LSN : News : Prada’s 2025 Qixi campaign turns Shanghai’s bridges into a stage for love

Prada’s 2025 Qixi campaign turns Shanghai’s bridges into a stage for love

Prada Qixi Festival 2025: A Love Story Across Shanghai Bridges, China

China – Prada’s campaign for the 2025 Qixi Festival – often referred to as Chinese Valentine’s Day – reimagines China’s legendary love tale through an interactive journey across seven of Shanghai’s signature bridges.

The festival celebrates the annual reunion of Zhinü and Niulang – a weaver girl and a cowherd who, according to folklore, are separated by the Milky Way and allowed to meet just once a year. The tale symbolises enduring love, longing and reunion.

Featuring Prada’s brand ambassadors in China, Li Xian and Chen Haoyu, the campaign blurs the line between myth and modernity, turning everyday infrastructure into poetic backdrops for connection and memory.

A case study in cultural fluency, this campaign invites people to step into the story rather than just observe it. Via social media platform Xiaohongshu, audiences were encouraged to collect postcards and share personal love stories tied to the city’s bridges. This turned the experience into a shared ritual, linking brand storytelling with real-world emotion and place.

Our Collaboration Culture report previously highlighted how brands must move beyond top-down messaging to build authentic, co-created narratives. Prada’s Qixi activation shows how to do this with nuance, by blending digital platforms, folklore and location-based storytelling to resonate with culturally engaged consumers.

Strategic opportunity

Consider reimagining campaigns as shared rituals that merge digital interactions with physical spaces, transforming cultural traditions into immersive, co-created brand experiences that resonate on a personal level

M&S tracks plastic’s afterlife with invisible UV packaging tags

UK - Marks & Spencer has become the first UK retailer to launch recyclable milk bottle packaging featuring invisible UV tags, marking a significant step toward smarter sustainability.

Developed by recycling tech firm Polytag, the tags – applied to the labels of M&S’s four-pint milk bottles – enable real-time tracking of packaging as it moves through the recycling system.

This innovation is supported by Polytag’s Plastic Detection Units, which have been rolled out at the UK’s highest volume recycling plants through the Ecotrace Programme.

The technology gives M&S barcode-level visibility into when, where and how much of its plastic is recycled – critical data for Extended Producer Responsibility compliance. The system aims to increase traceability and boost closed-loop recycling – a milestone for companies that are seeking insight and accountability in circular design.

Our Designing for Extinction report forecast how circularity will define the next era of sustainability. Discover more market-leading insight and analysis in our Sustainability series.

M&S, UK

Strategic opportunity

Integrate smart recycling tech into packaging to unlock real-time data, strengthen Extended Producer Responsibility compliance and turn sustainability performance into a competitive advantage

Stat: Britons are increasingly turning to biohacking through wellness supplements

Photography by Klaus Nielsen, Global

UK – According to a July 2025 YouGov poll, one in five Britons (21%) have taken a wellness supplement in 2025 – pointing to the rise of personalised biohacking. From collagen and ashwagandha to mushroom powders and chlorophyll, individuals are crafting their own wellness routines with functional ingredients promising everything from better skin to enhanced cognition.

Collagen remains the most widely used (10%), followed by ashwagandha (5%), mushroom powders (3%) and sleep gummies (3%). Discovery is driven by social platforms, with 22% first seeing collagen, and 19% mushroom powders, on TikTok, reinforcing how wellness has become a digital-first, peer-influenced practice.

As longevity moves from science labs to kitchen counters, early adopters are increasingly looking for supplements that combine evidence-backed benefits with ease of use and emotional appeal. The supplement space is becoming the front line of accessible biohacking. Find more insights in our Breakthrough Biohacks report.

Strategic opportunity

Reimagine pharmacies and wellness aisles with curated, experience-led pop-ups or shop-in-shops focused solely on trending supplements, storytelling and education