Welcome to B-side, where Crowd DNA looks at the underexplored side of cultural trends – the hidden tracks, the deep cuts and the rarities…
As the most accessible form of GLP-1s has arrived – now in pill form!!! – the appetite for weight loss could be described as having reached gluttony. So, while the drug may stop people thinking about food, we wanted to look at what happens when restraint replaces indulgence on such a scale.
We know that appetite is deeper than food. Food is connective tissue. And hunger is what drives us to create. So, it stands to reason that something happens to creativity, productivity, and life force when desire is suppressed. Will the use of GLP-1 lead to a decline in fertility rates as sex drives are muted? That creativity stagnates? Or nightlife goes quiet?
Cultural Strategist Olivia Anderson and Associate Director Athena Chen ask: When you reduce food noise, hunger and cravings, what else do you lose? How hungry are you to live, to write, to risk – to even desire? Here they look at how brands, spaces and experiences could be altered by the rise and rise in appetite for GLP-1…
New hedonism
GLP-1 alters our dopamine-signalling pathways, reducing our ability to feel pleasure – also known as anhedonia.
This could raise the bar of hedonism even higher with consumers seeking even more extreme modes of pleasure to counteract this emotional blunting. Or it could mean that brands retreat into blandness, as people gravitate towards experiences and products that don’t challenge or stimulate them – as implicated by Fundsmith Equity having sold its stocks in alcohol giant Diageo citing concerns that weight loss drugs would impact alcohol sales.
If food and drink stop being something that we unite around, communal spaces will need to be repurposed. In the UK, the number of spas grew 5.1% between 2019 and 2024, while two hospitality sites closed per day in the first half of 2025. As social “third spaces” pivot from consumption to restoration, the most influential moments might increasingly sit in fitness studios, spas, clinics and community programmes.
Nightlife could lean further into experience more than consumption, or shopping centres could replace food courts with wellness centres.
Just look at the NFL’s redesign of stadiums for 2026, which includes converting 40% of their concession space into “experience zones”. They may be thinking that in five years, selling $14 beers and $8 hot dogs won’t pay the bills. The future is about selling experiences that don’t rely on impulse purchases.
What could this mean? For everyday consumer items, that means shifting investment from traditional on-trade visibility to health-driven and partnership-led sampling, positioning products as good for pre- and post-session rituals – to recoup, refresh, and re-energise.
The loss of impulse
GLP-1 doesn’t just reduce impulse snacking: it curbs impulsive behaviours more generally. Articles report that people working in high-risk finance jobs are performing less well at work precisely because their default is now restraint, not impulse.
Data indicates that GLP-1s lead to:
40%
Lower click-through rates on impulse products
Which is an issue when:
30-50%
of sales in physical retail environments rely on impulse purchase
Linked to reduction of impulse, GLP-1s have massive potential in addiction therapy: there are already reports of it being used off-label to treat those in the throes of addiction: GLP-1 can lead to a 30 to 70% reduction in addictive behaviours.
What could this mean? Because of this, retailers may be forced to pivot to subscription purchasing to safeguard their revenue streams. That’s without touching on advertising – marketing could need to shift away from urgency and impulse to calm, deliberate, slower messaging.
New Sensations
GLP-1 users report that the drug changes their palates and how they experience food: not only does it lessen food noise and cravings but sees users gravitating more towards fresher-tasting foods over processed/fatty/sweet foods.
What could this mean? As they look for more bang for their calorie buck, the sensory, experiential elements of foods will become even more important – effervescence, chewiness, crunch.
Conclusion
Yes, we’ve been here before – from the ‘heroin chic’ trend of the 90s to rampant diet culture of the early 00s – but we’ve never before had access to a drug effectively designed to help you lose weight easily. In that sense, these are unprecedented times. For hospitality, leaner times lie head. And for big pharma, things are about to get even bigger…
To think even harder about how GLP-1 will shape our collective and individual futures beyond food, contact us at hello@crowddna.com.
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- Wildfire Lab’s substack article, “The $100 Trillion Disruption: The Unforeseen Economic Earthquake: “While Silicon Valley obsesses over AI, a weight-loss drug is quietly becoming the biggest economic disruptor since the internet. Here’s why your job, investments, and future depend on understanding it.”