The Realness Rebound 

Why people are craving genuine experiences – and what brands should do about it 

“It just feels fake. I have a hard time believing all this stuff.” 

We hear this regularly in Lucid People’s qualitative insight work.  It reflects a growing yearning for things that feel genuine and real. 

In the face of AI, people are increasingly suspicious about the line between authentic and fabricated. Many say they simply don’t know who or what to believe anymore. 

Traditional authority doesn’t carry the weight it once did either, particularly among younger audiences. Credibility, endorsement and reassurance are increasingly expected to come from real individuals not experts or institutions, particularly “people like me”.

The acceleration of AI only intensifies this dynamic. It creates a kind of low-level exhausting cognitive load that sits in the background of everyday life:

Is this real? Was this generated? Is this influencer telling the truth? 

This disillusionment is especially pronounced amongst younger people. As Mark Emery, Head of insights and Analysis at Prostate Cancer UK, reflects:

“My 13-year-old daughter said the first thing she’d do if she ran the country would be to ban AI. What struck me wasn’t just that reaction, but why. She talked about not knowing what’s real and what isn’t…As a kid you’re naturally curious, trying to understand the world. It’s tiring when you don’t know what or who is real or to be trusted“

For younger generations, this isn’t a shift, it’s the baseline, making the cognitive load of navigating authenticity even more acute.

When people become exhausted by constant evaluation of authenticity, they gravitate to what feels, unambiguously real as a form of relief, and realness becomes as much about removing doubt as about signalling truth.

What we’re seeing is a kind of cultural whiplash. The more virtual and visual life becomes, the more physical, tangible, sensory experiences rise in emotional value. 

We can see this across culture: 

The boom in independent bookshops where people browse physical books rather than downloading them 

• Taylor Swift and Beyoncé breaking attendance records with massive in-person concert tours
• The surge in craft hobbies where people create something themselves 
• The explosion of community activities like Parkrun, walking groups or even saunas
• The rise of co-working spaces providing social anchors for remote workers 
• Even a partial return to cash among some consumers 

Ariën Breunis, insight consultant at Danone points out:

‘It is visible even in categories like toys. Lego is increasingly driven by adults, sometimes building together with kids, but often on their own. It’s screen-free, hands-on and creative.  A way to switch off from the digital noise’.

This revival of mindful, physical making reflects a broader desire for tactile sensory experiences that counterbalance digital fatigue.

Even online, people are gravitating toward signs of real human presence. Witness the joy generated when customer service chats “go rogue” and reveal a real person behind the response. And conversely, in comms, the furore when McDonald’s Netherlands used AI for their 2025 Christmas ad (described by viewers and critics as ‘creepy’ ‘soul-less and ‘anti-human’) so intense that they had to pull it.

We see the same pattern in our work. Digital insight tools are powerful and here to stay, but what our clients (both long-standing and new) increasingly ask for is face-to-face work.  

They want to feel insights in the room, not just see them on a screen. 
 
Or in their homes (yes, even ethnography is seeing something of a revival). 

Why the Realness Rebound is happening 

This desire for realness hasn’t appeared overnight. It’s the result of 5 key cultural shifts that have been building for years and are now converging. 

1. The evolution of the digital detox.  

What began in the early 2010s as a ‘restrictive diet’ of cutting out digital ‘bad’ has evolved into something more positive, termed ‘going analogue’: embracing the benefits of the physical world: eating out, live events, exercise and time in nature.  
 
The pandemic accelerated this by reminding people just how valuable physical experiences were when they were taken away.  A walk in the park stopped being simply an escape from screens and became something richer: fresh air, sunlight, movement and small social interactions with others. And this trend has continued. 

2. The rise of relatability.  
Where once celebrities cultivated aspiration and distance, the cultural norm now favours people who appear ‘real’ and ‘everyday’. 

Influencer culture has shifted the dominant tone of communication towards the confessional, admitting vulnerabilities, mental health struggles, everyday imperfection. Think Lewis Capaldi on anxiety, Stormzy on depression, Tom Daley on grief.  

3. Authenticity as distinction.   

Authenticity has also long functioned as a form of status and social distinction. Historically we saw this in vintage objects and antiques but today the idea extends to novelty and uniqueness. 
 
In a world of endlessly replicable digital content and generic mass products, anything crafted, analogue or human-made carries added cultural value. This dynamic helped fuel the rise of craft beers like Beavertown and Sierra Nevada, and small-batch spirits like Monkey 47 and The Botanist, where provenance, a strong backstory about real people and human skill are central to the appeal. 

Stéphane Nabeyrat, Senior Insight Manager at VCT Europe, notes:

‘Authentic can also be signalled by imperfection: something missing, wear and tear that shows something has had a previous life.  Wrinkles, scars, misaligned teeth.  Something that doesn’t look too polished, rehearsed, staged and performative’.

4. The power of embodied experiences.  
 
Experiential activities heighten awareness of our physical environment and our bodies within it in ways screens simply can’t, and the rise in their appeal is well-documented.  We’re also seeing more and more people (especially younger people) eschewing ‘things’ in favour of experiences. Paying to do things not have things; especially with other people that have a connecting effect and that anchor them in the present, generating social currency when shared. Lucid People’s semiotics and cultural analysis associate Nick Gadsby puts it this way:  

“Experiences typically include novelty and surprises that draw our attention to the here and now and create the material for shared memorable events.” 

In this sense, experiences themselves become a form of cultural capital. 

5. Nostalgia as an anchor.  
 
My colleague Maddy Morton wrote that nostalgia rarely reflects the past as it truly was. It reflects an idealised version and a desire to recapture its emotional benefits.  
 
Because of that, nostalgic cues can act as emotional anchors during periods that feel uncertain or overly complex.  Formats associated with the past (vinyl, film photography, printed books) feel reassuring because they evoke a time when signals of ‘realness’ felt clearer and this is a key driver of the increase in their popularity. 

A counter trend not a replacement

It’s important to acknowledge that this shift towards realness is not universal. If anything, it exists alongside an equally powerful trend of digital immersion, with around 20% of Gen Z using their smartphones more than eight hours a day.

Lasse Wolfarth, Market Research Specialist at Beiersdorf, describes how this plays out in his everyday life:

“I recently went sledding with my 10-year-old daughter, something we rarely get the chance to do in Hamburg. But many of her classmates didn’t come out to play in the snow. They stayed home on their smartphones.”

This tension is precisely what makes the Realness Rebound so powerful. The more time people spend in digital environments, the more meaningful and emotionally charged real-world experiences become.

People welcome technology when it’s working in their favour: where it provides tangible benefits that make their life easier (it’s seen as most acceptable and even welcomed in tech brands, healthcare or travel – think, for example, streaming content curation, personal shopping or fitness. travel planning). But they resist invisible automation that replaces human presence or blurs accountability.  In this sense, realness is less about going backwards and more about restoring clarity: who made this, how and why? 

So rather than replacing digital life, realness is becoming its counterweight: a way for people to restore balance.

Some brands have already responded 

While many brands are experimenting heavily with AI, choosing the opposite path can become a powerful differentiator.  Some brands have already embraced the power of realness: 

• Dove has committed to no AI-generated images of women in its Real Beauty campaign.  
• Aerie’s ‘real people only’ pledge aligns strongly with its authenticity positioning and became its most popular post of the year.
• Polaroid emphasised analogue photography with a ‘real photos only’ campaign, positioning the brand as proudly human and tactile.
• Even gaming giant Nintendo has publicly emphasised human creators over AI-generated content.
• Albert Heijn in The Netherlands developed a simple Easter activation: ‘Phone down, eggs up’ encouraging people to put their phones away and be present during breakfast.

But the opportunity goes beyond simply rejecting AI. 

• Heineken demonstrates this well with its ‘The best way to make a friend is over a beer’ campaign, which actively promotes in-person connection.  
• Patagonia’s ‘The Stories We Wear’ has customers sharing the history behind their worn clothing, expressing authenticity through realness, imperfection and longevity 
• Maybelline’s ‘Brave Together’ partnership with Naomi Osaka and mental-health influencers tells real, personal stories about anxiety and burnout. 
• Airbnb’s ‘Belong Anywhere’ campaign features real hosts and travellers telling true travel stories, focusing on human and cultural connection rather than destinations.
• Jameson uses real musicians, artists and bartenders in its storytelling campaigns. 

So, what can other brands do? 

The challenge for brands is that authenticity is no longer confined to communications,  it now spans the entire experience.

Issy Cole, Brand Strategy and Consumer Insights Manager at Wayfair, explains how this is showing up in her work:

“AI is impacting every level of a brand’s offering, especially in e-commerce, from brand perception, to the onsite experience, to the product itself. That creates multi-layered challenges in making sure we come across as genuine and high quality.”

This is already shaping behaviour. Increasingly, consumers actively question credibility at the point of discovery:

“Think about how often people now search ‘is this brand legit?’, especially when they come across smaller brands on social media. From first encounter through to purchase, the whole experience is under scrutiny.”

In this context, authenticity is no longer a positioning choice.  It’s a baseline expectation.

Most brands don’t need to make realness their entire mission, but the brands that win will be the ones that feel genuine, and create real connections as often offline as they do online. 

Here are a few practical ways to tap into the Realness Rebound across each of the five spaces, depending on what feels most meaningful for your brand: 

For digital detox: facilitate human connection 

• Bring people together through, for example, hosting in-person brand events or partnering with organisations that create social experiences.
• Or hero the ways physical connection can have a positive effect

For relatability: let imperfection show and put real people at the centre 

• Let imperfections show.  Unpolished, behind-the-scenes glimpses and user-generated content often feel more trustworthy than over-produced work.   
• Champion the real people behind the brand, not just founders but farmers, drivers, assembly teams – anyone with a real story to tell. 

For authenticity and / or nostalgia: communicate physical provenance, be honest and have evidence

• Show the craft behind the product.  Highlight sourcing, making processes and human contribution. Bring the behind-the-scenes to life so people can almost see, smell and touch the process. 
• Ditch the jargon. Consumers increasingly push back on ‘marketing speak’ and value plain, direct language, reinforces credibility.
• Provenance, process and human involvement need to be visible, not implied.  In a world of synthetic media, realness gains value when it can be verified, not just narrated.

For experiential: create physical experiences and use language that engages the senses 

• Create tactile, experiential activations. Brands can create tangible rituals. Heineken’s bottle-opener necklace, designed to spark real-life conversations over beer, is a playful example. Even Digital campaigns can prompt physical action, encouraging people to go somewhere or try something real. 
• Language itself can evoke physical experience.  Kinaesthetic words such as grasp, handle, touch, solid foundation create a feeling of physicality. Auditory descriptions like ‘the rustle of paper’, or ‘the crackling of the fire’ bring experiences to life. 
  
  

Now that almost anything can be generated or simulated, the things that feel real have never mattered more. And the brands that win will be the ones that feel genuine, and that create real connections as often offline as they do online.

This makes emotional sense. And increasingly, it makes financial sense too. Because in a world saturated with digital convenience,  real-world experiences are becoming a form of luxury.  Which means they can command a premium. And what’s not to like about that?