Only Conscious Brands Will Survive The 2020s Growing wellness education and plummeting Facebook ad costs have begun a mass consumer shift away from industrial food conglomerates, and towards authentic startup brands.

We've lived for decades now—two centuries really—of what feels like soul-less corporations mass producing everything from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. It has felt like they controlled everything. Even the government.

This was a natural progression out of the Industrial Revolution. As we became better at automation over the last 50 years and goods became increasingly mass-produced, brands lost their authenticity and frankly gave up their morality in exchange for higher margins.

Data shows consumers are becoming wise to it. Young & Rubicam analyzed a set of well-known brands and found their customers' trust has fallen from 44% in 2001 to a low of 18% in 2017.