WEEKLY TRENDS REPORT
Friday 27 March 2026
Pictured: Edited from Envato & Unsplash
THIS WEEK’S FORECAST
FOR YOUR INFO This week’s
dates & microtrends
TikTok trends
Roast your friends/partner with the ‘reading fake live comments’ trend.
Propaganda but for artists. The They want you in the Navy’ trend has been taken over by fandoms.
ICYMI
Just a quick walk. At 2,689 miles, it’s now possible to walk (most) of the coast of the UK uninterrupted Banksy’s identity has been (allegedly) revealed. Spoilers it’s not our high school art teacher!
Phrase of the week
“Are boomers the real iPad babies?” An investigation into the increasingly screen-addicted boomer all while chronically online isn’t cool anymore.
Digi updates
Tubi and TikTok are partnering for long-form content. Is it opposite day?
Nvidia’s AI tech blunder with its original audience, Gamers.
Tea of the week
The Troll King. The Afroman defamation trial. Cherry blossom season causing a stink
What we’re loving
Ryan Coogler watching TikTok edits of his film, Sinners
Too addicted to Kudos. A French aircraft’s location got exposed because of Strava.
Established trends
Over-the-top $1000 supplement regimens are being pushed by the wellness obsessed.
The perfect show to put on while eating your dinner. The first-person walking travel videos on YouTube.
Insights of the week
The intense love that men have for Hot Wheels We all just wanna go vroom-vroom.
The debate on defining what micro-cheating is Maybe the AI cheating fruit drama can help clear it up.
On our radar
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – 01 April
The Drama – 03 April
Love on the Spectrum S4 – 01 April
Thundercat: Distracted – 03 April
Weekly doses of cute
Goldfish Guinness World Record, hidden possum nun hoodie, and the omg what did they look like as a baby? trend.
Rising trends
American high schools are seeing a rise in signups from girls for contact sports.
Capitalistic weary Gen Z are packing their bags to move to China.
The future
Ding dong the witch is dead. Metaverse, the $80 billion project, is shut-down
Stat of the week
In an 80,000-person Anthropic poll, 27% said they were most anxious about AI hallucinations followed by 22% concerned about job displacement.
Ones to watch
BTS broke all the records with their return, and Project Hail Mary blasts off at the Box Office
Image: @proximitymedia
Image: @jonymlee
Image: @kittykapital
TREND TRACKING
How some of the trends we’ve identified have evolved in recent months
The
trailer drop Breadmakers Getting
spammed
Film studios are learning from the A24 playbook and creating a spectacle ahead of big-ticket releases. The trailer drop is becoming an event in itself, with fans becoming central to the distribution. The wall between studio and fandom has already been collapsing, as fan editors snag top jobs with networks. Just two examples from recent weeks include the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer launch which saw fans around the world release two seconds of the trailer before tagging the next fan - with the chain started by Tom Holland himself. It worked! Meanwhile, Warner Bros. reframed the Dune: Part Three trailer as a live, insider-led experience anchored by Denis Villeneuve and key cast (minus Timmy...), feeding a growing appetite for “process as content.”
There’s been a rising number of women in the UK leaving corporate jobs to monetise life at home, a tradwife-adjacent genre that’s been dubbed “breadmakers” – and they’re raking in the dough. These creators package home life as calm, controlled and financially viable – positioning it as an aspirational alternative to burnout culture. The appeal of domestic stability is so strong that it’s becoming eroticised as a seductive counter-narrative to a fraught reality. According to PornHub, searches for ‘tradwife’ have risen 72%, with women forming a quarter of the audience. Domestic bliss, indeed!
Tinned fish walked so Spam could run! If, like us, you’ve been getting spammed by Spam, you’ll know that the wartime canned meat is having a bit of a comeback with younger audiences. Cheap, canned staples have become increasingly trendy, a product of pantry tours, ‘restock with me’ content and interest in long-life produce and prepping as uneasiness around global catastrophe increases. Gordon Ramsay is apparently a fan. According to Spam owner Hormel Foods, the brand has achieved steady year-on-year growth in the US. It makes sense. It’s cheap, high in protein, tasty and convenient - everything today’s consumer looks for. It helps that only a select number of Hormel employees know the meaning behind the name, adding intrigue. With tinned veg also getting the TikTok treatment, we’ll be trying a Sunday lunch made exclusively from cans!
Image: @ivyoutwest
Image: @charlierewilding
Image: @WarnerBrosDE
Weber Forecast Insight
The modern family unit has become a complex landscape. Brands must navigate a spectrum of parental influence, from “concierge parents” to the tough-love “FAFO” advocates. This shapes two distinct Gen Z profiles: one seeks security, another self-reliance. Winning strategies require nuanced approaches speaking to both parental philosophy and the child’s resulting worldview.
This week’s long read
CO-PILOT PARENTS
The parental payroll is booming, terms & conditions apply
The age-old milestone of flying the nest is becoming a relic. Today’s family dynamic, a shift that traces back to the “gentle parenting” philosophy, sees “helicopter parents” evolve from emergency responders into fulltime “co-piloting parents”, rewriting the definition of adulthood for Gen Z. Now, that philosophy has scaled up into a more involved form of support.
Forged in instability, Gen Z’s instinct is to find security, an impulse that directly shapes their aesthetic choices. Take the rise of “Old Soul Sportswear”, a polished take on ‘90s-inspired athletic wear, and “renter-friendly designs” that reveal a generation seeking comfort and control against a backdrop of pure chaos.
The desire for a friction-free life has upgraded parents to all-access life managers. Beyond covering rent and supplying financial support, which a third of Gen Z receives, parents are now in for the entire ride. One in five parents reportedly attend their kids
job interviews and in some truly next-level cases, even pay for dating app subscriptions to help their offspring find “the one”, all in the hope to feel needed and closely connected
Career experts argue this intense support builds confidence and provides an emotional buffer in a competitive job market. But on the flip side, psychotherapists like Dr. Bryan Robinson suggest “Friction-Maxxing - intentionally avoiding convenience - is key to helping young adults “feel more connected to the world”. We’re also beginning to see the rise of a tough, no-nonsense approach, known as “FAFO (F*ck Around and Find Out) parenting”. Caught between these extremes, many parents are navigating the messy middle and seeing what sticks
So, when the parental subscription service expires, what is the endgame? Will a generation engineered for comfort simply short-circuit, or will they be forced to build a new model of independence?
TikTok: @kendallelisel TikTok: @jacquelineschumer
Today
New York Post
BRANDWATCH
Inspiring creative from around the world
e.l.f. Nike Minecraft Akai McDonald’s
e.l.f. brewed up major buzz by taking over London’s iconic Regency Café to launch their Soft Glam Concealer. And yes, it’s as cool as it sounds - serving up all-day breakfast, a shade-matching station and even a surprise cameo from Grime Gran By tapping into café culture, something warm, familiar and very shareable, the result is an IRL experience that lets beauty lovers play, swatch and snack while generating the kind of organic hype and UGC that dreams are made of.
Iconic collab alert!! Nike has announced Olympic champion and Gen Z icon, Alysa Liu, as the sports brand’s newest global athlete debuting her in a sleek campaign featuring early-2026 drops like the Jacquemus Moon Shoe and Air Max 95 “Neon.” With a comeback story Gen-Z loves and a commemorative apparel capsule on the way, the partnership blends sport, style and cultural clout. Once again proving the right celebrity partnerships can work wonders.
Minecraft is officially levelling up! 2027 will bring an official Minecraft World to Chessington World of Adventure! Brought to fans by Merlin Entertainments and Mojang Studios, the first-ever theme park inspired by the game brings the game’s full-blown block-built chaos to life. Expect a world-first coaster, interactive adventures, and themed eats and shops. It turns one of the world’s most loved games into a real-life adventure fans can physically step into building hype beyond the screen.
Akai just dropped the MPC Sample, its most accessible standalone sampler yet. The tech is kitted out with a built-in speaker, mic and rechargeable battery so creators can make beats literally anywhere Jumping straight into the booming “portable music-maker” trend, Akai positions itself as the go-to brand for beginners and pros on the move and reimagining an iconic piece of music culture for a new generation. Watch out Fred Again…
McDonald’s is upgrading mealtime nostalgia with the launch of limited-edition McDonald’s CARDS Each pack could include anything from holographic Golden Arches to classic Coin Spin illustrations. Known for its key role in collector culture for decades, McDonald’s is tapping straight into the trading-card craze blending nostalgia with collectability, and turning a regular meal into a shareable, fan-fuelled moment. Think Pokémon but with a side of fries.
Image: @elfcosmeticsuk
Image: @chessingtonworldofadventure
Image: @akai_pro Image: @mcdonaldsuk Image: @nikesportswear
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