Do names shape destiny? Nominative determinism might be the most powerful force in the universe, as music producer Mustard just bagged himself a collaboration with Heinz. How long before Jon Hamm and Kevin Bacon get a call from the National Pork Board?
Scroll down to read about The Famous Grouse, an oat milk paradox, and why Home Depot failed in Chile.
Stats to power your week
⛺ Festivals. A great way to spend a summer weekend, making memories for a lifetime with your closest friends. Or maybe not? A third of festivalgoers actually attend them solo, though women are much less likely to do this. Whatever you prefer, there’s room at the Pink Pony Club for everyone. GWI Zeitgeist
🥃 One of the oldest companies in the UK is the Royal Mint, which has been going since the days of Alfred the Great. But which British brands have the oldest audiences? That honor goes to The Famous Grouse whisky, whose drinkers have an average age of 56 years old, with Saga insurance and Nokia filling out the top three spots. And in case you’re wondering, the youngest audiences belong to BeReal, UNiDAYS, and Supreme. GWI Core (UK)
🛫 As you probably remember, Qatar hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the country’s tourism sector has only grown in the years since. Since 2022, the number of Qatar Airways fliers has increased substantially in markets like Egypt (+68%), Ireland (+43%), and the UK (+22%). GWI Core
🦹 With the Atkins it was carbs, with the low-fat craze it was egg yolks, and with the grapefruit diet it was everything that wasn’t a grapefruit. Every food movement needs a good villain, and one of the biggest currently is ultra-processed foods – with a massive 77% of consumers concerned about their potential health risks. GWI Zeitgeist
🚫 UK readers of a certain age might remember chocolate bar Yorkie’s old ad campaign: “It’s not for girls,” a slogan that now feels firmly of its time. But 20 years on, does the brand still carry that masculine edge? It seems so – 62% of Yorkie enjoyers are men, making it the most male-skewed chocolate bar we track. GWI Core Plus (UK)
What’s on our radar
Concern about ultra-processed foods is making its presence felt in the form of shoppers stocking up on full-fat dairy items, while a new online resource aims to give consumers more info on how processed their groceries truly are.
Adjacent to the ultra-processed conversation is microplastics. The latest research suggests they might contribute to premature births and they’re building up in your brain too.
The biggest political development at the moment is probably the new tariffs implemented by the Trump administration, and your guess is as good as ours as to what happens next. But one change you might’ve missed, with potentially big implications, is the closing of a loophole on imports which has helped Chinese ecommerce firms like Shein and Temu grow in the States.
Trump is just one example of increasing demand for far-right politics across the world, as the New York Times has been reporting. Keep your eyes on Wales, where 2026 elections could deliver a boost to Nigel Farage’s Reform party, as it continues to improve its poll numbers.
It’s pretty hard to keep up with all the AI releases at the moment, but OpenAI’s “deep research” agent (sharing its name with a similar Google product) is worth mentioning, as it can conduct in-depth, credible reports at the level of a research analyst. These tools will likely have an impact on the research field itself, but might also lead to new ways for consumers to research products online.
Another AI development you might not have seen: the US Copyright Office has ruled that pieces containing AI can be copyrighted, but purely AI-generated material remains ineligible. Meanwhile, the US Authors Guild has launched a certification process for writers to confirm their books are “human authored”.
Until now smart glasses haven’t really taken off (though Meta’s Ray-Bans may change that). One of the reasons is the lack of a software ecosystem, which the people behind AugmentOS are hoping to fix.
Chart of the week
In recent newsletters we’ve discussed the data behind “the vibe shift”, the sense that the world is moving to more politically conservative positions, which are in turn becoming more socially acceptable to talk about publicly.
Views on immigration, racial relations, and gender roles are some of the biggest aspects of it, and you could make the case that the steep drop in vegan diets is connected too. But there’s something you should consider before recycling any memes about the tofu-eating wokerati: while veganism has gone down, oat milk consumption has actually gone up (and by a massive 157% among self-identified conservatives).
It’s a handy reminder that cultural narratives might work at the macro level, but if you get up close and personal with consumers, their behavior is more complicated and resists easy culture war classifications. Even if people are going back to meat and dairy, they’ve still got space in their basket for oat milk.
Local lowdown
Familismo: A network like no other
Perhaps the most well-known cultural product from Chile is Isabel Allende’s 1993 novel “The House of the Spirits”. A cross-generational epic set during a time of social and political upheaval, it surfaces one of the most enduring traits of the country’s culture: the role of family.
Family and kinship networks are important throughout Latin America, but they take an extra edge in Chile as its people have such low trust in the government. And this family-oriented culture emerges from our data in some fascinating ways. First, Chileans are the most likely to listen to music to share it with friends and family. Second, they’re most likely to say someone else in their household has a health condition, showing how intimate their family relationships are.
Whether it’s for music or health, family networks become important ways to share advice and information. And the emphasis on family has actually caused brands to come unstuck when entering the market. One of the reasons Home Depot failed in Chile is because women decided where the family shopped – and they were put off by the atmosphere of its stores.
