Social media trends: Burlington soup factory

Each week, Marketing Brew recaps what people are talking about on social media, the trends that took over our feeds, and how marketers are responding.

Did Noah Kahan do this? Spotify Wrapped released this week with a new “sound town” category that told people where their listening habits lined up regionally. Based on many people’s posts, it sounds like Burlington, VT, is the place to be, regardless of music taste. But Caitlin Covington already knew that.

Meanwhile, Apple Music continues to struggle for relevancy among the masses, even with its own yearly recap, Replay, coming out the same week.

Big ladle lies: Last week, newsletter writer Rachel Karten posted a deep dive on a suspicious-looking trend circulating among food influencers posting about a “viral” roasted feta soup. Karten found fewer than 40 posts across TikTok and Instagram about the soup—and all were sponsored by Athenos Feta. It could have been Athenos’s attempt at manifesting virality by speaking it into existence, but, as Karten wrote, it’s probably better to build on a viral trend than try to create it.

Name game: Canned-beverage company Liquid Death posted about its decision to rename its “Armless Palmer” iced tea-and-lemonade drink “Dead Billionaire” after the company said it received a legal threat from Arnold Palmer’s estate. The whole ordeal had golfers up in arms and marketers frothing at the mouth.

What’s the deal? People seemed a bit disappointed by the lack of Black Friday doorbusters this year. As one post put it, “People used to hit each other over the head for a microwave. That’s how low the prices were.”

More, more, more: A ChatGPT trend in which people generate an image of something and then continue to ask for more has reached the marketing community. We can now rest easy knowing what it looks like to optimize a campaign or work in ad tech at an infinite rate.

If the rumors are true…And the Wonka movie is actually good? Then people would like to know what was going on when the trailer was made.