#45 The 2025 Culture Roundup
the moments that made this year: the fun, the ugly, the senseless, the weird, and everything in between
Friends, it’s been quite the year! We experienced ennui in mass: there was no song of the summer, no prevalent meme, no mood or vibe. Just regurgitated IP, Labubus, Dubai Chocolate, girly pop songs being used as soundtrack of deportation videos, and livestreams of war crimes and starvation. How could it be any different when a lot of our content isn’t being made by people anymore? Thinking has become a luxury good and the anti-intellectualism movement is soaring again. I don’t blame you if you tuned out this year - apparently social media use has already peaked and is now in decline.
I haven’t done a culture roundup since 2021, but weirdly, there’s something about this senseless year that it’s actually making me want to engage in this exercise. To try to identify the big popular moments or shifs that would made me go “That’s so 2025”. So here it is: a bit of news, a bit of celebrity, entertainment, tech, society, music, and more. A bit of everything mixed together because in this new context-less reality, a meme and a historical moment is considered and consumed as equals, and we’ve just gotten used to the whiplash that comes with that. Let’s go.
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Coldplay’s Kiss Cam scandal showed us that, in the society of the spectacle, brands will turn your casual marital affair into a marketing campaign
Londoners embraced the incessant echoing of stolen Lime bikes as the new birdsong of the city
Bad Bunny’s political album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS took over the world, celebrating Puerto Rico’s history and sounds, issuing a warning and rallying cry to Latin America on the danger of cultural colonialism
No matter what we were watching or reading or thinking, Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand” was stuck in our brains as the soundtrack of the ‘Nothing Beats a Jet2 Holiday’ advert.
Following look-a-like contests, performative male contests rose in popularity, where participants acted out a stereotype of men adopting progressive, feminist, or soft aesthetics in an effort to get laid.
The Unite the Kingdom march drew over 100,000 attendees, weaponising pain and grievances, and raising fears of a new era of social division.
Literally no one on Earth bought the #WomeninSTEM performative feminism of the Amazon-sponsored 11-minute sub-orbital trip, but one passenger stole the show: Katy Perry, who managed to turned every second of the high carbon trip into a meme.
The internet officially died as websites got replaced by the new AI summary at the top of every Google Search and more than half of new articles on the internet are being written by AI
Chloe Kelly went from being benched and in a sour battle with her football team, to securing England a second Women’s Euros title and breaking records for women’s sports
While Israel commits genocide in Gaza, the Met Police arrested 1630 people (and one mannequin) for supporting Palestine Action in a performative, pointless, and painfully out of touch move.
As the NFL erased the “End Racism” message from their football fields, Kendrick Lamar showed his deep hatred for Drake and the slavery that built the USA with one of the most powerful, symbol-rich halftime shows in Super Bowl history
Alan Carr avoided the “Big Dog” theory and made iconic television by pulling off a flabbergasting Celebrity Traitors victory in one of the most satisfying and most watched television moments of the year
The Epstein Files have so far failed to lead to any real consequences in the US, but Virginia Giuffre rests in power after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped from all his royal titles
The brilliantly Yorkshire-shot Adolescence sparked a global conversation (and in Parliament) about toxic masculinity and exposing just how little parents understand about what is going on their children’s online lives
It took thieves only seven minutes to walk out of the Louvre with their pickings of Napoleon-era treasures using a basket lift-style ladder, but the memes highlighed that cultural institutions tasked in “heritage preservation” are actually quite fragile and breakable
Conservative ideals got a rebrand: skinny is back in, trad wifes are #lifegoals, brands embraced eugenics, all under a soft name like ‘Cloud Dancer’
In the year of comebacks, Oasis’ highly awaited reunion had global audiences singing their hearts out and dressing in ‘adidas originals’ 3-stripe tracksuits and bucket hats
This viral Vogue article ‘Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrasing Now?’ touched on something real by arguing that boyfriends aren’t bad, it’s just that many women are choosing to not centre their lives around a man anymore.
Cultural sensation KPop Demon Hunters declared in their song Golden “we’re going up, up, up, it’s our moment!” and they did: they broke all the records, taking over family homes, cinemas, schools, radios, and more to become the biggest movie of the year.
Tech startups tried to tackle societal issues with more tech replacing everything that makes human connection good for you, and in so, became official “enemy of the people”
Finally, a note on my profesional year. I released a big project that I’m very proud of and allowed me to travel around the world and connect with incredible people. I hosted a workshop on it at Cannes Lions, then I presented it at the SDG Media Zone at the UN during New York Climate Week, and finally went to Brazil for COP30, where I held a press conference. There were many other trips for work and for leisure this year, so let’s say I’m ready to recharge my energy.
Now, a few more moments from this year worth highlighing:
‘67’ was chosen as the word of the year - which makes us question how something without meaning, a nonsensical act of brain rot, can get chosen. Last week in Central London, I saw some kids wearing a 67 christmas jumper featuring a Santa doing the hand gesture, so there’s that.
Celebrities got new faces
France banned ultra fast fashion ads with a climate bill that will allow them to fine the brands generating the most waste
There were some interesting celebrity products: Harry Styles launched a sex toy range and Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS dropped hairy underwear
The broligarchy in display at Trump’s inauguration reminded us that tech billionaires are threatening democracy
In July, the International Court of Justice ruled that countries are required by international law to prevent activities that harm the environment, and now countries can sue each other if they fail to do so (which might sound ridiculous but it’s not if you’re from the Global South!)
Andrew Tate is no longer relevant and has become a meme, but wait don’t get your hopes up, because apparently young people are much more interested in Bonnie Blue’s ‘barely legal’ stunts
Timothee Chalamet creative chops made A24’s Marty Supreme the film release of the year, and he dethroned Ryan Reynolds as the ‘Guru of the Advertising and Marketing community’
In June 2025, it was reported that Spotify's CEO had invested €600m in Helsing, a defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.
Ryan Coogler changed the rules of Hollywood: with his new movie Sinners (the best 2025 release so far imho) he managed to get an authorship deal that gave him control over the film’ final cut and full rights over the film after 25 years. This is almost unprecedented and studios are worried this “could be the end of the studio system” - more power to him!
Harmful deepfakes were deemed illegal in italy, becoming the first country in Europe to give up to five years in prison for manipulating content to cause harm
Anyone else streamed Lilly Alen’s West End Girl and then went running to Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel to see where it all happened in her relationship with ex David Harbour? Yup, yup.
We also saw a monstrous deep-sea fish filmed in daylight for first time ever
Australia banned social media for under-16s and governments from Denmark to Malaysia say they plan similar steps.
Rosalía redifined pop music and sang in 13 different languages in the decade-defining LUX
A few newspapers in the US published a fake summer reading list featuring books and authors that were entirely made up by AI
The advertising industry killed its most iconic brands - at this rate, we don’t know what will be left in a few years time.
We also mourned the death of the inimitable, uncomparable legend of photography that was Martin Parr. Words truly fail me here!
Hope you all have a great end of the year and see you in 2026.
Always happy to read your posts Florencia! I have just one request - please share more about your amazing climate-related work! If there's anything I've realised this year, it's that we're drowning in pop cultural frivolity. Would love to read more culture-meets-climate takes 🙏♻️