For decades, beauty has been fluent in one dominant tongue: aspiration. Glossy, filtered, and more importantly, exclusive. The language of perfection spoken through airbrushed skin and slogans that whispered who could be beautiful, and who could not. But somewhere between... Read More
It’s tempting to believe that with every model upgrade, AI will one day know culture as well as we do. But the truth is more complex: AI will never read the room in the human sense. It can mimic patterns,... Read More
Every June, the corporate internet explodes in color. Logos bloom in rainbow gradients, social feeds fill with allyship slogans, and ad campaigns declare “love is love” in a flurry of limited-edition packaging. But when the parades end and July rolls... Read More
One day soon, the “ethnic food aisle” will read like a museum exhibit. A curious fossil of how we used to categorize food, identity, and belonging. That aisle was once a way to separate different cultures from one another. Yet... Read More
For many travelers, tourism is less about packing bags and more about packing identity. When someone shares travel photos, they are doing more than showing off beaches and cocktails; they are telling a story about who they are, what they... Read More
Wellness isn’t about overpriced lavender candles on a Sunday anymore. It’s about fairness, survival, and equity. More people now expect wellness to be political because they know that health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Where you live, what you earn,... Read More
With our fractured, atomized media landscape, the idea of mainstream is more illusion than reality. What brands used to call “mass appeal” now looks more like mass indifference. Culture doesn’t move in one great, instantly recognizible wave anymore; it ripples... Read More
Brands love to believe they know their audience. But when culture pushes back, it’s rarely subtle. Ralph Lauren’s Oak Bluffs collection became a cultural celebration (especially for Black consumers) that propelled the company’s stock to an all-time high. While American... Read More
Let’s be honest: no one is buying oat milk because they just like the taste. In 2025, food is the least interesting thing about food brands. The oat milk in your latte, the granola in your pantry, the frozen entrée... Read More
Last summer in New York, Gucci covered an entire building with a mural teasing its new campaign. The next morning, the same image was already circulating in WhatsApp threads, a screenshot of someone’s subway selfie. By that evening, it had... Read More
In the not-too-distant past, there was a time when brands thought they could cobble together the pieces of their audience in a spreadsheet. Age bracket, zip code, median income, race or ethnicity were right there, and marketing execs thought they... Read More
It’s one thing to feature diversity in your campaign. It’s another thing entirely to understand the culture you’re actively engaging. One is inclusion as marketing aesthetic; the other is inclusion as ethos, built from the inside out. Polo Ralph Lauren’s... Read More
