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Nike highlights the phenomenal women of South Korea

Choose Phenomenal, Nike, film by Wieden & Kennedy Tokyo, Korea

South Korea – For International Women’s Day, the sports brand has partnered with local athletes, celebrities and K-Pop stars.

The ad, entitled Choose Phenomenal, explores the countless possibilities that South Korean women can now pursue. The narrative is centred around the doljabi tradition, in which, on a child’s first birthday, they are presented with a range of toys to pick from. The toy they pick then symbolises their life ambitions and future career.

Created by Wieden & Kennedy Tokyo, the film features five pioneering Korean women who have deviated from their clearly-defined path to pursue their own goals, including a K-Pop star, a soccer player and comedian. As part of the campaign, Nike is hosting a Phenomenal Festival on International Women’s Day, which will feature a roster of fitness and music activities.

Nike is tapping into the South Korean desire to reclaim feminism, a movement that was once labelled the ‘dirty F-word’. For more, read our Emerging Youth: South Korea market.

This app hosts a live group meditation once a day

Tap In, New York

New York – Every weekday, Tap In invites people from all over the world to log on for a 10-minute group meditation session.

The recently launched app wants to leverage the power of a digital collective to encourage regular meditation. At 3pm EST, the app live broadcasts a 10-minute guided meditation, which anyone is welcome to take part in. In contrast to existing meditation apps, which are often pre-recorded, Tap In can more easily tailor content to react to specific events and current affairs.

The app does not offer any content beyond these once daily meditation sessions, thereby encouraging people to detach from their phones when possible. According to Margaux Le Pierrès, the app’s designer, meditating in a group removes the ‘separateness’ of solo meditation, instilling a group mentality and sense of accountability that encourages regular practice.

As on-demand culture becomes increasingly abundant, consumers are seeking platforms that offer real-time scheduling in order to help retain their sense of focus.

Iconic females inspire women’s football apparel

London – Women footballers in the London borough of Camden will now play the beautiful game wearing shirts adorned with inspirational female figures.

The colourful shirts, produced through a partnership between Camden Town Brewery and Camden Town Football Club, have been launched for International Women’s Day 2019 and reflect the creativity, diversity and inclusivity that has long drawn people to the Camden area.

Illustrated by artist Bodil Jane, they depict suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, authors Buchi Emecheta and Sylvia Plath, and sculptor Barbara Hepworth, each of whom have ties to Camden. A limited-edition run of the shirts are also available for the public to buy, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Fawcett Society.

‘To play with the likes of Sylvia Plath and Millicent Fawcett on the team’s shirts gives us that extra piece of inspiration and motivation, and makes us even prouder to represent Camden,’ says Pranay Dhanani, manager of the Camden Town team.

Nielsen reports that 84% of general sports fans globally have an interest in women’s sports. And in nations beyond the UK, sport is being used as a tool for empowerment and activism among young women, something we explore in our micro trend Street Sport Rebels.

Camden Town Brewery Football Club, London

Etsy offsets 100% of carbon emissions from shipping

Etsy Carbon-Offset Shipping

New York – Global marketplace Etsy is promising to ‘deliver a world of good’ through a new carbon-offsetting initiative.

It has become the first major online shopping destination to offset 100% of carbon emissions from shipping. Every time a customer makes a purchase on Etsy, the company will balance out the carbon emissions created during delivery, with no additional cost for shoppers or sellers.

Etsy will fund verified emissions reduction projects with 3Degrees, a company that helps organisations incorporate clean energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies into their businesses. 3Degrees will help Etsy in supporting environmental projects, such as protecting forests that improve air quality and absorb carbon, and sponsoring wind and solar farms that generate clean energy and replace fossil fuels.

This carbon-offset effort follows Etsy achieving its goal of running zero-waste operations globally in 2018 – two years ahead of schedule. With the environmental cost of e-commerce increasingly on brands’ radar, Etsy is taking steps as a Civic Brand to lead change and boost sentiment while absorbing costs.

Stat: Wealth is a complex subject for women

A new report from Kantar and The WealthiHer Network reveals a need for banking and insurance institutions to create greater gender balance in wealth.

In a study of over 2,500 British adults, some 45% of men say achieving wealth is their biggest goal, compared to 31% of women. Meanwhile, women aged 18–34 are nearly twice as likely (32%) to have no savings or investments versus men (18%) of the same age.

‘Research suggests that money and financial success is not something that women talk about and that they lack the confidence in doing so,’ explains Tamara Gillan. In response, she has launched The WealthiHer Network, a group of change-agents from financial and insurance companies such as HSBC, Barclays Private Bank, J.P. Morgan and Chubb that aims to inspire and empower women to grow and protect their wealth. And in doing so, create positive change.

For more on how women’s approach to spending and saving differs from men, explore our two-part Women’s Wealth Market.

Thought-starter: Has technology failed humanity?

The Future Laboratory's Critical Horizons podcast is a deep dive into the mind of a world-renowned thinker whose ideas challenge the status quo and shed light upon emerging behaviours that will drive seismic shifts for brands and consumers alike.

This episode’s critical thinker is Douglas Rushkoff. Named one of the ‘world’s ten most influential intellectuals’ by MIT, he is the author of 20 books, the most recent of which is Team Human.

His work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and one another. He has been a leading voice for applying digital media toward social and economic justice and is also a professor of media theory and digital economics at CUNY/Queens. He even once played keyboards in the cult industrial band Psychic TV.

LS:N Global’s Director Tim Noakes and Rushkoff discuss the future of Universal Basic Income, AI ethics, persuasive design, and even some limbic consonance. And if you don’t know what that is, please do listen on and let Mr Rushkoff enlighten you.

Listen to our first Critical Horizons podcast here.