LSN : News : Stat: Covid pandemic left 13.3m more Americans single

Fruittella encourages outdoor play with sun-activated storybook

Fruittella, Brazil

Brazil – Confectionery brand Fruittella is taking a creative approach to getting kids outdoors with its new sun-activated storybook Lá Fora É Mais Legal (Outside is Cooler).

The book’s pages appear blank until sunlight reveals its playful story, which celebrates screen-free, outdoor activities such as biking and hopscotch. Launched in São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park, this limited-edition project, developed by VML Brazil, taps into parents’ growing concerns over excessive screen time.

The retro-inspired illustrations evoke nostalgia for a pre-digital era, reinforcing the message that outdoor play is essential for children’s wellbeing. Fruittella’s campaign aligns with its mission to promote wholesome, active lifestyles, cleverly integrating its brand into the broader conversation about the need for children to engage with the physical world.

By turning reading into an outdoor adventure, Fruittella encourages play and brings communal reading events (the rise of which was charted in our Reading Raves report) to a Gen Alpha audience. The book’s innovative sun-activated feature delivers both surprise and delight, reminding families that outside really is cooler.

Strategic opportunity

Brands should explore the potential of interactive, outdoor experiences that acknowledge parents' concerns about screen time and create memorable, active moments for children, fostering life-long brand loyalty

Spam debuts new Korean gochujang flavour

Spam Gochujang, US

US – Meat specialist Hormel Foods has expanded its Spam brand with the launch of Spam gochujang. The launch is a limited-edition variety available in an eight-pack exclusively at Costco wholesale warehouses for £18.04 ($23.99, €21.50). Gochujang is a fermented, spicy red chilli paste and a staple ingredient in Korean cuisine.

Spam Gochujang combines spicy, sweet, smoky and umami flavour notes. It can be used in traditional recipes such as kimbap, so-tteok so-tteok and budae jjigae as well as to bring a flavourful twist to eggs, musubi and ramen.

Explaining why the company chose to focus on this flavour, Jennesa Kinscher, Spam’s senior brand manager, said, ‘The choice to feature gochujang as a flavour for this latest Spam brand release was inspired by its rising popularity in the US, with more people embracing its bold, rich taste. As a key ingredient in many Korean recipes, gochujang has become a favourite among younger consumers seeking adventurous global flavours.’

In our Functional Feasting macrotrend report, we analysed how young people are increasingly moving towards bold and unexpected flavours.

Strategic opportunity

Explore new flavour combinations inspired by different global regions or cultural trends, appealing to younger generations’ desire for culinary exploration, such as Sichuan pepper, harissa or yuzu

Foresight Friday: Fiona Harkin, director of foresight

Photography by The Future Laboratory, UK

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, director of foresight Fiona Harkin highlights the pressing need to redefine modern masculinity.

: It’s a sobering topic that landed in my inbox this week as a list of cold, hard facts and was also plastered across all my socials: ‘Even with decades of progress, women are more often victimised by people they know in comparison with male victims and still more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crime’, read Statista’s take on the issue of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and intimate partner violence (IPV).

: 48,800 women and girls are estimated to have been killed by family members or intimate partners worldwide in 2022, according to a new report by the UN. And this week, we saw plenty of headlines that got it wrong about Gisele Pelicot, or sensationalised what happened to Kristina Joksimovic or offered every excuse (warning: distressing details) for a convicted BBC newsreader’s actions.

: Why is this a foresight issue for your business? Our recent report on Women Futures: Australia touched on the growing public outcry about what was once considered a private domestic matter. And the spotlight is on men to not just passively say ‘not all men’ but to actively acknowledge that now, it’s enough men – and to do something about it. Those brands, governments and third sector organisations offering clarity and direction for men on modern masculinity will benefit everyone. As we highlight in our Generations Now and Next report on Gen Z, this gender divide is no longer a ‘women’s issue’.

Quote of the Week

‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT’

Donald Trump, TruthSocial

Stat: Covid pandemic left 13.3m more Americans single

Goldwin’s spring/summer 2024, Japan

US – The Covid-19 pandemic left an additional 13.3m people in the US single by 2022, a study by Stanford University professor Michael Rosenfeld claims. The survey was first conducted in 2017 to measure casual ties and was rerun in 2020 to assess the impact of the pandemic.

It revealed how millions of informal relationships fell apart while married and cohabitating couples survived the pandemic intact. When the survey was run again in 2022, it showed that 13.3m more people were still single and not dating despite the mass vaccine rollout.

According to Rosenfeld, a long-term consequence of this ‘dating recession’ is that Americans will take longer to reach the traditional adult milestones such as marriage, children and home ownership.

The lack of recovery in the social lives of Americans post-Covid is supported by data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics which showed that people spent far more time alone and less in group activities in 2023 than they did four years earlier.

In our market analysis on Gen Z Dating Futures, we studied how rising levels of loneliness are making way for hyper-personalised, community-based safe havens.

Strategic opportunity

Develop products or services tailored to the growing population of singles, such as solo travel experiences, home services for single-person households or customised subscription boxes