Added 30 September, 2013
Regular readers know that one of the biggest trends in conceptual art is an unexpected site that brings art to people, instead of the other way around. The latest example is The Manifest Destiny Billboard Project, a series of artist-produced billboards that unfold for drivers along US Interstate 10, the highway that crosses the United States from...
Added 30 September, 2013
A few months ago we reported on an initiative by Amazon.com in which consumers can sign up for a recurring subscription that delivers products that are used regularly, like soap and hair products. The company offers a discount to members of their "Subscribe and Save" program in return for being such loyal customers. The US-based retail chain...
Added 29 September, 2013
While New York State government is promoting safe driving by installing "Texting Zones" along their highways (see our previous trend piece), the state of Louisiana is trending in the opposite direction, promoting their penchant for drinking and driving with a Louisiana Brewery Trail website that encourages beer tourism. "This is the kind of thing...
Added 29 September, 2013
Texting and driving can be more dangerous than drinking and driving. There is something about humans' brains that don't let us do both effectively. Of course, that doesn't stop people from trying, leading to a huge number of accidents and deaths on the roads every year. To combat the texting while driving trend, politicians in New York State have...
Added 29 September, 2013
According to a recent report in the Daily Time, one of Pakistan's leading newspapers, some 96 percent of students in Karachi, the country's largest and most populous metropolitan city, are now habitual chewers of betel nut. The paper reports on a survey by that country's National Institute of Child Health which claims that up to 73 percent of...
Added 27 September, 2013
Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the current darlings of entrepreneurs, innovation gurus and businesspeople everywhere. Have a great idea, collect small sums from lots of people and voila! you're on your way to success. What's kept this model back from funding really big projects is the fact that funders can't actually be...
Added 27 September, 2013
Consumers are demanding transparency and want to see how the products they buy got to them. Who made it? What is it made from? What impact does this product have on communities and the environment? In response to this desire, lots of brands have been incorporating their products' life stories into their labeling. Often this is being done in the...
Added 27 September, 2013
Food fads come and go. If you run a restaurant and are fast enough, it's possible to jump on this bandwagon and attract an audience before the next taste sensation comes along. So what's trending now? According to the menus of some of the world's most popular chain restaurants, the answer is pretzels. The dense and salty breads are showing up as...
Added 27 September, 2013
We've written quite a bit on WikiTrend about the mobile phone attachment trend, in which we are seeing all manner of clever gadgets you can connect to your mobile device. And while many of these are practical and innovative, and make carrying stand-alone devices obsolete, few have the power to change culture like the mobile breathalyzer attachment...
Added 26 September, 2013
Regular readers of WikiTrend know that marketers are creating lots of products aimed towards women, even if those products have no inherent gender-specific qualities. Examples of this include Nestlé's bottled water created expressly for women, and even earplugs for women. There is a history of drinks companies coming out with alcoholic beverages...