MAD//Fest 2025: Delayed adulthood, algorithmic segregation and Gen Z hippies

UK – MAD//Fest returned to Shoreditch on 1 July 2025, with this year’s theme Be Less Boring challenging brands to rethink how to engage with new audiences.

Gaining and retaining the attention of Gen Z remains a key concern for brands and marketers. In an opening panel, Marketing to Gen Z in the Age of Social Media Toxicity, Kian Bakhtiari, founder of global youth creative agency The People, highlighted how Gen Z feel ‘adulthood starts at 28’, with traditional life milestones increasingly out of reach This, he argued, fuels a sense of powerlessness and disconnection from their future – echoing insights from our Gen Z Now and Next macrotrend.

Caroline Gregory, global brand director of Axe/Lynx at Unilever, spoke about the brand’s responsibility to portray women with agency and move away from outdated gender tropes, addressing rising toxic masculinity and growing gender divergences.

Bakhtiari warned that algorithmic platforms are deepening these divides, creating separate cultural universes for young men and women. ‘Brands have a responsibility in where they invest in media – on platforms that segregate or unite,’ he said.

Elsewhere, on a panel exploring digital trust in a post-truth world, Andrea Evans-Bilham, Internet Commission director at the Trust Alliance Group, predicted that Gen Z will parent differently, adopting a hippie mindset, enforcing stricter digital boundaries and prioritising offline play for their children.

Brands that are mindful of Gen Z’s shifting tech values and committed to safeguarding younger generations will be the ones to which Gen Z will pledge loyalty. Head to our Gen Beta report for more on what the world might look like for the world’s youngest demographic.