See how brands like Netflix, Zillow, and Lyft are hiring viral TikTok creator Jools Lebron for marketing campaigns? Very demure. Very mindful.
Creators from historically marginalized communities have been pushing to be credited for viral trends for years; it seems brands are finally starting to respond to the call. Those brands, among others, have spent the last week scrambling to hire Lebron, a TikToker with 1.9 million followers who started the “Very demure. Very mindful” trend in early August. Lebron is transgender and uses she/her pronouns. Her agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Brands have been eager to participate in viral trends, making an effort to appear more authentically in culture rather than intrusively around it. It’s one of the reasons these brands are partnering with Lebron as opposed to creating their own “demure” content, according to Jen Winston, director of social at Lyft.
“We pride ourselves on that authentic appreciation for internet culture — it helps us minimize the ‘silence, brand’ responses and show up in a way that actually breaks through,” Winston said.
Notably, there’s also been mounting pressure from creators, especially those from communities of color, to credit and compensate creators for the viral moments they created that are included in marketing campaigns. In the past, brands have been criticized for co-opting viral trends in their marketing campaigns in hopes of participating in cultural moments all without crediting the original creators.
“There’s a real sense, especially among creators, but also users, that if you don’t acknowledge the source, especially if the source is from communities that tend to not be fairly compensated for that kind of thing, it can cause a real backlash,” said Noah Mallin, a digital marketing and Gen Z consultant, and former chief strategy officer at IMGN Media.
Not to mention, intellectual property rights and ownership is still murky on TikTok and other short-form video apps, making it unclear if brands are legally allowed to use trending sounds and songs on the apps. That said, working directly with a creator instead of recreating that viral moment as a brand may make more sense.
This week may have been a busy one for Lebron given how many brands rolled out marketing partnerships featuring the TikToker. On Monday, Lyft posted a collab video featuring Lebron on a Lyft ride — part of a denoted paid partnership that racked up more than 70,000 likes across TikTok and Instagram. On Wednesday, Netflix rolled out a collaboration with Lebron to hand select a curated list available on Netflix of “demure, mindful” row of shows and movies for subscribers. (Netflix declined a request to comment.)
Meanwhile, real estate company Zillow posted its own collab video with Lebron showcasing “demure” houses. It was part of a paid partnership that took just four days to turn around, said Ben Levine, senior director of channel marketing and social at Zillow. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
“When someone creates an incredible meme like this, that’s driving an enormous amount of traction, we owe it to them to keep everything above the board,” Levine said, adding that creators are increasingly becoming entertainment talent and media personalities in their own right, and they should be treated (and paid) as such.
Brands are chomping at the bit to work with creators and capture some cultural cache, especially with Gen Z’s everchanging lexicon. The demure trend is the latest in a long string of viral moments brands have tried to participate in, like Girl Dinner, coastal grandmother and others. Historically, the creators of some of the internet’s most viral moments haven’t always been recognized for their work.
One of the most prominent examples was Jalaiah Harmon, a Black creator who made one of the biggest dances on the internet, The Renegade, back in 2019. Harmon’s dance went viral, picked up by bigger influencers like Charli D’Amelio or Addison Rae, who were getting noticed by brands. The two mega influencers found themselves in a social media firestorm after appearing on The Tonight Show to perform popular TikTok dances, without crediting the original creators.
But the issue of credit goes back even further to the days of a now-defunct Vine with Kayla Lewis, aka Peaches Monroee, who made the phrase “On Fleek” popular in 2014. Brands on social media ran with the phrase without recognizing the original creator.
Creators are recognizing the need to take ownership of their intellectual property, taking in some of the profits a brand can stand to make by leveraging a viral trend. It took rapper Megan Thee Stallion two years to secure ownership of the “Hot Girl Summer” trademark after the song was released in 2019. Shortly after, it was picked up by brands to be used in marketing campaigns.
Perhaps, agency execs say, brands’ work with Lebron, points to shifting tides in how brands think about participating in viral moments.
“People have become more aware of the concept of giving that credit. Even people outside of advertising understand what influencers and content creators are now,” said Elliott Bedinghaus, vp of creative and partner at Spark marketing and ad agency. “So I think just generally that’s becoming more respected as a creative path for people, and because of that, it’s getting a little bit more due credit.”
But, Bedinghaus added, don’t expect the industry to get to a place where creators are regularly compensated for ideas when they go viral. Given the nature of how quickly internet trend can spark and fizzle out, attribution may be harder to maintain. That may be even more so as generative AI content continues to rise.
Still, agency execs argue that it’ll be a growing trend, in which brands increasingly rely on creators to tap into viral cultural moments as opposed to co-opting them.
“Because that way, assuming the creator is truly creating something original, there is no question,” Mallin said. “The brand is now spotlighting the creator for what they do, versus trying to imitate or do something where the credit is not fairly given.”
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