US – Burger King has launched a shock-factor campaign to shine a light on the removal of artificial preservatives in its products.

Presented as a time-lapse video that documents the deterioration of a Whopper burger over 34 days, the campaign shows the burger gradually changing from its freshly made state to an unappealing serving covered with mould. The campaign is born from the brand's continued focus on rolling out its popular Whopper sandwich without preservatives, colours or flavours from artificial sources.

With the additive-free Whopper available in more than 400 restaurants across the US, the brand hopes to amplify the authenticity of its food through this audacious communication strategy, rounding off the campaign with the tag line: ‘The beauty of no artificial preservatives’. Fernando Machado, global chief marketing officer, says: ‘At Burger King restaurants, we believe that real food tastes better. That’s why we are working hard to remove preservatives, colours and flavours from artificial sources from the food we serve in all countries around the world.’

By drawing attention to the uglier side of its products, Burger King is one of many Backlash Brands which are choosing to stand their ground on issues they care about, rather than bowing to consumers’ expectations.

US – Passbook is a new bank that not only enables immigrants to manage their finances more easily, it also celebrates their heritage.

Launched by money-transfer start-up Remitly, Passbook is designed to remedy the issues faced by people who do not have an American social security number or other form of US-originated identification. Instead, it empowers them to use a range of picture IDs, such as a passport from their home nation. In turn, customers opening an account receive a bank card with their national flag positioned above their name in homage to their identity.

In this way, Passbook is working to assist the 1.7bn people globally who remain unbanked and off the financial grid (source: World Bank). As Remitly CEO and co-founder Matt Oppenheimer notes: ‘Passbook is the next step in Remitly’s mission to transform the lives of the millions of immigrants around the world who make the huge sacrifice of leaving their families behind to live and work in another country.’

Amid the rise of high-level mobile adoption, growth in e-payments, biometric identification and currency digitisation, companies like Remitly are playing a positive role in Banking the Unbanked.

According to luxury organisation Altagamma, Boston Consulting Group and investment firm Bernstein, luxury brands are set to lose up to £8.3bn ($10.7bn, €10bn) in profits in 2020 owing to the impact of the coronavirus. The research even suggests that luxury brands have little chance of returning to normal trading conditions before the beginning of 2021.

In a series of infographics shared by Altagamma, luxury brands are forecasting a fall in sales of between £25bn ($32bn, €30bn) and £33bn ($43bn, €40bn), bringing the value of the personal luxury market in 2020 to between £256.5bn ($332bn, €309bn) and £264.7bn ($342.5bn, €319bn) – its lowest since 2015. Having hit companies from Burberry to LVMH and Capri Holdings, the epidemic has confirmed just how heavily the luxury sector relies on Chinese consumers, as well as international travel.

For other factors contributing to the luxury sector’s state of flux, explore our State of Luxury series where we uncover the changing behaviour of affluent consumers in global markets, from the US and France to Poland and South Korea.