TV & Radio

The Meming of Life: when Sunny Delight went slightly off-piste

A genuine cry for help or a cynical attempt to sell sugary drinks? – you decide

When a biscuit brand talks to a drink – on Twitter

Seamas O'Reilly
Sat Feb 9 2019 - 05:00

Social media has created a platform for brands to speak to their consumers on a personal level, although this has borne decidedly mixed results. For every chuckle-raising gag from big meme lords such as PornHub, Wendy’s or Taco Bell, there are a million moribund efforts from stuffy, focus-grouped social media teams of remarkably un-with-it conglomerates. Identifying such accounts is the mission statement of Twitter account, @BrandsSayingBae, whose bio reads “It’s cool when a corporation tweets like a teenager. It makes me want to buy the corporation’s products.”

For the most part, these are relatively harmless – airlines making remedial attempts at using slang, or Bill Gates posing for a dab with some lightly embarrassed young people, deserving of the “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme, but little more than that.

And then came a strange development in the canon of teen-scented brand pandering, when the account for orange-flavoured drink Sunny Delight went slightly off-piste.

“I can’t do this anymore” they wrote in a puzzling tweet this Monday. Other brands soon joined in, “What’s going on sunny” asked large choc-mallow biscuit purveyors MoonPie, only for Sunny D to reply “Mood last night. All good MP thanks for checking in ily”.

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The pushback was further exacerbated by the many other brands who appeared to unleash a co-ordinated meme onslaught in response to the post

This odd, tit-for-tat exchange which appeared to ape the style of a teen depressive, prompted an odd rabbit hole as Twitter attempted to work out if this was a genuine cry for help, a clumsy attempt to comment on a wider issue, a cynical attempt to use said issue to sell sugary drinks, or some ghastly combination of all three.

The pushback was further exacerbated by the many other brands who appeared to unleash a co-ordinated meme onslaught in response to the post, retweeting the original message with jokes like “10 minutes into my new diet” and “me cooking”. As @BrandsSayingBae pointed out, it would be easier to believe this was done in good faith, were it not being instantly commodified.

In a final twist, another brand broke the fourth wall entirely to comment upon the comment upon these comments. Steak-Ummm, who appear to sell meat-filled pies, appeared contrite.

“I’m sorry I really am” wrote the person manning the account for Steak-Ummm which, we must constantly remind ourselves, is a brand that sells meat-filled pies, “but [this is] my job”.

“Leverage your criticism toward brands” they continued, “or advertising or whatever systematic ideas or institutions as a whole, just also remember there are people behind the screen doing their best in the framework we’ve been handed”.

Whatever sympathy we may have for those behind the brand, this whole new world might have us rooting for the naffness of dabbing baby boomers. In the words of noted philosopher Steak-Ummm, “It’s only going to get weirder”.