The Physical Activity and Fitness Survey asks people how much exercise they do, and measures (with accelerometers) how much they actually do. Unsurprisingly, the two figures don’t match up.
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in 1901, Picasso imposed a self-constraint to boost creativity. His ‘blue period’ helped him produce paintings that conveyed a sense of melancholy and sadness, and killed the assumption that paintings required a range of vibrant colours to be successful.
When pressed to explain the elements in Guernica, Pablo Picasso said: “This bull is a bull and this horse is a horse… If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning… I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are.”
Pineapples were once the ultimate symbol of wealth; used mainly for display at dinner parties, rather than being eaten. Charles II was so taken with pineapples that he commissioned a portrait of himself being presented with one. But they lost their star status once steamships started to import them to Britain from the colonies, and they became affordable to the masses.
A 2024 YouGov report claims that brand buying has become politicised, citing several examples of brands that appeal to different political leanings. But the crucial caveat is that this is based on attitudes not behaviours, and two are very different. Actual purchase data shows that liberals are only 3% more likely than conservatives to buy Ben and Jerry’s. And conservatives are actually 13% more likely to buy Patagonia, despite the brand’s close association with environmental causes.
In 1994, an American health organisation caused popcorn sales to plummet by 50%. A study had shown that a medium bag of popcorn contained 37 grams of saturated fat, so the organisation turned this abstract number into a terrifying reality; the same amount of fat as six Big Macs.
Recent neuroscience studies have shown that our brain is predictive, not reactive. It’s, quite literally, powered by expectations. When we drink a glass of water it actually takes tens of minutes to reach the blood, but it instantly feels like our thirst is quenched – that’s because our brain predicts the restorative effect of water as soon as we drink it.
In the 2022/23 season, Arsenal led the table for 247 days (93% of total) but eventually lost out to Man City – who only led for 28 days (7%).
Received wisdom is that premium brands are bought by affluent consumers. In reality, affluent consumers are just as likely to buy mass market products as they are premium products – it’s not all about the money.
68% of people saying they bought a laundry brand in the past 3 months didn’t buy it at all (according to panel data).
Purple clothes seem ordinary to us, but to the Ancient Greeks they symbolised power. Purple dye was incredibly hard to find – coming from a sea snail called the murex – so it was only accessible to emperors, priests, kings and judges. It wasn’t until 1856 that a British chemist found a synthetic version of purple, soon making it available to the masses.
Wedding dresses are synonymous with white, but we only have Queen Victoria to thank for this. For her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, she decided to buck the trend of wearing red (white was reserved for courtrooms), and popularised a trend that has remained ever since.
After the Queen’s Gambit began ruling the Netflix charts in late 2020, Chess.com saw a 400% rise in registrations immediately, while US sales of chess sets on eBay soared by 60%.
The celebrated director makes his movies with an audience in mind, but that audience isn’t a big group: “It’s me – I am the audience. I am the guy who pays $8 to go and see a movie, and I’m betting there are other people like me out there.”
Quorn initially targeted their products at vegetarians and vegans. After all, who else would want to buy plant-based meals? But they soon discovered that these meals also appealed to health conscious non-vegans. This insight led Quorn to rebrand as a ‘healthy food’ company, famously partnering with openly meat-eating Mo Farah, and helped them massively expand their buyer base (and sales).