Social media trends: FabFitFailure and campaign Cameos

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.

FabFitFlop? Earlier this week, subscription-box company FabFitFun started running an ad on X that said it was pledging “an additional $100k of X advertising in support of its free speech ideals” and giving out free gifts to “new annual X users” with the code “GoFuckYourself”—in an apparent sign of support for Elon Musk after he told advertisers to do just that last week following advertiser pullback. Immediately, users and non-users alike were going, ”Wait, is this real?”

It was, in fact, real, and the chatter began online, with one TikToker saying the company had “lost its mind.” Some customers said they canceled their memberships in response to the ad. People on X and Reddit also discovered, as a result of this saga, that at least one of the founders of the company is a dude who has expressed support of Musk—perhaps a surprise considering that the brand’s Instagram account notes that it is “women-owned.”

According to a post from FabFitFun co-founder Katie Echevarria Rosen Kitchens, the code was “ill-advised,” and in another post, Kitchens described the $100k amount as part of a marketing test on the platform, Modern Retail noted. FabFitFun did not respond to Marketing Brew’s request for comment.

Diva down and out: Expelled congressman George Santos, known for allegedly spending thousands of campaign dollars on OnlyFans and a Birkin bag, is now on Cameo—and seemingly raising his prices by the hour. According to Semafor, Santos is pulling in six figures, at least some of which came from Sen. John Fetterman’s office. Now the question is, will former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy join the platform next?

Read the room: Netflix’s social posts about the film May December aren’t quite landing the way the streaming platform probably expected they would. While we’ve all grown used to the overly casual brand voice on social media, people rightfully noted that there’s a time and place for thirsty posts—and it’s probably (definitely) not in promotions for a movie about grooming and abuse.

What’s your algorithm showing you? TikTok released its 2023 year in review, including the most-watched videos and most-popular songs on the platform this year. While some things were unsurprising, like Sofia Richie Grainge’s inclusion on the breakthrough stars list, we gotta admit…some of these things even we hadn’t seen.

Are we over AI yet? Beyond the look perhaps already appearing dated, we can’t live in a world where food is marketed like this.