A French Warship 🏴‍☠️

We sailed to the UK

A French warship. That’s what popped up on our radar this week as the Hurae team set sail for the UK. And sure enough, moments later, an imposing silhouette appeared on the horizon.

With twelve of us aboard our catamaran, we felt like a tiny speck on the North Sea, that narrow stretch of channel between Europe and Britain where the entire world passes by. Navigating the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme), we watched massive cargo ships from China, Greece, and the Philippines steam past. But it’s also the same water where refugees, packed fifty people deep into tiny motorboats, cross in search of a better life.

It is a world that often feels like it’s on fire, a world we must constantly navigate our way through. This week, we did so quite literally.

Amidst the vastness, I found immense comfort in watching our Hurae crew. A small team that, despite everything, strives to make the world a little bit better every day. We do this by choosing optimism—by creating small lights in a sea of black.

The journey took us 3.5 hours, ending in Whitstable. It’s a wonderful place to recharge and remember just how beautiful the world can be. My advice? Sail across the North Sea yourself one day. It has a way of shifting your perspective.

Must reads 👀

We read up a lot on trends and we are always happy to share that knowledge with you. By giving some examples you can understand how our brain works:

• In Praise of ‘Difficult’ Kids 🧒🏽

  Feisty children can be exhausting. They also possess a moral fire that deserves cultivating. Many of the adults that I most admire, they were not easy teenagers,” Russell Shaw says. He examines how feisty kids—who made some teachers quietly miserable—may possess a “moral fire” that deserves cultivation

• Gen Alpha boys are preferring “AI girlfriends” over real ones 🤖

  A new survey carried out amongst 12 to 16-year-old boys has found that many of them prefer to use AI chatbots rather than engage with real-life friends, family, or other people their age. This isn’t real life – and these instant gratification behaviours seeping into real life will have consequences

• The Tech Bros Are All In on Zyn

  Nicotine pouches are revered among tech workers, who tout them as the perfect brain-boosting, productivity-jacking stimulants.

• People tend to have stronger bonds with their mother’s side of the family. Many people have stronger bonds with their maternal relatives. Why dad’s side of the family tends to miss out. 👩🏻

• Vibes over metrics: Why more creators are holding IRL events to own their audience. The creator economy’s massive growth has led to a rise in IRL creator events as brands look for more ways to reach their large, hyper-engaged fanbases. People crave slower, more tactile experiences, audiences want to feel something, not just scroll through it.

• The Year All My Friends Got Botox. More young women than ever are getting injectables. We never thought we’d be among them. 💉

• The $50 Movie Ticket Has Arrived 🎬

  Eye-popping prices for the most in-demand movies on the best screens are becoming increasingly common as the cinema industry copies the audience-segmentation playbooks of airlines and hotels. Theaters are getting people who love movies and have discretionary income to pay substantially more.

• There’s More to Worry About for Tweens Than the Screen

  It’s true that smartphones pose some perils to young people—though the science is mixed, there’s some evidence that they disrupt sleep quality and might exacerbate depression and anxiety. They’re also, undeniably, a portal into the adult world of the internet, which can pose all kinds of dangers. But amid all the fear is a reality: Today phones aren’t just a way to call your friends. They’re where teen culture is made.

• Remote and hybrid workers work less on Fridays. It’s hurting collaboration

  From 2019 to 2024, the average number of minutes worked on Fridays fell by about 90 minutes in remote jobs. (They work more on Wednesdays now)

• The psychic generation: why do a third of gen Z believe they have extrasensory perception? 🔮

• The Invisible Man 😢

  We see right through the unshowered soul living in a car by the beach, or by the Walmart, or by the side of the road. But he’s there, and he used to be somebody. He still is. A firsthand account of homelessness in America.

• Did u spot our new campaign for Febelfin?

Hurae: Serious business, surreal results ✨

We’re not the biggest agency, but we aim to be the most interesting. For brands willing who don’t want to follow the book, but write it.

Trusted by Knokke-Heist, Accountable, Croky, AVA, Febelfin, Geberit, Ancienne Belgique, Molecule, Okay, Heylen Vastgoed and many many more.

Ceci n’est past un agency

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We enjoyed an awesome teambuilding in Whitstable, UK this week!

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French warship on the radar!

PS: “It’s not the job of the artist to give the audience what the audience wants. If the audience knew what they wanted, then they wouldn’t be the audience, they’d be the artist.” — Alan Moore