From Barbie To Taylor Swift: These Were The Top Six Cultural Moments That Shaped 2023

2023 has been a massive year with huge shifts in the cultural landscape that have had a flow-on effect on the advertising and media landscape.

Warning: this article discusses rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and murder.

The Me Too movement. Elon Musk buying Twitter. The Death of Princess Diana. September 11th 2001. These massive cultural moments shaped history, changing the way we look at the world. 2023 was no different. Cultural phenomena across the sporting, political and pop culture fields shaped our conversations and impacted our content in unprecedented ways.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, here are the top six cultural moments that shaped 2023:

Women’s World Cup

It would be impossible to make a list of this nature without including the Matilda’s historic run to the Fifa Women’s World Cup Semi-Finals. When the year kicked off, most of us saw the Women’s World Cup was nothing but another sporting competition you probably wouldn’t watch and a line of merch from CottonOn. But as the games kicked off in July, so did Matilda fever in Australia and around the world. 

From local pubs to international sports bars, Matilda’s games were watched by up to 11 million people, with stadiums selling out and merch flying off the shelves quicker than you can say, Sam Kerr. It would be next to impossible to find an Australian who doesn’t remember where they were during that epic 20-penalty shootout that raised more heart rates than the entire season of A-League put together. 

There is no doubt that the so-called “Matilda effect” shaped the future of female sport in this country, but it also united the country, bringing us all together through the love of sport. 

The players reached icon status in no time, with social media followership soaring and fans going out of their way to find specific player kits. What followed was a golden opportunity for advertisers who were quick to answer the call. Matilda’s superstars quickly became in-demand partners for campaigns for everything from finance and telecommunications to sports and hygiene brands. 

One of the most successful ads was from Uber and the Red Cross, which saw Sam Kerr donate Australian Red Cross to raise funds for vulnerable communities.

 

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Voice Referendum

In the early days of Anthony Albanese’s term as Prime Minister, he announced that he would lead Australia to a historic referendum, the first in over 20 years. The referendum asked Australians if they would support the altering of the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. 

What ensued was vicious debate from all sides of the political landscape, with Yes voters accusing No voters of racism and No voters appealing to those who hadn’t made their minds up to simply vote no. 

Brands jumped onto the campaign at a rapid rate, with many picking their side and throwing support behind one side or the other. A Daily Aus study found that of Australia’s biggest companies, 19 support a Yes vote, with 12 of these having donated to the Yes campaign. 18 were found not to have a position, and 13 either declined to comment or didn’t reply.

Qantas “YES” campaigns

Public support for the vote was the loudest among advertising, with big brands like Origin Energy, Qantas, Westpac and Woolworths openly supporting the YES campaign. Sports organisations also jumped on the bandwagon, with the AFL, NRL and Rugby Australia, among others, all throwing their support behind the campaign. 

Rugby League player Nathan Cleary supports Uluru Statement

Statement from AFL great Eddie Betts

Outside of brand support, Political Parties/Industry Associations/Unions showed the largest percentage of advertising revenue growth of any product category. This category reported a 72% year-on-year increase in ad spend in September, with TV, Outdoor and Radio gaining the majority of the extra ad spend.

Ultimately, at the end of the vote that divided the nation, the NO vote won unanimously, with only 39.94% of Australians voting YES.  

Barbie Movie

The Barbie Movie had long been teased, with the first images of Margot Robbie as the iconic doll appearing in April of 2022. In July 2023, Barbie hit the cinemas, and Barbiemania hit the world. 

Internationally, brands jumped on the trend, everything from shoes to clothes to stationary and everything in between; you couldn’t walk past a store without spotting Barbie’s trademark pink logo.

The film also started critical conversations about female empowerment, the patriarchy (surprisingly not about horses), death and the impact the Barbie brand has had on pop culture, women and the world as a whole.

The success of the movie can largely be attributed to the massive $150 million marketing budget – one of the biggest in Hollywood history. In fact, the positive reception for the film was so widespread it broke box office records in its first days, making a staggering $162 million in its inaugural weekend.

Outside of the revenue from the film itself, Mattel achieved further success, seeing sales of Barbie Dolls increase by 25% after the release of the film. The company has also gone on to create a line of dolls based on the film’s “Weird Barbie” character, and one of the original songs, “I’m Just Ken,” has since been nominated for a Grammy. 

World Pride Sydney

Sydney has always been respected for its world-class Mardi Gras celebrations in February of each year. But, when it was announced that Sydney would be the host of World Pride 2023, it was clear the celebrations would be one to remember. 

Running over 17 days, the festival reached an audience of over a million people across 71 countries with a $234.4 million induced visitor expenditure. The event included the 45th Annual Mardi Gras parade, a march across the harbour bridge and a kick-off concert, among others.

The marketing budget for the event was relatively modest, and the campaign was largely made up from earned and owned marketing. This included the creation of a Human Progress Flag to mark the date of the first Mardi Gras and 45 public art installations across the city, including the lighting up of the sails of the Sydney Opera House in pride progress rainbow.

Brands, of course, jumped on board quickly, with many large companies turning rainbow for the occasion. 

Ad spend also came from the negative side, with Meta accepting thousands of dollars from Australian groups promoting anti-LGBTQ+ messages on Facebook.

Taylor Swift Mania

In March 2023, Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour kicked off in Glendale, Arizona, and our social media feeds were suddenly alight with buzz and speculation over when the tour would be hitting our shores. Then, in June, Swifties all over Australia got the news they had been praying for: the dates of the Australian leg of the tour. But getting tickets was going to be another story, with stadiums selling out in mere minutes and fans spending hours in the TicketTek lounge, waiting for access that, for many, would never come. 

Swift has long been considered one of the most marketable celebrities, but her Era’s tour has taken her to new levels, with brands all over the world jumping on board the trends. From apps to dipping sauces, Swift is a hail mary for marketing departments internationally. Off the back of the hype surrounding the tour, Glendale, Arizona, Mayor Jerry Weiers even temporarily renamed the city “Swift City” in her honour to mark the launch of the tour. 

 

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In our seemingly ranch era. #fakeflavor pic.twitter.com/yPUAr7nMr2

— LAY’S (@LAYS) September 26, 2023

Internationally, it has been a killer year for Swift, with her tour just the beginning. Merch sales have gone through the roof, and fans have flocked to cinemas to see the filmed version of the tour, with limited edition cups and popcorn bowls selling out in less than a few days. 

But just as tickets sold out and Swift Mania began to settle down, it was reignited again when she was spotted at a Kansas City Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium in September after rumours began to swirl that she had been dating the team’s star Tight End Travis Kelce. The twist brought together two iconic elements of culture, Music and Sport and led to a massive increase in coverage of Swift and Kelce across all media and a 400% increase in sales of Kelce’s number 87 Chiefs jersey.  American multichannel video programming distributor DirectTV saw a 57% increase in the effectiveness of ads featuring Kelce compared to those not featuring the Chiefs player.

The Lilie James Effect

For many, 2023 was a year of loss, fear and pain. It was a year where, as of November 20, 51 women have been killed as a result of violence. One in three women in Australia experience physical violence from the age of 15 on average, and one woman is killed every nine days by a current or former partner.

21-year-old Lilie James was a bright, vibrant young woman who was found dead in the gym bathroom of the Sydney Private School where she worked. Lilie was allegedly killed by her former partner Paul Thijssen, who was employed as a sports assistant at the school and was seen on CCTV footage following James into the gym bathroom on the night of her death.

Lilie’s death is just one among a massive number of deaths that have come off the back of domestic violence. She should never have had to be an example, but in the wake of her death, a sea of conversations have been opened surrounding domestic violence, with a record number of women sharing their experiences and a new wave of men taking a stand. There has also been an outpouring of support for victims of rape and sexual assault off the back of raised awareness of prominent cases like Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame.

Social media posts from the time spoke of a vibrant young life, calling attention to the mass number of women who have either met the same fate or highlighting personal experiences that could easily have taken the same dark turn. What also, unfortunately, emerged is part of a worrying trend of people blaming Lilie for what happened, questioning why she was at the school after hours in the first place and why her parents didn’t “do more” to protect her.

Off the back of these conversations, Innocean, in partnership with White Ribbon, launched a gut-wrenching White Ribbon Day campaign with a special edition newspaper titled “The Daily Issue”, calling attention to the frequency with which violence against women still occurs. The 500 articles reprinted in the newspaper represent just 1% of the roughly 48,000 stories published about violence against women in 2023 alone.

White Ribbon – The Daily Issue Campaign