Hello Friends,
Here are this week’s headlines:
Why the future belongs to irrationally craveable brands brave enough to make us feel (and the $13.7 trillion economy that proves pleasure beats performance every time).
From plastic that dissolves to trucks that talk, this week’s breakthroughs prove progress isn’t cold steel, it’s warm, wired, and waking up.
This trio serves up the future of creativity, the guts of a grand piano and pets disguised as produce.
A week where creativity crossed over - blurring fact, fiction and everything that moves us in between.
A powerful message to each of us about hope and impact.
Enjoy the read.
Angelique
The Pleasure Economy Memo Your CEO Needs to Read
TO: Every CEO Still Tracking "Consumer Trends"
FROM: The Future
RE: You're Looking at the Wrong Dashboard
Executive Summary:
While you're monitoring 47 KPIs, you’ve missed the 1 that matters: Pleasure.
The Situation:
Right now, someone on your team is preparing a trend report. It has 73 slides. Nobody will remember slide 12.
Meanwhile, the economy just shifted. Not the one you're tracking. The other one. The $13.7 trillion one that nobody talks about in earnings calls. The Pleasure Economy.
The Numbers You're Not Seeing:
Virgin Atlantic's adult content ad campaign run in hotels: 300% ROI
Liquid Death (water marketed as beer): $700M valuation
Duolingo (language app as toxic boyfriend): 37M daily active users
Athletic Greens (grass juice as status symbol): $1.2B valuation
None of these make sense on your spreadsheets. All of them print money.
Why? They stopped selling solutions and started selling feelings.
The 8 Pleasure Codes Driving Every Purchase:
EuphoriaVille - Unapologetic aliveness
WonderWorlds - Reality-bending exploration
Zenjoyment – Security in chaos
Wellthy Living – Health as ultimate currency
Regeneration Nation – Planet as primary stakeholder
Joyning - Social connection & belonging
OptiMe - Radical personalisation
WeTopia – Hope-driven change
Every successful launch maps to one. Every failed product ignores them all.
What This Means for Your Business:
If you're in beverages:
Stop selling hydration. Sell the feeling of 3pm victory.If you're in food:
Stop selling nutrition. Sell the pleasure of earned indulgence.If you're in wellness:
Stop selling results. Sell the sensation of becoming.If you're in tech: Stop selling features.
Sell the dopamine of mastery.
Your Two Options
Option 1: Keep pretending business is rational
Cost: Market share to whoever reads this first
Option 2: Get the framework that turns human desire into innovation strategy
Cost: £95/year Timeline: Immediate
8,500+ innovation leaders chose option 2. They're using Future Possible® to decode the pleasure economy.
The question isn't whether pleasure drives purchase.
The question is whether you'll be the one who profits from it.
Future Possible® is the world's only trend platform that uses pleasure as its compass. Built by The Mighty Shed. Trusted by Coca-Cola, Britvic, Taco Bell, 19Crimes. £95/year. No committees required.
P.S. Your competitors are already mapping their pleasure territories for 2026.
Just saying.
Wait, What?!: Sci-fi Tech Hitting the Real World
Chinese researchers at Northeast Forestry University have created a bamboo-based plastic that stands up to traditional petroleum plastics in strength and heat tolerance, yet fully biodegrades in roughly 50 days when left in soil. With mass production, it could replace packaging, furniture and electronics plastics for good. Nature has just rewritten plastic’s script, but this time the story’s shorter and sweeter.
Meta has filed a patent for a brain-reading AI that turns neural activity into text, no hands, no voice, just thought. The system uses non-invasive sensors and deep learning to decode brainwaves, offering new potential for accessibility, gaming, and immersive communication. It’s early days, but Meta’s vision hints at a future where your next post might be all in your head.
Researchers at the University of Rochester and Harvard Medical School have developed a nano-micelle form of Cannabidiol (CBD-IN) that crosses the blood-brain barrier and shuts down pain signals within 30 minutes - no dulling, no fog, just the body back in balance. Relief so advanced, your nerves won’t even know what hit them.
China has unveiled automated AI-powered articulated lorries that don’t just drive, they think, talk, and adapt. Built by leading tech and automotive firms, these machines read traffic, weather, and fatigue in real time, making long-haul transport safer and smarter. Robots aren’t in disguise anymore; they’re here and ready to roll out.
The Cata-Lyst:
3 Mind-Expanding Finds We’re Tuning Into
Put the kettle on, dive into a brilliant long read, then scroll through some joyful photography that’s guaranteed to lift your mood.
The Long Read / Frank Chimero
Beyond the Machine
Designer Frank Chimero looks at ‘creative agency in the age of AI.’ Here, he reframes AI not as a replacement for human creativity but as a musical instrument: “Instruments can surprise you with what they offer, but they are not automatic. In the end, they require a touch. You use a tool, but you play an instrument.” It’s a great read that’s well worth your time, as he explores AI across different disciplines and artists from Rick Rubin to Brian Eno.
Contemporary100
Inside Musical Instruments
Charles Brooks turns the insides of instruments into awe-inspiring cathedrals, revealing the hidden architecture of sound through stunning endoscopic photography.
ArtSelect
Nature’s Lookalikes
This stopped me in my tracks this week because it’s pure joy in the form of animals that look like food. An owl that’s the spit of an apple is my favourite, but a terrier that’s basically a banana came a close second.
3 Great Marketing Moves
From portals between worlds to heart-led awareness, this week’s campaigns blur the line between fiction and feeling.
Upside Down Buckets
KFC has temporarily rebranded as Hawkins Fried Chicken ahead of the final season of Stranger Things, dressing its pop-up spaces in upside-down décor and unleashing a limited-time menu inspired by the show’s alternate dimension. The campaign leaps off the screen and into the real world, tapping into fandom and nostalgia to make a meal feel like an event.
Real Friends, Not Firmware
Heineken hijacked the “AI friend” moment with cheeky OOH that swaps a chatbot pendant for a bottle-opener necklace, urging people to make friends the old-fashioned way - over a beer. Timed to New York’s backlash against Friend AI’s subway blitz, it reframes the debate with wit and a clear brand truth: connection beats simulation.
Sound of Survival
In a haunting reminder that the war in Ukraine is far from over, UNICEF Finland turned Helsinki’s billboards into real-time air-raid alerts. Each time sirens sound across the six Ukrainian cities under war, the same warning flashes through the Finnish capital, urging donations to protect children still living under fire. By broadcasting the real-time awareness, the campaign collapses distance, forcing passers-by to feel what headlines can’t convey.
Jane Goodall’s Final Message to The World
Dr. Jane Goodall recorded her 'Famous Last Words' before she passed away earlier this year. In her rich, gentle tones, she assures us that "I want to make sure that you all understand that each and every one of you has a role to play... your life matters." She reminds us, "You get to choose the difference you make" and implores us to "Think about the actions you take each day. Because multiplied a million, a billion times, even small actions will make for great change."
Just imagine if we all brought about the same amount of change that she did.
See you next week 🔮 👽 🎩 🪄