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Cultural relevance has never been more important or desired by brands and marketers than it is right now. As fragmented as our media landscape has become, a brand with cultural relevance is better at attracting our attention and, importantly, keeping it. Why? Because we care. We talk to our friends and family about it. We engage in online and IRL communities about it. So if a brand can genuinely embed itself in that experience, or make that experience better, more interesting, helpful, or entertaining, then its really earning our attention. A new report from global ad agency network TBWA takes a deep dive into 39 cultural shifts happening around the world, and categorizes them for marketers to learn more and potentially tap into. The goal of the report is to arm brands with the necessary information to make better decisions when it comes to how they show up in culture. The agency calls these shifts edges, which it defines as global shifts with the scale and longevity to help brands turn cultural blur into business opportunities. The shifts in this years report range from generative AI to sustainability, and personal development to survivalism. TBWAs global chief strategy officer Jen Costello says one thing that stuck out from this years research was the idea of culture rot, in which content and culture are confused for one another. The former is just regurgitating whats already out there, while the latter has more influence and impact. For Costello, too many brands are focusing on content over actual culture. Brands and creators are churning out this endless stream of stuff, much of which isnt actually landing, making a difference, or shifting how people are actually living in the real world, says Costello. New shifts Most brands are chasing cultural relevance by mimicking the latest buzzword or online micro-trend. TBWAs report argues that this endless stream of what it calls copy-and-paste content is contributing to the culture rot. The challenge is for brands to stop trying to please the algorithm and start using cultural insights to actively contribute to the human experience. There’s nothing inherently wrong about toying around in the language of the internet, says Costello. Its quick, it’s fun, and it typically doesn’t make a huge dent one way or another. The bigger deal is the longer term view. We think culture is the biggest opportunity for brands, but it can also be the biggest threat if you don’t harness it correctly. Three new shifts found in this years report are what the agency calls Eco-Realism, Maturity Paradox, and Transparency Receipts. Advertising buzzwords? Maybe, but they’re also rooted in real human behavior. Eco-Realism is about how environmental action plans are taking a turn for the practical. It comes as a growing number of corporations scale back their previous sustainability targets, and common practices like carbon offsetting and tree planting are exposed as not-so-effective distractions. The report predicts that vague ambitions will be better replaced by more affordable, scalable, and readily available solutions. Maturity Paradox is about the decoupling of age and maturity. The report anticipates that behaviors and expectations tied to certain age groups will no longer be relevant and impact how brands target and design for different generations. Psychographics over demographics. Transparency Receipts, meanwhile, are about how supply chain transparency is gaining traction as more shoppers are demanding a peek behind the curtain. This is being met by better traceability with technologies like blockchain and RFID tags, and upcoming laws like the Europes Digital Product Passport Regulations. The report advises brands to proactively provide clear proof of a products social and environmental impact. It was surprising to hear about these new shifts, particularly on the environment and supply chain transparency, as companies have significantly turned the volume dial way down in talking about these issues. Costello says that its not that these issues have become less important to consumers, but that our BS detectors were being set off much too frequently. Id say eco-realism and transparency receipts are almost direct reactions to the bullshit, she says. People are no longer impressed with the flashy buzzwords or one-off sustainability stunts that are made for Instagram. Their trust has been diminished. Now people want to be taken behind the scenes more. They want to be given the facts. There’s a pragmatism or a practicality coming into place now. Shift impact Reports are only helpful if the information is actually useful and utilized in practice. Costello points to work like Levi’s and McDonald’s as examples of how her agency has used culture in client work for maximum impact. Last year, the agency worked with Levis to remake a classic ad, this time starring Beyoncé. Bey starred in an updated version of the 1985 ad Laundrette, tying it into her award-winning album Cowboy Carter, which included a track called Leviis Jeans. In Japan, Gen Z makes up 60% of McDonalds workforce. But applications were steadily decreasing. The agency found Gen Z disliked being forced to smile as McDonalds employees. So they created a campaign that included an original song with the artist ano, who is known for not smiling, and revitalized the brands recruitment. It increased job applicants by 115%. I want to see more brands become rabbit holes of inspiration, fun, and experience for people, rather than just seeking it out, says Costello. I want to see them choosing paths and sticking with it. I want to see them building around fandom for obsessive fans.
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E-Commerce
The van makes its way slowly but surely through the city streets, braking gently when a car swerves into its lane. But its steering wheel is turning on its own, and there’s no one in the driver’s seat.The driverless technology from Nissan Motor Corp., which uses 14 cameras, nine radars, and six LiDar sensors installed in and around the vehicle, highlights Japan’s eagerness to catch up with players like Google’s Waymo that have taken the lead in the U.S.Japan, home to the world’s top automakers, has not kept pace with the global shift to autonomous driving, so far led by China and the U.S. But momentum is building.Waymo is going to land in Japan this year. Details haven’t been disclosed, but it has a partnership with major cab company Nihon Kotsu, which will oversee and manage their all-electric Jaguar I-PACE sport-utility vehicles, first in the Tokyo area, still with a human cab driver riding along.During Nissan’s demonstration, the streets were bustling with other cars and pedestrians. The vehicle stayed within the maximum speed limit in the area of 40 kph (25 mph), its destination set with a smartphone app.Takeshi Kimura, the Mobility and AI Laboratory engineer at Nissan, insists an automaker is more adept at integrating self-driving technology with the overall workings of a carsimply because it knows cars better.“How the sensors must be adapted to the car’s movements, or to monitor sensors and computers to ensure reliability and safety requires an understanding of the auto system overall,” he said during a recent demonstration that took reporters on a brief ride.Nissan’s technology, being tested on its Serena minivan, is still technically at the industry’s Level Two because a person sits before a remote-control panel in a separate location outside the vehicle, in this case, at the automaker’s headquarters, and is ready to step in if the technology fails.Nissan also has a human sitting in the front passenger seat during the test rides, who can take over the driving, if needed. Unless there is a problem, the people in the remote control room and the passenger seat are doing nothing.Nissan plans to have 20 such vehicles moving in the Yokohama area in the next couple of years, with the plan to reach Level Four, which means no human involvement even as backup, by 2029 or 2030.Autonomous vehicles can serve a real need given the nation’s shrinking population, including a shortage of drivers.Other companies are working on the technology in Japan, including startups like Tier IV, which is pushing an open source collaboration on autonomous driving technology.So far, Japan has approved the use of so-called Level Four autonomous vehicles in a rural area in Fukui Prefecture, but those look more like golf carts. A Level Four bus is scuttling around a limited area near Tokyo’s Haneda airport. But its maximum speed is 12 kmph (7.5 mph). Nissan’s autonomous vehicle is a real car, capable of all its mechanical workings and speed levels.Toyota Motor Corp. recently showed its very own “city” or living area for its workers and partnering startups, near Mount Fuji, being built especially to test various technology, including autonomous driving.Progress has been cautious.University of Tokyo Professor Takeo Igarashi, who specializes in computer and information technology, believes challenges remain because it’s human nature to be more alarmed by accidents with driverless vehicles than regular crashes.“In human driving, the driver takes responsibility. It’s so clear. But nobody is driving so you don’t know who will take responsibility,” Igarashi told The Associated Press.“In Japan, the expectation for commercial services is very high. The customer expects perfect quality for any servicerestaurants or drivers or anything. This kind of auto-driving is a service form a company, and everybody expects high quality and perfection. Even a small mistake is not acceptable.”Nissan says its technology is safe. After all, a human can’t be looking at the front, the back and all around at the same time. But the driverless car can, with all its sensors.When a system failure happened during the recent demonstration, the car just came to a stop and all was well.Phil Koopman, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, believes the autonomous vehicle industry is just getting started.The main problem is what’s known as “edge cases,” those rare but dangerous situations that the machine has not yet been taught to respond to. Using autonomous fleets of a significant size for some time is needed for such edge cases to be learned, he said.“We will see each city require special engineering efforts and the creation of a special remote support center. This will be a city-by-city deployment for many years,” said Koopman.“There is no magic switch.” Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
By now everyone knows that scrolling social media isnt exactly good for you. But did you know it might be making you sweat? Researchers from the psychology department at Durham University tracked the physiological responses of scrolling on social media and found a rather strange side effect. The researchers asked 54 young adults to browse Instagram for 15 minutes while monitoring their heart rate and their skin conductance (which would tell how much sweat they produced). Compared to reading a news article on a phone, they found scrolling Instagram made peoples heart rates slow down and, simultaneously, made them sweat more. From the control group, who just read the news article, they could tell it was not being on the phone or reading that was causing this response. It was something about social media. Researchers found that the physiological responses were present in all participants, regardless of how they scored on a questionnaire that assessed the symptoms of social media addiction. When participants were purposefully interrupted from their scrolling, rather than snapping out of the excitement and returning to a calmer state, participants continued to sweat and their heart rates increased. When they were asked to completely disconnect, participants reported being stressed and anxious. They even reported having cravings for social media at that moment. Such bodily and psychological stress responses are similar to those addicts experience when going through substance withdrawal. Most Americans dont need another reason to want to cut down on screen time. Over half (53%) of Americans say they want to cut down on phone usage in 2025 (33% more than in 2023), with people spending an average of 5 hours and 16 minutes per day on their phonesa 14% increase from the 4 hours and 37 minutes people reported in 2024. While researchers didnt attempt to answer the question of whether weve developed a physical addiction to social media, the study does suggest that social media indeed has addictive elements. My screen time couldve told you that.
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E-Commerce
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