Kyle MacNeill has spent the last decade exploring the unexcavated corners of pop culture for 

, and for youth platforms including THE FACE, Dazed, VICE and i-D. He’s also the copywriter for Kibbo Kift Agency, a boutique PR and performance agency solely working with sustainable and socially conscious clients and has managed social media for brands including FENDI, Viron, and More or Less. He’s insatiably curious about niche communities, the material history of objects, unusual technologies, and strange phenomena. He's based in Manchester's Northern Quarter, where he writes local recommendations for Time Out, plays a lot of pub games, and makes a devastating mess in the kitchen.

Speed and convenience have become the consumer norm. The 'I need it now' culture shows no signs of slowing down, yet the complexity around it is becoming more apparent.

Compulsive Convenience

There’s a new formula for making money: get honey, add chili, and you have just synthesized liquid gold. Hot honey, a sweet and spicy – or ‘swicy’ – condiment, has become a global sensation. 

The New York Times

First marketed by pizza chef Mike Kurtz and used at Paulie Gee’s pizzeria in Brooklyn in 2010, Kurtz has since built his brand, Mike's Hot Honey, into a $60 million product, acting as the catalyst for an explosion of hot honey products. 

Business Insider

The dip now, incredibly, appears on 11.3% of all restaurant menus in the US and it’s posted close to 230% growth over the past four years. 

Dataessential

 Brands are using the sizzling nectar to cross-pollinate audiences: 

 doused it over nuggets and, most bizarrely, 

 have made hot honey Jaffa Cakes. But this soaring popularity means, of course, that people are already writing eulogies for its apparent demise, proclaiming that we have reached peak hot honey. 

The Guardian

So goes the predictable cadence of the product obsession lifecycle. The traditional product life cycle – development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline – has been accelerated to hyperspeed. The growth-maturity-decline curve has shrunk due to aggressive social media marketing, a culture of instant replicas, and our waning attention spans. We no longer desire products but become hooked on them to the point where the buzz quickly fades. This is primarily applied to viral foodstuffs. The high-protein food market is expected to hit a jacked-up $117.44 billion by 2034. 

Towards FNB

Cabbage, according to Pinterest, is the vegetable of the moment. 

Pinterest

Cottage cheese is no longer a cottage industry. The matcha mania has caused shortages in Japan. 

The Atlantic

 “I'm excited to see what 2026's version of Dubai Chocolate will be, something magical with peanuts and chocolate?? I want to be dazzled!” 

 editor Chloe Malle told SSense in 2025. 

SSense

The answer is, by the looks of things, angel hair chocolate. 

Henley Bridge

Content creators are increasingly calling out – and sending up – this new manifestation of late-stage capitalism. “Protein margarita, protein Crumbl Cookie collaboration, protein lip gloss, protein popcorn,” begins 

. “Hot honey-infused turkey leg, hot honey Birkin bag, hot honey lemon drop, hot honey lip balm, hot honey protein bar, hot honey lamb chop,” starts another. Food becomes product, product becomes commodity, commodity becomes thing, and soon all original meaning is lost. “Now, attention is measured in seconds and repetitive views,” says Stephen Zagor, a consultant and associate professor of business at Columbia Business School. “The life cycles of these ideas are measured in weeks and months, not usually years. There is a never-ending tsunami of fad fantasy ideas.” 

Interview with Stephen Zagor conducted by the author

 It seems that as figurative taste is becoming more important than ever, our literal taste is driving popular culture. But what’s behind this new product-obsessed behavior?

The way we consume is becoming all-consuming. Social media and online retail have sped up trend cycles, with microtrends becoming nanotrends and our loyalty taking on a farcical level of fickleness. “Remember, product obsessions have been wildly popular for decades. It's Instagram, TikTok and all other social media exposure that accelerate, compress and seemingly explode the effects,” says Zagor. 

 Very few of us are immune to the algorithm: 82% of shoppers say trending or viral products influence their purchases. 

 The rise of AI marketing has made getting products out at speed easier. “Marketing has never moved faster. Campaigns can now be launched in hours, with content generated at scale and variations tested, refined and redeployed in near real time,” writes Adam Mills for 

Newsweek

 “Word of mouth meant you tried something and spread the word. Now it's the reverse – we hear about something and then try it. It used to be a snail's pace in comparison,” says Zagor. 

 These blossoming digital ecosystems make consumption rapid, iterative and socially visible, accelerating fixation on specific products.

This overconsumption is further driven by our desire for novelty. Our attention span has reduced to eight seconds, and 75% of American adults admit to having issues with their attention span. 

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Novelty seeking is a defined personality trait associated with impulsive behavior and rapid boredom; it leads to us searching for stimulation. And it also activates the brain’s reward system, making us feel good. It’s why we’re constantly seeking previously undiscovered things. 

Psychology Today

To capture this fleeting moment, brands are increasingly building stories around their products to extend their lifecycle. The aim is to delay the inevitable expiration of established trends by keeping things fresh. It’s why 

 in San Diego holds an annual Mike’s Hot Honey party, bringing together a who’s who of local pizza chefs, bartenders and DJs. It’s connected to the rise of world-building, where people don’t just buy a product but buy the lifestyle around it, tapping into its cultural cache. When you buy an iced matcha latte from 

, you’re also purchasing a temporary handheld accessory, reinforcing your personal brand and becoming part of a decentralised community. “All these activations can help people satisfy some higher-order needs that trends seem to serve, when it comes to helping shoppers feel comfortable with their life and feel connected with others,” says Dr Jared Watson, an assistant professor of marketing at NYU Stern. 

Interview with Dr Jared Watson conducted by the author

While brands are out there building their own worlds, the real world has never been more volatile. Depressingly, nearly one-third of Americans expect the world to end in their lifetime. 

University of British Columbia

Financially, people are in a dire situation; 45% of Americans believe total economic collapse is imminent. 

YouGov

We’re collectively enduring a polycrisis: a term that describes multiple catastrophes creating a synergistic sense of anxiety. 

Trivial products such as protein and hot honey enable us to temporarily transcend this doom. 

Hyperfixation on such trifles (in some cases, literally, such as in the case of Dubai chocolate pistachio trifles) is a powerful form of distraction. 

Good Housekeeping

 “Food is accessible, comprehensible and gives us comfort in a world of turmoil, uncertainty and complexity,” says Zagor. Our on-the-go lifestyle is further fuelling this snack-first culture. “Lifestyle is the foundation for some of this,” Zagor continues. “Dashboard dining, inflation and value perception; more people live alone, dine alone and even travel alone. We drink less alcohol. Convenience is huge.” 

 “At a higher level, people are learning to pursue little wins in life,” adds Watson. “While we used to pursue the American Dream, the hallmarks of it are increasingly unattainable, uncertain or distant. As a result, people are learning to join trends that provide them some level of social connection, belonging and joy.” 

It's striking that many of these viral products are super sugary. 

According to The University of Southampton, the rise in global temperatures is leading us to eat more saccharine things: the climate crisis is literally fuelling a sweet escapism. 

The University of Southampton

, has recently written that we are still just as gripped by addictive, additive-fuelled food, even with increased awareness of ultra-processed harms. 

 It’s clear that a sense of nihilism is making many of us indulge in decadent products that give us a speedball high of both novelty and hyperactivity. On the flipside, though, health fads are also driving demand for coveted products and creating a new range of tonics. “Even health has taken a seat at the trending table,” says Zagor. “It used to be kale, kale, kale. Now it's protein and the Ozempic effect.” 

Product sectors have never been more fluid. It’s now common practice to see brands from entirely different fields collide for one-off collaborations. In 2026, we’ve seen 

). These crossover partnerships demonstrate a world where product categories have become increasingly permeable. “Increasingly, brands are embracing what's being described as ‘chaos partnerships’: unlikely collaborations that pair incompatible brand worlds,” writes Rebecca Fulleylove for 

Creative Review

According to MX8 Labs, 82% of Gen Yers have bought a co-branded product recently and 51% of people believe collaborations make brands feel more current. 

MX8 Labs

This collaborative attitude has been applied to the new range of ‘superproducts’. Many of the crossovers are absurd, tapping into this fashionable chaos. 

 for example, collaborated with Shoreditch Nails in the UK on a matcha nail varnish. For years, the experiential has been fashionable: immersing people in a tangible world to foster stronger bonds. But it seems, now, the 

 is just as popular. Other times, simplicity is the key. “The trends that win are simple and flexible: sweet and spicy, creamy and crunchy, protein and guilt reduction. Easy to explain, easy to spread, easy to copy,” says Zagor. 

 See, for example, the logical link-up of 

McDonald’s and Biscoff for the Biscoff McFlurry

. But in a world of rapid onset fatigue, collaborations can quickly lead to saturation and overexposure. For those plugged into food trends, pumpkin spice, salted caramel and avocado toast already read like relics. If you look outside of food, it’s a similar story: according to a March 2026 Bloomberg report, the Labubu bubble has already burst, with Pop Mart's share prices tumbling by 23% just a year after its record-breaking valuation. 

Bloomberg

Our product compulsion is related to the feeling rather than the object itself; the Biscoff obsession wasn’t inevitable but depended on a complex matrix of variables. It could have been, and might be in the future, Ritz or Leibniz or LU. And the more we get, the less we want. “Once everyone has it, it’s over. Nothing kills a trend faster than grandma ordering it with confidence,” says Zagor. 

 If our obsession relies on a fleeting feeling rather than the object itself, the true challenge isn't cutting through the noise. It’s figuring out how to sustain meaning once the novelty inevitably wears off.

It’s tempting for brands to sell trending products – rekindling their audiences' obsession through endless collaborations and releases. But giving into this limerence can be dangerous. Instead, brands should try to play it cool, feeding the desire without going too far. “For brands, the trick is not falling in love too fast,” says Zagor. “Fads are flings. Smart brands use them as bait, then build something deeper – flavor platforms, trends, not one-hit wonders. They make products remixable, visually exciting, shareable and emotional.” [Interview with Stephen Zagor conducted by the author () This is trickier than ever, with a recent EMARKETER and Bloomreach survey finding customers are less brand loyal than five years ago. 

Mike’s Hot Honey is a paragon of overcoming this fickle attitude. It’s been gathering speed since 2010, growing sustainably rather than reaching burnout. Now, it’s a market leader and has the infrastructure to survive the inevitable downfall of the hot honey trend. Brands should consider how a product can evolve into multiple variations, spin-offs, or a larger narrative without losing its core identity by designing products that endure beyond a viral moment, enabling recurring engagement and repeat purchases. With spending on premium food rising – 59% of Gen Zers say spending on treats leads to overspending – the recipe to success may be creating a luxury protein powder or matcha that’s undiluted by collaborations or spin-offs, such as Hermosa’s grass-fed whey. 

Fortune

In our uncertain times, food is a serious form of comfort. Where many of us have given up vices such as drinking, smoking and doing drugs, food is a constant source of emotional nourishment, offering us a reliable pleasure that increasingly informs our personality and the way we present ourselves. And we’re exercising more than ever (80% of Americans now engage in regular exercise) we need more calories to keep us going. 

Sports and Fitness Association

 “Eating can be a comfort, an adventure and a health feature. Because some of us totally live on the internet, our participation sends a message to others about our identity – we are cool or thoughtful, too,” says Zagor. 

 Brands can lean on this psychological enjoyment, tapping into nostalgia, ‘nowstalgia’ and ‘newstalgia’ to produce something satisfying. See, for example, Mars' recent use of memes, retro music and "borrowed nostalgia" to sell chewing gum as something that quells overthinking. “Escapism also plays a role as it can feed into how we turn our attention to social media as a distraction from all the chaos. On the key topic of belonging, we are seeing how influencers are able to capitalize and monetize this cycle through collaborations and launching their own products as well,” says Watson.

People are facing a barrage of collaborations. With categories dissolving and social media output relentless, it’s easy for people to press mute on the noise. To cut through the zany, wacky and sometimes naff product releases, brands can lean into distinctive, singular items that achieve lasting relevance and cultural resonance.

“Brands can leverage this by being nimble, open to adaptation and pursuing some of this innovation authentically,” says Watson. “This means that some brands are better positioned for innovation than others (e.g., Taco Bell introducing a hot honey product might seem more acceptable than Chipotle doing the same),” says Watson. 

 Whatever happens, it’s always vital for brands to know when to pull the plug and stop peddling pumpkin spice like it’s 2015. “The best brands know when to walk away,” says Zagor. “Because in this world, if you stay too long, you don’t become iconic, you become cabbage. Although, maybe that's the next trend?” 

 of shopper purchased are influenced by trending or viral products

 of millennials have bought a co-branded product recently and 

 of people believe collaborations make brands feel more current

Hot honey has become liquid gold for people and brands alike, adding to a growing pot of lucrative viral products

Aggressive marketing campaigns risk cannibalizing the success of these products, leading to shopper fatigue and social media ridicule

The challenge is in satisfying people’s desire for escapism and comfort without resorting to bandwagon jumping

Dr Jared Watson is an assistant professor of marketing at NYU Stern. Focusing on online consumer behaviour, Watson has been published in the Big Four of marketing journals and serves on the Editorial Review Boards for 

. His commentary has featured in publications including Fortune, Vox and CBS.

Stephen H. Zagor is a New York City-based business consultant and an associate professor of business at Columbia Business School. Boasting 25 years of food marketing expertise, his expert commentary has appeared in the 

United States

Shopping

Relatively humble foodstuffs now have the power to go global at hyperspeed. From Dubai chocolate to hot honey, trending treats are driving insatiable obsession and creating endless marketing opportunities. But how can brands stand out in a saturated market and turn a fad into true fandom?

Analysis

Kyle MacNeill

Jared Weston

Stephen Zagor

Related Macro Behaviours

Compulsive Convenience