LSN : News : Need to know 07 : 08 : 17

1. Royal Mail likens identity theft to bank robbery

Heist by M&C Saatchi for Royal Mail, London

UK – The campaign film, Heist, shows balaclava-clad armed bank robbers stealing personal information from staff and customers. The advert by M&C Saatchi shows people offering cash only to have the assailants dismiss it and instead demand information such as their mothers’ maiden names, their home addresses and the names of their children.

The ad concludes with the tagline ‘Your identity is now your most valuable possession’ and provides details of the Royal Mail’s ID Fraud Centre for advice on protecting against identity theft. As consumers spend more and more time online and physical money becomes increasingly obsolete, cyber security threats will only continue to grow. For more on the importance of safeguarding personal data, see our Personal Information Economy trend tracker.

2. DS & Durga launches playful fragrance campaign

DS & Durga campaign by Leta Sobierajski and Wade Jeffree

London – Art directors Leta Sobierajski and Wade Jeffree have created a new Instagram-friendly, tongue-in-cheek campaign for luxury perfumers DS & Durga. The campaign, which features 12 signature scents, focuses on narratives that ‘embody the mood and story of each fragrance’.

Presented in the brand’s window display for London store Liberty, the imagery taps into the folk inspiration behind each individual fragrance, including a hand covered in blazing wax candles for its Burning Barbershop scent and a faceless denim cowboy shooting hand guns for its Cowboy Grass perfume.

The eye-catching campaign, making it easily shareable, harnesses the changing luxury aesthetics that have led brands such as Gucci to adopt meme culture. For more, see our Luxury Future Focuses 2017.

3. Facebook tackles the newsfeed echo chamber

US – In response to the prevalence of fake news on the platform, Facebook has launched a Related Articles feature, which is designed to help users identify fake or misleading news stories. Popular news stories and those highlighted as potentially fake by Facebook will be supplemented by a feed of headlines from other sources on the same issue.

The feature aims to help users to independently evaluate the truthfulness of an article before sharing it, and enables Facebook to demonstrate its commitment to tackling fake news without the need to monitor individual posts.

Consumers are increasingly distrustful of media outlets, and brands such as Facebook are developing new systems in a bid to regain their trust. For more, see our Veritas Media microtrend.

4. Uniqlo installs clothes vending machine at airport

Uniqlo To Go, Oakland airport, California

Oakland, California – This week the brand installed its first Uniqlo To Go machine at Oakland airport, which will sell UltraLight down jackets and HeatTech tops from its LifeWear range. It plans to extend the concept to a further nine airports later in the year. The items will be available at the same price as in the brand’s stores but will be a more streamlined way for travellers to correct packing errors.

‘We are looking forward to introducing a new and easier way of shopping,’ says Hiroshi Taki, CEO Of Uniqlo USA. ‘Our aim is to answer the real needs of our customers through clothing.’

This is not the first example of vending machines being used to sell products other than food, but it does demonstrate a continuing cross-sector shift in Convenience Culture.

5. Virtual reality increasingly wanted as a work skill

Virtual reality (VR) is the fastest-growing skill in the US freelance job market, according to global freelancing platform Upwork. This new workforce is expected to rapidly transform the VR market as the technology enters the mainstream. Download our free Workplace Summit Report to find out more about the trends that are shaping the world of work.

6. Thought-starter: Gene-editing and neurodiversity

As we edge closer towards a future in which DNA-editing is a reality, junior journalist Rhiannon McGregor asks what this means for diversity in the workplace.

Last week MIT Technology Review reported that scientists in the US had genetically edited human embryos to remove a gene that causes hereditary heart disease. As part of the trial the team used the DNA-editing tool CRISPR to completely eradicate the disease-causing gene from the embryo and, had it been allowed to come to term, any of the child’s future offspring.

This scientific breakthrough raises an important question –what could we risk losing socially and culturally by allowing our babies to be screened and their DNA edited before birth?

Businesses are just beginning to celebrate neurodiversity – the idea that neurological differences such as autism and ADHD are caused by natural variations in the human genome and should therefore not be viewed as disorders. What will happen if we begin to amend these genomic variations?

To find out more about why brands should expand their definition of diversity in the workplace, read the full opinion piece here.