US – Food delivery service Postmates’ new advertising campaign addresses the stress felt by Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) children when carrying their lunchboxes to school by flipping the narrative on its head. The School Lunch programme, which marks Asian-Pacific American Heritage month in May, was created in collaboration with some of Los Angeles’ best AAPI chefs who drew on their childhood memories to proudly prepare their favourite meals.

The ad stars actress Greta Lee, who appears in an animated form and tells the story of her mother packing traditional Korean foods in her school lunchbox that would invite mockery from her classmates. She recalls it as a great source of anxiety for her – often resulting in her throwing her lunches away. Fast forward to today and Lee expresses gratitude for the meals her mother would painstakingly make for her, wishing she had appreciated it more as a child.

Korean American restaurant Yangban in Los Angeles has created a kimchi pozole dish that will be available exclusively through the Postmates app throughout May. Postmates will also donate to the national coalition to Stop AAPI hate. As discussed in our Activism Eating Market, food activists are creating opportunities to connect communities and Postmates’ new campaign brings to the fore the diversity of food culture in the US.

New Zealand – Irritated by the saturation of royal news on media outlets, Māori artist Hāmiora (Sam) Bailey has developed a browser plug-in that replaces British royal news with articles celebrating Indigenous people.

The extensive coverage of royal gossip and King Charles’s coronation can cause frustration and upset some residents of former British colonies, such as New Zealand. Pīkari Mai was created as a response – to allow people to ‘switch off the toff’, identifying and blocking royal news and swapping it for stories written by, for and about Indigenous people.

To snooze from royal news, internet users can download the desktop-only browser plug-in. Pīkari Mai will automatically spot relevant articles and display pixelated Kaitiaki characters, guardians in Māori, and a link to a piece written by an indigenous writer. ‘I want to give my koroua, my grandparents or my elders, and Indigenous nationhood as big a platform as the crown gets – and why not?’ explains Bailey, stressing the importance of holding space for celebrating untold Indigenous stories.

US, UK – A survey by Attest of a representative sample of 2,000 US-based consumers and 1,000 UK-based consumers in February 2023 revealed that 80% of Americans and 79% of Britons are convinced that brands are using inflation as an excuse to increase prices. As various businesses reached record profits thanks to growing sales, including energy providers and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, consumers’ grocery and other bills have increased – an imbalance that has led to suspicion of ‘greedflation’.

In reality, food and drink firms such as Nestlé and Unilever have raised their prices but their sales volumes have also decreased – by 2.6% in the fourth quarter for the Swiss company in its 2022 half-year sales report and 3.6% for Unilever in its 2022 fourth quarter. Costs related to ingredients, packaging, labour and transport also remain high for CPGs. Even though their margins are smaller, they must adapt pricing to retain their customers. Attest claims grocery has the lowest brand loyalty, with more than seven in 10 respondents saying they buy other products to save money.

In our Cost of Living Crisis series, we look at how organisations and brands, including in the food and drink industry, are flexing their business operations to cater for customers with decreasing spending power.