#11 – The 3 Supermen
Three Supermen, the same phenomenon: the memetization of brands as a strategy to generate virality, conversation, and cultural connection.
The first one
This weekend, the new Superman movie directed by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker) premiered. I haven't seen it, but I read that Superman has a little dog named Krypto who ends up helping to defend the world. Very funny. Very James Gunn.
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It hasn't been a bad debut: in its first weekend, it already ranks as the third most-watched Superman movie, with around 21-22 million viewers.
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The second one
Coinciding with the premiere, the official White House account on X posted an image of Donald Trump dressed as Superman. Superman Trump.
The post, meme material if there ever was, has accumulated, at the time I’m writing this, Monday the 14th, 78,000 likes and 53 million views.
The third one
One of the replies to the post, parodying the already self-parodying Superman Trump, got more likes than Trump himself. Some reach over 221,000 likes and 4.4 million views.
The first one is a blockbuster that cost 217 million dollars.
- text: The second is a provocation that cost 0.
- text: The third, people talking about Trump and generating millions of views and tens of thousands of mentions, also at zero cost.
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We know that polarizations generate impact and emotions. Not just in politics: brands like Ryanair get thousands of people talking about how badly they treat them, but they talk, after all.
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The interesting thing isn’t just that. What’s really relevant is that people can play with a brand like this.
- text: We’ve already talked here about the memefication of some brands.
It’s not so much about whether they make memes about you or not, but what strategies some brands follow to get memes made about them.