We all know marketers love pivoting off whatever current trends are flitting around the media and social media worlds. That’s how you get brands tweeting about #adulting and other hashtags, topics and more.
The latest example is something I came across by accident when clicking around YouTube. It’s a video ad from Laghroaig Whiskey featuring fathers and their grown kids sharing their opinions on the whiskey, offering descriptions of how it tastes and more.
That’s a popular format of video, popularized online by WatchCut with a series of videos showing parents and their kids playing “Truth or Drink,” asking each other uncomfortable questions that they have to then answer or drink.
It’s not bad or even questionable that they adopted this format. But it is another example of how cultural appropriation is part and parcel with being a smart, aware marketing pro. You have to be aware of what kind of content forms and types are working and getting some traction with an audience and adapt to fit that model. If you’re not doing that, you’re not doing your job. Some of these are going to work better than others and some are going to come off as really awful attempts to be hip. Those that work, though will work and reach the audience you’re aiming for. And that’s why you do it.
Chris Thilk 