A TikTok example of the viral "nothingbeatsajet2holiday" meme format
Blog Post #7: Embrace the Chaos!
By Madeline Feehan
What do you do when your organization goes viral for the wrong reasons? Do you:
A) Panic
B) Rebrand
C) Sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened
D) Face it head-on and embrace the chaos
I'd recommend option D because it's a great way to take accountability while also being transparent. If you can recognize your flaws and play off them, it's a much more mature and respectable reaction than simply tuning them out and making yourselves look better. This same subject came up in Kristen's blog post about the Coldplay concert incident. She asked us if we thought it would be better if the company the CEO worked at would be better off partnering with Coldplay and giving in to the memes or trying to steer attention away.
This same topic comes up when I think of Jet2 Holidays. Although they didn't do anything wrong, they're a great example of showing how your social media tactics can backfire and reach audiences you didn't anticpate. The Jet2 Holiday ad was meant to be positive promotion, but instead, it turned into an iconic meme.
The original ad was meant to advertise a deal back in January 2024, but it has since spiraled to become the soundtrack of over a million TikTok videos. However, these videos are not praising Jet2 Holidays, instead, the "nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday" audio is being put over vacation disasters. The trend is to pair that joyful sound with things going totally wrong on your vacation, such as missed flights, crying babies, and cockroach-ridden hotel rooms for peak irony. It's gone so viral that there's countless memes- before the memes I hadn't even heard of Jet2 Holiday. I went to Comic Con this week and even saw a girl cosplaying the "Jet2 Holiday" lady, showing how its spiraled to a cultural phenomenon and icon of meme culture.
The main point here is that Jet2 Holidays could've lamented over their ads being co-opted into memes and could've gotten angry at the Internet. They could've totally rebranded and pivoted away from the spotlight. Instead, Jet2 Holidays embraced the chaos and reposted memes, leaning into their accidental popularity. This was a smart approach because it shows the company can take a joke, and by resharing these memes and continuing the trend, they're just bettering their business and getting more people to stay interested. The longer the joke goes on, the more their company name is thrown around and it will reach more people. People all across the world are learning about them through the meme who never would've known of them before. Jet2 Holidays is a UK-based company, yet everyone in the U.S. knows about them thanks to TikTok. This is a great example about how going viral and having people turn your meaningful content into memes is not always a bad thing.
When you're making social media content for your library, don't be afraid to lean into meme culture. Take a chance and follow viral TikTok trends. If you goof up and misspell something in your captions or one of your graphics goes viral for being cheesy, lean into the humor, and don't spoil the fun. Embrace your meme status.
This is the first time I'm hearing of this, and I've got to say that it's hilarious! I think all organizations should keep a kind of modified version of Murphy's law in mind whenever promoting their brand: it's not necessarily that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, but that--given the nature of the Internet--expect the 1% possibility of chaotic memery to become a 99% one. This is particularly relevant considering how meme-savvy the younger generations are--memes are practically their own language (the success and lack thereof of organizations trying to capitalize upon Zoomer memes is worthy of its own blog post, honestly...). It looks like Jet2 Holidays really snatched victory from the jaws of defeat here--kudos to them! Resharing those memes is likely a fantastic way to get younger people interested in traveling familiar with their brand.
ReplyDeleteI truly love an internet meme, especially one that only really makes sense after you've seen a bunch of them and finally get the context. For this one I do remember having to hop onto Know Your Meme in order to understand what was happening, and that's why I really appreciate that website!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree though, leaning into it is infinitely better than trying to deflect. Jet2 got some great publicity (their brand now being known in the U.S.) for example, and now has a wealth of fun videos to share. And it's not like they did anything wrong--the meme didn't start because their flights are known for being nightmares. The ad just took on a life of its own and they embraced that. Out of curiosity I attempted to look up their stock information (I know nothing about stocks so don't get mad if I don't get this right), and it looks like their stock shot up from a pretty low low around Spring/Summer of this year, when the videos started getting popular!