Gen Z and community building—how brands can get ahead of trends like tradwife and indie sleaze

When asked the secret to cracking my generation—the unimpressed, diverse members of Gen Z—the answer is usually not what people want to hear: Don’t follow the trend. OK, that’s not quite it. Let me explain. It is clear that the moment culture is corporatized, it ceases to exist. Trends fade, truths last forever. Beneath every trend is an underlying human truth. If we can distill these trends to their fundamental human truth and consumer desire, and understand the cultural conditions they were borne from, we can get ahead of trends rather than chase them. Ad Age Gen Z Contributor Column We welcome Gen Zers to submit fresh takes exploring Gen Z within the ad industry Learn more here Let’s examine two trends and the ways that brands can support their corresponding consumer desires. Trend No. 1—dawn of the tradwife Taking the internet by storm with a permanent pout, an ASMR-manicured voice and a wardrobe of diaphanous robes, twenty-something Nara Smith is the last person you’d expect to become the face of a traditional housewife. Her content consists of preparing lunchboxes for her two children, making pantry items from scratch (like cereal and Oreos) and the day-to-day duties as a stay-at-home mom and wife to her husband, the Tumblr-royalty heartthrob, Lucky Blue Smith. Yet, it would be undiscerning to take Nara Smith’s wildfire virality at face value. Her content has heralded the return of the tradwife trope—a woman who practices traditionalist gender roles in her marriage, such as eschewing a career in favor of raising children and adopting a submissive role to her male counterpart. But Nara’s content is different. She fashions an otherwise archaic concept from the boudoir of the coolest it-girl. Her stoicism is unwavering, never outwardly proselytizing the tradwife lifestyle. However, there is a lot to read in between the lines, or should I say, in between every oven-baked cereal flake. Cultural pressure point The acceleration of far-right politics in the past three years has seen a rise in gender absolutism, anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric, hate crimes and anti-queer and trans legislation across the U.S. and the world. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Codified by the landmark Supreme Court decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, traditionalist moral panic is no longer something reserved for the invisible corners of the internet—it is the mainstream. In many ways, the rapid popularity of the tradwife on Tik Tok—which swells at over 50 million plays on the platform—can be seen as an emblem of the cultural and political conditions of our time. But what’s peculiar about the rise of tradwife influencers such as Nara Smith is that their popularity is not limited solely to traditionalists. It’s gained traction amongst young people across the political and religious spectrum. Why is that? Human truth Plagued by humanitarian crises, a cost-of-living crisis, and a growing disillusionment with establishmentarian institutions, the one thing young people are looking for is stability. In many ways, the fairytale of a tradwife, which used to be something that Gen Z scoffed at, offers a visage of lifelong security in irrevocably chaotic times. Maybe the white-picket fence, country club membership and a life devoid of an insatiable hustle sounds nice after all? So while the popularity of the tradwife is linked to the insidious traditionalism of the far-right, it also articulates a human desire for stability. Consumer desire Young consumers are looking for brands that offer longevity and structure, especially in a landscape where they come and go. What brands can do Brands should create campaigns and rewards programs that focus on building long-term customer loyalty so that consumers feel like they are in it with you for the long haul. The digital world has helped people connect across borderlines, but it has also led to the “loneliness pandemic”. Whether it’s online forums, in-person experiential pop-ups or community meetups, brands should shift the aperture from the individual to the collective. By fostering close-knit communities, brands can offer a sense of stability for young consumers. For example, instead of individual customization, can you make bespoke products and content for a pair of best friends, a partnership, a community? Cultural commentators have noted a death of “third places,” public spaces for people to congregate outside of work and home, and a correlating erosion of in-person communities. Partner with public and private third spaces (parks, community centers, bookstores, skateparks) and reimagine what these spaces are for your brand communities. There is no quick fix to ensuring stability, but showing consumers that you are invested in their long-term well-being and consumer journey is a great start. Trend No 2—indie sleaze revival Debauched, raunchy and rebellious, indie sleaze was the wild child of the 2008 Great Recession. Coinciding with nascent social media platforms such as Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and Vine, indie sleaze’s hedonism and sexual freedom was an optimistic response to a world on fire. Things were bleak, but at least you could party through it. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here The Indie sleaze years brought forth visual and musical trends like unrefined flash photography, lo-fi gifs from the British TV show “Skins,” Lana Del Rey songs that were equal parts depressive and depraved, cigarette-butt beauty marks and countless Polaroids of nights you were destined to forget. In many ways, indie sleaze was the most brand-unsafe cultural product you could think of. And yet, it not only permeated pop culture, but was used as a successful marketing tool to speak to the young millennials of the time. Indie sleaze was not reserved for the underground, it became cultural currency. Cultural pressure point Despite its recent romanticization, the indie sleaze era was marred with rampant sexual assault, racism and toxic beauty standards. Its peak was euphoric and dizzying, and its comedown was predictably catastrophic. All that was gritty, certainly wasn’t gold. But all it took was Barry Keoghan frolicking butt-naked in an English countryside mansion and a soundtrack of songs last seen in the graveyard of your ninth-grade Limewire account for the tides to change. Indie sleaze reared its eyeliner-smudged face again with the release the hit film “Saltburn” in late 2023. Drawing from a palette of gritty mid-2000s British media and electronic subcultures, the film transformed the relics of a tarnished past into an aesthetic movement that now looks coveted, exclusive, and most important of all, sexy. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Human truth Having cycled 1970s disco fever, Y2K maximalism and early 2010s indie sleaze in the past four years, Gen Zers are nostalgic for times that were defined by unbridled escapism. But not at the cost of their well-being. Studies over the past few years have noted that young people have been drinking less, having sex less and are calling it a night earlier than any generation before. Gen Z grew up with #MeToo, the Black Lives Matter protests and the body positivity movement—a direct reaction to the toxic cultural climate of the noughties—molding us into champions for consent, gender equality, queer and trans rights and collective safety and action. Gen Z’s recall of these hedonism-drenched eras focus on the hope, rather than the harm, associated with those times. Consumer desire Gen Zers don’t need brands to tell them to “do” more but allow them to “be” more. What brands can do Think about unlikely collaborations and mashups that bring two disparate elements together. This doesn’t just apply to influencer or celebrity partnerships, but across channels in campaign strategies. Host a gala at a fast-food chain, throw a rave at a bodega, make perfume from food waste. Tap into subcultures and discover how these spaces seek happiness. What would a part for introverts and homebodies look like? Or an interactive awards show for the world’s most dedicated pop music forum users? There’s knowledge in the niche. Don’t these trends directly contradict each other? That’s why I chose them. In a post-trend world, it is these very disparate and clashing factors that shape culture in the first place. The underlying similarity in these two trends is a need for escapism and community building. They highlight a generation caught in a web of contradictions—sexual liberation and moral panic, excess and restraint, progress and tradition, connection and isolation. So, while tradwife and indie sleaze sit on opposite ends of the spectrum, they are both borne of the same conditions: twins separated at birth but never straying too far. Who knows? In a month’s time, tradwife and indie sleaze might feel like ghosts of an irrecoverable past. But for the time being, I’ll trade my low-rise baggy jeans for skinnies, excavate my “Tumblr bangers” playlist from 2013 and maybe attempt to make an Oreo from scratch—just to see how long it’ll take for trend to become truth. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Gen Z and community building—how brands can get ahead of trends like tradwife and indie sleaze

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