News 25.02.2019

Need to know

Bedtime ice cream hits stores, a new restaurant celebrates Pan-African cuisine and how today’s teenagers are spending their time differently.

Lynx promotes body shaving with ASMR campaign

LYNX presents Shower & Shave ASMR_Tutorials, by 72andSunny Amsterdam

UK – Lynx’s humorous, down-to-earth series of ads feature a man shaving various body parts.

According to Unilever, the ads were created in response to an increase in men searching for body shaving tutorials online. While many online tutorials feature macho male models, the team at 72&Sunny cast an approachable British actor that men could relate to.

The ads feature Lynx’s Shower & Shave range of products, using the internet phenomenon of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) to bring the shaving routine to life. According to creative director Gregg Clampffer, the videos were intended to be tongue-in-cheek: ‘We’re trying to lighten the tone a little bit. Maybe toxic masculinity doesn’t need a lecture. Maybe it needs a laugh. We’re talking to 15-year-old kids. You have to do something a little bit different and you don’t have to petrify them.’

In today’s climate, where the pros and cons of masculinity continue to be a topic of debate, advertisers must embrace more relevant representations of the male physique and take into consideration how men are rethinking their approach to shaving.

Ada Sokol’s digital art captures the essence of Kin Euphorics

Kin Euphorics branding by Ada Sokol Kin Euphorics branding by Ada Sokol
Kin Euphorics branding by Ada Sokol Kin Euphorics branding by Ada Sokol

Paris – The digital artist and designer has rebranded the plant-based, non-alcoholic 'euphoric', which claims to boost mood and encourage relaxation.

Made from a blend of botanicals, adaptogens and nootropics, Kin Euphorics’ wellness-driven drink, High Rhode, was created for social occasions. Targeting moderation mindsets, the brand ‘believes in a night where social isn’t sinful and self-care doesn’t stop at sunset’. As such, it demonstrates how non-alcoholic beverages intended for evening consumption continue to grow and diversify as a category.

To capture this, Ada Sokol’s renderings combine botanical ingredients such as hibiscus with astronomical elements such as a revolving moon, translating the essence of Kin’s night-time product into vibrant branding. With its deep, bright colours and layers of texture, the result steers clear of minimal design clichés.

As we explore in our Virtual Baroque design direction, digital artists are deconstructing the visual codes of advertising to create a high-end aesthetic for digitally savvy consumers.

Bedtime ice cream is hitting supermarkets

US – NightFood’s ice cream is infused with magnesium to help people get a good night’s sleep.

The brand – which until recently was only available to buy online or through Amazon – has announced its first major retail distribution partner, Midwestern supermarket chain Meijer.

NightFood’s ice cream is formulated by sleep and nutrition experts, and is made with magnesium, calcium and zinc. As well as being low in sugar and high in protein, it contains no caffeine and erythritol, a sugar alcohol, to ensure the ice cream has nutritional value as well as aiding sleep. According to the brand, the products have been formulated as a better option for the tens of millions of Americans already eating ice cream at night-time.

Sleep is the new frontier in wellness, with brands developing food, drinks and supplements that calm the mind, aid sleep and restore consumers’ bodies as they rest. For more, read our microtrend Sleep Eats.

Nightfood ice cream, US

Teranga champions Pan-African cuisine

Teranga, New York Teranga, New York
Teranga, New York Teranga, New York

New York – The new restaurant in Harlem’s Africa Center aims to introduce the continent’s unique culinary offerings to a wider audience.

Created by Pierre Thiam, the co-founder of Yolélé Foods, Teranga’s menu is inspired by the foods of Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Nigeria. Traditional West African ingredients such as fonio, betel leaves and attiéké, made from fermented cassava, are served in convenient, fast-casual formats such as grain bowls and market plates, which are familiar to Western consumers.

This Pan-African approach runs throughout the concept. In addition to a bar stocked with Kenyan beer, and wine from Morocco and South Africa, the restaurant’s drinks menu includes private-label coffee grown in Rwanda and Ethiopia, as well as baobab juice and moringa lattes made with steamed oat milk. A small retail marketplace also sells African-made housewares and pantry staples.

For more how African ingredients such as fonio can appeal to Western markets, read our interview with Noah Levine, chief marketing officer at Yolélé Foods.

Stat: How teens spend their time is changing

According to Pew Research Center, teenagers in the US today are spending more time sleeping and doing homework, while devoting less time to paid work and socialising than they did a decade ago. As well as getting almost an hour more sleep than teenagers in the mid-1990s, they are enjoying more leisure time, at an average of 5 hours and 44 minutes a day.

Teenagers are also spending less time doing paid work during the school year. Pew reports that teens today spend, on average, less than half an hour a day on paid work, compared with 49 minutes a decade ago, and 57 minutes in the mid-1990s. As teen attitudes to work continue to evolve, so is their spending. For more, read our Money Market: Generation Z.

Thought-starter: Who are the fashion designers of the future?

Brave New Worlds was the theme for the biennial International Fashion Showcase, which recently took place in London, with emerging talents seeking to change the fashion landscape with designs that explored politics, sustainability and identity.

The Showcase’s winning designer for 2019 was South Africa’s Thebe Magugu, who was described as ‘a leader of his generation’ by the judging panel. Continually seeking new ways to present women and their role in South African society, Magugu says: ‘The trait I have always found most admirable is their powerful ability to possess both strength and vulnerability; traits I feel blessed to have been exposed to with the matriarchal figures who raised me.’

With a special mention for his curation, Cedric Mizero from Rwanda caught the attention of the panel for his use of materials and objects from his home village. Elsewhere, Tom Trandt – the founder of Vietnamese label Môi Điên – which means Outspoken – used his presentation to emphasise how clothes can become the voice of the wearer, reflecting their mood, social status or beliefs.

Read the full round-up here.

Thebe Magugu, South Africa at International Fashion Showcase, London
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