10/15/2024

The Rise of DGAF Brands

More brands are embracing absurdity as a way to grab attention

If you listened closely enough over the past few weeks, you could hear a whisper in the winds of Brandland. Stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, take a deep breath and you might hear it again right now . . . What the sweet holy [expletive] is going on with Nutter Butter?

It all started in early September with what appeared to be a wellness check-in, of sorts. "Nutter Butter, are you guys okay? Are you doing alright? I might have nightmares," posted TikTok influencer Cassie Fitzwater, before asking her followers to drop whatever they were doing and go to the cookie brand’s TikTok account. Millions of people listened.

What they found was a mystical universe of absurdist oddities and inside jokes that, to the uninitiated, may feel like The Annoying Orange if it was made by a rogue marketer on acid. And they liked it. Nutter Butter’s TikTok follower count quickly doubled to more than a million, and its response to Fitzwater collected more than 15 million views.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.