Plant-based foods are now tasty to all – even avid meat-eaters. Crowd DNA’s Céline Longden-Naufal decodes how this happens by countering veganism’s sombre reputation with playful pleasure…

An avid meat eater chooses a beefless burger. A shopper picks Beyond Meat sausages with no thought to animal welfare. Or a vegan dish is ordered by someone who has no rules about what they can or can’t eat. For those who enjoy plant based not as a strict choice, or a way of life, how do these products appeal to this less rigid person?

As part of our regular cultural decode series, we analyse how La Vie (a plant-based bacon and lardon alternative product) does this by fostering a more playful and approachable attitude to plant-based diets. We look at how it engages with the flexible consumer, to “unite everyone at the same table, no matter their dietary preferences,” as La Vie co-founder Nicholas Schweitzer puts it. And how this hybrid market is being created without severing the important ties to the environmental considerations and ethics that are the historic (and still beating) heart of the veganism movement.

1. Plant-based as playful pleasure

La Vie’s use of bright, clashing block colours to amplify the hand-drawn illustrations of anthropomorphised characters recall children’s cartoons, coding the plant-based world as bringing a child-like wonder to what has traditionally been seen as a sombre subject. This marries well with a cheeky and down-to-earth tone of voice (eg “Made from plants, not from ass!”) that suggests engagement with a grown-up audience, communicating an adult playfulness. It sparks our childhood imaginative freedom and puts it through the lens of age appropriate wit. Meanwhile, the dynamism and eccentricity of those cartoons elevates the plant-based ethos in more energetic and stimulating ways – all in all, La Vie is positioned as an uplifting and pleasurable indulgence for all ages.

2. Plant-based as light-heartedly rebellious 

While the switch to plant-based diets are usually stemmed from deep-rooted ethical, health and environmental issues, these are often fuelled by aggression and bleakness. La Vie’s use of relevant puns (eg “Bacon that doesn’t make the planet sizzle”) brings light and humour to important issues around sustainability and health.  Playing with brand’s cultural stereotype to push plant-based products – like “Ze award-winning French plant-based bacon now available in Sonzburries” – also codes this space as pushing boundaries without taking itself too seriously. We often see in millennial humour used to convey realism with topics that are considered serious. Imagery of counterculture symbols (eg planet earth giving the peace sign) connotes a 1970s hippie aesthetic, coding plant-based as being an optimistic steward of the environment and ethics, rather than the bringer of doom and gloom.

3. Plant-based as approachable and flexible 

Traditionally, vegans have been the primary focus for plant-based products where the vegan credentials of a product took priority over being a tasty. The visuals of dishes that incorporate non-vegan components (eg eggs) code plant-based lifestyles as expansive and adaptable. Imagery of full, brightly colourful dishes and glistening ingredients resemble the images we see on diner menus that are known for rich foods, and suggests that plant-based lifestyles can also be tantalising and indulgent. Meanwhile, with breakfast being an integral part of family life, utilising this uniting symbol of a comforting routine evokes approachability. And the use of familiar pop culture references (eg “On Mondays we wear pink” – from Mean Girls) and inclusive language (eg “For meat lovers and vegans”) makes this space accessible for everyone. 

Plant-based brands are continuously striving for new and creative ways to entice consumers to veganism without losing their traditional customers. Introducing a whimsical playfulness and light-hearted activism rather than the historical scare-mongering tactics allows others to ease into plant-based options without eating it with a side order of guilt.

La Vie champions these shifts without compromising on indulgence and taste to transport consumers to a novel yet familiar plant-based world. It allows them to rethink their engagement with health and planet without leaving a bad taste in their mouth. 

Need help on food brand placement? Get in touch at: hello@crowdDNA.com

Our KIN network takes us on a trip to their home cities. This time we head into the night with musician Keenan Oakes in Cape Town…

The Gin Bar is a great place for dates. 

“The bar I work in is a beautiful place, so it’s often used as a date destination. It’s at the back of a chocolate shop, so it’s not just about drinking – couples often come to eat chocolate and drink coffee instead of getting drunk like they used to.”

People are starting to come together over First Thursday.

“An event that takes place (yep, you guessed it) on the first Thursday of every month sees all the art galleries across the city open for the night. People move from venue to venue taking in the art, drinking and swapping stories and opinions with strangers. The same founders started Museum Night, a similar concept that happens twice a year. It’s a chance to celebrate the amazing artists we have in Cape Town, both established and emerging.”

It’s true that the party scene is changing. 

“I’ve definitely noticed a lot of young people going out and choosing not to drink alcohol, but I’d still say that drinking culture is alive and well in Cape Town – for the moment.”

Cape Town is like one big house party. 

“Everyone knows everyone. The nightlife has a sense of familiarity – everyone is welcome. This is particularly meaningful recently, with the scene opening up and becoming more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community and different racial groups. There’s a newfound sense of fluidity.” 

We’re seeing a growing number of safe space parties 

“…especially within the queer community. As a creative, multicultural and unique city, this is a welcoming – and necessary – addition. Conversations around feminism, call-out culture and liberalism are happening all around the world, and Cape Town is actively taking part. Given our history, and the growing popularity of the city, how could we not?”

To delve into more city life read City Limits, our series of pieces exploring the urban experience here.

Crowd Shortcuts – a quick chat about something that’s caught our attention. This week, how local neighbourhood stores are selling luxury convenience…

What’s all this then? An everyday visit to the local convenience store is turning into a luxury browsing opportunity. You may have heard of the lipstick index: it’s a way to spot a recession by lipstick sales going up as people turn to purchasing treats within their budget. Now look instead to the ‘local store index’, because this is the new place for cash-strapped consumers to find affordable luxuries.

Luxury among the cans of baked beans? Tell me more… The neighbourhood shop has undergone a glow-up. We see this in the bodegas of New York city making space for guest-curated snack boxes, craft beers and fancy, localised gifts.

Now you mention it, I have noticed expensive olive oil and kombucha on tap… Bingo!

So will we be ditching mega supermarkets? They’ve jumped on the local luxe movement, too. In the UK, supermarket giant Asda launched On The Move convenience stores last year – promising “a wide range of premium ‘Extra Special’ products” – while Aldi’s Corner Store in Sydney does a fast turnover in treat lunches: fresh sushi and artisan baked goods. Meanwhile, luxury convenience stores in South Korea have overtaken Japan in scale, and doing so with a focus on “developing unique products” (McKinsey, 2023).

Isn’t the economy amazing! Sure is. But local luxe is not just being driven by the economy. It reflects changing consumer values – as we see in how 7-Eleven (the largest convenience store chain in the US) is installing new charging stations for electric vehicles in its local branches, hoping to attract the environmentally-minded customer.

And the cherry on the luxe cake… here’s the even better sell: it takes us full circle back to a time when we’d go to the local baker, butcher and candlestick maker. Now the corner shop is getting the good stuff on the shelves – and not just essentials, which it always has done – it offers the kudos of a local market, of knowing what their customer really wants, of generating word of mouth recommendations.

Will this change the aspirations of product makers? They may move away from wanting to sell in enormous bulk to supermarkets and want to talk to local shop owners (even if it means lower profit margins) instead. Or brands may get better quality awareness from a local, trusted supplier.

Blimey. And the local store index? In a tougher economic landscape, few would argue with the sense in turning to the small treats to sustain us rather than emptying our bank accounts with bigger ticket items. Some may even claim their local artisan bread habit as an act of anti-globalisation… 

TL;DR: Local, luxury, convenient and conscious consumption – now that’s a shopping style that should outlast the cost-of-living crisis.

How ‘zero-waste’ became the new immersive dining experience – Crowd’s Phoebe Trimingham looks at our appetite for sustainable haute cuisine…

City Limits Volume Nine – download it here.

In our latest issue of City Limits – our regular exploration of changing urban experience – we look at solutions to world problems in the food business – from climate labels on menus to floating farms. One of our spotlights on sustainability is the rise of the zero-waste restaurant as not only a call to action, but an immersive experience for the diner.

Cities around the world are full of immersive dining experiences. From eating dinner in a makeshift aircraft, to sipping cocktails in the cupboard of a pawn-shop; going out for a meal is no longer just about the food. For those looking beyond standard dining experiences, meals are accompanied by a spectacle. So much so that experience fatigue has set in. 

So where do you turn when all the ‘experiences’ have been had? When you’re served yet another once-in-a-lifetime theatre show while trying to eat your soup? You turn back to the real hero: the food. Forward-thinking restaurants in global cities are shunning the temptation for distracting entertainment, and letting the food become the experience again. 

Enter the zero-waste restaurants: establishments attempting to do away with food waste entirely. Here, the food becomes the focus as diners buy into the admirable attempt at fully sustainable dining. While the issue of waste is certainly not a recent obsession for the restaurant industry – lots of places have been experimenting with sustainability for decades – what’s new is the front and centering of the efforts, and the glamorisation that goes with it.

Silo in London, for example, is designed ‘back to front’ with the bin in mind (irony being they don’t actually have a bin, they don’t need one). All food is used in its entirety – think cured mushroom stems and yeast treacle. Any leftovers are composted and sent back to their hyperlocal suppliers. Like Silo, Helsinki’s Nolla (‘zero’ in Finnish) sends compost back into the system, but guests are welcome to take home a scoopful too – a different kind of doggy bag. It’s philosophy of ‘refuse, reduce, reuse, and only as a last resource, recycle’ is consistent, from a reusable coffee container and a composter (above) to not accepting food that comes in single use plastic.

Meanwhile, Mume in Taipei has a dedicated sourcing manager (rare in a small, Asian restaurant) with the mission to champion underrated Taiwanese ingredients and zero-waste cooking practices.

These places strive to avoid food leftovers, but also any scrap of rubbish. Rhodora in Brooklyn – a fully sustainable wine bar also ‘waging a war against waste’ – shreds wine boxes into compost material and donates corks to an organisation that turns them into shoes. Everything is transported on bikes. Back at Silo, plates are made from plastic bags, wall lights from crushed bottles, and ceiling fixtures from dried seaweed. This all-in approach to the zero-waste concept is what makes these restaurants a fully immersive dining experience – no gimmick-y entertainment required.  

But these restaurants aren’t cheap: they’re all mid to high-end. This is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, sustainability is definitely something to be coveted, but why is the experience of it not more accessible? Secondly, could the price points actually work in sustainability’s favour? Making zero-waste dining a sexy, high-end experience brands the concept as an aspirational lifestyle. Like the Tesla car model, fancy zero-waste restaurants could, in turn, make the thought of intensive recycling more desirable – eggshell compost and all.  

Saying that, it is a bit odd to glamorise something that should be an everyday activity. If people are playing at sustainability when they dine out, are they less likely to practise it at home? The very act of going out for a meal that has been beautifully prepared for you distances it – managing food waste becomes something to passively experience and admire, rather than actively do. 

Either way, city diners are hungry for new, immersive experiences – and zero-waste restaurants are a welcome addition to the menu.

Thursday June 22 9am PST, 12pm EST, 5pm BST. RSVP by clicking here.  

Crowd DNA presents… FREEDOM!

 

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A bold claim, but we’re going with it. We’re taking Freedom back – celebrating manifestations of it that are about community and shared responsibility rather than purely self-interest

A double-header under a common theme of more people getting to live their lives just how they want to live them (and therefore more brands needing to move on from squeezing people into old fashioned little boxes).

Part presentation, part panel discussion, we’ll be covering:

_Reframing Aging: older people are becoming more vocal about who they are, smashing negative tropes, and leading conversations about how they should be represented in culture. From rejecting to reassessing to reframing, we plot this exciting journey

_The Un-Dependents: with the number of people not having kids by choice rising in many countries, we celebrate consciously child-free living – and explore the catch-up game that brands and the media are now playing

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Join us on Thursday June 22 9am PST, 12pm EST, 5pm BST to explore how brands and the media must embrace these new narratives, or risk losing cultural relevance.

With Hina Hussain (Crowd DNA head of agency NYC), David Stewart (Crowd DNA head of agency Los Angeles), Phoebe Trimingham (Crowd DNA associate director, editorial), Andy Crysell (Crowd DNA CEO/founder). 

RSVP by clicking here.  

Our KIN network takes us on a trip to their home cities. This time we head into the night with creative agency owner Jun Bae in Seoul…

It always feels safe going out in Seoul.

“Walking around crowded party areas like Hongdae and Itaewon is like walking through my own quiet neighbourhood.” 

There’s been a lot of change over the last few years. 

“You used to have to go to party hubs to hang out at night – Hongdae, Itaewon, Gangnam – now every corner of Seoul offers something fun. On one small alley in my neighbourhood there’s a wine bar, a cafe, a Mexican restaurant, an independent bookstore, and (of course) a Korean BBQ joint.”

Seoul is feeling the generation gap. 

“… especially when it comes to the ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic people associate with South Korea. Office culture is changing; when I started working in 2010, we’d work until 11pm, go out for drinks, and then go back to work the next day – even on weekends. Koreans are changing though, and individual happiness is becoming more important. The 52 hour work week is being strictly enforced by the government, for a start.”

Evenings at home and staycations are two growing trends.  

“People are spending more time at home during the evenings – socialising, hanging out, drinking – and caring way more about their home interiors. Staycations are also huge in South Korea right now. So many local guests use our hotel rooms at RYSE as their party rooms – not like the typical American house party, but for small gatherings and as a base camp for their night out.” 

There’s nothing like the night mood of Seoul. 

“The shift from day to night is different depending on where you go. In Hongdae it gets louder, younger and brighter; while Jamsil becomes quieter and slower; and Itaewon welcomes in a totally different crowd at night. Wherever you go, Seoul has a sense of serenity and beauty at night.”

To delve into more city life read City Limits, our series of pieces exploring the urban experience here.

How does a healthcare brand gain the trust of women who feel that the system is failing them? Crowd DNA’s Sundari Sheldon decodes what happens when you put women at the center of it…

As ‘Femtech’ and the female wellness market is booming, it’s helping to expose the failings in how healthcare has been delivered to women. It’s often a fragmented system, where women’s body parts are treated by different doctors, ignoring that gynecology, mental health and wellness are part of ‘whole’ health. Further, gender concepts are complex, and of course, no two journeys are the same. 

Taking an intersectional approach to individualized personal care for women is a necessity to land well with the consumers of today.

As part of our regular cultural decode series, Semiotics At Crowd, we’re looking at tia and how this company is leading in the representation of women’s wellness. Tia – from the Spanish for ‘aunt’ – is a US wellness hub that integrates gynecology, primary care, and mental wellbeing: a holistic service from puberty to menopause (and the majority of its offerings are covered by most insurance plans).

The brand is focused on intersectional wellness as “the modern medical home for women”. And it utilizes a unique brand strategy to reflect how it’s open to the complexities of women’s experience. Below, we’ve used tia to explore three new key codes of ‘modern medical’ wellness that are shining through in women’s health. 

1. Wellness as individualized personal care 

Faceless, unidentifiable illustrations throughout tia’s online presence are a focus on ‘you’. Literally, as a design concept, with faceless drawings, you become the focal point. In contrast to the unrelatable use of perfectly placed models with often cheesy expressions, by using anonymous illustrations it enables onlookers to fit themselves into tia’s wellness approach.

Tia’s focus on the individual also comes through visually with components like illustrations of tia’s services circling around around the word “you”, and consistent language that highlights their mission of putting the individual needs of each consumer first, for example “Your health is an open conversation. Our providers decide what’s safe. You decide what’s best.”

2. Wellness as true, genuine representation 

Tia’s use of a muted palette speaks to diversity, and the pops of color highlight their vibrant – some could claim revolutionary – message. The team bios and photos are posted in black and white with pops of color in the background. Elsewhere only parts of illustrations are colorful as a contrast to the mostly beige background of their website pages and clinic interior designs. Where there is a colorful background, a beige font is used. Additionally, tia signals diverse body shapes by using softer shapes for their illustrations of women. The message is that tia wants true, genuine representation with their approach to health. 

3. Wellness as an intersectional offering

Intersectionality is a crucial lens through which to view wellness today. Tia reflects that by acknowledging that there must be fluidity in treating the various wellness needs of their patients. The use of messy brush strokes (in contrast to fine lines) represents that things are more fluid now – especially in regard to gender expression.

Their non-aggressive and smooth lines serve as a representation of the fluidity offered by their individualized care. Additionally, their signature pink dot is a testament to not only their friendly font and color choice, but it’s about their inclusive and well ’rounded’ approach to healthcare.

Overall, tia is redefining what women’s wellness means in modern times – the semiotic codes connect it to individualized personal care, diversity, and intersectionality. The company is drawing a line in the sand from traditional approaches to health and wellness, and redefining what the future will look like: on one level, the gynecologist for the self-care generation (a recent ad campaign: “Finally, Healthcare That Hears You” timed to clinic openings in Manhattan and Brooklyn). And also we can look at its visual identity as a how-to guide to coding safe space for women.

Need help talking women wellness? Get in touch at: hello@crowdDNA.com

So this isn’t just men wearing old festival wristbands? No, this is much more intentional. Unlike festival wristbands that are usually forgotten and left on for the entire summer, the bro-celet is a carefully considered accessory – often with a heavy subtext. For Charles, the inclusion is a subtle nod to his positioning as an environmentalist King. 

Clever! These are very carefully planned. Men are purchasing them from designer boutiques and incorporating them into their daily wardrobes. Work, gym, pub; the bro-celet is a constant companion, favoured by both bankers in boardrooms and tech bros in Silicon Valley who wear them as a savvy power move, often paired down with an Apple watch.

And what about those A-listers you mentioned? Bro-celets have appeared on the wrists of some big names, like David Beckham, Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet and Brad Pitt. It’s a subtle way to show some rebellion, and can easily be hidden under a sleeve when needed. Plus, many of these bracelets have a charitable connection, which is a nice bonus for those who want to avoid getting too political about capitalism and what not.

I was planning on wearing a tuxedo today, can I still ‘bro-celet’? Go for it! While some may assume a casual bracelet wouldn’t go with a formal suit, like the one worn by King Charles, the mix of high and low is all part of the charm.

TL;DR: Want to tell the world how much you care about [insert charitable cause], but are too busy getting ahead? Throw on a bro-celet and let your accessory of choice do the talking for you.