Wild Card
From Ads to Memes: How Brands Use Internet Culture as a Media Campaign Strategy
Meme marketing has become one of the most recognizable strategies in modern publicity and media campaigns. As social media platforms continue to dominate communication and advertising, brands have shifted away from relying solely on traditional promotional methods and instead begun using internet humor, memes, and online trends to connect with audiences. Unlike traditional advertisements, meme marketing is designed to feel informal, relatable, and culturally aware. This approach allows companies to engage directly with users in the digital spaces where younger audiences spend most of their time. Brands such as Netflix, Ryanair, and Wendy's have become especially known for using meme marketing as part of larger media campaign strategies. While these campaigns often increase visibility and audience engagement, they also reveal how modern publicity has become increasingly dependent on internet culture and audience participation.
Traditional advertising campaigns were usually structured around polished messaging and carefully controlled media placement. Television commercials, magazine advertisements, and billboard campaigns were created with the intention of presenting a clear and consistent image to consumers. Social media has changed this process entirely. Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and X reward content that feels immediate, humorous, and interactive rather than overly corporate. Because of this shift, brands have had to adapt the way they communicate online. Meme marketing allows companies to appear more human and relatable by participating in the same humor and trends that audiences engage with daily. Instead of simply advertising products, brands now attempt to become part of online conversations.
One of the most effective examples of meme marketing is Netflix. Rather than relying only on trailers or traditional advertisements to promote shows and movies, Netflix frequently uses memes and internet humor as part of its publicity campaigns. The company regularly posts screenshots, reaction images, trending audio clips, and joke formats related to its original content across social media platforms. In many cases, Netflix encourages audiences to create and share their own memes about shows, which further spreads publicity through user participation. Shows such as Wednesday, Stranger Things, and Bridgerton generated massive amounts of meme content online, much of which functioned as unpaid promotion for the platform. Instead of directly telling audiences to watch a series, Netflix creates content designed to blend naturally into internet culture. This strategy works because it makes promotion feel less like advertising and more like entertainment. By encouraging meme creation and audience interaction, Netflix turns viewers into active participants in the campaign itself.
Ryanair provides another interesting example of meme marketing, particularly because the company uses humor to address criticism and negative stereotypes surrounding budget airlines. On TikTok especially, Ryanair has built a reputation for chaotic and self-aware humor. The airline frequently posts videos joking about cramped seating, strict baggage policies, delayed flights, and the general frustrations associated with low-cost travel. In traditional advertising, companies often avoid highlighting weaknesses or customer complaints. Ryanair instead embraces these criticisms and turns them into meme content. This self-deprecating approach allows the brand to appear more authentic and self-aware to younger audiences online. The content is intentionally informal and often resembles videos made by regular users rather than a corporation. Because of this, Ryanair’s posts regularly go viral and generate large amounts of engagement. The company’s strategy demonstrates how meme marketing can transform even negative public perception into publicity. Rather than attempting to fully control its image, Ryanair participates in internet culture by acknowledging how audiences already view the brand.
Wendy’s is another company that has become widely associated with meme marketing and social media humor. The fast-food chain gained attention through its sarcastic and aggressive presence on X, where the brand frequently roasts competitors and jokes with users online. Unlike traditional corporate communication, Wendy’s social media voice is intentionally confrontational and comedic. The company often uses reaction memes, trending jokes, and internet slang to interact with audiences in a way that feels less formal than standard advertising. Over time, this strategy became one of the brand’s defining characteristics. Many users now associate Wendy’s not only with food but also with its online personality. This highlights an important aspect of modern publicity campaigns: brands are increasingly expected to function as social media personalities rather than distant corporations. Wendy’s uses meme marketing to maintain relevance within online culture while encouraging users to share posts and engage directly with the brand.
Although meme marketing can be highly effective, it also comes with significant risks. Internet culture moves extremely quickly, and trends that are popular one week may become outdated almost immediately afterward. Brands that fail to understand meme culture or attempt to force humor into campaigns often face criticism for appearing out of touch or “cringe.” Audiences on social media are highly aware of when companies are trying too hard to seem relatable, and unsuccessful meme marketing attempts are frequently mocked online. This creates a difficult balance for brands because meme marketing depends heavily on authenticity and timing. Companies must participate in internet culture without appearing overly corporate or disconnected from the communities they are trying to reach.
Another challenge of meme marketing is that it reduces the amount of control brands have over their own messaging. In traditional campaigns, companies largely controlled how advertisements were presented and interpreted. On social media, however, audiences often reshape and reinterpret content through comments, reposts, edits, and memes. A campaign can quickly evolve into something very different from its original purpose. While this unpredictability can sometimes increase visibility, it also means brands are no longer the sole creators of their public image. Modern publicity campaigns are now collaborative processes where audiences play a major role in determining how content spreads and what meanings become attached to it.
Overall, meme marketing has become an important strategy within modern publicity and media campaigns because it allows brands to communicate in ways that feel native to social media culture. Companies like Netflix, Ryanair, and Wendy’s use memes not only to advertise products or services but also to create ongoing engagement and online visibility. These campaigns reflect a major shift in advertising, where success depends less on polished corporate messaging and more on audience interaction, humor, and cultural relevance. Meme marketing demonstrates how publicity campaigns have evolved from one-way communication into participatory digital experiences shaped by both brands and audiences.
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