LSN : News : Thought-starter: Why is society so obsessed with visual culture?

Lush celebrates the world’s bathing rituals

We Are Bathers by Lush

Global – We The Bathers is an emotive campaign film that explores the different types of relationships humans have with water.

Directed by Phoebe Arnstein, the 17-minute documentary for beauty retailer Lush invites viewers to step into various individual's intimate bathing routines, as they share personal musings on washing and cleansing. The slice-of-life vignettes feature real people, including a grieving father in Sicily, a Buddhist in Japan, and a new mother in Margate working through post-natal depression.

The idea for the film came from the brand’s chief digital officer Jack Constantine, who had spent time researching Japanese bathing culture and questioned which other bathing rituals existed around the world. The film uses water ‘as a portal to explore the fragility of humanity’ as well as to cleanse, contemplate and connect.

With this campaign, Lush is prioritising quality over quantity, asking its fans to dedicate their focus to a highly intimate, 17-minute-film.

The Mind Map helps Gen Z find mental health support

The Mind Map

UK – The platform aims to promote ‘a new normal’ when it comes to seeking mental health services.

The Liverpool-based organisation exists as an online hub, offering a practical guide to help young people aged between 16 and 30 years access subsidised mental health support. The Mind Map also publishes articles on the stories of celebrities – such as boxer Tyson Fury, blogger Zoella and various musicians – who have been affected by mental health problems in their careers.

Visitors to the website can also book onto a Mental Health First Aid course and browse a selection of accessible, accredited therapists in their area. The platform was built in response to research conducted by the team, which found that 88.5% of Liverpool John Moores University students felt there were not enough online mental health provisions available.

For many members of Generation Z, traditional routes to therapy are outdated, inaccessible or simply too expensive. To see how brands beyond the The Mind Map are democratising the sector, read our Modern Therapy microtrend.

The Green Vic aims to be the world’s most ethical pub

London – Everything bought and used at the new pub in Shoreditch, east London, has a positive environmental and social impact.

Serving drinks and food sourced from ethical suppliers, The Green Vic has opened as part of a three-month pop-up with the goal of gaining investment to secure a permanent site in the next year. The bar is stocked with drinks that support over 40 charities, such as Brewgooder, a non-profit that donates all profits to clean water projects in Africa via The One Foundation, and Ginerosity, a social enterprise whose profits fund projects to help train, educate and mentor the homeless.

Furthering the pub’s mission, one-in-four staff employed are from a vulnerable or disadvantaged background. The Green Vic has also partnered with Unity Kitchen to help train people with disabilities to develop skills and qualifications needed for a career in the hospitality sector. ‘I wanted to create a business that made the world a better place, where people can contribute to charity without changing their normal daily routine,’ says founder Randy Rampersand, demonstrating how businesses are increasingly acting as forces for good in society.

The Green Vic, Shoreditch

Ikea’s home-brewing kit democratises fermentation

DIY kombucha by Læsk and Everland for Ikea

Sweden – Beverage maker Læsk is launching a new DIY kombucha brand made exclusively for Ikea and developed by Danish design firm Everland.

The new brand will join Ikea’s food and drink offerings, providing consumers with a simple way of making their own kombucha at home as part of a three-step process. Guided by a series of playful, simple illustrations, consumers can brew their chosen tea, mix in sugar and add a can of Læsk’s kombucha base to explore fermentation for themselves.

Everland has developed the new brand and packaging design for the home-brewing kit, including the ingredients and containers required to brew and store the beverage. ‘Kombucha brewing should be for everybody,’ says Læsk co-founder Line Hoff. ‘Many people get nervous when somebody talks about fermentation. But it is not difficult to get started. With this new brand, we can truly democratise kombucha.’

To learn more about how kombucha is diversifying, read our Fermented Drinks Market.

Stat: Perceptions of wealth differ between generations

A new report from Barclays and CEBR delves into changing attitudes towards wealth. Among the 4,000 adults surveyed, respondents said, on average, that they would consider a person with at least £1 million ($1.25m, €1.1m) in assets to be wealthy – well above the average of £281,343 ($353,345, €313,444) reported by most respondents taking part in the survey. As a result, just 7% said that they consider themselves to be wealthy.

However, this figure rises to 11% among those aged 18–34 years, even though they report lower levels of personal wealth than older generations. Indeed, only 5% of those aged 55 and over stated that they see themselves as wealthy, suggesting different generations are more likely to gauge their personal wealth against others in their age group, rather than against the population as a whole.

For more insights into the financial attitudes of younger consumers, read our Millennials Money Market.

Thought-starter: Why is society so obsessed with visual culture?

Daniel Sabio, aka The Glad Scientist, has built a career as a VR musician. Now, he’s creating virtual experiences for people with visual impairments.

Before he become The Glad Scientist, Sabio experimented with electronic music and computer programming, which led him to a career in VR music performance. ‘I started making music inside of a VR environment. Essentially, I have a digital audio workstation in VR, which I can walk around in, duplicate machines if I want to, while projecting that experience on a screen behind me,’ he says. ‘It’s more of a shared consciousness experience.’

His latest project is a game, Infinite Observer, targeted at those with visual impairments. ‘It is essentially a video game in the technical sense. I was studying at a spatial audio centre called Monom, and I kept wondering how a blind person would interpret this spatial audio experience. It made me think how there are multiple perspectives that many of us simply can't have.’

‘Most industries can learn from this. It's not just supposed to be a game; it's supposed to make you think about how voice technology is changing the ways a blind person can go about their day-to-day life,’ Sabio explains.

Read the full Q&A here.