1947-
Futurist

Popcorn, Please.

Decried by some as nothing more than an old-fashioned scam artist, revered by others as nothing short of a miracle worker, professional futurist Faith Popcorn has been credited with coining and pinpointing several trends that marked the decade of the 1990s. Companies such as Reebok, BMW, IBM, Philip Morris, and American Express pay Popcorn and her New York firm, BrainReserve, millions of dollars to help them create marketing strategies and products, and, when necessary, to revamp old products with a new packaging. Her views on everything from throwaway products ("People just don't get attached to things the way they used to") to boxer shorts ("People think, 'Maybe if I wear them, everything will be alright'") have been quoted throughout the media.

The Way the World Is Going.

Popcorn, born Faith Plotkin, started out working in advertizing. By the mid 1980s she had...