by Humankind is Atheist Lush
One can’t help but notice the sudden trend toward spirituality in modern brands. Topicals created an astrology-style quiz to find your “skin sign” earlier this year. Parade recently launched their Astrology Packs, too. Don’t get us started on Birthdate Candles.
But why? A confluence of factors may be at play. The 2017 Solar Eclipse, heightened awareness of solar flares, multiple blood moons/super moons/superbloodmoonageddon, and a renewal in space exploration may have us looking towards the stars. Powerlessness in government and culture may have us looking for help from a higher power.
This isn’t exactly new. Brands have always appealed to the spiritual and religious inclinations of their patrons. Chick-Fil-A famously weighed in on marriage equality. Followers of Wicca have given Lush bath bombs the A-OK for blessing and energy storage. In-and-Out prints bible verses on their packaging.
Then there are the “seems normal enough” retailers, like Altar’d State, which gives you a millennial-evangelical-Joanna-Gaines-bridesmaid-font-essential-oils-business-babe vibe in literally every product in the store. #blessed y’all.
Brands espouse the identities, beliefs, and spiritual inclinations of their patronage. Why? Capitalism, baby. When brands take political or social stances, it’s because the people that run them see it as meaningful for their customer base. This can often backfire, as was the case in Quaker’s recent removal of Aunt Jemima’s name and image from packaging. In this light, one could see Patagonia as not just a principled brand, but an atheistic humanist brand. And more and more, customers demand that brands back the causes they care about. When politics and religion collide, brands will be forced to choose sides.
What’s unlikely is you probably won’t see a brand catering to a handful of UFO religions, those who believe that aliens are either among us, or we’re being desensitized by the government through mass media and science fiction to condition our acceptance that we’re not alone in the universe.
Strangely enough, that’s where we pick up in this week’s most recent podcast. Take a listen to it over here.
Saturn and Jupiter have chosen to ease their social distancing for the next week. The gas giants will appear the closest they’ve been in the night sky since 1226. On December 21st, you’ll be able to step outside and see them overlap in the southwest horizon.
The Zoom Boom made us all switch from statement candles to statement lamps. But now that we’re out and about, how about statement jackets? Joseph’s brothers would be, like, super pissed at the rise of technicolor dreamcoats. Quarantiners looking to flex their fits for their ventures into the outside world — beware your brothers selling you on StockX.
Amazon launched their made for you service for creating custom clothing sized to your unique body measurements and shape. They’re beginning with t-shirts for $25, but will likely be expanding into other categories quickly.
From the archives:
“Rumor has it Amazon is already running internal betas for perfect body sizing. It’s not hard to imagine that they’ll eventually have custom/personal clothing available on demand. With Amazon in the game, more “first moves” will be made, and other retailers will release offerings related to body data accelerating the process of adoption.” — FC Insiders August 2017
Double Down on this Lifetime movie steamer “A Recipe for Seduction” which is incredibly dumb. But take a deeper look. Yeah, no, it’s still really dumb, but a brilliant marketing vehicle that’s blatant in its approach.
As Megan Garber says in The Atlantic, “...there’s honesty, in the end, in a work of advertising that is so open about its ends.” This film lets us feast both on Mario Lopez and eleven herbs and spices.
The Killers have topped the charts and now their merch is topping tortillas. Available now in a limited preorder are four different hot sauces of varying heat levels. Each sauce shares a name with a Killer’s song or album title, and the packaging is reminiscent of an old handwritten cassette mixtape.
Following other less-prestigious brands like Toys ‘R Us and Kohl’s, Gucci is the newest entrant into the AR space with its secret garden Snapchat lens experience. Promoting its new Bloom Profumo di Fiori fragrance, users can explore a virtual fountain that is rendered in Nintendo 64 quality, while not smelling the perfume they’re selling.
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