Memeadvertising

A new fad that is taking place in the advertising industry is called “memeadvertising”. A meme is hard to define, it’s one of those things where you know it when you see it. The dictionary defines it as “an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture”. However today, it has mostly been used as a term for internet silliness. Bored at work? Look at some funny memes and you’ll be lol-ing in no time. But a meme is more than that, it’s the branding of an image or phrase within social popular culture, and now advertisers are tapping into it.

Remember the Dos Equis guy? “The most interesting man in the world”? He’s a meme now. People loved the idea and ran with it using spin-offs and other images but always remaining true to the idea of the character. This has done wonders for Dos Equis, everyone knows the name now and even feels the need to do “the pose” when drinking the beer. Here are a few examples of how this meme has been used: (even sometimes for OTHER brands!)

This however is not exactly Dos Equis using “memeadvertising”, this was a character brand created by Dos Equis that eventually became a meme simply because it was a great brand – perhaps “the most interesting in the world.” Memeadvertising however either existing memes that have spread widely through our social culture and remakes them to serve their own advertising purposes, or creates a new one entirely. Since these are already enjoyed by the public, these ads can be integrated seamlessly into pop culture. Here is an example of Maynards Granny Smith Sour Apple creating their own brand new meme, and Virgin using the already well-known "success kid" meme to advertise themselves.