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In larger than life projections on Shanghai's SuHe Haus building, Night Bloom reimagines climate narratives through Chinese Sign Language and Visual Vernacular (the latter is a sign-based storytelling method using expressive movement). The one-off performance, which took place on 29 March 2025, featured three deaf dancers portraying a blend of climate themes and deaf expression. Sudden storms and wilting plants represented exclusion, for example, while flourishing gardens symbolized hope and renewal. The art piece was co-created by British artist Cathy Mager and Shanghai deaf performer Hu Xiaoshu, and developed through a yearlong collaboration between deaf communities in China and the UK.Reaching beyond artistic expression, Night Bloom highlights how deaf communities are navigating both the climate crisis and communication barriers. During extreme weather events, for example, deaf individuals often receive warnings too late due to the absence of sign language alerts. The project also questions whose voices are heard in climate discourse research shows that marginalized communities, including people with disabilities, are disproportionately impacted by climate change, yet are often not afforded a say in the decision-making that directly affects them. Night Bloom aims to highlight these challenges while raising awareness of sign language as a critical tool in climate communication.Bringing art into public spaces isnt new. But Night Bloom leverages eye-catching aesthetics to surface a powerful message and spark conversations. What urgent message does your brand need to communicate? And could a familiar format deliver it in an unexpected, impactful way?
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
A troubling trend has emerged on clothing resale platforms like Vinted: women who post photos of themselves wearing items see better sales but risk harassment and having their images posted on misogynist forums. Vienna-based startup Minimist aims to tackle the issue with generative AI.As reported by Brutkasten, Minimist is developing a tool that lets sellers showcase clothing on realistic AI-generated models instead of their own bodies. After uploading an image of the item, users receive a professionally rendered photo featuring a lifelike avatar preserving anonymity while maintaining visual appeal.The feature will be part of a broader suite of recommerce tools aimed at streamlining clothing resale. Initially targeting consignment, vintage and second-hand stores, Minimist is currently testing automatic background removal and lighting enhancements to help sellers produce polished, high-quality product photos.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Global sports brand PUMA is elevating the early morning run from a personal habit to a communal adventure with its new 5 AM High Drops activation. Launching in Boston, Tokyo, London, Mexico City and other major cities through April and May, the campaign rewards dedicated dawn runners by leaving free pairs of the latest PUMA running shoes at elevated locations along city streets.The initiative transforms the solitary ritual of pre-dawn running into a gamified, social experience. Participants need to check PUMA's local Instagram channels at 5 AM to discover the secret "high drop" locations, then be among the first to reach those spots to claim their prize: a pair of Deviate NITRO 3 or Forever Run shoes. The scavenger hunt element turns routine runs into micro-adventures, and those crack-of-dawn drops make for highly shareable moments: story and badge of honor rolled into one.PUMA's customers aren't just buying products; they're seeking peak experiences and moments of self-transcendence in everyday life. By celebrating those who "re-arrange their lives to chase the runner's high," PUMA aligns with that desire and with a fast-growing cohort of people who view physical exercise as foundational to their identity and emotional resilience.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
California-based startup Sparq aims to radically change how drivers interact with their vehicles. Its flagship product is a compact device that plugs into a car's OBD-II port, typically located near the driver's seat. Like existing OBD-II scanners, it retrieves a range of diagnostic data points. But while most of those tools cater to gearheads, Sparq makes a vehicle's data easy for anyone to understand and act on.After debuting at the Los Angeles Auto Show in late 2024, Sparq expanded its capabilities in March 2025 to include full conversational AI support. Through an app, drivers can now communicate with their vehicles using voice commands, text, images and even recordings of troubling sounds. The app generates a general health score for the car and offers cost estimates if repairs are needed.The technology addresses a core imbalance in automotive care: most drivers lack access to or fluency in technical information related to their cars. Sparq translates complex diagnostics into plain English, transforming how consumers interact with software-heavy vehicles. Its 'Timelapse' feature compiles a car's complete service history with predictive maintenance prompts, while 'Glovebox' digitizes ownership documents and links them to specific issues.Sparq's approach illustrates how AI can serve as an equalizing force, providing transparency in markets where information asymmetry historically disadvantaged consumers. For brands across sectors, it's a cue to build tools that move expertise out of silos and into users' hands.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Spain's leading bookstore chain, Casa del Libro, has launched an innovative tool that calculates exactly how many books a person needs to read to reach their life goal. The campaign, titled "A unos libros de distancia" (Just a Few Books Away), positions reading as the pathway to achieving any ambition: from becoming a finance expert to, as demonstrated during the launch event, becoming Spain's first female prime minister.The initiative cleverly inverts today's AI dynamic. While millions turn to chatbots for instant guidance, Casa del Libro directs people back to the original knowledge sources the bots were trained on. The tool employs a sophisticated AI backend combining GPT models and semantic embeddings to analyze a database of over 250,000 books, creating personalized reading journeys tailored to specific life objectives.For the campaign launch, a teenage girl stood before Spain's Congress of Deputies surrounded by the 148 books the algorithm calculated she would need to read to become the country's first female head of government. Casa del Libro demonstrates how to rethink the practice of futuring as a B2C service. By providing tools that help people envision their future selves, brands can help them make better decisions today. Instead of offering easy, instant answers, could your brand buck the trend and similarly create a system charting long-term, deliberate paths to personal transformation?
Category:
Marketing and Advertising