Ad agency: polyamory will be a top trend to ride in 2017

Mikey Burton / New York Times

But first:

Folks, I see too much fear and panic going on post-election. Let’s stop and take a deep breath.

It's easy to let fear amplify in your echo chamber and run away with you. In the military the result is called FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. It diminishes your abilities and drives you into bad decisions. Don't go there.

Instead, make the choice to firm up. Don't let 'em get you on the run. If worse comes to worst, there's going to be huge, well-mobilized solidarity. Which you need to help provide to others. Which means taking care of yourself now.

As I said in What’s Next, polyamorists never even made the Trump/Pence radar. Instead, the radar is painting America's tens of millions of Hispanics, blacks, Muslims, queers, independent women, etc. Polyland has lots of intersections with these groups — and that’s where we must step up and pitch in. Ally with others, and you'll have allies all around you if your time comes.

"Life rewards people who move in the direction of greatest courage." It really does! Move yourself from fear to resolve. It's gonna be interesting times, and in interesting times, it's way more fun to drive events than to let them drive you.

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As one sign of how culturally entrenched polyamory is becoming, a hot ad agency that claims to use deep cyber tools just spotlighted poly as a social trend for 2017 that marketers can ride. If you start seeing triads on billboards, quads cuddling in Viagra ads, and other poly tropes grabbing eyeballs, this report may be the reason why. From the press release:

Sparks & Honey report of Top 100 Cultural Trends for 2017 includes Polyamory, Death Positivity and the Museumification of Everything

Agency's annual report highlights the Top 100 Trends brands and consumers need to know to be relevant in the new year

Click here for the report.

NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/— sparks & honey, the New York-based agency that synchronizes brands with culture in the now, next and future, today released its annual report, A-Z Culture Glossary of 2017: The Trends You Need to Know to be Relevant, a list of the 100 cultural trends sparks & honey predicts will shape the world and shift consumer behavior in the next year.

This is the third edition of this report. ...Of the trends that the Culture Glossary has predicted and scored over the series of reports, sparks & honey has an average 81 percent accuracy rate.

...Polyamory: monogamous coupledom is being challenged by alternative lifestyles, and polyamory is beginning to establish itself into mainstream culture.

This year's report is the culmination of two months of deep 'cultural forensics,' cultural listening and predictive modeling, looking at trends from the edge to the everyday. These 100 trends, from A-to-Z, are an excellent beacon for marketing to improve relevance, and they can be leveraged as innovation platforms. ...

...Employing a disruptive marketing platform and cultural newsroom model, sparks & honey leverages proprietary tools, algorithms and human insights to identify emerging cultural trends and engage brands in relevant and meaningful conversations. sparks & honey leverages the proprietary sparks & honey cultural intelligence system to deliver services in three areas for brands — innovation, cultural insights, and content. Named to Ad Age's 2014 A-List as an "Agency to Watch"....

The whole press release. The full report.

Here's what the report says about polyamory:

Society is only beginning to understand the spectrum of sexuality and gender, and we’re also spotlighting alternative forms of connection, whether based on romance, sex-only, or community and friendship. Monogamous coupledom is being challenged by alternative lifestyles: a party of two is not for everyone, and polyamory is growing roots into mainstream culture. Expect to hear more about new forms of connection in 2017.

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