A meme as
defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person
within a culture.” These pictures, videos, slogans, and
more have swept the internet and made us all gawk and say “Erme Gward
Intrenert.”
However the
implications of these images are much greater than a LOL-ing cat with words in
front of it.
They have
impacted our culture; they have already changed marketing strategies, political
discourse, and causes.
In terms of
marketing, memes have changed everything. High quality commercials have been
subdued to quarky lower budget silly internet videos, because of the popularity
and reaching power of memes. This is best exemplified by the Old Spice Guy
commercial, a commercial taken in one take and one camera.
The video
featured football player Isaih Mustaffa as “the man you wish your man could smell like” a
quarky, funny way of saying he’s hunky and you should but old spice. The
silliness and accessibility of the video caused it to spin off not just into
more Old Spice made commercials, but parodies,
tributes, macro-memes (pictures with text in front of them). They ranged from do it yourself kids in towels to page three super models with copies of the Sun.
All resulting in more sales of Old Spice. As AdWeek reports on July 27th 2012 that sales went up a whopping 107% after the commercial. So others have
followed, with user made Cheeto commercials and DollarShaveClub.com commercial.
If you can get a video to trend and
replicate itself through fans, you get uproarious amounts of brand recognition
as well as opportunities to win people over to your products.
Second it has
also changed our political discourse. After each subsequent debate there were
meme’s based off of words and saying said by candidates, primarily Mitt Romney.
From Binders FULL of Women to Horses and Bayonets an audience was captivated.
However the
action of gaining and disseminating knowledge through memes makes a sound bite
and an overly large focus from the public to the image and saying. This amount
of focus makes the other messages or even the message of the words on the
macro-meme itself lost in translation from English to Internet.
Finally memes
often delegitimize the causes they’re trying to help. The internet is an
empowering place, but it can empower people to do dumb things... Take the meme Ridiculously Photogenic Syrian
Soldier a man who as Foreign Policy Magazine on August 15th 2012 calls “A
Weapon of Mass Seduction.”
This meaty image
shifts the focus of the conflict from the brutality of war and need for
intervention to a scene of the Expendables 2. I mean a strapping good looking
guy walking away with a rocket launcher- doesn't scream I need help or there
are humanitarian problems in Syria, or really any message other than, “Hey
girl, want some of my falafel? ;) .” Images like this hurt causes through
distraction, by shifting our focus from pain to humor.
Meme culture it
seems has captivated a generation with funny looking pictures, videos, words
and more; but it been shown that our love and use of memes has impacted the IRL
in marketing, political and social sectors of our daily lives. So though we may
give up on a meme after a time they’ll never give you up…;)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite posts!! I like how you present both sides of the issue and all of the pictures and videos are great supplements. On one hand memes are catchy and usually humorous, however they often have a negative impact. Because we have so many memes which we are automatically drawn to, many people avoid or ignore other material that is not as humorous and/or interesting. Since most of the important information we should pay attention to is not very funny or "easy to handle" we often miss it. While memes are very entertaining, they have a time and place and we should not get distracted by them from the real issues.
ReplyDeleteI thought reading about the condensing of news and important information to entertaining bite-sized images was interesting because I continuously catch my self skimming or skipping articles and videos unless it has a certain entertaining hook. I'll even skip a short 2 minute video if it isn't immediately appealing. I'm curious how this constatant gratification and incessant need for the internet to turn everything into a punchline will evolve in future elections. This was the first election with Twitter as a huge presence and it served as quite the mill for "binders full of women" and "horse bayonets" jokes. I'm curious if we'll see the internet mature going forward if if it'll remain a venue for rapid punchlines and one liners. I dream (dread) a series of 2016 debates performed in an all-zinger format.
ReplyDeleteAs a person that absolutely loves all types of memes, I would have to say I really liked your article! The way you gave verbal justification of memes and then a supply of visual memes was great. It really reinforced what you were talking about. Like Colin said, whenever I find myself skimming through articles in different sources of media, honestly I will never stop to read the article unless it is visually pleasing or if it has any type of entertainment in it. This is definitely not a good thing by any means, but this is what our world is evolving into; a world full of old spice hunks and ERMAHGERDS. :)
ReplyDelete