#31⚡️It's the 2020 Culture Roundup
The moments, events, people, and brands that pushed culture forwards in this hell of a year
Hi, I’m Florencia Lujani and this is a new edition of Cultural Patterns, a newsletter on brands, culture and strategy. My posting schedule is a bit random at the moment, so if this is the first email you receive from me, welcome! Feel free to reply to this email and get in touch, I’m keen to hear your thoughts. Florencia x
Hello ad people, the holidays are coming, I hope you’re feeling festive (unless you work for Coca Cola and find yourself pitching for their business, then I’m afraid they cancelled the holidays for you in an incredible off-brand move).
For the last newsletter of the year, I wanted to do a roundup of some of the moments, events, people and brands that pushed culture forwards, making it more inclusive, representative, and/or progressive. It was a year of three pandemics (covid-19, climate change and racism) and full of cringe moments like Gal Gadot’s Imagine video, when Tasty turned everything into a cake, or when Elon Musk and Grimes named their baby X Æ A-12. But this is a selection of some of the moments that will be remembered for their widespread and positive cultural impact in 2020, and many of them were headed by black celebrities and content creators that while navigating a very painful year, STILL pushed culture forwards. In no particular order, here we go:
👗 Harry Styles became the first non-woman solo cover star of Vogue, wearing a fabulous outfit and smashing gender norms one dress at a time.
🚔 Amid protests against police brutality, ‘Lose Yo’ Job’ went from meme to motto of the ‘Defund the police’ movement, showing that the most popular political slogans will always come from those affected by injustice.
📸 Calvin Klein started to let go of its heteronormative past by featuring Jari Jones, a black trans woman, in a massive billboard in Manhattan for its 2020 Pride campaign.
🔪 Among Us became the perfect gaming obsession for a post-pandemic society by putting the quest to discover a common enemy (the impostor, responsible for our collective demise) at the centre of social relationships.
👾 TikTok created a space for a new wave of creativity to flourish, putting the wacky, bizarre, unexpected and odd in the spotlight and slowly exposed Instagram’s tyrannic rule of millennial pink perfection.
⚽️ Marcus Rashford emerged as the champion of children and relentless fighter against Tory austerity with his campaign for school meals, injecting empathy and social change to the public persona of footballers.
💃 Dance group Diversity delivered the most important moment in British television this year with a routine addressing racism in the UK and around the world that got 24,500 racists to complain to Ofcom, and ITV ran an ad showing precisely how “we are changed by what we see, just as we’re changed when we are seen”.
🐀 ‘Ratatouille The Musical’ became the first-ever musical adaptation to be created from scratch exclusively online by individual contributors all over the world, showing how shared narratives are constructed in fragmented online spaces.
👅 Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion revolutionised rap with their song ‘WAP’, owning the word ‘pussy’ as a statement of rebellion and making the ultimate anthem of female sexuality and empowerment.
🏳️🌈 Schitt’s Creek, a show that instead of shrinking over time, got bigger with age, won people’s hearts for its representation of LGBTQIA+ love and inclusive society.
⛓ The statue of slave trader Edward Colston ended up in Bristol’s river and sparked a debate about the historical and cultural significance of monuments in Britain and around the world.
🌟 Bodyform released Womb Stories and tackled the stigma surrounding IVF, miscarriage, endometriosis and menopause, ending the silence about women’s reproductive issues.
👩💻 The New Yorker made our wfh reality the poster of 2020, normalising above-the-keyboard dressing, messy flats, hairy legs and dirty dishes in a year where we opened up our homes to colleagues over Zoom and revealed more about ourselves than ever before.
☠️ ‘I may destroy you’, created by Michaela Coel for the BBC, examined rape culture in its many horrifying facets, and tackled all the nuances of sexual consent, setting the standard of how to depict trauma, relationships, drugs and more in the screen.
That’s it. What are other events/moments/people/brands that have made society more inclusive and progressive? Please send them my way.
Also, here’s a bonus track of some other of my favourite moments from this year:
The Travis Scott McDonald’s meal, for making a $6 meal a status symbol
Fortnite’s ‘1984’ ad, those people have some GUTS
‘The Last Dance’ on Netflix, for giving a fascinating look into basketball and Michael Jordan’s career
Burberry’s Christmas ad, for the reinvention of the British brand
Cottagecore and the modern rural fantasy, as the definitive aesthetic of 2020
Parasite’s Oscar win, for conquering the Hollywood establishment
‘Black is King’, because Beyonce showed again she’s on a league of her own
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, for being a much better customisable alternative reality than the one we had this year.
Nike’s ‘You Can’t Stop Us’ ad, for the craft and uplifting message
K-Pop Stans, for their global activism and impact for good
Billie Elish, for pushing creativity forward with her ‘Infinite Bad Guy’ music video event and her livestreamed fan event
The ‘Get your booty to the polls’ ad that turned Georgia blue
Gucci, for hosting their own Fashion Week / Film festival, called ‘GucciFest’, a boundary-pushing content-commerce strategy.
The Queen’s Gambit, for the way it captured talent and its demons
Ben & Jerry’s ‘Dismantle White Supremacy’ ad, for speaking out the truth loudly
Sainbury’s ‘Gravy Song’ ad, for the beautiful story and subsequent anti-racist stand
Balenciaga, for staging its dystopian autumn/winter 2021 collection as a virtual reality runway show presented through Oculus glasses, and releasing the video game, Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping fiasco, for providing the best conceivable stage to Trump’s demise.
Playstation’s Oxford Circus takeover, for showing yet again how media and creativity go hand in hand
Dear reader, thanks for signing up to my newsletter / opening it / reading it / sharing it / emailing me with your feedback - however you engaged with Cultural Patterns in 2020, thank you! Means a lot 🙌
If this the first email you’ve received from me, here are some other articles you might like:
#26 Building Global Brands, One Market at a Time
#18 How to Identify Cultural Patterns and Improve your Strategic Thinking
Hit reply to get in touch or say hi on Twitter / Linkedin :) Until next time, and happy holidays! 🎄🎁
Florencia x
Me encantó! 🥰