NOTE N°2 Brands misbehaving

Is marketing losing its mind?

THIS POST WAS SENT FROM A SOCIAL MEDIA RABBIT HOLE

Have you noticed things getting a little weird lately? Like, in commercials, on social media — even on LinkedIn (though arguably, that place has always been an asylum, exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C)? Brands, entrepreneurs and professionals used to stick to their neat little marketing lanes, kept things polished and professional. Now, they’re cracking jokes, stirring up drama with other brands, and dropping the kind of unhinged takes you’d expect from your most chaotic friend in the group chat.

Lately, it feels like brands have stopped trying to sell us things and started trying to entertain us instead. They’re roasting their own customers, posting memes, and some genuinely act like they’ve been locked in a basement for too long with nothing but internet chaos for company. They’re having their little menty-b’s, and we can’t look away.

But is this just brands throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, or is there something more calculated behind all this anarchy?

( The unhingification )

It used to be that brands only had to worry about their competitors. Now, their biggest threat is being ignored completely. Every second, our feeds are flooded with more content than any human brain can process — news updates, memes, The White Lotus plot theories, viral videos of raccoons stealing food, viral videos of raccoons being sus. In the middle of all that chaos, brands are trying to insert themselves into the conversation while everyone just wants to scroll right past them.

So I imagine social media managers everywhere have put “If you can’t beat them, join them” on a post-it note on their computer screens, and that’s why brands started acting like the kind of people who get tons of engagement online: the ones who crack jokes, have strong opinions, and don’t sound like they copy-pasted their personality from a marketing handbook.

Of course, brands have always looked for ways to break through the noise — guerrilla marketing has been around for decades. But today’s version is meme-driven, fueled by internet culture, and designed for virality. And the power of meme culture isn’t just in its reach — it also builds community. If a brand can successfully share an inside joke with you, it stops feeling like an outsider trying to sell you something and starts feeling like it’s part of your world.

‘Unhingification’ is part of a bigger trend: the fall of the perfect brand. For years, brands thought the key to success was looking polished, professional, and perfectly put-together. Now, we all agree that level of perfection is just…boring? Just like we got tired of influencers with airbrushed, curated lives, we’re losing interest in brands that feel too scripted. The ones winning today are the ones that show some personality, embrace a little mess, and aren’t afraid to have fun.

So yeah, I fully agree with Tina Burke’s assessment of Meghan Markle’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan: “While her biggest fanbase — the haters — have decried this show was 'out of touch' and 'insufferable' I'm here to say it wasn't out of touch enough, actually.” Burke argues Markle needs to take a hint from Gwyneth Paltrow’s famously divisive (but also, famous! Successful! Money-making-machine!) platform GOOP, which has also faced much criticism as being out of touch (with reality as a whole, honestly).

The point is not to try to be relatable to everyone! It is not only impossible to please everyone, it will also make you less credible on all fronts. If it seems like Meghan just can’t do anything right, it’s because she’s trying to do EVERYTHING right. And that just alienates her from everyone. Too rich and ridiculous to be relatable to the majority of people around the world; not rich and ridiculous enough to appeal to the crowd who lives for that kind of inspiration and entertainment.

The point is to be unapologetically yourself, so that you connect with those who appreciate your specific flavor of weirdness.

( Forced fun is no fun )

A few weeks ago, someone on LinkedIn wrote a post that basically said, “Everyone needs to be weirder here.” And at first, I felt so relieved. I didn’t realize I was waiting for permission to abandon the stiff corporate tone I thought ‘was expected’ on the platform, in favor of something more human. But then the post went viral and, well…everyone lost their minds.

Now, LinkedIn feels like it’s being held hostage by people trying their hardest to out-weird each other. Personal confessions that should have stayed in the group chat. Dad jokes with 30,000 likes. CEOs who suddenly believe their job title is ‘main character.’ It quickly became just another formula, another way to perform, another thing that quickly becomes exhausting.

For me, the most interesting brands aren’t just making noise; they’re using humor and personality in a way that actually reinforces who they are. Take Bookshop.org’s Threads presence: sharp, witty, and just the right amount of too-candid-to-be-comfortable-or-boring. But every joke, every snarky reply, every callout of Amazon ties back to their mission: supporting independent bookstores. You’re laughing, but you also get what they stand for. Their humor isn’t a gimmick — it’s a strategy.

The goal isn’t just to ‘be funny.’ It’s to create a connection that makes sense for your (personal) brand. The moment your weirdness starts feeling generic, you’ve already lost.

( Don’t lose the plot )

At the end of the day, being loud isn’t the same as being interesting. And ‘being weird’ isn’t a personality — it’s just another trend that is already losing its novelty. So, if you’re a creative professional, brand strategist, or business owner wondering how to stand out without falling into the forced-fun trap, here’s what actually works:

• Decide what kind of ‘weird’ makes sense for you. Not every brand should be chaotic. Some brands are smart-funny, some are dry and sarcastic, some lean into niche internet humor. The trick is to define your specific tone — and stick to it.

• Use humor as a tool, not a crutch. If your jokes don’t reinforce your brand’s message or mission, they’re just noise. Bookshop.org and Beyond Meat get this right — their humor serves a purpose beyond just getting likes.

• Don’t try to please everyone. You can’t be relatable to everyone, and trying to will make you forgettable. The strongest brands are polarizing in the right way — they double down on their own flavor of weirdness instead of trying to copy whatever’s trending.

• If everyone’s zigging, you don’t have to zag — just don’t blend in. If the whole internet is doing one thing, you don’t have to do the opposite just for the sake of it. But you do need to ask yourself: what can I do differently? What feels like us?

In the end, the brands that get it right are the ones that feel less like they’re performing a personality, and more like they actually have one.

Cheers,
Steph

( P.S. The greatest compliment I was ever given )

Very early in my career a photographer on set of a shoot I was producing and art directing said to me: “You may look normal, but you definitely aren’t.” I’m still not sure whether he meant it as a compliment, but I definitely took it as such.

If you’re struggling to define what your brand’s flavor of ‘not normal’ could be, I love figuring that sort of stuff out. Slide into my DMs. Send me a mail. Find me on LinkedIn.

Just don’t use a dad joke as an opener.

Unless you’re my dad.