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coming to you from my kitchen counter in Chelsea, New York.

I wrapped up calls at 6:42 pm, my oak barstool is incredibly uncomfortable, and I have an evening full of completing my to-do list ahead.

on top of just coming back from Austin for a Super Bowl shoot (ahhh!), it’s a big season of change for me. more to come on that soon (to my baby gorgeous paid subs first). <3

but if you, too, are facing new opportunities or hard choices, just know that there is no right next step — there is just the next step.

at least that’s what I’m embodying lately, and hope the courage to choose movement also resonates with you. the universe rewards action, afterall.

the discourse this week inspired me to explore what happens when brainrot, meme culture, and referential go too far. and on the note of choices, there’s a lot we can learn from Duolingo’s choice to press Post — when they assumed people would get the reference.

it’s a cautionary tale of what happens when your mass marketing is designed for one side of the internet.

let’s talk about what happened and 7 takeaways for your team.

  • 📋 the latest Duolingo misstep case study

  • ✅ 7 meme marketing takeaways (send this part to your Slack chat)

  • 🎾 quickplays to know this week

here’s the situation: Duolingo made a bad post. the internet is pretty much in agreement here (again!).

the post, when presented without context, is weird at best. but depending on the person viewing it and their perspective, it could be received really negatively or offensively. especially when the content touches identity in a way that’s historically been flattened or stereotyped online.

upon seeing this, I was confused how it even got posted, and it looks like the comments were too.

for added context, this is based on a TikTok format, where horses are delivering motivational advice to specific groups of people, with ridiculous VO accompanying it.

the comments on those posts? overwhelmingly positive. people are amused and #seen.

hey, it’s not my FYP, but advice formats like these certainly do well on TikTok in particular.

they’re also able to effectively target a community explicitly, which the algorithm is typically pretty good at helping out with.

but a key problem with Duolingo’s riff on this, and what I can assume was a missed consideration in their pitch process — this wasn’t actually rooted in a trend.

when analyzing the reference, it appears that the majority (~95%) of all content is produced by one creator, stokescroaks, who self-describes as “the horse meme guy.”

he’s a micro creator with 35.9k followers on TikTok, and 10.6k on Instagram. his recent growth, funnily enough, looks to be due to people discovering him as a reference for Duolingo’s post, where he isn’t actually credited.

call him Gabbriette, they’re so inspired!

the danger with mimicking one creator’s type of content is exactly the trap that Duo fell into — they went too niche.

and the misstep could not have come at a worse time, set against a backdrop of lower engagement, ongoing AI backlash, and unresolved trust issues for the brand.

what’s so interesting to me is that we’re in an era where community-based marketing, cohorts, fandoms, and interest graphs are buzzwords in every other LinkedIn post (I’m part of that problem, I’m sorry!!!).

but this moment serves as a poignant reminder — social media marketing is still mass marketing.

you’re still sharing content to a broad, general audience, who may follow you and have the context, or not, and then hoping it lands. the big bad internet is ultimately the judge of if what you made is good or not.

and when you fail to do the research, or you make assumptions, or you lack a third party with perspective who has touched grass recently, you end up with another negative mark on what is already a tainted reputation. or worse.

this post shouldn’t have gone out the door.

here’s what Duolingo’s misstep can remind us of:

  • know your meme — at the risk of sounding obnoxious, Google it. or search it on TikTok or Reddit or Know Your Meme if you’re unsure of the origin. or you could do what I do and ask Mia Cooper. just do your due diligence.

  • size your trends — tools are great for this (Tubular, Brandwatch), but just confirm that different people have latched onto the format, the sound, the language, and that there’s a level of spread.

    • hot tip: I tend to check the sound itself, the number of uses on that sound, the hashtag uses, and search for the keywords, if doing it manually.

  • find an actual community — there was no group of people making up this conversation. it was simply a format, by a guy. it’s so, so essential to find the community to then find the insights.

  • credit or partner with creators — if someone originated or mostly owns a format, you need to be giving credit. alternatively, a much safer bet here would have also been to partner with him directly on a much better version of this post. brands are not creators — there is still a distinction and different expectation.

  • ask a third party — vetting with people that are less online is a great step in the process for meme marketing, even if you’re moving fast. account teams, PMs, your paid lead — all great resources to gut check if it’s gone too far. and are probably somewhat involved in the process already. if at first read your post is offensive, I’d kill it.

  • read the room — maybe an unpopular opinion, but if your consumers are criticizing your every move, as is the case for Duo, maybe give the meme marketing a rest for a bit, and return to some original storytelling with much less risk. consumer sentiment should be a huge input in a social strat. this is no exception.

  • understand the gravity of social — it’s where brands are built, and broken down. this is no longer a job left solely to interns, or a game that can be played loosely — but can move stock prices, elections, and futures. wield the Post button power wisely.

or basically my media diet right now:

  • Silence, Brand!’s breakdown of the agile moment from TopGolf is great. an example of internet referential going right!

  • the latest Guess campaign is SOOOOO good, I’m obsessed with it. I’m always a sucker for wiping your IG and starting over with a renewed look or focus. but they’ve been doing interesting work for a while with interesting creatives, tbf!

  • just finished The 12 Week Year and loved the framework — helpful for your life or your team if you want quarterly planning or need a new structure like it. free on audiobook with Spotify Premium.

  • 2016 is SO back. for legal reasons I will not be sharing my throwback pics, but I love seeing them.

  • these reactionary, quick cut meme videos are so fun.

    • would love to see someone do this with owned assets, like Fruit of the Loom with The Fruit People (#oldclient).

thank you for being here! see you next week and the week after that until forever. I read all my emails, so feel free to respond and tell me what would help you be great at social right now.

luv you. and I mean it.

💌 DRL