We are living in an attention recession. Every second, thousands of new pieces of content compete for a limited pool of human focus. Social platforms are flooded, inboxes overflow, and even the most creative campaigns can vanish in the endless scroll.

For the last decade, marketing has been obsessed with attention. How do we stop the scroll? How do we hack the algorithm? How do we get that viral moment?

For over a decade, brand strategy has been consumed by a single obsession: virality. The holy grail of digital marketing became the share, the spike in views, the meme that captures a fleeting moment of cultural attention. The formula seemed clear: if you could just engineer the right hook, the right piece of content, the right influencer collaboration, you could catapult your brand into mass awareness overnight.

Culture has always influenced commerce: the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the food we eat. But in 2025, culture is not just context for consumption. It is the currency itself. Aesthetics, memes, and identities now drive purchasing decisions more than traditional advertising. Products are no longer just functional; they are badges of belonging.

For much of the twentieth century, brands could rely on mass media to shape mass opinion. A Super Bowl advert reached nearly every household in America. A magazine spread defined beauty for an entire generation. Music charts, blockbuster films, and television shows served as cultural glue, shared reference points that stitched together a national or even global audience.