010 - 10 things that have reached their PEAK (peak included)
MØRNING’s Emily Chapps, shares 10 trends she thinks have peaked, nothing is safe - as for her, even peaking has peaked.
It’s peak, like sooooo peakkkkkkk
In honour of our 10th newsletter, I thought to treat you lovely lot (aka our 1500 subscribers! lysm!) to 10 trends, topics and things I, basically, don’t think are that cool anymore :)
Yes, being the third youngest person in the office, I am almost the most qualified to say what’s cool and uncool :) thank you for your concern x
Well, okay, maybe not what I find cool and uncool*, but things I have consistently observed that I am #OverWith or believe are at their PEAK.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with “peaking”, heck, being part of the escalation is fab! But, if you implement trends at THE peak or “post-peak”, it can result in your brand looking out of touch, unoriginal and not earning the potency you were looking to replicate from those who started the trend - which is kinda peak innit x
To disclaim, these 10 peaks are subjective and not set-in-stone. Some might still be at a productive point of the hype cycle depending on your brand and if I’m wrong*(whoopsie!).
Without further ado and in no particular order, PEAK number one …
#1 Peak Celebrity
Will we have someone as famous as Marilyn again? Well? Will we? I have had a theory for a while now, and The Economist agrees, that we can’t due to the proliferation of broadcast platforms.
Think about it - back in the day there was only one mass tool of broadcast, the TV - and who was on it most of the time? Marilyn. She was one person everyone saw, thus the most famous.
Now we have TV, Youtube, Instagram, Netflix, and all the platforms in which people exist and gain fame. There are so many options to who we can be entertained by, so fame has been spread.
What’s also shifted is how we describe fames. Marilyn was straight famous, today people are Youtube famous, Instagram famous, Tumblr famous, [insert platform here] famous. This great platform-comparentlisation of fame could be down to traditional media outlets looking to explain the strangers and “no-bodies” that have million weekly viewers that their kids are obsessed with. Moreover, why are none of these infamous platform creators ever called celebrities, they have the notoriety for it?
Has to be said, Kim K is giving Marilyn a run for her money - even dressing the part last year. Kim earned “celebrity” in the monomediums era then shifted her fame to social media.
Perhaps Marilyn will always be the most famous woman in the world, Kim is the last mega celebrity and going forward, as we each find our corner of the internet, we will only have IYKYK creators and no shared celebrities, they’ve PEAK.
#2 CeleBeauty
Right, so why is every celebrity starting a beauty brand? It’s givinggggg Creative Director gate, no?
Fair game to Kylie, Pharrell and Harry, gals want her lips, fellas his skin, and everyone in between nail polish, but Brad Pitt starting a skincare line? Really? He’s not mentioned a passion for retinol before? And, what can his grapes do that other skin care can’t?
Oh yes that is why :) Cash money, the bag, dinero. Considering how many celebrity beauty brands there are now, from Ariana, to Selena, to Iman, to Ozzy, products must be soooo cheap to produce and companies soooo profitable to run. For celebs, a beauty brand is a small financial risk compared to the possible gains to be had *Rihanna’s $570,000,000 revenue stream enters chat*.
I’m calling PEAK on celeb beauty brands since they should peak, but they won’t due to their profitability.
#3 Instagram Dumps
My thumb is only going vertical nowadays O.K!
Yep, I think the dump might be dead. Aren’t we all a little done with wading through plurry, abstracting outdoor and “low-fi”ing slides that help your shit-hot selfie (usually slide 4) feel a little less “out-there”? #guilty
For the first time in a year I did a single image post, and you know what, I felt liberated. I curated to the max and my digital cutting room floor (aka camera roll favourites) was full of “vibey” off-shots that would have usually cluttered my carousel. Double taps for the single snap and down with a dump, they’ve hit their PEAK.
#4 Collaboration?!?! No shit :)
Props to EDITED (al la HYPEBEAST) on this, but collabs are not hitting like they used to. They used to feel rare, but now they're expected. Like, be honest with yourself, which was the last collab you were excited about? Which have felt unexpected? How many do you think have happened this year alone?
However, collabs are still productive.
Firstly, there is still hype at announcement as we get excited about what's to come, but as soon as it's out in the world - we’re over it, we’re on to the next ___ x ___.
Secondly, as MORNING’s Rhianna reported for Dazed in 2020, with collabs you can ‘find a crossover cultural point in genre or sector - think Travis Scott x Fortnite. These are the areas where you can push a feeling of newness and open your brand up to entirely new audiences.’ 🤌💋
Brands need to look beyond the ‘collaboration format” and towards the ‘interesting’ cultural cross section they can cause. Burberry’s collaboration with Supreme in March (loved) then another skate brand in June was two similar culture clash 4 months apart. Plus, these collabs are in the wake of Supreme's previous high fashion collab 5 years before (iconic), so perhaps putting the skateboarders down and finding a new sub-cultures could have been more interesting.
What also need to need recognised is that, audiences are getting wise to lazy collab products (two logos on the same tee? nice one, mate) and those using collabs to co-opt clout, D&G al la Kim K exemplifies this considering the fashion house were not so nice about her 5 year prior.
When things trend, culture looks to counter so maybe “pure brands'' will be the next big flex, especially when brands are mistreating their collaboratees (we covered Ye vs Adi/GAP here). Collabs? PEAK.
#5 Life imitates Art (Direction)
Yeah, I dunno, this has been happening forever, but my home, fy and discovery pages had an influx of Art Direction that would be some kind of life situation captured with UGC energy and a touch more production.
Jovial3’s sweet little city vibe out
Priscavera look book in the wild and the concrete jungle
More paps for Diesel
Then the winner of IRL AD is Reformation. They straight co-posted trash collection with Whats Is New York - absolutely none of their product insight. it’s lit :)
Tbh, I love it all. It feels like a response to the “exaggerated look” that’s been popular on Insta for the past year or two, and a method of making brands feel #relatable. Hmm, I wonder how long my love for this AD will last, or if it’s at a PEAK?
#6 Nowstalgia treatment
Gen Z loves nostalgia. Some brand are tapping in just right, others, it’s looking kinda peak.
Jumping on Fresh nostalgia. Till recently, nostalgia is something Gen Z has experienced through commerce (you can thank Urban Outfitters for that), but now Gen-Z have actually been alive long enough (lol) that they can have genuine nostalgia. So when Rihanna re-released her freshly nostalgic tracks on nostalgic vinyl last year, you bet those Pon De Replay liquorice pizzas sold out in a heartbeat. Ri FTW as per, no peak to see here.
Orchestrate it ASAP. Prada paired stars with their childhood items for the FW22 Women’s campaign. They pulled on peoples’ past to create nostalgia, then topped it up by romanticising the campaign on Instagram months later.
I approve this method - but if they did a romantic look back to their campaign any sooner, it could feel forced. Like, being nostalgic for what you had for breakfast isn’t really thing, is it?
Visual treatment. I am soooooo glad it is not 2018 anymore, what was with all the VHS video treatments and b-roll? Bloody hell. Big brands, small brands, everyone had a 90s cam in their hands. The AD phase made me nostalgic for 4K and pixels lol. Nostalgic looking video? PEAAAAK
#7 Fashion using football right
There was a strong wave of fashion brands placing footballers in their editorial this summer. The marketeer in me knows when brands tap into the “universal language” they earn double the web traffic, and also trigger blokes on Twitter - but maybe it’s time for fashion to improve how they use this muse?
We loved THE surFACEing of the lost Lionesses, playful magazine covers and Burberry amplifying the altruistic work of Marcus Rashford. Here’s hoping brands continue to use football for positive cultural change and less for the quick MIV win can provide - PEAK.
#8 Casting a Zaddy
Goldbloom for Prada, Seinfeld for Kith, and Titchmarsh Adidas all the way back in 2019 - casting a famous Zaddy is all the range.
Why? Well, Zaddys subverts who “should” model earning brands a tone of levity and excitement due to the expectedness (“wtf, why is Jeff on the Prada catwalk? lol”). Furthermore, Zaddy's context allows brands to tap into their mega fandoms and play with their legacies. It’s similar to what casting footballers achieves, but instead of infiltrating the universal language, it’s the marvel universe.
But this casting lens is evolving. As we’ve seen with BALENCIAGA and Walkers Crisps individually (and low-key together) it’s not about using a Zaddy, but casting someone unexpectedly perfect. “Oh now you cast it, that makes total sense”, here for it. Any old Zaddy? PEAK
#9 Memeable art Direction
This one I see a lot.
Creatives are either informed by memes …
… or directed with a meme-ability in mind.
Some creatives, I believe, even launch with pre-made memes to amp up their hype and ignite viewers to meme. Memeable = shareable = performance, basically.
However, with BOSS using meme as the literal creative verses a subtle nod to or letting the internet decide if it’s worth memeing, we could be at the trend’s PEAK.
#10 Peaking
Ahh yes, we can thank Gen Z for this one.
Being mainstream is chugey and EMBARRASSING!!! So, as soon as something becomes remotely popular or start to escalate a peak, you have to be on to the next. We can’t be entering our flop era, oh wait - I forgot, GenZ already killed that escalating term in June.
But, don’t worry! Fellow Gen Zs are keen to keep you cool so often post Reels that guide you away from mainstreaming tropes and introduce you to the alt, which are way better.
Yikes, peaking has peaked, which is the ultimate PEAK.
Woof, enough peaks there you’d think we were spending a weekend with
Alright then, what are you lot thinking? Were we on point? Maybe, off-piste? What should have been on the liste?
As I said*, I wasn’t born in 2002, thus, past my PEAK, thus, may have called some wrong PEAKs #peak - but I’m excited to be enlightened in the comments :P
that was nice wasn’t it? Till the next one misfits, farewell x
peak celeb-hosted podcast - the day Dua Lipa decided to launch one.