WEEKLY TRENDS REPORT
Pictured: Unsplash
THIS WEEK’S FORECAST
FOR YOUR INFO
TikTok trends
Does your baby boy look at you properly?
What are your thoughts on lipsing in Pepe’s?
ICYMI
Can you survive Modeland? The forgotten YA novel by Tyra Banks made a short-lived comeback online.
E.T. was a little moist but never slimy Just like us!!!
Phrases of the week
“The glitchy, gloopy look of now”. Consumers don’t want the corporate millennial bland branding. What do they want? Think gnarly + early internet.
“Scotsmaxxing hits Ocean Drive as Tartan Army’s World Cup party goes on” The dream cannae die!
Digi updates
Want to do some online shopping but have only £2?
Use a dopamine site to get that rush.
Rapid fire Digi topics: Richard Nixon is viral, Nun podcasts, the Fishtank Snapchat glasses and the price of the Steam Machine
This week’s dates & microtrends
Tea of the week
Hollywood is avoiding the language of ‘sequels’ or ‘reboots’ but are making ‘reimaginings’ or ‘companion pieces’ instead.
What we’re loving
Everyone is wearing pink football boots at the World Cup
Olivia Rodrigo’s all women festival, Daisy Chain Fields Does someone want to sponsor the Forecast team to go? Pretty please!
Established trends
Reality stars are the new A-listers Gabby Windey > Leonardo DiCaprio.
Cinema is all on the conspiracy theory train. Minions & Monsters is a documentary?!? (Legally we can neither confirm nor deny this.)
Insights of the week
Gen Z is doing a big ‘Glow Down’ to save money.
Finding love at Hyrox or from a newsletter or from Knicks fans.
On our radar
Minions & Monsters – 01 July
The Invite – 03 July
Madona: COADF Part II – 03 July
Adventure Time: Side Quests – 29 June
X-Men ’97 S2 – 01 July
Silo S3 – 03 July
Weekly doses of cute
Jalen Brunson look-a-likes Merlin the duck, Norway Parliament, the young New Yorkers at the Knicks Parade and the kids only version and Pigeon girls.
Rising trend
Recession indicators #40058 or Gen Z starter kit? Bare nails, butter yellow, matching PJ sets and a Vodka-Cran
The future
The mum who runs a household with AI and the mums who get high
Stat of the week
Just-in-time for the 10-year anniversary of Brexit, 60% of Gen Z Britons would vote to rejoin the EU.
Ones to watch
Austin Powers 4 and Grinch 2 in development, Widow’s Bay is the sleeper hit of the year, Keanu Reaves in a Lego movie and Toy Story 5 reigns
TREND TRACKING
How some of the trends we’ve identified have evolved in recent months
Collective effervescence Witchcraft retreats Caffeineheads
The summer of sporting tournaments has kicked off, but one aspect that continues to make headlines is how the excitement is bringing people together. From the Empire State of Mind singalong in NYC post Knicks win to the Tartan Army winning over the city and pets of Boston and even getting an ad taken out about them (can you tell we’re Scottish?!), there’s a term that describes this phenomenon: collective effervescence. Coined by Émile Durkheim, it describes the intense energy and heightened emotional connection a group feels when gathered for a shared activity. In a time where so much of our lives are lived independently and unity is rare, the chance to come together, make friends, find love and feel a sense of hope is being lapped up - and according to experts, collective effervescence is actually healing. The people crave community!
Trend: The town square
Women are gathering at witchcraft retreats like Green Veil to learn how to cast spells and practice somatic healing while rebuilding trust in their intuition and internal strength. The word that the leader hears most is that the women are angry, which chimes with data on feminine rage and how outlets to release it are becoming more sought-after. According to expert Helen Berger, “spikes in alternative spirituality tend to coincide with spikes in anti-authoritarianism”, with over 30% of Americans describing themselves as spiritual but not religious. On social, WitchTok has grown by 50% in the past two years as more people come “out of the broom closet”, with creator Tua Broom putting the popularity down to community - another sign of the times!
The drug Gen Z is hooked on? Caffeine. The sober curious are seeking out stimulants in the form of energy drinks, matchas, iced coffees and flavoured gels. In the UK, 98 million cups of coffee are knocked back every day - up from 70 million in 2008. Teens are opting for the fun and the flavour offered by brands like Rockstar and Monster - up to one third of those aged 13 to 16 consume one or more energy drinks a week. The biggest shift is the positioning. Caffeine has moved further into the mainstream wellness world, enhancing fitness performance or used as a focus tool to lock in. Run clubs are sponsored by trending energy drinks, positioned as a post-fitness reward complete with coffeefuelled dance parties
Trend: Seeking meaning
Trend: Sober generation
Image: @louis.bekk
Image: @thearchbishopofbanterbury
Image: @witchcamp.coven
This week’s long read
WHAT THE PHUB?
Time to reboot the family connection
We’ve spent years panicking over teenage screen time, but a crisis is unfolding across the dinner table: parental “phubbing” (phone-snubbing). TBH, the hypocrisy is frankly app-alling.
While phone-snubbing isn’t exactly new, the modern struggle is real. As psychotherapist Anna Mathur points out turning to our screens has become an almost involuntary reflex. Exhausted parents are “trying to stay on top of work, admin and the relentless scroll of modern life”. But the emotional fallout is heavy. Recent behavioural research suggests teens with chronically distracted parents are significantly more likely to struggle with insecurity. It’s a disconnect so stark that the Swedish Public Health Agency recently issued a formal plea for parents to literally just put their phones away.
The irony here is wild. Right now, global governments are scrambling to regulate youth tech, with strict under-16 social media bans sweeping Australia, the UK, and the UAE. Even Hollywood is catching on, with Toy Story 5 making screen addiction its main villain . But are lawmakers policing a space that youth culture is already actively romanticising escaping?
While younger generations are taking to social media to playfully roast their parents’ addiction to their screens, they are also staging an analogue coup . Exhausted by the constant digital noise, they are embarking on a strict dopamine diet, ditching algorithms for the intentional friction of retro “dumb phones“ , digital cameras, and physical media as a means to outwardly express their identities.
Looking ahead, this shift could completely flip family dynamics, inviting parents to reckon with their own digital dependencies. As a study in Frontiers in Psychology suggests, reducing parental “phubbing” can play a powerful role in nurturing secure, confident emotional bonds with children. Eventually, keeping a smartphone on the dinner table might feel just as outdated as smoking indoors, a chaotic, distracted relic of a much more anxious era. In the end, reclaiming our attention does more than protect our kids’ peace of mind, it might just restore our own.
Weber Forecast Insight
As being “unreachable” becomes the ultimate luxury, marketing success is shifting from screen-time dominance to real-world resonance. Brands must design for physical visibility and offline communities, creating touchpoints that prioritise true human connection over fleeting, algorithmic clicks.
Image: Fortune
Image: Pixar
Image: The Times
Image: @k.prezzi
Image: @muddlethroughmummy
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