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The audience is paying attention! The audience is… confused. Who cares? They’re here anyway, right? Brands like Nutter Butter seem to use this as their motto for their social media accounts.
If Nutter Butter’s goal was to stir the pot and cause chaos on the FYP, then someone hand them a cookie cause that’s exactly what they did. While Duolingo’s content can also be considered “unhinged”, their whole thing is keeping users from breaking their streaks. Like Duolingo, most brands join TikTok with a bigger goal of turning engagement into sales.
Gen Z, however, isn’t so easily won over. Nutter Butter’s approach ended up being polarizing – giving 56.4% of Gen Z respondents the ick while capturing the positive attention of others. So where’s the line? When does a brand’s "unhinged" humor work, and when does it backfire?
We can categorize Gen Z’s sentiments on Nutter Butter’s strategy into three categories:
The Believers (of Brainrot Content): 33% of survey respondents
In one corner we have The Believers. They saw the brainrot content being produced by Nutter Butter and said “yk what? hell yea.”
“I don’t follow any big brands except Nutter Butter just cause I like seeing what weird thing they came up with. It’s entertaining and captures my attention better than boring old people advertisements. They clearly understand what the “kids” are actually “into these days” and aren’t making cringey attempts at poking fun at our slang to try and relate to us.” - Bright
For years, the ad industry has emphasized Gen Z’s spending power. But instead of simply marketing to them, Nutter Butter embraced an internet-driven content style that felt like it was made by them. The believers think: chronically online minds think alike. It was refreshing to many respondents to see a traditionally corporate brand actively participating in internet culture - even if that just meant hiring a chronically online Gen Zer.
But while this group enjoyed the content, it didn’t necessarily translate to sales or engagement. Only 30.8% said Nutter Butter’s TikToks influenced their decision to buy, and just 23.1% actually followed the account.
The Brand Skeptics : 62% of survey respondents
Then there’s The Brand Skeptics—the people who weren’t entirely opposed to unhinged content, but felt Nutter Butter’s execution missed the mark. To them, a brand like Duolingo (king of marketing strategy 🙌) pulls it off because it’s funny and purposeful. Nutter Butter? Leaning more towards the try hard side. This group isn’t dismissing unhinged content altogether, but they have high standards for what actually qualifies as funny and compelling.
“I think Duolingo being unhinged works because it’s more funny but the TikTok’s I’ve seen from Nutter Butter lean more creepy.” - Ashwarya
“I feel that some of them try entirely too hard such as Nutter Butter. Other brands like Duolingo and E.L.F do a subtle yet funny approach.” - Eva
Among Brand Skeptics, 57.7% did not enjoy Nutter Butter’s content, and only 16.7% said it influenced their decision to buy.
For this group, balance is key. Try, yes, but not too hard. Find the sweet spot between trying to be unhinged and funny without overstepping into inauthenticity - that is, making content that doesn’t make sense for the brand, just to get Gen Z’s attention. Other respondents were more concerned about this type of content being overdone. Unlike Duolingo, whose chaotic social media presence aligns with a bigger goal to keep users from breaking their streaks, Nutter Butter’s approach feels forced, like they’re throwing random deep-fried internet humor at the wall to see what sticks.
The Corporate Cynics - The Last 5% of survey respondents
Finally, we have The Corporate Cynics—the group that rejects brand-driven brainrot altogether. To them, unhinged content from a corporation will always feel artificial, no matter how well-executed. They instantly get the ick from brand accounts because they feel as if large corporations just don’t pass the vibe check.
“Brainrot content is naturally made from collective past memes and requires a lot of experience of these past memes to even appeal to the youth. “Brainrot” made by corporations will always be artificial, because it only takes its surface-level understanding of meme culture and its hyperinflation and tries to mirror brainrot characteristics.”
- Hannah
When asked if brainrot or unhinged content was an effective way for brands to reach Gen Z, 100% of Corporate Cynics said “No”, adding “Gen Z can tell; it’s like the uncanny valley. Rather than amused, these forms of brand ‘brainrot’ elicit a disappointed, confused, or embarrassed reaction, which is directly against what advertisers should push for.”
For these respondents, the lack of knowledge translates into a deep misunderstanding of Gen Z humor and culture. This misunderstanding means poorly produced content and thus a dismissal from younger generations.
How Can Brands Win with Gen Z?
Nutter Butter’s strategy highlights a key lesson: Gen Z is not a monolith. Trying to appeal to everyone leads to appealing to no one.
What we learn from Nutter Butter (that we dive deeper into in our report “Unhinged Marketing: Why Nutter Butter’s Strategy Won’t Hit with Gen Z”) is that this is less about virality and more about knowing your audience and being able to establish a community within them. Ask yourself: what makes sense for my brand?
Even within The Koi Pond, our research community of over 1,200 Gen Zs who contributed to this analysis, there’s no single sentiment they all subscribe to. But the brands that truly get Gen Z are the ones who find their niche within this generation and stick to it.
So, rather than asking, “How can we go viral?” brands should be asking, “How can we create content that actually makes sense for us? Who exactly within Gen Z are we speaking to?” Because when it comes to Gen Z, the real key isn’t unhinged marketing, it’s intentional marketing (that also has fun along the way!).
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