In this week’s Silence, Brand! Live, the gang dug into the existential soup pot of brand community, from the delicate emotional labor of social media managers to the bizarre marketing fallout of executive outbursts.

Topics on the table:

* Can brands really build community? We talked crabs, hot tubs, and the paradox of brands playing human online. Spoiler: It’s hard to hold space when you’re pretending to be the party guest instead of paying for the snacks.

* The human behind the brand voice. If your SMM leaves and takes the lore with them, what’s left?

* The Campbell’s Soup faceplant. When the execs say the quiet part out loud (like admitting they don’t eat their own 3D-printed chicken soup) guess who has to clean up the mess online? Not the C-suite.

* Timothée Chalamet, cigarettes, and Partiful plants. From lookalike contests to Big Tobacco conspiracy theories, we examined the “low-stakes spectacle” model of IRL gatherings and asked: are these authentic community moments, or marketing ops in disguise?

* Perpetual stew and the yearning for third spaces. Turns out what people want isn’t to touch grass … it’s to hang out in a parking lot and feel something. (R.I.P. to the mall food court, we miss you.)

* Martha Stewart can’t save your brand. American Eagle tried to “trad wife” its way out of a backlash. Instead, it reminded us that no amount of Snoop collabs or influencer pivots can fix what bad leadership breaks.

Thank you cleb, Cheyenne, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Silence, Brand! is a digital culture newsletter written by a cast of crabs unhinged brand marketing professionals and culture strategists

Ryan Benson • Dayna Castillo • Dejaih Smith • Benton Williams

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