2025 has felt like one long sigh over the deemed over-sexualisation of celebrity culture. This was the summer Sabrina Carpenter’s album artwork for Man’s Best Friend triggered furious debate (“not subtle or sex-positive – just soft porn pandering to the male gaze,” according to The Guardian). Sydney Sweeney’s Dr. Squatch campaign selling her bathwater also ignited widespread commotion (“capitalist misogynistic BS that objectifies women for profit,” as one X user posted).

Man’s Best Friend album cover; Sydney Sweeney’s Dr. Squatch campaign
For brands, this cultural fatigue with overexposure signals a turning point. The same appetite for transparency and provocation that once drove virality now risks oversaturation. Consumers are craving intrigue – and brands may need to rediscover the value of withholding, not oversharing.

It would be easy to chalk this backlash up to the global shift towards pearl-clutching tradwife conservatism. Or we could write it off as a sign of the collective backlash against Gen Z’s tendency for performative sexuality. As writer Layla Soboh argues in her takedown of modern eroticism, the deluge of sexual imagery among this younger generation renders “what used to be private performances of seduction utterly numb,” posing the question: is anything sacred anymore?