Bud Light, apparently unhappy with how much brand memes are already annoying Twitter, have decided to ramp things up a notch. Think you (or anyone for that matter) can make good memes advertising a hard seltzer? Me neither, but for some reason Bud do, and they’re willing to pay you $15,000 if you’re willing to try.
That’s right. Bud Light have decided that the one thing their new Hard Seltzer needs for it to sell is not an actual flavour, but an abundance of memes.
I’m going to start by taking this at face value. On the surface, I admit that making $15,000 over three months for making some memes sounds amazing – and I don’t even really understand what they are. But how many memes do you really think you could make to sell more alcoholic fizzy water? We’re not even talking about particularly good flavourless alcohol water, either. Everyone knows that, if you want good flavourless alcohol water, you go to White Claw.
Let’s be completely clear, though: this is a marketing stunt. I know it, they certainly know it, and hopefully you know it too. The post only lasts for three months, after all, and official memes won’t sell products. What will is getting a huge chunk of Twitter to do your advertising for you by promising them lots of money. And while I’d rather a huge company spend $15,000 on a regular person than an advertising executive, something about advertising this as a job opportunity in the midst of unprecedented job loss seems a little bit tacky.
In short, if you really have to be a marketing tool for a big corporation, I’m sure you can do better than one flogging fizzy alcohol water. Brand Twitter is a desperate place, and watching companies embarrass themselves is fun, but we’re better than them. Don’t be like Moonpie:
Brands aren’t going to stop using Twitter like this until they stop getting reactions. So please don’t apply to be a Chief Meme Officer. No good can come from encouraging them – well, except for $15,000 I guess. But what’s more important: a huge amount of money, or basic self-respect? Wait, don’t answer that!
