Need to Know

New York – The Truth is Local brings to life five stories that had a major impact on each of the city’s boroughs.

The New York Times has opened a series of installations in empty stores across the city’s five boroughs. To experience the newspaper’s rigorous journalism methods, visitors can use their phones to scan a QR code to access audio clips featuring immersive stories.

To show how its investigations are not only comprehensive but hyper-local to each neighbourhood, the installations are themed around the injustices that plague each borough, such as educational poverty in the Bronx, corruption in Manhattan and immigration exploitation in Queens.

The New York Times is tapping into consumers’ desire for content that they can trust and bringing it to life by creating real-world interactions that are tethered to a specific location.

US – To mark its move into electric vehicles, the car brand is referencing its 2015 diesel emissions scandal.

The campaign, Hello Light, begins with flashbacks to news reports of the 2015 scandal, in which Volkswagen admitted to installing ‘defeat devices’ on vehicles in an alleged attempt to evade emissions testing. It then shows the new electric direction for the brand, with a glimpse of its ID Buzz, an electric version of the classic Microbus, set to be launched in 2022.

The ad marks the first time Volkswagen has used advertising to connect the electric vehicle strategy to its emissions scandal. ‘Our biggest mistake has led to the biggest transformation in the company’s history,’ says Jim Zabel, senior vice-president of marketing at VW of America.

Brands are entering a new era of transparency, in which they use their mishaps and failures as fuel for creating better campaigns and innovations.

British consumers are increasingly opting to buy vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics, according to a recent survey of 2,200 women by beauty e-commerce platform Cosmetify. When choosing which products to purchase, 68% of respondents said they buy organic products the most, followed by natural products (61%) and vegan items (49%).

While only 9% of those surveyed buy vegan products exclusively, 47% said they buy vegan products more than they used to. ‘Many of the current trends in the beauty industry are driven by conscious beauty,’ says Isa Lavahun, digital brand manager at Cosmetify, adding that consumers are more ethically conscious than ever before.

In our Teen Beauty Market, we consider how younger consumers in particular favour beauty brands that offer vegan, cruelty-free and non-toxic products.