Welcome to On Culture, edition 6.

Five trending cultural insights of the month, from Canvas8.

1. France's hottest new travel destination is the pharmacy

American tourists are flocking? to French pharmacies. Pourquoi?

#TikTok is awash with #GenZ sharing tips with their followers on which stores to visit and what to get.?

The hashtag #Frenchpharmacy has racked up over 130 million views on TikTok

Pharmacies in France are particularly popular among Americans because they double as beauty stores selling local skincare brands such as Avène, Caudalie, La Roche-Posay, and Vichy, sold at significantly lower prices than in the US.?

Social media platforms like TikTok is a driver of beauty product discovery and consumption, including viral #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag that sees unknown #brands sell out overnight.?

However, as with most user-generated content, experts and knowledge-based influencers are warning younger consumers?to take skincare advice found on the platform with a grain of salt.

After all, they can always ask for advice from those stylish pharmaciennes in white.?

Read more here.

2. Joe’s Pizza: championing local community and nostalgia

They said American Main Street is dead. Killed by intense Starbucks-ification and rising real estate prices.?

Enter Joe’s Pizza, a quintessential New York institution that survived it all and continues to thrive, serving its local community through strong brand identity rooted in history, innovation, and the desire for foodie escapism.

Still being operated by its 75-year-old owner, Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village offers nostalgic ambience of 1970s Manhattan while remaining affordable and accessible.?

In times of polycrisis, people are increasingly turning to foods and culinary experiences that remind them of happier, bygone moments.?

66% of New York City restaurants offer loyalty programs to retain their customers. TOUCHBISTRO, 2023

Thanks to its prominence in pop culture (Spider-Man 2, anyone?), Joe's Pizza is not only a staple among locals but has been propelled to a global reputation.?

Read more here.

3. Weather influencers are sharing hyperlocal forecasts in India

Weather fanatics in India are gaining popularity online as they share information and track weather patterns in their local communities in ways that large organisations and traditional media can’t.?

With governmental meteorological organisations often under-resourced, these weather micro-influencers have established low-cost, hyperlocal systems to observe and track weather patterns.??

Some share their predictions with local farmers on WhatsApp groups, alerting them to changes in the weather patterns.?

“If India Meteorological Department gives out data that contradicts the predictions of the local weather predictor, they tend to believe the local person.” Umashankar Das, scientist at the IMD

While inaccurate predictions are always possible, many communities appreciate local knowledge used not just to predict weather, but to showcase the reality of #climatechange for their cities, towns, and villages.

As people turn to more hyperlocal approaches to climate care, activities like India’s hyperlocal #forecasting can inspire real climate action in their communities.

Read more here.?

4. Shall we 'girl dinner' tonight?

#Girldinner has emerged as perhaps the most impactful ‘girl’ related #TikTok eating trends of the summer.?

It’s meant to be anything you have around or are in a mood for, from cheese plates and wine to sliced salami and crackers with a bit of cantaloupe.?

It’s essentially an artfully arranged pile of snacks that, when consumed in high enough volume, constitutes a meal.?

Amassing over 1.6 billion views on TikTok, ‘girl dinner’ ‘no preparation, just vibes’, and represents the convenience people are seeking from their eating rituals now.

53% of Gen Y users in the US say they’ve visited or ordered food from a specific restaurant after seeing it on TikTok. MGH, 2022

Accustomed to the lo-fi DIY aesthetics of TikTok, #GenZ have simply turned to relatable and laid-back indulgences. Young people want to feel like thier best selves by living an enjoyable and balanced life, not by adopting punishing routines and chasing perfection.

Yet can girl dinners go a bit overboard?

Read more here.?

5. The Know: consciously curated news powered by women

A 2023 report by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute found that more than a third of people (36%) worldwide say they ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ actively avoid the news.?

With news avoidance higher in women than men, innovative new projects like The Know want to transform women’s relationship with the #media through positive yet informative newsletters.

Women still want to be informed about the current state of affairs, but they want to avoid click-bait,? problematic representations and framings, as well as editorial policies that fit better with their life outlooks.?

According to a 2023 survey of The Know readers, 80% believe the news has negatively affected their mental health in the past THE KNOW, 2023

Within this context, The Know’s mission is to help people feel better about the #news. Taking the company from an Instagram page to a fully-fledged media start-up with an engaged #audience of over 150,000 Gen Y women, The Know’s readers receive a short newsletter each weekday to help them feel informed and hopeful for the day ahead.

Yet the idea is not simply exposure to feel-good narratives, but that the #coverage of various issues should inspire action rather than despair.?

Sometimes the best way to achieve this is by #audiences to provide feedback and expect personification and experimentation with new media formats. For example, many women are interested in local news.??

Read more here.

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