Need to Know
22 : 06 : 21

Vienna – Speculative futures group Superflux is inviting viewers to experience the current destructive reality of climate change as well as a hopeful future.

Hosted at this year’s Vienna Biennale, the exhibition – called Invocation for Hope – welcomes visitors to walk through a grid of burned trees to reach a thriving, free-form forest. Upon reaching the centre, viewers are met with a pool that shows a reflection of thriving animals, representing hope, regrowth and resilience.

Superflux worked with forest and fire departments in Austria to source and transport hundreds of trees into the space inside the museum. The burnt trees featured have already been lost to wildfire, offering a tangible representation of climate change. ‘We wanted to tell the story of our journey from current destructive human behaviour towards a hopeful future,’ says Anab Jain, co-founder of Superflux.

This project reflects the ideas we explore in Planetary Health, confirming the ways that consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of the connection between personal and environmental health. Explore this trend within Synchronised Care.

China – Periodcare brand Libresse is empowering Chinese women to talk more openly about their periods.

This year, the brand’s Stop Hiding Your Period campaign, which has been running for three years in China, focuses on encouraging women to prioritise their own needs over pleasing others to fit with society's expectations. To reflect this, Libresse has launched a private offline exhibition featuring artwork from female artists, with a live-stream available on Taobao.

The campaign is a response to the ongoing shame surrounding periods in China, with 87% of teenage girls in China feeling uncomfortable during their period, according to the Teenage Girls Physiology Health Insight Report. Libresse is also starting period conversations among everyday women through Chinese social media campaign #400 periods, 400 women, launched in line with International Menstrual Hygiene Day.

Find more campaigns and innovations supporting the future of women's health on our dedicated vertical.

In Japan, changing consumer beauty behaviour suggests a growing opportunity for genderless cosmetics – as identified in a study by Cosme.

The research, which examined women’s attitudes to men’s beauty habits, found that more than 60% of women would be happy to share their cosmetics products with their boyfriends or husbands. This represents an 11% increase from the same survey in 2019, highlighting changing gender norms in the region. Meanwhile, 80% responded favourably to cosmetics brands that choose to feature men in their advertising campaigns.

These findings come at a time when more men are showing interest in skincare and make-up, using products that previously might have only been associated with women. As such, this indicates a major opportunity for gender-neutral cosmetics in the Japanese market.

In East Asia, masculinity is undergoing major change, with men turning to cosmetics brands to fulfil a next-generation beauty ideal of Soft Masculinity.