01 I will survive Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved. 13 Freeze : People will switch off entirely. If they’re unable to easily leave their environment or actively shape it, many people will embrace resignation as a coping mechanism. “Resignation” more often relates to quitting something, but a lot of the time it can equally mean enduring, or simply not fighting anymore. In that way, quiet quitting is not simply about leaving a job, but more about an emotional power-down to economy mode. The signals include China’s “bai lan” or “let it rot” movement, which centers around young people’s refusal to invest significant effort in life because it seems futile. 27 Fatigue and the onset of the empowered individual combine to mean people will look at existing systems and brands with ever-greater skepticism. They already suspect manipulation and disappointment, and they’ll increasingly approach with caution, not hesitating to shut down their relationships with any brand they perceive to have disappointed or betrayed them. The energy is running low, but music, art and culture always bring vitality into society. They bring a fresh mood that rejects and replaces that which has grown stale—out with the old and in with the new. Think about the wider circumstances around the emergence of rock ’n’ roll, punk or rap, for example. As this permacrisis rumbles on, we see the right conditions brewing for something new, culturally, that changes people’s outlook and brings them hope. With a transformation in creative tools through AI, it feels like something might come soon. The situation may be approaching a point where people are moving on from skepticism or feigned ignorance to sheer anger, which will have dramatic effects on brands. Like it or not, most people must interact with brands—especially those that make life possible, like consumer-packaged goods. As brands exist entirely in a cultural context, it will be important to read signals fast and react to them appropriately. They will also need to understand that adapting responses will vary from person to person, and that any single person may show all of them in different contexts. + algorithm version 3, change 100