See differently
The Greatest indictor of change is culture. To keep an eye on the future, our team of cultural insight specialists use tools rooted in ethnography, semiotics, literary studies and trend tracking to look at the world differently. And to pull out the patterns of change that are likely to affect our clients’ brands. Now and in the future.
Check out the latest from their blog here:
In an article published on the Guardian website today, Sarfraz Manoor drew attention to the recent controversy in India surrounding the body shape of one of its most famous female celebrities – Aishwarya Rai. Since being pictured in Cannes, she’s drawn an onslaught of criticism from Indian celebrity press, backed up by offensive videos, blogs [...]
When someone mentions TK Maxx we immediately think of big red labels, bargain bins and rifling through rails of odds and ends as if at a jumble sale. None of these things are particularly appealing, but their new advert makes you reassess the experience with a fresh pair of eyes. The advert references street [...]
Ryan Gosling is a man, but what kind of man is he? Ryan Gosling is a Man, but what kind of Men are we? Ryan Gosling has become some kind of ultimate signifier of masculinity in recent times. Particularly for the Tumbling classes – see here and here and here, oh and here. But what is it [...]
We recently visited Columbia. Here are some things we spotted…
Procter and Gamble have recently presented British Olympic hopefuls Victoria Pendleton (track cycling), Jessica Ennis (Heptathlon) and Keri-Anne Payne (open water swimming) as its new brand ambassadors. To trumpet this, the women have appeared in countless interviews, features and glossy inserts in women’s magazines. And they are presented like starlets – plucked and buffed and [...]
We see lots of brands that boast about their artisanal and hand-made qualities. This Wallpaper* video is a fun take on it.
A clear occupation hazard of being part of the Cultural Insight team is turning your holidays into cultural immersions. From the moment we arrive at the airport, we begin a kneejerk process of cultural decoding – looking extra longingly at advertising on the walls, surveying spatial arrangements with a Jason Bourne-like intensity. We have long [...]
Sure, we live in a secular world. But we still bow to demigods. No more so than in this Olympic year when London will become a kind of Acropolis for our shimmering-skinned heroes to stride around in. Every stadium will be a temple to Athena Nike. It is fair to say that here in Cultural [...]
If you’ve read much of our blog, you could probably guess that one of the things that the Cultural Insight team digs is books. So the ebook thing is incredibly interesting. And not just because it lets us feel less silly when we read Game of Thrones or Hunger Games on the tube. Though the [...]
Two beautiful videos that show the processes involved in making John Neenman tools. Watching these craftsmen practice the traditional methods of ironmongery, woodwork and leatherwork to make axes and chisels from raw materials using - against a sound track of Bon Iver – almost brings a tear to the eye. It’s another brilliant example [...]
