Everyone and their mother(to the horror of their children) is on TikTok at this point. As the content has evolved, the platform was once dominated almost exclusively by trendy dances, so has the strategies employed by brand marketing teams, for better or worse.
While many millennials and boomers do brave the harsh tides of TikTok, the lion share of the user base is comprised of Gen Z.
Meme culture has always been fluid, it generally reflects whatever the flavor of the month is for the chronically online, usually but not always dictated by teens and young adults.
Obviously it isn’t fair to generalize the buying attitudes of an entire demographic, but generally the approach brands have been taking when marketing to Gen Z, is working on the assumption that they don’t like being sold to. They appreciate self awareness from their faceless corporations, and TikTok is the platform at the forefront of this trend.
Whether its airlines posting thirst traps of planes or the interns running a company’s socials giving their teams legal departments heart palpitations, there is no floor to the pit of madness that’s been dug by brand account admins on TikTok.
Brands that interact with the viewers on TikTok are often pitted against each other, or in some beautiful cases brought together in wholesome union.
@scrubdaddy And don’t even get me started on Wattpad stories… #scrubdaddy #smile #cleantok #cleaningtiktok #americasfavoritesponge #duolingo ♬ GO HOME I DONT WANNA TALK LEAVE – Rain (Taylor’s Version) ?
Story lines and mythologies have been spawned by these marketing teams, whether you’d like to call it an evolution or devolution of advertising, people engage with it significantly more than they do with conventional adverts.
We compiled a list of some of the best and weirdest, if the line between the two exists it is thin, brand accounts active on TikTok below.
Enjoy and, while you do, consider this; do we wanna see our beloved brands fighting police violence with a can of soda, or do we like it better when they’re brain-dead like the rest of us?
Ryanair
@ryanair Too sturdy sheeesh #gwiddy #griddy #icespice #icespicecult #ryanair ♬ original sound – Ryanair
Bose
@bose Replying to @carlybethy Be not afraid. #bose #headphones #headphonesrecommended #memes #bosehasthesolution #wireless #innovative #bluetoothspeaker #innovativeproducts #biblicallyaccurateangels #biblicallyaccurateangel ♬ 5am – KAT҉ ҉҉ S҉͚҉҉o҉lomøñ
Duolingo
@duolingo That time of the month again ?? #duolingo #thirsttrap #makeitrain ♬ original sound – Random Memes and Stuff
Wendy’s
@wendys SHOULD you do Coke vanilla? No. But you CAN do Coke vanilla.
Scrub Daddy
@scrubdaddy They never saw it comin >:) #scrubdaddy #smile #cleantok #cleaningtiktok #americasfavoritesponge ♬ Yotube AstroCapella – AstroCapella
Lotus Cars
@lotuscars I think I caught you lackin ?
The rabbit hole goes deeper than you expect, and if you’re thinking about trying to decipher some genius subtextual marketing strategy at work here…dont do that…just keep consuming the memes.