Crisis, a hole in the market part 2

I want to show you trends and concepts resulting from the crisis. Because one of the biggest events of this time is of course the economic crisis. It affects the whole world in a certain way and therefore it is a societal trend, also known as a megatrend. This means it creates and affects consumer and market trends.

Resulting from the crisis two effects have occured: localisation and creativity. Because of the crisis more and more creative ideas are popping up to make the crisis more tolerable. We still want to satisfy our needs so we come up with the most creative concepts to be able to still live our lives in comfort and with fun. I’m going to show you some examples of products, initiatives, concepts tat underpin these consumer trends.

I named those two trends Local Sharification + Creative crisis. Of course the crisis led to a lot more trends, but I’m going to outline these two for you today. In this blog I'm going to show you some manifestations of the trend Creative Crisis. Click here to read my blog about Local Sharification.

'De Basis' in Amsterdam is  restaurant where you can bring your own meal. This way you can go 'out to dinner', but in a cheap way.


See the other examples here and here. 

Crisis, a hole in the market

I want to show you trends and concepts resulting from the crisis. Because one of the biggest events of this time is of course the economic crisis. It affects the whole world in a certain way and therefore it is a societal trend, also known as a megatrend. This means it creates and affects consumer and market trends. But first I need to explain the trend itself.

Resulting from the crisis two effects have occured: localisation and creativity. Because of the crisis more and more creative ideas are popping up to make the crisis more tolerable. We still want to satisfy our needs so we come up with the most creative concepts to be able to still live our lives in comfort and with fun. I’m going to show you some examples of products, initiatives, concepts tat underpin these consumer trends.

I named those two trends Local Sharification + Creative crisis. Of course the crisis led to a lot more trends, but these two are the ones I want to outline on my blog.

Local initiatives increase because the government keeps cutting off money, but doesn’t come with any solutions to the problems. Local citizens come up with new plans to keep their neighbourhood an enjoyable place to live. People share more and are more willing to help eachother.

A nice interesting episode of Tegenlicht was about  this, localisation because of the crisis. It’s really interestin and it is called 'Gaten in de markt', which means 'Holes in the market'. Holes in the market was an episode of Tegenlicht dedicated to civil initiatives. If you understand Dutch, you should really see it.

For manifestations of this trend read this, this and this. 

Young Belgians devise concept to connect Europeans with each other: Hello Europe!

Despite the fact that we live in Europe and the borders are practically wide open, we don't really know much about the countries around us. Ok, we know the standard associations that everyone has with Germany (beer and bratwurst) or France (The Eiffel Tower, baguettes, wine and romance), but what is really going on over there? What does the streetscape look like? How are the people? And what is their story?

Hello Europe!

Three young Belgians have devised a concept with which we can be more connected to the countries around us, the countries in Europe. Hello Europe is the name of the concept that will manifest itself by placing a large screen (6 by 2 metres) at a central place in a European city. The project should be able to give Europeans a peek into another big city in Europe, as if you're really there yourself. You should also be able to communicate with other Europeans through the screen, so imagine what you could do with that!

Connect People

“Our project is not politically inspired. Our only purpose is to connect people” said the young Belgians. It is striking that these young people that have grown up with internet and smartphones, are focussing on bringing people together by offering them as real contact and communication as possible. Although you're communicating via a screen, it will look like you're really in front of the Eiffel Toweror the Colosseum talking, dancing or even dating with the locals.

We live in a globalized world but despite that we are still far apart from each other. Hello Europe! shows that we, by making use of the existing technologies, are able to connect people and bring them closer together. 

Watch here the video of Hello Europe!

Real Beauty Sketches

´Women are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.' With these sentences Dove introduces its new campaign: Real Beauty Sketches.
On Monday, the soap brand whose “Real Beauty” campaign has won praise for featuring women of all shapes and sizes posted a new ad on YouTube that teaches an important lesson about how women view themselves compared to how others see them.

The short documentary features Gil Zamora, a former forensic sketch artist for the San Jose Police Department, who draws portraits of several women without seeing them, only based on their own descriptions of how they think they look. He prompted them to detail everything: hair length, facial structure, and their most prominent features.

Each woman was asked before the social experiment to spend some one-on-one time with one of the other participants. The forensic artist then drew portraits of the same woman according to the stranger’s description about her. At the end of the video you can see how much they look alike. The differences are remarkable.

Source: click here and here. 

Sharing AVAAZ's message

It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, virtually forcing growers to pay them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t. 

But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to have exclusive rights over conventional seeds, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent.And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands -- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s greedy plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again. 

Many farmers and politicians are already against this -- we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever. 

Sign here!

Flashlight lighted by the heat of our hands

This 15 year-old is a finalist in Google's global science fair for building a battery-free flashlight powered by the heat of her hands. 

Ann Makosinski will be flying to Mountain View, Calif., to present her science project, which is competing with 14 others for the top prize. Ann got interested in generating energy when she realised human beings are full of energy that we can use to provide our devices with energy. With this thought in her head she started to experiment. 

The winner of Google's competition will be announced on Sept. 23 and receive a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions, a $50,000 scholarship, and other prizes.

Source: click here

A message from YouTube

I personally think April Fools is one of the most dorky days of the year. I don't think anyone really likes it, except for nerds maybe. Anyway, I've never seen anyone do a good job on April Fools jokes, but now companies are getting involved it really is entertaining.

I don't really fall for jokes easily, but if it's a good joke I can laugh about it anyway. And as big companies put a lot of effort in their own jokes at April Fools it must be good! They have tons of money to make an awesome joke so we expect awesomeness. YouTube makes it happen. In spite of the fact that I immediately knew it was an April Fools joke, it was perfectly done and really funny to see all of these famous YouTube characters participating. Great job YouTube, we'll be uploading and watching till infinity.