We put authenticity in the grave.
She just wasn’t doing it like she used to. And you know what they say: when one supreme falls, another rises. And she hath risen. Aspiration. Unapologetic, polished, elevated aspiration.
Ok so everyone’s using it, but what does “aspiration” even mean?
The world is, to put it lightly, a mess right now. I’m not the only one feeling it. Everything feels (very) chaotic, uncertain, and frankly a bit sh*t. So, the last thing people want from brands is more chaos disguised as relatability. Like, I think my eyes would roll so far back I’d see my f*cking brain.
We don't want to see brands being "real" about their “struggles” or performative vulnerability. We don't want another "we're just like you!" moment that feels fake asf.
What we want is escape.
Beauty. Fantasy. Something that feels elevated and completely removed from the dumpster fire of reality. That’s aspiration at its finest.
When brands position themselves or their product as "aspirational," they are marketing a life to you that’s desirable. It focuses on a state that you would like to be in, that may only exist in your imagination, aligning with your vision of success, progress, status.
They’re selling you your dream life with their product as the catalyst. And right now, that’s exactly what people are responding to.
This isn't the aspiration of the early 2010s - that unattainable, photoshopped, "rich people being rich" content.
That feels dated and very tone-deaf now.
The new aspiration is more sophisticated. It's polished but not fake. Elevated but not exclusionary. It's showing people a version of life that feels achievable if they work for it, not so far out of reach it feels like a taunt.
The brands who get this right are almost always in fashion and beauty. I'm talking your Rhodes, Skims, MSCHF, even Gucci with collaborations like The North Face.
These brands craft beautiful, curated moments that make you want to be part of their world. They're selling you a feeling, an aesthetic, a lifestyle, not pretending to be your buddy who also can't get their sh*t together.
I wrote recently on what killed authenticity: it became performative.
Every brand started posting the same "relatable" content, same self-aware jokes, same bullshit vulnerability theatre. And people got tired of it.
Because when your feed is wall-to-wall brands trying to be authentic, it all starts to feel incredibly inauthentic. Go figure. It’s almost like… everyone downloaded the same playbook on how to seem real (newsflash, they did).
The wellness anarchists we talked about before? That's part of this too.
People are rebelling against the pressure to be perfect AND the pressure to perform imperfection. They want something that doesn't require constant emotional labour to engage with.
Aspiration is refreshing because it’s not ashamed to make you admit you want more, want to be more, want to feel different, to embody that which you are not. It shows you something beautiful and lets you decide if you want to be part of it. And most of the time, you do.
In this economy? And landscape? Can’t that seem a little tone-deaf? Yes, but here’s how to do aspiration without that.
Know your audience's reality. Aspiration only works if it feels within reach. You're not selling an impossible fantasy - you're showing people the best version of what they could achieve.
Focus on feeling, not flexing. The goal isn't to show off wealth or exclusivity. It's to create a mood, an aesthetic, a world people want to step into. Think less "look what I have" and more "look how this feels."
Invest in production quality. This is not the time for iPhone videos shot in bad lighting. Aspiration requires polish. Beautiful imagery. Thoughtful editing. Make it worth looking at.
Stop apologising for excellence. You don't need to downplay your brand being good at what it does. You don't need to make self-deprecating jokes to seem relatable. Just be excellent and own it.
Authenticity had its moment. And to be fair, it was kind of needed.
We had to break down the impossible perfection of early social media, because that sh*t was exhausting bruh. Brands needed to be humanised a little and show that realness could sell.
But we overcorrected. Everything became too performatively messy, and now people are craving something different.
Aspiration is back. Not the toxic, unattainable version. But a new kind - one that offers beauty, escape, and elevation without apology. So, if your brand is still trying to be everyone's relatable best friend? It might be time to grow up, get polished, and give people something to aspire to instead.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
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