma “Squid Game” sneakers. Puma “Squid Game” backpack. (Netflix)

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“The stories that are on Netflix end up becoming these cultural moments, and so I think people are excited to go along with us on that journey,” said Josh Simon, Netflix’s vice president of consumer products. “When they love it, they want to live it.”

Retail and consumer products are a growing business for Netflix. The company is hoping that selling T-shirts, booze and other items inspired by its programming will boost awareness for its programs while also providing additional revenue. Netflix has launched pop-up stores and restaurants to promote its shows and movies. It has created live events, including music performances, for similar purposes. Netflix said it has launched 40 unique attractions across 100 cities globally, reaching more than 7.5 million consumers.

Next year, the company will open permanent retail centers, called Netflix House, inside former department store locations in Texas and Pennsylvania that combine all those elements — food, merchandise and experiences based on Netflix programs. The company could eventually have 50 or 60 Netflix House locations globally, Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos said at the WSJ Tech Live conference in October.

The popularity of “Stranger Things” helped kick-start Netflix’s consumer products business as brands began reaching out to work with the company. In 2019, Netflix started its consumer products division and in 2021 launched a retail website. Over time, Netflix expanded its partnerships with more brands and hosted popular live events, including balls inspired by “Bridgerton.” It’s a playbook that was pioneered by Walt Disney Co. and copied by numerous others. Disney has a giant consumer products licensing business and at one time had hundreds of retail stores at malls across the country.

But unlike studios such as Disney, Netflix doesn’t have a large catalog of storied characters like Mickey Mouse, Woody from “Toy Story” and Elsa from “Frozen.” Also, Netflix’s most popular shows tend to be more adult-centric, and thus less obviously useful for retailers targeting children than Disney’s cartoons and Universal’s ubiquitous Minions.

But the streamer says the popularity of its adult-oriented programming is an advantage, because its viewers have disposable income and are willing to spend.

Netflix has a global audience of hundreds of millions of people, and its most popular shows have spurred shopping trends on their own. Fans have bought tracksuits to dress as “Squid Game” characters for Halloween or chess sets due to the fandom around “The Queen’s Gambit.”

Characters wear green tracksuits in Season 2 of “Squid Game.”

(No Ju-han / Netflix)

“We’ve earned a little bit of goodwill to place bets on newer movies and TV shows, just because the fandom can catch up pretty quickly,” Simon said.

Retailers have already seen success with Netflix-related products. Bath & Body Works sold “Bridgerton”-themed fragrance collections such as “Diamond of the Season” starting in March, with lotions, soaps and candles. Over the launch period, the “Bridgerton”-themed products represented 4% of Bath & Body Works’ U.S. store sales, the retailer said.

The brands fit really well together, and the “Bridgerton” products brought in new shoppers, said Betsy Schumacher, the retailer’s chief merchandising officer.

“It had this immediate attraction to our customers and drove traffic and excitement in our stores,” she said.

“Bridgerton” was one of the shows touted at a meeting with brands last month. There are “Bridgerton”-inspired wedding dresses, $70 teapots at Williams Sonoma and $65 dog jackets.

“We’ve done a lot, but we won’t pause here,” Elena Vrska, who works in consumer products marketing at Netflix, said during a presentation.

“Squid Game” Season 2 represents a major opportunity for Netflix and its brand partners. The first season was the most watched Netflix show ever, with more than 330 million views to date. This month, Netflix will launch marketing campaigns showcasing the iconic green tracksuits from “Squid Game,” including a 4.56K run (a reference to Player 456, the show’s main character) during the “Squid Game” season 2 premiere in Los Angeles next week.

“We are expecting to sweep the world with green tracksuits,” Joyce Salaver, who works in brand strategy in consumer products for Netflix, said in a presentation to brands last month. “We will create a massive cultural moment that only Netflix can do.”

Netflix’s deals with brands can vary. The streamer in some cases receives a licensing fee or a percentage of sales with minimum revenue guarantees.

Bath & Body Works’ Danbury shortbread “Bridgerton” collection.

(Netflix)

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Larry Vincent, a USC Marshall School of Business marketing professor, said the licensees take on more risk generally than licensors such as Netflix.

“The real benefit of it is the exposure and the marketing value of more consumers and audiences aware that a program is active right now,” Vincent said. “You can think of these licensed merchandise extensions as just another marketing execution.”

In addition to working with brands, Netflix has its own in-house product development and creative teams that help with the products.

Matt Owens, co-showrunner and an executive producer of Netflix’s “One Piece,” said that when he was a kid, having action figures of movies and TV shows inspired him to reenact scenes and make up his own stories, which is how he started as a storyteller. Now, he’s working with Netflix on merch for his own live action series, based on the popular coming-of-age manga. One of the ideas he was involved with was “One Piece” trading cards based on the live action series that could be used in the “One Piece” card game. Owens said he has talked with brands regarding potential merchandise for Season 2 of the show but declined to name them.

Merch is “like a badge of honor” for fans, Owens said.

“It’s the same thing as wearing a jersey of a sports team,” Owens said. “It just adds that feeling that there are other fans all over the place.”

California’s Civil Rights Department announced settlements Tuesday with Amazon, Ikea and Kohl’s over allegations that the big-box retailers illegally denied jobs to people based on their criminal histories.

Amazon allegedly denied a Bay Area applicant work as a delivery driver because of a conviction that was more than seven years old, while Ikea was accused of failing to justify its stance that a criminal history made an applicant unable to handle a job as a furniture builder in Carson, the Civil Rights Department said.

Another complaint said Kohl’s denied an applicant a job as a warehouse worker in Los Angeles based on criminal history information unlawfully obtained through a questionnaire.

Besides the retailers, California also reached a settlement with the Dodgers for failing to notify an applicant for a guest services job of the specific reason their hire had been blocked, and for failing to provide an opportunity for the applicant to submit evidence challenging the rejection.

The series of settlements marks an effort to enforce the Fair Chance Act, which went into effect in 2018 and limits how an employer can use an applicant’s criminal history when making hiring decisions. The law is intended to reduce barriers to work that people with criminal histories face.

The law prohibits employers with five or more employees from asking about a job applicant’s criminal history before making a conditional job offer, and sets in place specific procedures for considering an applicant’s criminal history after a job offer is made. Under the law, employers can decide against hiring an applicant only if a conviction has a direct link to the responsibilities that come with the job.

The law also requires that companies provide notice of decisions to deny applicants positions on the basis of their conviction histories, and gives applicants the ability to respond to these preliminary decisions.

The Civil Rights Department announced the settlements, which it reached in recent months, in a news release Tuesday. The department said it had also reached deals with a hotel in Sacramento and a private charter jet company in Monterey, both of which were accused of unlawfully considering information that had been sealed, dismissed or expunged from an applicant’s criminal record.

The settlements resolve complaints that rejected job applicants filed with the state last year. After investigating the allegations, the Civil Rights Department gave the companies the chance to settle the violations. Settlements can include payments to complainants to cover lost wages or other harms and agreeing to temporary monitoring by state officials to ensure compliance with the law.

The amount some of the companies paid as part of the settlements were kept confidential, while others are in the range of $15,000 to $18,500, according to copies of the settlement agreements reviewed by The Times.

“Nobody deserves to get locked out of the job market,” said Kevin Kish, director of the Civil Rights Department, according to the news release. “If we want to get serious about helping people get their lives back on track, we owe it to them to give them a chance to make a living. By giving people a pathway forward in their own lives, we’re also doing critical work to ensure public safety in our communities.”

An Amazon spokesperson said he did not have enough information about the settlement and could not yet provide comment. Ikea, Kohl’s and the Dodgers did not respond to requests for comment.

The Civil Rights Department said that since the law went into effect in 2018, it has investigated hundreds of complaints alleging discrimination in employment decisions based on criminal history information and has secured more than 100 settlements.

In one settlement, the Moraga-Orinda Fire Protection District agreed to pay nearly $100,000 last year. In 2022, a construction company agreed to pay the same amount after unlawfully denying a group of applicants jobs in 2018 and 2019.

Also last year, the department filed a lawsuit against Ralphs for allegedly denying jobs to hundreds of people based on their criminal history. The grocer allegedly included questions about convictions on its job application in violation of the law.

The department said it also has made efforts to identify and correct online job advertisements that violate the Fair Chance Act, sending notices to businesses to address hundreds of violations.

Last month, President-elect Donald Trump entered a sold-out Madison Square Garden to attend the mixed martial arts extravaganza UFC 309. Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” played and the crowd erupted in cheers, chanting “USA! USA!”

The incoming 47th president was flanked by UFC president Dana White and a cortege of Trumpworld insiders tapped for the new administration, including Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard.

Also present was Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel, head of the Endeavor Group and the CEO of UFC’s parent company, TKO.

Inside the arena, Trump approached the Octagon-side “promoters table” where White and UFC commentator Joe Rogan sit and where he was seen briefly chatting with Emanuel.

Their meeting at the UFC bout was the second time the pair had spoken since Trump’s 2024 presidential run, said a person close to Emanuel who was not authorized to comment. Emanuel, Trump’s former agent, called him last summer after he was shot at a campaign rally to ask how he was doing, and Trump appreciated the call, said the source.

As Hollywood begins to grapple with how to navigate Trumpworld 2.0, few are better positioned to navigate the new administration than Emanuel.

The brash power player has staunch Democratic bona fides: He has hosted fundraisers for the party and donated to a number of its candidates over the years. During this presidential cycle he gave nearly $1 million to Kamala Harris’ PAC and campaign. And his brother Rahm was President Obama’s first chief of staff, later the mayor of Chicago and Biden’s ambassador to Japan.

Nonetheless, Ari Emanuel has cultivated multifaceted ties to Trump and many of his associates over the years, among them Elon Musk, UFC’s White and WWE’s Vince McMahon. One of William Morris Endeavor’s literary agents represented Vice President-elect JD Vance when he sold his 2016 bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy” (Emanuel interviewed Vance at an employee book club series in 2018 in Cleveland).

Emanuel, who has publicly castigated Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and blasted President Biden and his aides for not dropping out of the presidential race earlier, says that he will not be shy about voicing his concerns to Trump, telling The Times, “If I really disagree with something that I think he would do, I will definitely pick up the phone.”

‘The King of Hollywood’

Back in 2010, Emanuel became Trump’s agent, just months after the Hollywood power broker engineered a stunning takeover of the famed William Morris Agency. The New York real estate developer turned reality TV star was hosting “Celebrity Apprentice,” and he called Emanuel as he played golf during his firm’s annual off-site in Palm Springs.

“Ari, this is Donald Trump. Did you make that Conan deal? I want you to be my agent,” Trump told him, according to someone close to Emanuel.

The NBC show was flagging in the ratings — despite Trump insisting otherwise — and he wanted what he always craved: a better deal.

Endeavor had extracted some major concessions from NBC after the network axed Conan O’Brien as host of “The Tonight Show,” including a $32.5-million payout.

The deal caught Trump’s attention and he wanted the man he’d taken to calling “the King of Hollywood” representing him.

Five years later, Trump announced his first run for president. After he called Mexicans “rapists” who brought drugs and crime into the country, NBC cut ties with him. Trump bought out NBC’s interest in the Miss Universe Organization and then sold Miss Universe to Emanuel’s Endeavor for an undisclosed sum. In November 2016, Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States.

Although Emanuel has not represented Trump since the latter announced his first candidacy, he was photographed meeting Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., after the 2016 election. Emanuel has downplayed the visit to those around him.

Three years later, Emanuel’s name surfaced in a trove of some 100 documents from Trump’s transition that was leaked to the political news site Axios, indicating he had been vetted for an unspecified role in the administration. A spokesperson for Endeavor declined to comment at the time.

Trump, who has called Emanuel “a very good friend of mine,” said at the start of his first administration: “Even though he’s not political, he’s political. He gets it.”

Elon Musk: The Trump whisperer

Over the years, Emanuel’s relationship with Elon Musk took shape, and its contours deepened as the uber-agent transformed Endeavor from a talent agency into a global sports and entertainment powerhouse. In March 2021, a month before Endeavor went public on the New York Stock Exchange, Musk was tapped to join the company’s board (he resigned in 2022).

That same year, Musk was among a clutch of intimates (along with Brian Grazer and Larry David) who attended Emanuel’s 60th birthday party at Ivy on the Shore in Santa Monica. In the summer of 2022, when Emanuel married fashion designer Sarah Staudinger, Musk joined a select group of A-listers (Mark Wahlberg, David Zaslav) invited to their wedding in St. Tropez, France. Months later Musk was photographed yachting off the coast of Greece with the newlyweds.

Behind the scenes, Emanuel has played a quiet role in some of Musk’s notable businesses.

When Musk attempted to back out of his $44-billion takeover of Twitter in 2022, causing a rift with its board, Emanuel reached out to Egon Durban, a Twitter board member and co-CEO of private equity firm Silver Lake, then Endeavor’s largest shareholder.

Emanuel urged the company to “find a solution” to the legal battle ahead of the scheduled trial. Musk and the board ultimately sealed the deal and the billionaire took the social platform private, later renaming it X.

As Emanuel played peace broker between Musk and the Twitter board, he sent Musk a three-paragraph proposal on the encrypted text platform Signal offering to run Twitter with Endeavor for a fee of $100 million, saying he would cut costs, create a better culture and manage relationships with advertisers and marketers.

Emanuel’s overture, unearthed in Walter Isaacson’s flattering biography of the Tesla mogul, never moved forward.

Jared Birchall, Musk’s right-hand man, called it “the most insulting, demeaning, insane message.”

The scuttled offer apparently did little to ruffle feathers. In January 2023, Axios revealed that Endeavor had acquired a small stake in X. As for Emanuel, he has been spotted around town driving a glossy black Cybertruck.

Dana White: Trump’s strongman champion

UFC President Dana White has long championed Trump.

(Getty Images)

In 2016, the same year that Endeavor acquired the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for more than $4 billion, its president, Dana White, a bombastic former mixed martial arts (MMA) manager, took the stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and gave a fulsome endorsement of the GOP presidential nominee. “I’ve been in the fight business my whole life,” he said, and Trump, he noted, was a “fighter.”

Trump had thrown White a lifeline years ago. In 2000, New Jersey legalized MMA and Trump reached out to White offering to hold fights at his now-defunct Trump Taj Mahal casino and hotel in Atlantic City. Trump himself showed up for events, raising UFC’s profile.

Since then, White has been one of Trump’s staunchest supporters outside of politics. He has invited Trump to UFC events even as Trump faced a spate of criminal, civil and other legal challenges.

As White became known as MAGA’s frontman, he and Emanuel forged a successful business partnership turning the UFC into the world’s largest MMA promotion.

“Now with Ari, he and I end up being perfect partners together. It’s really cool,” White told the website MMA Fighting. “You think of a guy like Ari, if you watch ‘Entourage’ — Ari Emanuel has no ego when he deals in business and he’s a f—king killer and I love that about him too.”

Emanuel has heaped praise on White too, crediting him with helping to save Endeavor’s sprawling empire during the pandemic.

White implemented an aggressive plan to continue to hold fight events on Yas Island in the United Arab Emirates, dubbed “Fight Island.”

The Emanuel-White alliance reached its apex last fall when Endeavor officially merged UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) into TKO Group Holdings, a publicly traded $21.4-billion fighting sports and entertainment giant.

Vince and Linda McMahon: Trump’s fight squad

For years before he acquired TKO, Ari Emanuel represented WWE led by Vince McMahon, left, with his wife, Linda McMahon, who was Trump’s Small Business Administration head.

(Jessica Hill / Associated Press)

Emanuel has deep connections with another figure who has close ties to Trump: Vince McMahon.

Last April on CNBC, Emanuel sat next to McMahon and announced the UFC-WWE merger, insisting that McMahon was a driving force and paramount to the deal.

McMahon was named executive chairman of the newly created TKO Group Holdings as a condition of the deal, according to SEC filings.

McMahon boasted that the new company was a “live sports and entertainment powerhouse with a collective fan base of more than a billion people.”

Emanuel had a long-standing relationship with McMahon. They met in the late 1990s, soon after Emanuel launched his own talent agency. He convinced McMahon to let Endeavor represent the WWE for endorsement opportunities and media rights.

By then, McMahon had already developed close ties to Trump.

During the 1980s, Trump became a WWE fixture and the two men grew friendly. Trump hosted WrestleMania extravaganzas at his hotels and made numerous appearances at matches. In 2013, Trump was inducted into the WWE’s Hall of Fame.

In 2007 and ’09, WWE made payments of $4 million and $1 million, respectively, to the Trump Foundation, according to the foundation’s tax filings. The foundation was dissolved by court order in 2018 after the New York attorney general found that it had illegally used charitable funds for political purposes.

McMahon exited TKO in January after former WWE employee Janel Grant, sued the company, McMahon and the former head of talent relations alleging sexual assault, trafficking and emotional abuse. This followed previously disclosed revelations that McMahon had paid millions in hush money to multiple women to quash allegations of sexual misconduct between 2006 and 2022. McMahon has denied the accusations of wrongdoing.

The allegations triggered investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, raising questions as to how or if the Trump DOJ will handle the government probes.

Emanuel has periodically stayed in touch with McMahon, who is no longer involved in the running of TKO and WWE.

The McMahon family appears to be in good standing with Trump.

In 2017, Trump named McMahon’s estranged wife, Linda, to run the Small Business Administration. Two years later, she resigned to become chairwoman of America First Action, a pro-Trump super-PAC; more recently, she co-headed his transition team. Last month, Trump nominated McMahon to serve in his cabinet as his education secretary.