Three trends from different cultural domains, each with concrete actions for marketers and brand builders.
art
Pop-Culture Figures Claim Fine-Art Legitimacy
BTS’ RM is presenting a solo exhibition at SFMOMA while Louvre-Lens stages a ‘happiness through history’ show featuring toys, glitter and cats. The line between high and low culture is dissolving from both directions.
Why it matters for brands
As fine-art institutions embrace pop figures, the old prestige hierarchy is flattening, letting brands move between high and popular culture without apology.
What brands can do
- Move between high and popular culture without treating it as a risk.
- Borrow fine-art framing for a pop product, and the reverse.
- Back a pop figure’s serious work, not only their fame.
internet
Premium Streaming Wins Broadcast Rights from TV
Prime Video signed a six-year exclusive deal with the Television Academy for the Emmy Awards, moving the first EGOT event to a streaming platform. Live prestige events are migrating off traditional TV.
Why it matters for brands
The cultural centre of gravity for live events is shifting to streaming, changing where mass simultaneous attention actually lives.
What brands can do
- Follow major live audiences to the platforms they are moving to.
- Rethink which big screens still deliver mass simultaneous reach.
- Plan for a fragmented, platform-owned events calendar.
music
Hardcore/Punk Revival Hits Mainstream Legitimacy
Turnstile played their Grammy-winning ‘Never Enough’ on SNL as an established rock act, while AC/DC and Foo Fighters shared stages. The same hardcore-and-punk energy is surfacing in fashion, with Stone Island’s ‘The Calm and the Chaos’ campaign channelling that tension between order and intensity.
Why it matters for brands
A once-underground sound and sensibility is becoming mainstream currency, a signal for brands watching which subcultures are about to go wide.
What brands can do
- Track subcultures nearing their mainstream moment.
- Engage a scene before it fully crosses over.
- Borrow the energy without flattening what made it matter.
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