LSN : News : Need to Know 08 : 02 : 18

1. Models bare all for Babor skincare campaign

Babor and All Womxn Project campaign, US

Babor and All Woman Campaign, US

US – Luxury B2B skincare brand Babor has launched an awareness campaign in collaboration with All Woman Project (AWP), a non-profit-making organisation that pioneers unretouched images of women in photo and video campaigns.

The series of images promote the collaborative Beauty Ampoule Set, with half of the profits donated to AWP. The models include founders Charli Howard and Clémentine Desseaux, alongside activists, mothers and editors, all of whom are shown in skin-coloured underwear with minimal make-up to reinforce the message that ‘women do not need to be changed to be beautiful’.

‘Just as in life, women have more or less insecurities when it comes to their bodies. Some of them want to be more covered up, some of them don’t mind being totally bare. But overall, our models have very minimal make-up on,’ Desseaux tells LS:N Global. ‘[We] did not try to hide anything or change their natural beauty.’

In our Rethinking Bodycare microtrend, we examine how beauty brands are now using ad campaigns to celebrate the body in a way that was traditionally reserved for the face.

2. Afound brings discount culture to Sweden

Afound by H&M

Sweden – The H&M group is redefining the outlet store with the launch of its new brand Afound, which focuses on discount culture. Unusually, the space will amalgamate products from a curated selection of fashion brands, offering what it describes as a ‘style- and deal-hunting paradise’.

‘Afound cares about both the value of the products and the mix,’ says Fredrik Svartling, managing director of the company. ‘And by offering personal style inspiration, quality labels and the sense that you’re getting a really good deal, Afound will offer a new form of off-price experience.’ Afound is tapping into the growing desire among consumers to spend less on fashion items while not compromising on quality.

3. Centre for Humane Technology looks to negate harmful technology

US – Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist and Roger McNamee, a former Facebook investor and adviser, are just some of the names behind the launch of The Centre for Human Technology, an organisation that has been established to help mitigate the negative effects of new technologies.

The centre has worked with Common Sense, an advocacy organisation for children in the digital age, to create an ad campaign, The Truth About Tech, that will be presented at 55,000 public schools across the US.

As people become more aware of the impact that online behaviour is having on society at large, the organisation wants to encourage brands to more carefully consider the long-term implications of their products on mental wellbeing.

In our forthcoming Morality Recoded macrotrend we will explore the growing movement among big brands to acknowledge past moral discrepencies and seek redemption. Book here for our annual Trend Briefing, where this and other long-term macrotrends will be unveiled.

Centre for Humane Technology

4. The Little One treats patrons to tea and pastry pairings

The Little One

The Little One, New York

The Little One

The Little One by KoKo Architecture + Design

New York – Founded by pastry chefs Olivia Leung and Eddie Zheng, The Little One is a new small-scale confectionery spot in New York’s Chinatown. The nine-item menu has been designed around wagashi, traditional Japanese desserts typically served with tea. The experience has been designed to encourage diners to consume the tea-flavoured sweets accompanied by teas such as matcha and hojicha, a Japanese green tea.

While there are a plethora of new Asian-inspired dessert rooms in New York, The Little Ones pairing of confectionery with tea will help to inspire interest in the Tea Market, which has often faded into the background in recent times as coffee culture dominates.

5. The maternity market is a growth sector for retailers

As explored in our Parenting Market, starting a family nowadays is no longer about relinquishing individuality in order to assume the role of parent, leading to the demise of traditional maternity specialists like Mothercare. The maternity market in general is, however, thriving, with brands such as Hatch offering more sophisticated products that recognise that expectant mothers want products that reflect who they were pre-pregnancy.

6. Thought-starter: What’s all the fuss with Lady Doritos?

With the fallout over speculation that PepsiCo was launching Lady Doritos, Foresight editor Daniela Walker explores why gendered products are not necessarily the root of the problem.

Last week, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi fanned speculation when she mentioned on a Freaknomics podcast that the brand was considering making crisps more amenable to female snackers. Nooyi lamented that women ‘don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces, and the flavour, into their mouths.’

From PepsiCo’s point of view, it is merely meeting a consumer demand – its focus groups revealed that women don’t like to be seen eating loudly in public.

The problem with Lady Doritos is not necessarily that it is a gendered product, but the fact that it feeds into a society that continues to segment women based on sexist presumptions. PepsiCo admits that while they are not necessarily launching explicitly female crisps, they are exploring avenues that will ‘engage’ consumers in new ways. Does this mean a less crunchy, dusty crisp? One that just happens to appeal to the fairer sex?

Read the full opinion here.