Backlash Culture

Global – Our Spring/Summer 2016 Trend Briefing is a call to arms for companies to take a more combative stance against the consumer zeitgeist.

• The film was made by The Future Laboratory’s David McGovern, with art direction by Jo Tulej. Animation was by Natalia Stuyk and Jonathan Cox, with an original soundtrack by Joe Ashworth
• Backlash Culture encourages brands to project a more honest view of the world, one that is fraught with frictions and contradictions  

The customer is always right? Wrong. For too long brands have pandered to popular sentiment and tried to be all things to all people. ‘Backlash Brands are those that will continue to push their consumers forward and not be the bland, beige, all-pleasing ones that we have come to know,’ explains LS:N Global senior journalist Daniela Walker.

It is time for brands to hit back against digital lynch mobs and troll-executed retribution, and not worry about being politically pristine. ‘Here we experience the friction of the Turbulent Teens visualised in a world that glitches and crackles at times, but quickly regains its stance and confidently marches forward,’ says LS:N Global video editor David McGovern. ‘We wanted to show that while this stance is uncompromising and directional, it allows for movement, satisfaction and even a sense of play.’

As well as Backlash Brands, our Trend Briefing will explore Gen Viz, a visual-first mindset fuelled by digital culture, and The E-motional Economy, in which moods will play a bigger role in the consumer experience whether in-store or online.