WEBVTT - the wendy's twitter roast master: amy brown 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.640 Cold Zone Media. Welcome to part two of the sixteenth 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:09.600 Minute two Horny Brands on Social Media spectacular. My name's 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.239 Jamie Loftus and this week I'd like to open our 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.840 show with a little game. Every time in this episode 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.960 I say the word brand, grab a beverage of your choice, 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.320 I know many of your driving us of your discretion, 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:23.720 and drink. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:24.680 Whatever it is. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.200 When you hear the word brand in this episode, the 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.040 only guaranteed result is that you will have to pee 0:00:31.440 --> 0:01:26.160 very soon. Enjoy a Welcome back to sixteenth Minute, the 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:30.080 podcast where we revisit the internet's most notorious main characters, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.200 talk to them and see how their moment in the 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.440 spotlight affected them and what that says about us and 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.800 the Internet. And this week we're not going to beat 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.560 around the bush. We're digging into part two of the 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.080 world of Sentient all two Horny Brands on social Media. 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.600 So to bring you up to speed and go back 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:49.480 and listen to part. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:50.080 One if you haven't. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.960 Sentient Brands are the culmination of around a century's worth 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.960 of American marketing techniques, beginning with the combination of faulty 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.720 crowd psychology meets faulty Freudian psychology employed by early advertising 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:08.080 jargonnauts like Edward Burnet's. For a few decades, persuasion was 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:12.360 all about convincing Americans that by consuming this product, that 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.960 joining this group, the American military anyone, would make you 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.160 just like everyone else, and that being just like everyone 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.000 else was the goal of human existence. The idea was 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.519 to blend into the consuming blob that composed the mid century. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.359 But around the time of the Vietnam War this changed. 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.480 Fitting in was no longer a popular stance, and so 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:40.640 advertisers pivoted in response, pushing consumption instead as a way 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.680 of expressing one's individuality. And if you have a boomer 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:49.480 in your life with an inexplicably weird specific collection that 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.560 they went into debt curating as an act of self expression. 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.559 My mom's was Lungaburger baskets. 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.160 They've learned basket weaving from his father and in time 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.639 created an empire making and selling hand crafted baskets and 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:08.799 all shapes, sizes, and collars. At its height, the longer 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.360 Burger Company was a billion dollars a year business with 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.000 twelve thousand employees worldwide. 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.240 Beanie Babies was a popular one. The list goes on. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.200 Then you'll know how successful this pivot truly was. So 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:26.600 by the time the Internet came around, American advertising had 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:31.000 undergone a lot of change, as consumption itself had become 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.920 an increasingly large part of the American identity in a 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.960 world that was increasingly flooded with brands and options of 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.040 things to buy. In a world like that of the Internet, 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.800 where influencers were becoming king and there was nothing more 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.240 off putting than a pop up ad, it was up 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.000 to the next generation of millennials to figure out how 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.800 to make an old product fresh and worth paying attention to. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.560 Last week, we talked to one of the pioneers of 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.120 this space, Serenity Disco, who. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.440 Used their knowledge of time Humbler in the early twenty. 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.080 Tens, along with its community building techniques, and managed to 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:10.800 create a brilliant, absurdist way of selling waffles. And this 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:15.040 was extremely successful. They won industry awards and set the 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.159 bar for future accounts going weird if done by a 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.520 genuine weirdo. And I say this with love, would become 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.320 a near shore fire away to get younger people to 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.240 engage with a brand that they might not normally think 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.880 twice about. But if you've spent enough time online, and 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.720 if you're listening to this show, then I'm assuming you have, 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.479 you'll know that different approaches are necessary in order to 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:43.359 be effective on different social media platforms. Wholesome absurdism was 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.080 definitely the way to go on Tumbler, but that wasn't 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:51.120 necessarily how to succeed on Twitter or YouTube or eventually TikTok. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:53.560 So this week we're taking a. 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.640 Look at what this twenty tens era renaissance looked like 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.919 over on the bad application that used to be fun, 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.479 Twitter dot com. And while a lot of us have 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.359 positive associations with pre elon Twitter, as embarrassing as that 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.920 is to admit, it's undeniable that Twitter has always been 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:16.320 an excellent tool for rage bait and pedantic arguing, and 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.039 there was absolutely no brand that harnessed this tendency better 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:25.000 than Amy Brown of the Wendy's account, stoking carefully calibrated 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.520 rivalries that would escalate to flirtation and death threats with 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.880 the likes of Burger King and especially that redheaded bitch 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:39.760 Ronald McDonald off at McDonald's. There can only be room 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.760 for one redheaded broad in this space. But before we 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.400 can get to Amy it's important to have a little 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.599 insight into what a social media manager's job even looked 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.920 like in the mid twenty tents, something we will continue 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.560 to explore next week as we talk about how it 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:01.080 changed going into today. Because the field of social media 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.840 management has always been dominated by women and fems and 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.919 what does that mean? Because as I was preparing for 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.080 this series, I realized that I was going to be 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.040 speaking to exactly one man in this three part series, 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.520 as opposed to three people who identify as either. 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:20.880 Women or non binary. 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.880 And that is no coincidence, particularly the further you go 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.240 back in this space. The social media manager has a 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.159 long history as being considered. 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:35.760 A job for girls. Ah, but there is truth to this. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.359 So many of my friends early just out of college 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.839 jobs were as social media managers in male dominated workspaces, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.040 and she or they often ended up being the person 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.880 who had to translate a relatively boring product that these 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.320 men were selling into a compelling, visually appealing social post. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.200 And like many niche issues affecting women in fems, there 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.560 was a fair amount of discussion regarding how women dominated 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:07.240 and by extension, underpaid this position was in the late 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.800 twenty tens, following the Me Too movement. This is from 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.640 a piece in Wired from twenty eighteen by Jesse Hemple 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.960 called how social Media Became a pink collar job. Between 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.640 seventy and eighty percent of social media workers self identify 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.080 as women on the salary compilation site a scale. The 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:30.120 career has been referred to as the pink ghetto. Duffy 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.680 and Schwartz, who are data analysts, i'll add, studied one 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.200 hundred and fifty job postings to determine how businesses recruit 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:43.040 social media specialists. These companies, which included BuzzFeed, Equinox, and Thrillist, 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.360 advertised jobs that called for applicants to be sociable, exhibit 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.960 deft emotional management, and be flexible, all traits that Duffy 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:56.440 says are typically associated with women. The feminized nature of 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.800 social media employment, Duffy and Schwartz argue, is connected to 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:05.160 it quote characteristic invisibility, lower pay, in marginal status unquote. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.160 Within the tech industry, the parasite statistics from payscill that 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.600 places average pay for a social media specialist at forty 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:13.920 one thousand dollars. 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:15.800 But that's for staff jobs. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.080 I cannot believe the pay is that low in twenty eighteen, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.920 and this had been talked about four years already. In 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.160 Alanahope Levinson's twenty fifteen piece The Pink Ghetto of Social Media, 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.720 referenced in the above piece, she draws a comparison between 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.920 the perception of social media as a woman's job to 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:39.000 the same pattern under compensation and general disdain for the 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:44.000 long women dominated PR space. She writes, it's hard not 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.280 to hear these stories and draw a parallel to public relations, 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.319 an industry where eighty five percent of workers are women. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:51.320 Quote. 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:53.719 People in the media like to say that PR is 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.120 a pink ghetto because the often low prestige jobs are 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:01.120 almost exclusively populated by women. A few editor who left 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.160 her job in social media at a major news organization. 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.360 But social media is the true pink. 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.280 Ghetto unquote, She says her time in her previous role 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.079 was characterized by unpaid overtime and a dearth of promotion 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.079 and raises. And so, while I know that many of 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:22.680 you have your aspersions about the advertising profession, writ large 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.080 that makes sense, but as always, there is a person 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:29.480 behind the screen who has that job mainly because they 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.400 need it to survive, and they are doing more than 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.280 just tweeting. As Serenity described last week, and as this 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.040 week's guest Amy Brown expands upon, this job would often 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.240 consist of a lot of customers, service, taking in DM 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:49.160 folders full of verbal abuse, and sometimes balancing multiple clients in. 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:50.280 Order to make ends meet. 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.160 Not to mention that the whole concept of seeming like 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.559 you're just tweeting is a facade in and of itself. 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.920 While any good account has a lot of humor and spontaneity, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.720 there is always a strategy and a planned narrative voice. 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.240 To accounts like this, there are real stakes attached to 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.920 the people running them. So even if this isn't your 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.800 favorite approach to advertising, and that's totally fair, this is 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:19.360 a classic example of everyone being in a somewhat compromised position. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.520 It's like, well, you know what it is, So as. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.920 Usual, women are shaping this new space and will fail 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.800 to get adequate credit or compensation for it. And interestingly enough, 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.200 the most dedicated chronicler of this movement in online advertising 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.959 was a pivotal figure in the movement himself. Nathan Alibach 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:46.560 has written two extensive microhistories of both brand Twitter and 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.319 Horny brand Twitter for Vulture. In twenty nineteen and twenty 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.640 twenty two, respectively, And these pieces I cannot overstate were 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.920 enormously helpful in researching this series. They're linked in the description, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.559 and if you were even a casual observer of this space, 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.920 you will know what I'm talking about when I say that. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.640 This same writer, Nathan Alibach, was the copywriter behind the 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:18.199 nihilistic woke Stakhem's Twitter account of the late twenty tens. 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:20.080 Hey were still going out tonight. 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:23.080 Yeah, that's a fake plan. 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:24.839 The only thing real in this ad is that one 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:26.959 hundred percent real beef though. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.120 And if you don't know what I'm talking about, good 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.280 for you and put a pin in that. We'll be 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.079 back for more on him next week. But in his 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:40.480 twenty nineteen piece Brand Twitter Grows Up, Alibach gives a 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:46.839 pretty comprehensive history of brands across the consumption spectrum. Don't 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.720 know and how we arrived to the subject of today's interview. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:56.160 Per Alibach, this world did not exist in earnest until 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.400 around twenty twelve, but there were faint rumblings of the 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.400 bizarre irony that would later dominate Twitter advertising. In two 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.640 thousand and seven, the Los Angeles Chargers tweeted. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.560 So hungry need to find my wife in head to 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.720 PF Changs iconic. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.199 But as it turned out, this was not a brilliant 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.120 engagement strategy from the Chargers. It just happened that the 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.760 Chargers took the handle of a lapsed Twitter user who 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.200 had written this himself on a personal account years earlier. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.640 So it just looked like an entire professional sports team 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.079 wanted to go to Pfchangs with wife? Where was wife? 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:37.720 Did they ever make it to PF Changs? 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:38.840 We do not know. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.959 By the late two thousands, as brands slowly migrated to 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:50.360 Twitter after the platform's huge surge in popularity and legitimization 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:52.400 in the wake of the two thousand and eight election, 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.079 some brands experimented with tweeting in first person. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:57.719 Alabac uses this. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.640 Example from KFC in two thousand and nine, where the 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.880 colonel is watching basketball going to watch. 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.920 A little college basketball. I'm told I'm kind of an 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.520 expert on buckets A oh. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.120 Just kidding, twenty one likes pretty weak and if you 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.600 can believe it. These kinds of posts were considered bizarre 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.800 and kind of risky at the time, but today they're 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.400 kind of boring right. Alibach also points out that most 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.880 people assume that the people running these Twitter accounts were 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:32.800 just interns, completely unpaid, and therefore inclined to be loose 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.160 and lazy with the accounts, a notion that for some 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:41.160 still persists to this day. And so I repeat, it's 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:48.800 not unpaid college students adults, it's exhausted underpaid adults women. 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.920 But in the early twenty tens, as Twitter fights were 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.959 well established as a great way to get attention of 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:02.320 any kind, brands began to realize that it wasn't drawing 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:07.239 attention to the competition to interact with other brands online. 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.800 In fact, brands talking to each other seem to help 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:16.000 both brands. It's a may the best poster win kind 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:16.840 of mentality. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:18.800 But it started. 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:23.200 Small, with brands interacting that were not in direct competition 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.680 with one another. A good example, Alabac points out is 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.360 a summer twenty twelve fake feud between Old Spice deodorant 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.640 and Taco Bell. Here is me and my fiance performing 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.880 that for you, Old Spice. 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.760 Why is it that the fire sauce isn't made with 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.680 any real fire? Seems like false advertising? 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:44.360 Is your deodorant? 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.520 Made with really old spices. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.120 Depends do you consider volcanoes, tanks, and freedom to be spices? 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:55.720 Okay, the little nationalistic at the end, they're old spice. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.400 And if you're familiar with these products, this actually makes 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.720 a lot of because guys who eat too much taco 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.080 bell often reek of old spice deodorant. 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:06.000 Do you see what I'm saying. 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:10.240 So by the mid twenty tens, this approach is almost 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.440 standard for brands, not news organizations, mind you. It is 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.840 now considered normal to write and post in a way 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.760 that personifies a company with hundreds of thousands of employees 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.640 as just a little guy like you. But this riskier, 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:31.400 edgier approach is by no means the industry standard until 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.880 later in the decade. In fact, in the early to 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.360 mid twenty tens, the standard was that corporations were so 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.480 desperate on Twitter to fit in with everybody else, just 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.160 like advertising seventy five years ago did almost like we're 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:51.720 in a demented cycle. Here we see communities like our 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.479 slash fellow kids referencing the hello fellow kids. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.320 Meme how do you do fellow kids? 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.320 And it actually became a popular corner of social media 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.280 to make accounts parodying brands trying. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:06.880 To act like cool young people. 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.400 I had so much fun looking at these old cringe 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.760 attempt to fit in tweets. 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.280 And I want to share some of my favorites. One 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:15.000 I didn't know. 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:20.400 About that made me laugh so much was from Spaghettios. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.200 For context, it was a big thing in the mid 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:28.000 twenty ten social media to acknowledge what happened on this 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:32.480 day in history, regardless of whether that historical event had 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.960 anything to do with you or what you were selling. 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:40.000 This led to the Spaghettio's Twitter account posting a photoshop 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.360 tribute to Pearl Harper. This was done totally sincerely. It 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.200 was so funny, especially if you consider that my friend 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.520 Iffy wadi Way would later pose as Spaghettios on Twitter 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.960 in twenty twenty and released a fake statement of Spaghettio's 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:57.680 supporting Black Lives Matter. 0:16:58.240 --> 0:16:59.640 Look it up. He's so funny. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:05.520 The point is brands were considered cringey more often than 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:11.040 not during these years. Serenity Disco and Denny's were major 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.600 major outliers, which is part of why people still talk 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.720 about them. And I don't think that the often young 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:23.320 social media managers themselves are to be blamed for this cringiness. Anecdotally, 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.600 most companies were not as hashtag brave as Denny's and 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.200 weren't willing to let their employees take big narrative swings 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.399 with their social media accounts. And this is how we 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:40.399 got an influx of brands awkwardly trying to chase trends 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.520 of the time, a lot of brands saying Bay, brands 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:50.480 saying on fleek, and brands commemorating nine to eleven in 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:51.960 the weirdest way possible. 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.600 Let's get two thousand, two hundred ninety six retweets for 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.200 the two thousand, two hundred and ninety six people who 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:05.040 lost their lives thirteen years ago today hashtag nine to eleven, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.679 hashtag never forget. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:14.480 No brand saying Bey was actually a very successful parody 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.600 account that Ala Bach references that I hadn't thought about 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.600 in a long time, but it was a very popular account. 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:25.680 It was mainly screenshots of popular brands awkwardly saying by, 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:30.680 while also indicting the job of social media managers in general. 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.320 Here's an example attached to a screenshot of the Jimmy 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.840 Johns account saying Bay A lot it. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.840 Is straight up someone's job to make a sandwich shop 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.639 seem more likable. People used to be blacksmiths. 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.119 And this is the environment that leads us into the 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:53.560 twenty sixteen election cycle. Brands get weirder during this time. 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.960 While parody accounts like brand Saying By remains popular, the 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.080 brand accounts themselves double down on trying to be cool 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.959 because at this time, becoming the target of the malevolent 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.360 brand saying Bay was something to be avoided at all costs, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.800 and this led to Hamburger, Helper and I Promise I'm 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:19.239 not kidding making a twenty sixteen mixtape, which inspired a 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.000 series of diss tracks from other accounts, including Wendy's. In 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:27.560 the Years to come, i'by in the kitchen, Well, Women. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.600 Women Well, i'by Sefish makes it when my on that day? 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.120 What a women of starring y'all want? 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.119 Beeping not a service? What a women of starring sarna 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:38.080 y'all be I'm a. 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.560 Survig I start, I start, I start right on Starry. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:41.879 I hate the babtist bachelor. 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:43.880 I'll mix it up, mix it up, women on women, 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:45.360 So get you a think of unnatural? 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.520 Is it a parody of Watch the Throne? 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:51.040 Called watch the stove, Yes, but I think it's good. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.280 But it's the Wendy's account, as run by Amy Brown 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.199 that takes this heightened approach, cranks it up to a 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.800 twelve and gets it all the way to the National 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:07.240 News in January twenty seventeen. And because Andrews and Cooper 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.520 really had some fun with this, and I think reenacts 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.680 the entire feud that took place between Wendy's and some guy, 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.879 I'm going to let him tell it to you, please enjoy. 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:20.320 Before we get to the meat of it, it'll help 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.520 to have just a little bit of a basic backstory. 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.600 This is about Wendy's, the hamburger place. Every one of 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.200 a certain age remembers where's the beef? But there's actually 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:29.960 another slogan, one that Wendy's has used for years and years. 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:30.520 Take a look. 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.360 If hamburgers were meant to be frozen, wouldn't cals come 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:36.159 from Antarctica? 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:38.200 Wendy's hamburgers are made with. 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:39.680 Fresh, never frozen beef. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.359 Who else can say that it's way better than fast food? 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:45.480 It's Wendy, Okay. 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.639 Wendy's has this thing about its beef being fresh, not frozen. 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.879 Apparently in the world of Big Hamburger, every distinguishing factor accounts. 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:53.920 A few days ago, Wendy's tweeted a reminder of its 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.240 long standing policy on its meat and I quote, our 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.720 beef is way too cool to ever be frozen, smiling 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.920 emoji with sunglasses. Totally innocuous tweet. Right, It's like the 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.960 kind of tweet no one could possibly have a problem with. Right. 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.720 But of course, somewhere out there, someone was having the 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.879 kind of day that made them say to themselves, I 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.160 believe I shall now spend a sizable hunk of time 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.240 arguing with the social media account of a fast food company. 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:21.919 That's someone's name is Thuggy D. An exquisite Twitter exchange 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.680 happened between Wendy's and said Thuggy D. Tonight I will 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:28.919 be reading the Wendy's tweet, and Frank from our studio 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.440 crew will be playing the role of Thuggy D. Take 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.280 it away, Frank, your beef is frozen. 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:35.199 We all know it. 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.640 You'll know we laugh at your slogan fresh never frozen. 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:40.680 Right, Like you're really a joke. 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.280 I like that last line, to which Wendy's replied, sorry 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.680 to hear you think that, but you're wrong. We've only 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:49.800 ever used fresh beef since we were founded in nineteen 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:50.600 sixty nine. 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.040 So you delivered it raw on a hot truck. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:58.439 Let me pause here because you have to admit that 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:00.840 is an interesting question that Thuggy he poses. And this 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.479 is where Wendy's gets a little frosty and responds, and 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:07.320 I quote, where do you store cold things that aren't frozen? 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:08.879 Ah? 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.920 Yes, a riddle, But how will fuggy do you respond? 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:13.199 Y'all should give up. 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.879 McDonald's got you guys beat with that don't best breakfast. 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.560 And Wendy's brings down the hammer with you don't have 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.920 to bring them into this just because you forgot refrigerators existed. 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:29.359 First second there, boom, thank you, Frank. He's excellent, excellent read. 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:33.200 I actually really really love this clip and it does 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.679 remind me of how desperate people were to feel normal 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.960 about anything in January twenty seventeen, if. 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:41.359 Only they knew. 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.600 In any case, Amy Brown struck again with the Wendy's 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.399 account that March, getting over one hundred and thirty thousand 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.600 legs on Twitter for the following interaction with McDonald's as 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:57.040 performed by me and my fiance McDonald says, attached to. 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.160 A picture of a steaming quarter pounder. 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.040 Today, we've announced that by mid twenty eighteen, all quarter 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.439 pounder burgers at the majority of our restaurant will be 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:07.840 cooked with fresh beef. 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.959 Wendy's replies, So you'll still use frozen beef in most 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:15.760 of your burgers in all of your restaurants. 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:19.560 Asking for our friend, she got him McDonald's, is he 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:20.080 hymn to me? 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:22.640 And this also got a ton of. 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.280 Mainstream media coverage and for a few glorious minutes for 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:30.399 social media managers, it was actually cool to be a 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:31.520 brand on Twitter. 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:32.680 They were so. 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.320 Cool, in fact, that the Wendy's social media team that 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:39.760 Amy Brown was a part of did a Reddit ama. 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.600 At the end of twenty seventeen. 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:44.919 Where most of the commenters either congratulated the brand on 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:48.280 being the only one funny enough to follow, or we're 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:52.960 curious how the tweets had translated to actual business, quoth 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:54.879 Wendy's in response. 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.800 It can be hard to track impressions, engagements, brand metrics, 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:03.280 other marketing mumbo jumbo. People are talking about us a lot, 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:03.800 so that. 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:06.159 Helps, and it's not a stretch to say that the 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:09.840 success of the account run primarily by Amy Brown. Throughout 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:13.520 its peak had a big effect on how other brands 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:16.879