Should brands hawk tuah?

Whenever a new meme blows up, I feel the spindly fingers of Father Time prodding my chest, and it’s all I can do not to say “Oh god, another one?” I’m a man in my late 30s, I can’t keep up. Hell, I don’t even know if that woman found a man in finance with a trust fund, 6’5”, blue eyes.?

But there’s an expectation that as a marketer, I must exploit the latest online flare-up. Chasing the zeitgeist is like a game of Calvinball, where the rules change on a dime.Yet, I’m supposed to know the game, mould it like silly-putty, and flip it into something that will make money. Is there still room to hide at the Four Seasons Orlando, Conscious Baby??

We find ourselves at such a juncture, where marketers are asking: “Should we hawk tuah and spit on that thang?”?

For the uninitiated (or let’s just call it the Instagram Reels folk) here’s the skinny:?

Otherwise known as Hailey Welch, Hawk Tuah Girl is rising to prominence after being featured in a man-on-the-street interview from creators Tim & Dee TV. In the video, she’s asked “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” Her response is what’s made her go viral. “You gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang,” she exclaimed.?

So, yes, it’s a funny line about sex and the internet is loving it. It looks like it’s also a nice wee money-spinner for ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’ too, which is nothing to spit at.?

In the meme lifecycle, we’ve just crossed over into Brands County. Domino’s have made a tentative hoik with this ham-fisted bit of wordplay:

Others will follow suit because of the inscrutable rules of viral content, which will somehow culminate in a brand of rest homes posting with po-faced sincerity,? “If you can ‘hawk’ ‘tuah’, you can think about your loved one’s later years”.

But should we? Like, for real, guys. Should we hawk tuah? Should we spend any of our salaried time thinking of ways to shoehorn a blowjob joke into selling pizza??

I’m not talking about placating to the pearl clutches on LinkedIn who wouldn’t dare bring it up at a marketing team standup. Yes, thank you Steve, it’s pretty obvious hawk tuah isn’t the right fit for a haberdashery brand, you can stop squirming.?

But I can’t help but wonder if this fomo is entirely misplaced. Sometimes - well, actually, most times - a funny thing should just be a funny thing. It can float about from phone to phone and offer five seconds of amusement before disappearing. It doesn’t need your clumsy brand remix. I don’t need Subway to post ??????.?

Let hawk tuah hawk tuah and dry up on its own.?

I'm MJO from MJO Creative, where we deliver marvellous marketing plans for freelancers, consultants, and SMEs. I also write about marketing here on this cursed website.