UK ministers set to ban single-use vapes & the case of Doja Cat proves cancel culture isn’t real… this week in social change
Thred Media
An award-winning Gen Z-led consultancy agency helping brands and agencies to connect with today's youth.
Whether or not you conform to the idea that Thursday is the new Friday, it’s unequivocally newsletter day, and that’s something!
Summer may have officially petered out, but we’ll still be here rain or shine to hopefully educate and entertain the Threddem about all things social change each week.
Whatever your typical flavour, this has been an eclectic one full of important updates and strong opinions. But don’t take my extremely biased word for it, have a butchers’.
Firstly, who doesn’t love em some self-inflicted doom and gloom? Well, the UN has warned that ‘the climate breakdown has begun.’ Does that suffice?
Elsewhere, we’ve looked Gen Z’s impact on the luxury beauty industry and also the growing influence of Pinterest as a key driver behind the cohort’s fashion obsession.
Sobering statistics emerged revealing that one in three female surgeons have been sexually assaulted, and the Safer Plage app in France introduced its new arm dedicated to keeping women safe from harassment on the beach.
To round off, Anyaa wrote a comprehensive piece on Henrietta Lacks – the unsung hero of the medical world. Exploring the importance of informed consent in medical research, she explains just how far Lacks’ samples propelled bioscience forward.
If this selection has whetted your appetite, there’s plenty more to consume at Thred.com
We’re about done with the nibbles now, though, how’s about we tuck into the entrees already. Moving onto our two feature stories for the week…
Your local off license is about to become a lot less colourful in the coming months, if reports are to be believed.
After much umming and ahing, UK ministers are reportedly on the cusp of finally following through with a?nationwide ban ?on single-use vapes before the end of the month! That’s right, soon a walk down Oxford Street may no longer be synonymous with breathing in secondary plumes of ‘Pineapple Ice’.
Since their commercial explosion in 2019, ‘Elf Bar’ and ‘Lost Mary’ devices in particular have become arguably the largest ecological scourge of Europe. This isn’t the main sticking point for policymakers, however.
Ministers have long believed the flamboyant colours and flavour combinations instantly visible at the front of most sweet shops have been calculatingly designed to coax young people into nicotine addiction. Looking at the data, it’s hard to argue otherwise.
Since 2021, the proportion of 11 to 18-year-olds vaping (7.6%) has been greater than those smoking (3.6%), and?20% ?of the entire demographic is said to have at least tried a single-use device.
The UK is due to show its hand in the next week or so with all signs pointing to an inevitable wipe-out. Don’t shoot the messenger… even if the messenger finds it very funny.
Click here for the full details of the story.
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Next up, for a change of pace, Jess has been looking into recent PR rollercoaster endured by one Doja Cat. Has the hit artist inadvertently pooh-poohed the idea that being ‘cancelled’ is something to worry about?
Doja Cat is doing all she can to shed her ‘made-for-TikTok’ image in anticipation of her third album. Demanding to finally be taken seriously as a rap artist, she tweeted that her previous pop-heavy records?Hot Pink ?and?Planet Her ?‘were cash-grabs and ya’ll fell for it’.
Then, mere weeks before putting out a new trio of singles, Doja told her fanbase where they could stick their adoration for her. In numerous Instagram Lives and Twitter rants, she seemed to intentionally cull the fanbase she garnered by producing music she branded as ‘mediocre’.
Immediately, the internet cancelled her.
Doja lost half a million followers who vowed to stop supporting her and her music. But the recent release of her latest single, Paint The Town Red, has hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has amassed almost 200 million streams on Spotify in under a month.
As we’ve witnessed several times already, it’s clear that the material realities of cancel culture don’t quite weigh up to the imagined consequences of being cancelled for a trivial statement or act.
Rather, it seems to be a collective slap on the wrist that fanbases deploy on their once-loved celebrities whenever they momentarily stumble or do something off-brand – if not a myth altogether.
Click here for a more in-depth look at the whole thang.
Don't forget to keep a tab open on?Thred.com ?for more from our global Gen Z writing team every single day. If you want more updates and planet-positive ways to take action, sign up for our?email newsletter , and check out our youth empowerment opportunities through our?Change Maker Network ?page.
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