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- Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 25 September
Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 25 September
To be cringe is to be free.
It’s also (potentially) the most powerful attention generating force on the internet, and those who hate watch are the algorithms favourite fuel. The recent rise of the cringe economy shows that people can’t stop watching what makes them roll their eyes, and that tension between shame and desire is reshaping how influence works.
- Sophie Randell, Guest editor ♡
PRESENTED BY THE ATTENTION SEEKER
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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?
Tylenol’s Trump headache, Teen boys love YouTube Shorts & Shawty had them… “apple Bubly jeans”?
If I were the maker of Tylenol, I would have quite the headache right now thanks to President Trump, who cited an uncorroborated link with the drug to autism, and discouraged pregnant women form taking it. In true Trump fashion, the president described the situation as a “horrible, horrible crisis” and Tylenol as “not good” lol.
Medical experts have long rejected the claim that acetaminophen (Tylenol) is unsafe for pregnant women, but that didn’t stop the share price of Kenvue, which also manufactures other staples like BAND-AID and Listerine, dropping almost 10%.
Teenage boys love YouTube, go figure.
More than TikTok, even. And particularly for post ad purchases. 51% of US teen boys say they’ve made a purchase after watching a YouTube Shorts ad, compared with 43% of teen girls.
eMarketer says those targeting Gen Z should prioritize YouTube Shorts in their short-form video strategy. While TikTok still matters, YouTube may deliver better ROI when aiming for direct conversions.
Shawty had them apple Bubly jeans??
When you bring back your apple-flavoured LTO, do you also bring back the boots with the fur? PepsiCo’s water brand Bubly may not have, but they did collaborate with the infamous Apple Bottom brand to make customized jeans and cans in a new campaign, tapping into the culturally iconic Y2K moment.
The jeans are customized with “Apple Bubly” script and gold metallic detailing that feature the brand’s signature apple-shaped back pocket and come in a curated box alongside Apple Bubly, which has denim-inspired packaging, and additional Y2K-inspired items including a themed tank top, keychain, mini denim clutch and iron-on patch. So cute, so girly pop. Chef's kiss.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
Hey, do you like YAP?
If so, why not share it with a friend? The more we grow this thing, the more resources we can put into making it awesome for you. Even if every subscriber invites just 1 person to YAP, we’ll meet our growth goal for 2025. So, you in?
DEEP DIVE
What’s the aspirational cringe economy, and why should you care?
There are two types of people in this world:
Those who hate watch certain content
Liars.
We’ve all done it.
Watching a YouTuber’s family vlog where every dinner looks like a hostage negotiation. Or scrolling through a LinkedIn post where a guy earnestly explains how waking up at 4am + cold showers enabled him to make X amount of dollars (spoiler: it didn’t).
You cringe, you roll your eyes, and then… you watch the next one lol.
This is the aspirational cringe economy, where being painfully watchable is just as powerful as being genuinely aspirational.
The mechanics are simple. Influencers and brands have realised that attention is attention. If people are hate-following, quote-tweeting, or leaving comments that basically say “I can’t believe you posted this,” guess what? That’s engagement. And engagement equals reach.
Your disgust fuels the algorithm in the same way as your admiration. Crazy how that works, huh?
Think back to TikTok circa 2020. The dangly earring guys. The lip-biting thirst traps. The clout houses with their kitchen dances. It gives me second hand embarrassment just thinking about the level of peak cringe.
And yet, everybody kept watching. It was like driving past a trainwreck you just couldn’t look away from.
What’s insane is even after the collective internet decided it was cringe, those creators didn’t fade. They maintained notoriety for years, precisely because cringe is sticky. The mockery and eye-rolls kept their names circulating, turning embarrassment into longevity. And likely dollars for those creators.
There’s also, a kind of strange comfort in cringe.
Watching someone fumble through a corny af dance or show off a painfully curated “day in the life” makes us feel superior (don’t lie, you know it does), but also a little curious.
What if it works for them? Obviously, it is working. I mean, look at their view. Insane. Should I be doing that? Can I even do that? Wait no. Wtf am I thinking? I’d never do that. Unless…?
Cringe turns into a guilty form of aspiration: I’d never film myself like this. But maybe I do want the 10-step skincare routine, the productivity hack, the colour-coded pantry. Maybe I even want to be a 20-something year old in a house full of friends doing sweet f*ck all, getting brand deals out the wazoo.
This is why cringe sticks. It’s not just embarrassment, but proximity to desire.
You hate-watch because you can’t look away. Because some part of you wants what they’re selling, even if you’d never admit it out loud. And oop, am I in your head again? Sorry ‘bout that.
For marketers, the cringe economy is both a trap and a tool. On one hand, leaning into irony can keep you relevant (see: Duolingo’s unhinged TikToks). On the other, if your brand is accidentally serving cringe, you risk being meme’d into oblivion. The line between “playful self-awareness” and “everyone is roasting you” is thinner than ever.
I guess the takeaway is to not fear cringe—it’s part of the cultural circuit.
But don’t mistake hate-watching for true loyalty. If your strategy is built on being embarrassing enough to be shareable, it might get you short-term reach. Long-term? You’ll be remembered as a punchline. And that punchline usually sounds like ‘womp womp.’
In other words, embrace a little cringe. To be cringe is to be free. Just make sure there’s something underneath it worth aspiring to.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
TREND PLUG
How life felt when...
Feeling nostalgic? Missing a certain era, coworker, or even a ridiculous old job?
I still catch myself missing the chaos of waterside bottomless brunch shifts, getting patrons hella cooked on mimosas, making random drunk friends, being asked for selfies... I kinda miss my serving era.
Anyway - this trend taps into that exact vibe. The sound is pulled from Miley Cyrus’ "Secrets", specifically the opening 8 seconds where she sings “secrets, I wanna keep your secrets”
Everyone has a “golden era” they look back on, whether it was wholesome, messy, or somewhere in between. This audio puts relatable nostalgia in a bite-sized package.
Some of my favourite examples of this trend:
How you can jump on this trend:
Film a quick 0.5 lens selfie walk-up with corresponding body language to match the vibe of your bygone era with text overlayed text that finishes the line: “How life felt when…”
A few ideas to get you started:
How life felt before your work besties all quit
How life felt when I slipped “as per our previous conversation” into an email
How life felt when I was just the intern (and now I’m unfortunately employed here full-time)
- Nico Mendoza, Intern
FOR THE GROUP CHAT
😲WTF: Mile High toilet proposal
✨Daily inspo: Unconditional Love & Self-Love
😊Soooo satisfying: Pressure Washing Pro
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Bussin Korean Popcorn
ASK THE EDITOR
I've just started a newsletter for my coaching clients. How do I get my LinkedIn audience to sign up for my emails? -Tammy
Hey Tammy!
There are a few ways you can go about this. First, you can create a LinkedIn newsletter and put your content in there, at least at first. When you do this, LinkedIn will let you invite all your followers to follow your newsletter as well. Once you've got a lot of your audience reading your newsletter on LinkedIn, you can start asking them to sign up for your email. Gradually reduce the amount they can read on LinkedIn so they have a reason to move over.
Another option is to create more content that will drive people to your newsletter. Two ways to do this are “pre-CTAs” and “post-CTAs.” A pre-CTA teases content you’re about to share in your next newsletter. Let your audience know what you’re covering and how to sign up so they don’t miss out. You can also use a “post-CTA” after each newsletter. This is where you create content telling your audience what your most recent newsletter was about. Then, you invite them to sign up so they don’t miss the next one.
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
Not going viral yet?
We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.
WHAT DO YA THINK?
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