Trends, Fads and Memes; Oh My!

A few years ago, a particularly absurd clip from The Simpsons featuring Principal Skinner trying to pass off Krusty Burgers as his own cooking to Super Nintendo Chalmers resurfaced on YouTube. 

An unforgettable luncheon

Its humour and absurdism resonated with online audiences, becoming an online cultural juggernaut. The dialogue formed in-jokes and parodies across social media. Reanimated and re-engineered in new directions and artforms, the internet took an old Simpsons clip and made it its own.

It’s an Albany expression

This is what a meme truly is. An image, clip, or sound bite taken by the internet and given (humorous) meaning beyond its original purpose. An artform, created by the internet, for the internet. Unlike a mere trend (i.e. “planking”), memes encourage creativity, reproduction and reinterpretation of a core concept. Unlike a trend, or a fad, memes communicate ideas and thoughts instantly recognisable to those in the know. The inside jokes of the internet, if you will.

2023: A Meme Odyssey

Meme culture in 2023 maintains this undercurrent. Ironic, relatable, and absurdist humour reigns supreme. Memes are comedy first, art second, counterculture third. They’re used to communicate, raise awareness, foster community, and spread messages across the internet far faster than conventional means.

To be honest, it’s more complex than this. But the Venn overlords demand simplicity.

Another recent development is the rise of dedicated social meme accounts. Most are recreational in nature, but some are operated by larger companies and brands, either for profit or as part of a marketing campaign. And you can’t blame them - memes have a virality that few other forms of content can hope to match.

For those who wish to use them, memes are a powerful tool to connect with younger generations in the 2020s – a form of comedy, communication, and community. Larger or older brands often use them as fun little asides, while smaller or more “modern” brands make them a core part of their social media identities.

The onus is on brands to correctly and tactfully use memes. We’re seeing better implementation compared to a few years ago, but it is clear that a lot of brands that seek the forbidden fruit of internet clout have a long way to go. And for brands that need that engagement, this represents a critical learning curve.

Ew, You Got Your Committee In My Culture

Corporate forays into meme culture have become more prevalent, with serious consideration into virality emerging in the early 2010s. However, these initiatives are more often than not met with pushback and rejection from their target demographics.

Certain meme styles have certain use cases, and it becomes all too obvious when someone who doesn’t know or care about the meme tries to shoehorn it into a place it doesn’t belong. Some brands (like Ruffles, below) have successfully navigated this minefield.

This one sparks joy

But many others have failed to understand what they’re working with. This has resulted in (in the best cases) clunky and low-effort attempts at targeting Gen Z. In the worst cases, it’s lead to tone deaf posts that caused genuine harm.

Over the Counterculture

There is also an element of counterculture to memes: the lack of oversight and regulation allows them to be about anything, anyone, and made at any time. This naturally leads into meme culture flowing against “normie culture”, and attempts to enter it are seen as a nuisance at best and an invasion at worst. It isn’t fun when the adults do it, after all.

This “war” between offline and online culture is perhaps best summed up by the counter-meme “SILENCE, BRAND”. An image macro created in response to companies’ increasingly “relatable” use of Twitter in the mid 2010s. This macro can often be found flooding the comments section of brand-posted memes. Is it effective? No. Is it still funny each time for some reason? Yes.

Taking Crab Rave to a whole new level

Shitpost Your Way to Success

Memes are clearly easy for brands to do wrong. But how do you do them right?

Brands often struggle when it comes to memes due to bureaucracy and production times. Memes often have a short “lifespan”, measured in months (at best) before they go “stale”. By the time companies join the party, everyone’s already gone home.

The solution? Make your own. Meme culture is all about creativity. Ideally, you want your brand/product to become a meme, not just use them. Be funny, be engaging, be casual, and most of all, be unorthodox. This is part of what modern corporate meme accounts are trying to achieve - the generation of viral content surrounding their brand in an organic way.

And there is an 85% chance they will involve your brand holding a gun

There are few better examples than Wendy’s Twitter account (now X, of course). In the mid-2010s, Wendy’s Twitter suddenly veered away from the standard marketing of quick service restaurants and engaged in what can only be described as an absolute sass-off with its competitors and customers. Other brands posting standard marketing comms? Wendy’s would be there to bring the snark. Customers engaging with the brand? Wendy’s would shitpost right with them. Other brands quickly emulated this style of community engagement thanks to its outrageous success, but there was only one Wendy’s Twitter. Although it was a runaway success at the time, Wendy’s Twitter has since fallen victim to the Seinfeld Effect - it’s hard to stay funny when everyone keeps stealing your material.

Slay, (dairy) Queen

The Virtues of Virality

Another famous example came from an unlikely place. In 2018, the Museum of English Rural Life tweeted an old picture of a rather robust ram, calling it an “absolute unit”. This was a tactical move to join in with a new meme - “Absolute Unit” - a meme that encompassed hefty chonkers from all persuasions. This would often be accompanied by comments such as “in awe at the size of this lad”, just to give it that extra British zing. The meme predated MERL’s post, but their creative and fast use of an upcomer netted them major internet kudos.

More like “ewe-nit”

Another viable tactic is community co-creation. Instead of the marketing team doing the memeing, let your more “lolz-versed” followers do it for you. Encourage creation via engagement and rewards, use it to foster a community and spread your brand. This is another element of meme accounts, which often encourage community submissions.

But beware of trying too hard to go viral – you could easily become the brand that people laugh at, not with.

That Time Grimace Killed a Bunch of People

Knowing when to engage with memes also requires knowing their purpose. For instance, the “McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine” meme pokes fun at dispensers being offline more often than not. If McDonald’s had joined in, it would have been seen as tone deaf - the meme was essentially a customer complaint. Instead the correct course of action was a professional acknowledgement of the issue.

Schrödinger’s soft-serve

However, more often than not, responding positively to memes is the right call. A notable recent trend involving McDonald’s saw the “Grimace Birthday Shake” - a limited milkshake designed after the mascot - being the subject of a trend where people would try the shake and pretend that it had killed them. The meme spread like wildfire, encompassing multiple formats and becoming the number one talked-about meme of its time frame.

Still not as deadly as their magma sticks apple pies

Instead of deriding or ignoring the meme (justifiable from a brand safety point of view), McDonald’s respond as Grimace in character. Playing along paid off, leading to positive engagement.

He’s a smooth Griminal

Memes: A Survival Guide FOR BRANDS

To recap, here are some things to bear in mind when you’re trying to be totally tubular with the whippersnappers.

DO:

• Ensure you’re using relevant memes to your brand and message

• Make sure that you put your memes on the right platforms

• Try engage with your audience in a way that encourages virality

• Develop your own memes based around your core message (be original!)

• Have fun!

DON’T:

• Force your way into trends and memes that aren’t relevant to you

• Draw attention to the fact that you’re trying to go viral or become a meme (be organic!)

• Take too long to join in on a new or popular meme (don’t be stale!)

• Don’t overdo relatability - consumers got sick of that back in the 2010s

• Take it too seriously!

Memes are a goldmine of potential in the digital age. They are an unprecedented means of spreading your brand message in a way that gets your customers to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. There’s certainly a learning curve, but one that you can overcome.

And with enough time and enough effort, you too can be Steve Buscemi.

It’s every man’s dream. And probably woman’s too.