The Tamesis
In 2025, consumers are moving around the world, responding to and rejecting digitalization. But with innovation accelerating, the cultural calendar enriched, and major events happening in the sports world, brands may need to reassess their strategies to engage consumers in the new year.
Here are the key consumer trends to watch in 2026.
Not serious and dark humor
We’ve seen it bubble up throughout 2025, with the AI boom and nonsense trends like 6-7. But in forecasting agency WGSN’s 2026 trends report, non-seriousness will emerge as a key macro trend in the new year across categories. It’s not just the lo-fi comedy videos we’ve become accustomed to on TikTok; Humor in 2026 will be deeper than ever, with darker tones, more silliness, and greater irony.
The rise of brain rot, or low-quality memes, has contributed significantly to surreal AI-generated videos. Cassandra Napoli, head of marketing, events and cultural forecasting at WGSN, said: “For those who have been online for a long time, this kind of ridiculous content can help them deal with heavy feelings about the world around them. Brain rot may be a coping mechanism in socioeconomic uncertainty, as it tends to unleash silly moments of collective strategic joy, a key emotion as we look to 2027. “We’ve seen companies from Ryanair to Rhodes tend to post brain-dead content on TikTok. Last month, the latter shared a post generated by AI founder Hailey Bieber as a man wearing a Rhodes eyepatch.
But Napoli said that by 2026, such content will become increasingly disruptive. “This trend stems from the fact that consumers are leaning toward gallows humor or dark humor and comedic relief as a coping mechanism to survive in the context of multiple crises,” she said.
Brands will tend to use dark humor to show they “get it,” but there needs to be a balance between paying attention and turning a deaf ear to serious issues. It’s also a tightrope between consumers who love sewage and those who are tired of it. “By 2026, a rejection of AI bullshit will translate into a new interest in imperfection, humanity, and authorship,” said Rose Coffey, Foresight Analyst at Future Lab. “Consumers will gravitate toward brands that can clearly articulate who made something, why it exists, and the values that shaped it. Hand-drawn illustrations, simulated processes, limited runs, and overtly human decision-making will be signals of authenticity.”
Digital detox as the definition of luxury
While many consumers will insist on endless scrolling, others will view turning off the web in 2026 as the ultimate luxury. Those with access to the Internet will do so. Brands need to adapt.
WGSN predicts that by 2026 there will be “enormous exhaustion,” which researchers at Australia’s University of New South Wales define as a collective sense of fatigue, stress, and burnout arising from the times in which we live. “As a result, consumers will focus on saving time and energy at all costs. They will resist the feeling of having to constantly deal with disaster, and they will embrace the slow punk movement, where slowness becomes a radical approach to a gentler way of living in sync with the rhythms of nature,” Napoli said.
As we report in our research report, Gen Z Broken the Marketing Funnel, Now What? ” found that younger consumers are particularly hungry for real-life interaction because they are tired of the always-on nature of social media and the ruthless nature of social commerce where they feel like they are constantly being marketed to.
In 2026, IRL activations will have a calmer, slower mood and focus on this theme. “We will see brands encourage consumers to embrace moments of boredom, which can inspire creativity, exploration and guilt-free respite,” Napoli said. “Brands will also experiment with digital detoxes – which will emerge as a wellness practice – to promote mindfulness, and they will use the power of games to create spaces that foster a sense of belonging and meaningful escape from reality without devices.” Naples mentioned the travel and nightlife industries, where phone-free experiences are increasingly common, or Valentino’s New York Listening Bar, where users can interact with the brand without their phones.
