from Hacker News

If Every Brand Is Funny Online, Is Anything Funny?

by tafda on 10/10/23, 4:44 PM with 30 comments

  • by Clamchop on 10/10/23, 7:19 PM

    Humor, irreverence, formality, political correctness, or whatever quality doesn't seem to be the issue so much as it is authenticity of any kind.

    But advertising never was authentic. The goal is to drive sales using whatever tools the audience can tolerate, however shameless, and advertising has always pushed boundaries, followed by the inevitable wave of copycats that turn the innovative into the mundane.

    The tool in this case is constructing a parasocial sockpuppet personality as if McDonald's or whatever deserves a seat at your digital table in between your actual friends. When everyone is just an avatar grinding for likes and followers anyway, they might as well be.

  • by system16 on 10/10/23, 5:15 PM

    It irritates me more than it should, but I hate how virtually all major brands and sports teams seem to have the same “voice” on social media now. They all have this “desperate to be hip” and snarky tone of an urban teenager, all express the same restrained support for the social issue of the day (regional accounts may be excluded), and all overuse emoji.

  • by hammock on 10/10/23, 4:49 PM

    I work in marketing. Every brand I know complains that there is no humor anymore. And that they can’t be funny, and have to walk on eggshells with watered down messaging, because there are so many different groups that are easily offended.

  • by local_crmdgeon on 10/10/23, 7:48 PM

    I'm begging everyone to embrace New Sincerity and Solarpunk. Doomerism, snark, and irony is extremely lame, and when corporations do it it's even lamer. Wendys social media is dystopian.

    The future is going to be fucking awesome. We're gonna have cute girls on ebikes. We're going to have GMO food that eliminates hunger worldwide, and robots that harvest them and end farm worker exploitation. You're gonna have solar panels on your ADU, they'll power a little light, and you're gonna read a book and listen to the bugs and life will be good.

  • by andrewflnr on 10/10/23, 5:18 PM

    If all comedians are funny, is anything funny? Please. The problem is clearly that they're all only trying to be funny and most of them are not very good at it.

  • by mdre on 10/10/23, 5:08 PM

  • by pizzafeelsright on 10/10/23, 5:49 PM

    I've been reading these funny tweets for years from sh!tposters for years. It's funny but offers zero value. Wendy's was the first that gained traction, I think, and pivoted to a big payout.

  • by m1nes on 10/11/23, 8:48 PM

    “ People don't buy from clowns." - Claude C. Hopkins ”

    Most brands are _trying_ to be funny.