Ariana Grande has revealed a new alter ego named Pepper in a teaser for a visual accompanying her forthcoming album Petal, due for release on Friday 31 July. The retro-styled, black-and-white clip shows Grande, as Pepper, attending an audition and being brushed off by a receptionist, though the teaser does not reveal what the audition is for. It follows the pattern set by her previous album Eternal Sunshine, for which she created a similar character-driven cinematic universe.

The teaser, posted on Tuesday 28 July, notes it was "shot entirely on VistaVision", a widescreen format associated with 1950s films, suggesting a music video or short film is imminent. For Eternal Sunshine, which topped the Billboard 200 for three weeks after its 2024 release, Grande played a character called Peaches across several music videos and a short film, referencing the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So far only one Petal track has surfaced, "Hate That I Made You Love Me", which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and features nightly on her ongoing Eternal Sunshine Tour, currently between stops in Boston and Montreal.