Backlash Brands: An introduction

London – LS:N Global senior journalist Daniela Walker introduces Backlash Brands, the first of three macrotrends from our Spring/Summer 2016 Trend Briefing.

At a time when brands are quick to paint a Utopian vision of the world, innovators are embracing the friction around them and using it to their advantage. It might not be pretty, but campaigns including Protein World’s Are You Beach Body Ready? and Squatty Potty’s viral video achieved results, unashamedly alienating people to reach their target audience.

‘The thing about Backlash Culture is that there is a fine line between having an opinion and causing offence for the sake of it,’ says Walker. ‘We believe that Backlash Brands are those that will continue to push their consumers forward and challenge them, and not be the bland, beige, all-pleasing ones that we have come to know.’