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In 2025, consumers moved through the world in response to — and rejection of — the digital. But with innovation moving at breakneck speed, a packed cultural calendar and major events in the world of sport, brands may need to reassess their playbooks to capture consumers through the new year.
Here are the key consumer trends to note in 2026.
Unseriousness and darker humor
We’ve seen it bubbling throughout 2025, with the boom in AI slop and meaningless trends like 6-7. But in forecaster WGSN’s 2026 trend report, unseriousness will be a key macro-trend in the new year, across categories. This isn’t just the lo-fi comedy videos we’ve become accustomed to on TikTok; humor in 2026 will be more esoteric than ever, with darker undertones, more silliness and boosted irony.
The rise of brain rot, or low-quality memes, to surrealist AI-generated videos is contributing heavily to this shift. “For chronically online groups, this absurd content helps them process their feelings about the heaviness of the world around them. Brain rot can be a coping mechanism amid socioeconomic uncertainty, as it leans into silliness to unlock collective moments of strategic joy, which is a key emotion as we look ahead to 2027,” says Cassandra Napoli, head of marketing, events and culture forecasting at WGSN. Already, we’ve seen companies from Ryanair to Rhode lean into brain rot content on TikTok. Last month, the latter shared a post of founder Hailey Bieber AI generated into a man, with Rhode under-eye patches on.
TikTok content
But in 2026, this type of content will become increasingly subversive, Napoli says. “This trend stems from the fact that consumers are gravitating toward gallows humor, or dark humor, and comedic relief as a coping mechanism for survival against the backdrop of a polycrisis,” she says.
Brands will lean into dark humor to show they ‘get it’, but will need to strike a balance between being tuned in and tone deaf to serious issues. It’s also a tightrope between consumers who enjoy slop, and those who will grow tired of it. “In 2026, a rejection of AI slop will translate into a renewed appetite for imperfection, humanity and authorship,” says Rose Coffey, foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory. “Consumers will gravitate toward brands that can clearly articulate who made something, why it exists and what values shaped it. Hand-drawn illustration, analog processes, limited runs and visibly human decisions will act as signals of authenticity.”
Digital detox as the definition of luxury
While many consumers will persist with the endless scroll, others will see switching off as the ultimate luxury in 2026. Those who can afford to go offline, will. And brands will need to adapt.
WGSN forecasts the “great exhaustion” to emerge by 2026, which it defines as a collective feeling of fatigue, stress and burnout from the times we live in, coined by researchers at the University of New South Wales, Australia. “As a result, consumers will focus on conserving their time and energy at all costs. They’ll push back against feelings that come from having to constantly cope with disaster, and they will embrace the slow punk movement, where slowness becomes a radical approach to living life more gently and in sync with natural rhythms,” Napoli says.
As we found in our research report Gen Z Broke the Marketing Funnel, What Now?, young consumers, in particular, are craving IRL interactions, as they grow bored of the always-on nature of social media and the relentlessness of social commerce, where they feel constantly sold to.
In 2026, IRL activations will have a calmer, slower mood and focus on this theme. “We’ll see brands encouraging consumers to embrace moments of boredom, which can spark creativity, exploration and guilt-free rest,” Napoli says. “Brands will also experiment with digital detoxing — which will emerge as a wellness practice — to promote mindfulness, and they’ll draw from the power of play to create spaces that cultivate a belonging and meaningful escape IRL without devices.” Napoli references the travel and nightlife industries, where phone-free experiences are increasingly common, or Valentino’s New York listening bar, where users can engage with the brand without needing their phones.
Some brands are even experimenting with silence, says Coffey. “Even the strategic absence of sound is becoming meaningful,” she says. “We’re currently researching the idea of ‘designing silence’ in luxury spaces, where quiet becomes a form of emotional and psychological luxury.”
This desire for quieter existence will affect online behavior, too. When young consumers are online, they will seek quieter platforms and more intimate, personal social media spaces, from the comments section to Pinterest, Reddit, Substack and Discord.
Moving away from self-optimization
Since the pandemic, consumers have taken health into their own hands. We’ve tracked our steps, our heart rates and our sleep. But looking ahead — and linked to the digital detox movement — consumers will be kinder to themselves when it comes to self-optimization, according to The Future Laboratory. Natural Cycles, the menstrual tracking app that helps women become in tune with their cycles, projected doubling its revenues in fiscal 2025, as the app plans to add features that track perimenopause. Meanwhile, TikTok fitness content based on the menstrual cycle has also surged this year, as audiences become aware of the effects of training in different phases.
The Future Laboratory has called it rhythmic health, with a growing focus on the body’s natural rhythms. “Rather than overriding the body with productivity tools, consumers are learning to listen to and work with their natural cycles such as circadian rhythms, hormonal shifts and energy fluctuations,” says Coffey.
For brands, this means slowing down and rethinking the motivational messaging we’ve grown accustomed to. “Products, services and messaging that legitimize rest, variability and recovery rather than constant optimization will feel deeply resonant,” she says.
Everyday cosplay and superfandom
As uncertain times persist, technology accelerates and parasocial relationships deepen, superfandom will continue to soar in 2026. As we’ve seen with the rise of international K-pop-inspired group Katseye, Western record labels and marketers are looking to create K-pop-level superfandoms with artists and bands from all over the world. At the same time, Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme press tour, merch and marketing activities underscored the potential of film superfandom looking ahead.
“Merch allows consumers to endorse what they admire and situate themselves within a fandom or subculture,” Coffey says. “What’s important is that this taps into the broader emotional undercurrent running through our future forecast: the intensifying need for belonging, particularly as technology accelerates and parasocial relationships deepen.”
Brands will take this further, collaborating with artists, movies and TV series on product placement, merch and IRL events. Last month, Universal Music Group (UMG) opened merch stores dedicated to its artists in London and New York, capitalizing on growing demand for merch globally. Entitled UMusic Shop, each store offers exclusive custom collections and pieces inspired by UMG’s iconic artists, songwriters and legendary labels, including Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Elton John, The Rolling Stones and Post Malone.
Sports influence
The soccer World Cup will take place across Canada, Mexico and the United States in spring 2026, and as ever, will have a major impact on consumers and brands. The multi-city locations will boost the impact of the tournament. Social media has changed a lot since the last World Cup in 2022, with short-form video now dominating, not just TikTok, but Instagram, too.
Seventy-four percent of sports fans use social media to follow or watch sports, making them double more likely than the average person to do so. Among Gen Z, 72% use social media for sports content, and many hop across five or more platforms daily, according to consumer insights platform GWI. This means key moments, teams and attendees will be thrust to a bigger audience than ever, likely birthing trends and cultural moments, as we saw with soccer-inspired trend blokecore during the last World Cup and the Olympics.
“To stay visible, brands must speak the language of shareability: short edits, fan reactions and authentic athlete moments that move at the speed of culture,” GWI wrote in its 2026 sports trends report. “In 2026, the most influential commentary may not emerge from pundits — but from fans stitching their own reaction seconds after the final whistle.”
From UGC to co-creation
With AI reducing the barriers to content creation, brands will move away from user-generated content (UGC) in 2026, as the market becomes saturated. Instead, the emphasis will be placed on co-creating with consumers, as they shift from viewer to collaborator, according to the Future Laboratory’s Fashion Futures 2026 report.
“With AI dramatically lowering the cost of creation and flooding the market with content, selection, authorship and taste is rising as a counterbalance,” Coffey says. “Brands will invite audiences into defined roles such as curators, advisors, contributors, or community insiders. Viewers become collaborators when their cultural insight meaningfully shapes decisions, not just visibility.”
Already, brands like Elf Beauty create products based on creator feedback in the comments. But as AI usage continues to grow, we will see brands placing consumers firmly in the driver’s seat, co-designing products, facilitated by AI.
As this year showed us, in a period of such sociopolitical and economic volatility, the world can change overnight, and consumer behavior can change with it. Despite AI resistance and the popularity of the digital detox, we shouldn’t expect a slowdown in consumption anytime soon. “What we’re seeing instead is a bifurcation of consumption,” Coffey says. “On one end, algorithmically generated, low-friction content and products will continue to scale; and on the other, there will be a growing premium placed on things that carry visible human intention.”
