Mainstreaming of the meme

Didit Editorial

9 years ago

December 30, 2015: Each year, it seems that there are more and more memes (viral internet jokes) for us to contend with. Some fly over the heads of older generations; but in 2015, I felt that I saw more mainstream coverage of internet humor than ever before (my mom asking what a “me-me” was certainly tipped me off).

The mainstream popularity of memes has naturally led to many brands trying to jump on the trending jokes with their own versions. This can be dangerous territory for corporate accounts. Some memes aren’t appropriate, some aren’t relevant to them, and sometimes it just makes the brand look super lame.

All of the below memes are good examples of how weird and wonderful (as well as fast-moving and fickle) internet trends can be:

Pizza Rat

A video taken in NYC of a rat with a slice of pizza in its mouth went viral in September. This rat — who bit off a little more than he could chew — had Twitter and mainstream media calling it, tongue-in-cheek, an “inspiration.” While New York shrugged (pasta-eating rodents being a pretty normal sight on late-night subway platforms), the meme snowballed into fan art, more animals with human vices, and terrible Halloween costumes. Dream big, Pizza Rat!

Drake’s Hotline Bling

Drake’s music video for his hit “Hotline Bling” is a fairly simple music video with some questionable dance moves. Drake’s goofiness sparked thousands of jokes, dubs, and parodies, including a shout out on Saturday Night Live. I can’t help but think that Drake knew exactly what he was doing when he made and released this video, and it worked!

Left Shark

Katy Perry performed a medley of her hits for the Superbowl XLIX halftime show. All eyes were on a shark character (on the screen’s left hand side) that didn’t appear to know the choreography during the performance. Since staggering numbers of people tune in to the Superbowl, Twitter was abuzz with live tweets of Left Shark’s confusing and awkward performance.

LlamaWatch

On February 26^th, two llamas (one black and one white) escaped from a mobile petting zoo in Sun City, Arizona. Local TV was quick to catch on to the escape, and cameras (as well as the internet) followed a chase involving local law enforcement and the two determined llamas. Several publications, most notably Buzzfeed, live-tweeted the chase minute by minute, sharing links where viewers could watch the live stream. I found myself rooting for the freedom of the llamas, and the chase was full of ups (escaping the outstretched arms of an officer) and downs (when the two were separated). In the spectrum of live chases playing out on TV, this was my favorite.

The Dress

I can’t write an article about memes in 2015 without mentioning the infamous, ambiguously chromatic dress. The debate started on Tumblr, when a user posed a simple caption under a photo: What color is this dress? The dress itself was blue and black, but thanks to tricks of the eye and bad photography and lighting, the dress appeared to be white and gold to many people. I saw one color first, and then saw another when looking again. Users took sides, and it got pretty heated. Thankfully, science had the answer and we can all sleep now.

Remember: social is about natural, organic conversation. Try not to stray from your brand message or demographic for the sake of trends. If you’re going to tackle memes in your social marketing, make sure you watch out for what’s trending, and try to act as quickly as possible.