Welcome to Silence, Brand!, a potluck of internet absurdity at the intersection of brand marketing and internet culture written by a collective of award winning digital marketing professionals. If you like what we do, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Another week, another episode of Silence, Brand! Live where we somehow started with AI-generated hamster pants discourse and ended with Taylor Swift selling multiple versions of a song nobody has actually heard yet.

How many vinyl variants society can realistically sustain???

We ended up in the Backrooms (again), debated whether the Kool-Aid Man is a cryptid, and thoroughly questioned Cash App’s understanding of whimsy.

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Topics on the table:

Doja Cat versus Elon Musk continues. The crew revisited Doja Cat’s latest Tweet aimed at Elon Musk, adding another chapter to one of the internet’s longest-running (maybe only???) celebrity v. platform owner feuds. The discussion quickly turned into a broader reflection on how social media posts increasingly function as historical documents in real time.

The Backrooms movie and the power of open-source lore. Dayna unpacked why the Backrooms movie has resonated so strongly with Gen Z audiences. Unlike traditional franchises, the Backrooms originated as a collectively built internet mythos, making it less of a story adaptation and more of a community-authored universe finally making its way to the big screen, where thousands of contributors shape a shared narrative.

Brands enter the Backrooms. With the Backrooms dominating online conversation, brands quickly began creating their own liminal-space content. The gang reviewed several examples and discussed the difference between simply placing a product inside a trend versus creating something that meaningfully participates in the joke.

McDonald’s understood the assignment. Among the various Backrooms activations, McDonald’s earned recognition for putting real effort into its execution. Even if it wasn’t tied to a product launch, it demonstrated that high-effort participation can still resonate when a brand understands the moment.

Is the Kool-Aid Man a cryptid? Kool-Aid emerged as one of the group’s favorite Backrooms executions thanks to a visual that showed the Kool-Aid Man smashing through a wall into the Backrooms. The conversation immediately evolved into a debate about whether the Kool-Aid Man was entering the Backrooms or becoming the monster of the Backrooms.

Cash App turns a TikTok trend into a product. Months after creators went viral using 3D-printed payment wands (we spotted this back in January) Cash App officially launched its own version. The reaction was mixed. The group appreciated the whimsy but questioned whether a $25 branded version captured the same magic as the original DIY trend.

The discussion around the payment wand expanded into a larger conversation about the lifecycle of internet trends.

At what point does participation become commodification?And how long is too long before a brand joins the conversation?

Taylor Swift launches a product before anyone hears the song. The crew unpacked the rollout surrounding Taylor Swift’s latest music release, including multiple collectible variants, limited-edition products, and pre-orders attached to music that audiences hadn’t actually heard yet.

That’s the episode: hamster pants, liminal spaces, cryptid questions, payment wands, collectible vinyl economics, dead malls, dot cakes, and a reminder that every trend eventually comes back wearing a slightly different outfit.

Our Lives are now available as podcasts on Apple Music and Spotify.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like and subscribe if you don’t want to look at us while we yap.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of Silence, Brand!—a tri-weekly, late-night potluck of internet absurdity 🦀

Ryan Benson • Dayna Castillo • Dejaih Smith

Our team of award-winning brand marketers and culture experts trawls the depths of the social internet, catching trends as they bubble up, so you’re prepared when they surface.

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