BACKSLASH | CQ

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Backslash is our proprietary tool for monitoring culture – powered by a network of over 250 Culture Spotters and a dynamic hybrid process of strategy, data, and content.
It tracks everything from daily global triggers to local viral news.

Backslash helps us jump into cultural conversations, identify brand opportunities, and be at the forefront of what’s happening.

GLOBAL CULTURAL TRIGGERS

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Antinatalism | Life on the Edge

04:55

Antinatalism | Life on the Edge

Game Therapy | Life on the Edge

04:20

Game Therapy | Life on the Edge

Anti-Surveillance Activism | Life on the Edge

03:46

Anti-Surveillance Activism | Life on the Edge

ASIAN CULTURAL TRIGGERS

Thailand became the first Asian country to legalise marijuana. People can cultivate and use the herb at home for medicinal purposes such as chronic pain, insomnia, and nausea. While possession is not illegal, using it for recreational purposes remains prohibited, liable to a three month prison term. As an industry extending across medicine, food, and cosmetics worth an estimated value of 40 billion baht ($1.15 billion), legalisation presents an opportunity for local farmers and businesses to enter the lucrative market.

IMPLICATIONS
As economic uncertainties drive countries to seek new ways to fuel and invigorate domestic industries, long-held societal restrictions and taboos are being reassessed.

#MoodGeisting #NextGenNaturalists

Shanghai is attracting top graduates by granting them the hard-to-get hukou document. Hukou is a registration status tied to social benefits - from access to public education, health insurance, and the ability to buy property. It’s based on a points system and awarded depending on educational background and work experience, usually taking years for out-of-town graduates to secure. Now Chinese graduates from the world’s top 50 universities with full-time employment in the city will be offered a hukou almost immediately.

IMPLICATIONS
As the fight for talent intensifies, benefits that help graduates navigate China’s complex and difficult social credit system become too alluring to pass up, with many reconsidering plans in light of the new policy.

#StabilityPursuit

Shifting fashion tastes and a declining consumer base have left a huge supply of vintage kimonos. Now designers in Japan are repurposing the high-quality fabrics from cast off kimonos to make contemporary outfits better suited to today’s sensibilities and fashion.

IMPLICATIONS
As the high quality fabrics of vintage kimonos are key in their ability to be repurposed, will the desire to preserve and evolve tradition offer up another reason to move away from fast fashion to a more sustainable, longer lasting and circular industry?

#CircularAftermarkets #RootsRevival

To quell public concern about cyberbullying, Japan has passed legislation making “online insults” punishable by imprisonment. The bill, which takes affect this summer, punishes offenders who post “online insults” with up to one year of jailtime or a fine of ¥300,000 (approximately S$3,100).

IMPLICATIONS
While many are worried the bill may impede on one’s freedom of speech, the severe consequences of online trolls has become a national crisis, prompting the government to step in.

#PlatformPolitics