Signals

UK – Pickle and chutney brand Geeta’s has unveiled its boldest marketing campaign to date, Geeta Bit Naughty. The playful campaign highlights creative and unexpected ways to enjoy Geeta’s products, with three tongue-in-cheek adverts featuring pixelated food to preserve the fun and avoid offending traditionalists.

The ads, developed by the agency Insiders, showcase unique flavour pairings, such as mango and chilli chutney in spaghetti bolognese, mango chutney in a chicken burger and fajitas made with roti flatbreads. By pixelating the dishes, the campaign hints at a bit of culinary rebellion, teasing the audience and challenging conventional food norms.

‘Despite making the most delicious chutneys (superfan of the lime and chilli chutney here), Geeta’s faced a problem,’ Insiders’ co-founder Rory Gilbride wrote on Linkedin. ‘While us brits love Indian food, we struggle to see beyond delicious curries, meaning that the way we apply Indian flavour is limited.’ 

The campaign encourages people to explore creative applications of these flavours in unexpected dishes, opening up new possibilities for experimentation in the kitchen.

Geeta Bit Naughty taps into the broader trend of fetish food. As outlined in our Functional Feasting macrotrend report, this rise of unapologetically sensual and raw branding invites people to embrace indulgence and break traditional food boundaries.

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, deputy foresight editor Dan Hastings dives into the next Met Gala, streaming chaos and Kamala Harris's interview on Call Her Daddy. 

: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is the upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, celebrating the Black dandy as an aesthetic and political construct. The show will explore the role of clothing in shaping Black identities across the Atlantic diaspora. The Met Gala will launch the exhibition in May 2025, hosted by Anna Wintour and co-chairs Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky and Pharrell Williams. I hope the event pays tribute to the stylish Congolese culture of sapology – Hollywood can’t compete with those uncles’ flair.

: ‘The streaming model of television is totally broken’ tweeted Jason Okundaye from The Guardian this week. I agree – how is it that reality shows such as Love Is Blind can release multiple seasons a year, while unique creations like Kaos get cancelled after just one? Lower production costs are certainly a factor, but perhaps the real issue is that streaming platforms are too focused on competing with TikTok,YouTube and gaming platforms to prioritise making art.

: As we continue to experience a loneliness epidemic (see our AI Companionship Market report for more), it’s heartening to see more queer spaces emerging for people slightly older and less inclined toward clubbing and drinking, like myself. Watching 40-year-old gay men attend a Janet Jackson-themed dance class in Amsterdam or hearing the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus harmonise to Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is pure joy.