In the Age of LaBubu, Does Your Brand Have Originality?

From where we sit, watching culture move at warp speed, it’s hard not to wonder: Does anyone really have originality anymore, or are we all just riding the algorithm?

Take LaBubu. A few months ago, no one in India knew it existed. Now it’s a collectible, a status flex, a cultural in-joke. But most people who bought one don’t know where it came from or why it suddenly mattered. The algorithm decided. The audience copied.

That’s the environment brands are operating in. Micro-trends don’t just move fast; they move too fast to question. One month it’s “Tomato Girl Summer,” the next it’s balletcore, then suddenly everyone’s doing “South Bombay aesthetic” reels or rushing to drop their version of desi gorpcore. By the time your campaign deck is ready, the feed has moved on.

And when culture moves this quickly, brands face a choice: either chase every wave and risk blending into the noise, or step back and ask what role they actually play in the conversation. Originality isn’t about keeping pace with the algorithm; it’s about knowing which signals matter to your audience and filtering them through a consistent point of view. Without that, every new drop or campaign risks feeling like déjà vu.

Here’s the opportunity: originality, not in the sense of inventing something from scratch, but in how you interpret culture for your audience. The smartest Indian brands aren’t chasing every micro-trend; they’re choosing which ones to remix, localize, and own. Think indie designers transforming global aesthetics into something distinctly Mumbai or Delhi. Or food chains reimagining international fads, like Korean corn dogs or boba tea, through an Indian lens. That’s what makes them memorable.

Because in a culture of copy-paste, originality is the real differentiator. And for brands, that’s not just rare, it’s priceless.

So, does anyone really have originality anymore?

Yes. But it belongs to the brands willing to question, curate, and create instead of just scrolling and copying.